When you’re starting out as a Business, and all your focus is on surviving first and thriving second, most of your strategic emphasis is focused on the customer. This isn’t wrongs; customers are your bloodline. What is wrong, though, is to forget the importance of your Suppliers. In fact, most businesses get the whole who-needs-who thing completely backward.

Let us clear something up once and for all; you need good, reliable and trustworthy suppliers, which is why building relations needs to be part of your strategy. It doesn’t matter whether you are product or service orientated, you need your suppliers, so when you find a good one, treat them like the diamond they are.

Good suppliers are essential to your success, and in more ways than one:

Time Is Money

As a company, you can only be seen timely and reliable to your customers if your suppliers Offer you that same service. That’s why we all want suppliers who are going to put our needs at the top of the pile. But it isn’t just about how good our service looks, it is about costs too. The quicker you can get rid of your inventory the less risk there is of stock becoming useless to your company, and the more free cash you will have.

Quality Is Key

If you want your quality assurance to be high, then you need the same dedication to quality control to come from your supplier. Their components can often make or break your business. What’s more, you need them to be experts in what components they offer. It could be that you need RNA Automation to meet your high volume demands or you may need a supplier that can offer the best quality fabric for your clothes. Whatever it is, the higher their quality the more satisfied your customers will be, and their satisfaction is what affects your revenue.

Ahead Of The Competition

Suppliers can often be your secret weapon when you are bidding to stay ahead of the competition. They are the inside men and women that can help you have a one-up on the marketplace you are operating in. What’s more, there are numerous ways in which they will make you more competitive. It could be their pricing, or their reliability, their quality assurance, maybe they have better technology or even the knowledge on what industry trends are growing in popularity. All of these things will make you more competitive, and that is what will attract repeat business from your customers.

Innovate And Create

You may well be the company that designs and sells the product to the market, but your suppliers, well, they are the ones who make it. They live and breathe your product far more than you do because they are the ones making sure it is the best it can be. They are the ones trying to inflict cutting edge methods onto your product. This innovation could be the thing that makes your product better, simpler or cheaper, which is why having a supplier that understand your product or service, and the needs of your business, is crucial. They will be able to improve your idea.

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