You Have to Kiss a Lot of Frogs
Craig Leaney
Sales Strategist, Scale-up Specialist, engaging Keynote Speaker & MC, registered Subject Matter Expert with Fed. Govt for Capability Development
There's an old saying: "You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your prince." Recently, I've encountered my share of "frogs" (and a few "princes"), which reminded me of this phrase. In business, one of the biggest challenges is maximising productivity and minimising the opportunity cost of our most precious resource—time.
Those responsible for generating revenue know the frustration of investing time in low-quality prospects who never become clients. However, we often overlook the time lost managing the broader marketplace and supplier relationships.
Here’s how this applies to working with suppliers:
1.????? Preferred Suppliers: Focus on suppliers who are pre-vetted and pre-qualified. Aligning with reliable, high-quality businesses (and those running them) reduces the impact of the other "frogs" in the pond.
2.????? Keep Them Engaged: Once you find suppliers with the right culture, capabilities, and capacity, keep them close. Make it easy for them to work with you—nurture your "princes."
3.????? Strategic Focus: Supplier management takes time, especially when handling large volumes. The bigger the network, the more "frogs" you may encounter and the greater the risk of them sneaking into your ecosystem.
4.????? Avoid Admin Overload: Growth in revenue, markets, or regulatory requirements can burden your team. Ensure they have time for proper (frog kissing) supplier evaluation.
5.????? Make the Systems Easy & Fast to Use: Simple systems free up time for those selecting suppliers. Make the ‘kissing’ process simple!
Manual processes (spreadsheets, share drives, emails, etc.) and complex ERP platforms can be a recipe for disaster and will be sure to leave a bad (frog) taste in your mouth!
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1 个月Having the right systems and processes in place to facilitate this can make a huge difference. Yes, you can probably do it in Excel but at what cost? Time is a valuable resource, not to mention missed opportunities that can come from overlooking something in a spreadsheet.
The Creator of the Workplace Harmony Game Plan - Cultivate Best Practice Behaviour, Master Tough Conversations and Deal with Difficult People - and get the Best Possible Results
1 个月Hi Craig. You raised some very interesting points in your article. And points I most certainly not thought about before. Thank you.