Unrequited Love
You're running a small family business. You've been operating it, successfully, for a few years now. In the space that you play in, you have a very select number of supplier relationships. You've deliberately chosen them for the products they offer, and the solutions they provide, to the customers you're passionate about. You believe in your suppliers, to the point of being their advocates.
Over time, the relationship between you and them, changes. Some stock takes longer to be delivered than it once did, meaning that you can't fulfill your own clients orders, in the timeframe you'd like to. That upsets some clients, to the point where you eventually lose the sale, but more deeply, the relationship with the customer. It takes a lot to win a new customer, and not much at all, to lose them.
Your supplier chops and changes supply, from time to time, to the point where they make unexplained changes to their own product line-up without telling you, one of their key distributors, what they're doing, and why they're doing it. Again, it impacts your business as your customers reach out for the solutions you have previously provided, only for them to find out that you're not stocking the product, or the recommended replacement, which you've taken on from your own supplier, is an inferior product. So, next time, the customer heads elsewhere, though you're not aware of it until later on, when the sales figures look a bit less than what they once were.
Gradually, the reputation of your business is eroded, as a result of the actions of your suppliers. Your former inalienable belief in their ability to provide the very best, is now wavering. Your customers vote with their feet, not because of the implicit actions of your business, but of those you've been advocates for, for what seems, forever.
The problem is, when you're in business, and you hitch your flag to only a select number of supplier flagpoles, you unknowingly place the control of your small family business, into the hands of the faceless boffins of the large corporate supplier who, at the end of the day, care for nothing but themselves, and their own pay packets.
Are you more in love with them, than they are with you?
Are you putting in all the effort, and they're not doing much in return?
Are their expectations of you higher, than yours are of them?
Are you too willing to accept their foibles, which really aren't foibles, but is disrespect in disguise?
At what point do you say, it's time to spread the love around elsewhere - and seek alternate suppliers, to not necessarily expand your range, but to mitigate any unforeseen, or uncommunicated risk that you're experiencing from your existing suppliers?
This Week's Tip
One family business client generated such impressive sales for a product, the supplier sales rep was awarded an overseas holiday as a reward for the impressive sales in their territory! Except, the sales rep reached out twice in a 12 month period, and did absolutely nothing for the client. Large corporates think, act and behave differently, and often, it's driven by self interest on the individuals in the chain.
Keep an Eye Out!
On Tuesday 11th March, 2025, tune into to Insight on SBS with Kumi Taguchi, to hear me, and select others, offer our viewpoint on the current Cost of Living Crisis as we lead into the 2025 Federal Election