1 simple step to improve communication with your suppliers

Most of the cases, when a company name is mentioned somewhere, the face of a single person is drawn in our mind; for example the person we all know as Theranos is Elizabeth Holmes, for Apple is Steve Jobs, for Virgin Airlines is Richard Branson. Similar to that, when the company name of a business partner is mentioned, the picture of the person with whom we are in direct contact with comes to our mind. However, have you even thought about how healthy and sustainable this could be for our business?

When a company decides to attempt exportation of its products or drive further export sales the best talents are hired for the job. Usually, these people have extensive experience dealing with local market and they have technical knowledge. Another possible scenario is that they were ‘stolen’ by another company that was already involved in exports. No doubt, they already proofed their ability to do business successfully. This is because the position is too demanding and only few employers would afford a failure. All of a sudden, after few months at their new role, these people, the so called 'shinning stars', take on big responsibilities and gradually find their selves coordinating and leading major operations internally, while being in direct contact with distribution partners abroad.

When a request or an order is placed by the distributor, these people would be there to get all details and time frames, then go back to colleagues internally to arrange for material purchasing with the Purchases Manager, to arrange production and discuss specifications with Production Manager, to arrange loading of products with the Supply Chain manager, and finally deal with shipping lines, forwarders and customs agents for the delivery.  So, the next question is, what happens if this person needs a day off or needs to travel abroad for 7-10 days to attend an exhibition or a trade show? Will the export business still run at the same pace with the same results?  We all know that the answer to this is NO.

Although it is nice to take business down to the personal level and make distributors feel confident that whatever needed the ‘ shinning star’ employee will be there to fix it and find a solution to the problem, it is better for the business sustainability to involve more than one person in it. Α good reaction to that, would be to use the cc button in all e mail exchange. Keeping people updated and aware of business operations so they can take action in the absence of the person in change is never a bad idea. It also makes the distributor feel more secure. Therefore, e mails that relate to the accounts department should have the Accounting Manager cc’d on them, e mails that relate to purchases should have the Purchases Manager cc’d and so on. This technique would also give the distributor an understanding of the supplier’s internal procedures and policies that will make him/her more reasonable in his/her requests and also introduce key position holders of the supplying company to the demands and requirements of the exports business. In addition to that, in case there is an urgent reason for the distributor to get in contact with one of the Managers directly, that would not be an issue and the 'star' employee will not feel that he/she is taken out of the image/puzzle.

As a summary, at the beginning of a business partnership, a well organised importer/distributor should clearly ask and guide its supplier to follow this easy process in all e mail exchange in an attempt to reduce the risk of bad service and miscommunication. Let’s not forget that if anything goes wrong the distributor is the one to face any delays, wrong specifications, delay of exports documents etc. Maintaining good communication with the ‘team’ is key to success.