How You Can Benefit From Long-Term Supplier Relationships

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Keeping Your Home Office Professional-Chispa MagazineFrom cleaning services to office supplies, your company is going to depend on suppliers to keep the whole operation up and running. Like any business necessity, it’s up to you as the owner to make sure your suppliers work in your favor. Establishing a long-term relationship with your suppliers will offer a range of benefits for your business. Here are a few of the main ones.

First of all, reduced costs. I’m sure that when you first set up your business, you were shocked by the massive costs you had to tackle. Some of your ongoing deals may have taken months to finalise, and talk down to an affordable agreement. If you stick to your suppliers, and cultivate a long-term beneficial relationship with them, you’ll be in a much better position to reduce these costs over time. Both you and your suppliers will be scared of the unnecessary costs which come out from re-negotiations and early exits. Whether it’s massive orders of raw materials or little things like toner cartridges, it benefits both you and your supplier to develop a long-term relationship.

Efficiency and communication will also start to improve the more you stick to a single supplier. This may be hard to believe right now. With the first few orders, there’s probably going to be a few misunderstandings and hiccups along the way. However, after you keep at it for some time, you and your supplier will become steadily more used to the way the other party runs things. As your supplier learns more about your industry and your specific business, the logistic and delivery processes will begin to smooth out. This, in turn, will make for a much more efficient operation on your end. Over time, you’ll let your stakeholders become more and more involved with how the business is run. This will lead to a more integrated IT and financial processes, and a smoother chain of supply overall.

When you have a long and beneficial relationship with your suppliers, you’ll also be able to help each other out in continual improvement. This refers more to manufacturing suppliers, but there are all kinds of possibilities which your business could benefit from. As time goes on, you’ll become more and more acquainted with your supplier’s products and the service standards that accompany them. This will open your eyes to a number of different improvements you could suggest or even support financially. At the very least, you could give each other tip-offs about any big developments in the industry you’re both involved in. Obviously, they’re only obliged to sell to you, and not every business owner is going to be all that happy to develop such an intimate partnership. However, if you target smaller, up-and-coming suppliers, you’ll stand a much better chance of gaining all these rewards. Talk to your supplier today and see how you can help each other out.

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Milo Senalle

Milo Senalle

Managing Editor at Chispa Magazine
As one of the managing editors of Chispa Magazine, Milo Senalle is the go-to man for all things technology, ethical, and financial concerns. Providing laughs with his style of writing and problem-solving techniques, Milo is a voice of reason among the girly staff at Chispa. Married with children, living in Atlanta, he works 24/7 on becoming a man of courage and believes honor begins at home.

Milo Senalle

As one of the managing editors of Chispa Magazine, Milo Senalle is the go-to man for all things technology, ethical, and financial concerns. Providing laughs with his style of writing and problem-solving techniques, Milo is a voice of reason among the girly staff at Chispa. Married with children, living in Atlanta, he works 24/7 on becoming a man of courage and believes honor begins at home.