Insight, advice, news and chit chat

Choosing the right suppliers for your business/projects

Three things you really need to consider when choosing a new supplier

Look people, no man is an island – and savvy successful business people know the value of getting others to help you out!
As much as possible, everyone should be doing what they are good at. The right suppliers can be like a partner in your business. Choose wrongly, and you waste money and time, or delay projects.
So before you make that huge mistake, take a few moments. Consider these three important things as you begin the search.

1. The price (isn’t always) right

Avoid asking for a full comprehensive quote at the outset just to compare costs. You can ask for a ballpark range or their starting prices, to make sure you can afford their general pricing. There is little point if the supplier is not compatible or able to understand business requirements. It is crazy to limit your options up front, so ‘get to know’ your supplier – ask them questions to determine their skills and expertise, as well as cultural fit. Evaluating their attitude by taking a look at their website and social media presence should give you a good feel for their focus. Ensuring a culture match should be a first step.

2. Collaboration is key

In a good relationship, both client and supplier should bring out the best in each other. But this can only be achieved if you both share cultural attitudes and goals – and that means work on both sides! It is essential for both companies to put effort into understanding the skills, experience and outlook of the other. A good prospective supplier should be willing to share common sense advice up front, as opposed to insisting on a contract. This is all about building trust, and if either side is unwilling to be open, the relationship is unlikely to succeed.

3. Commitment

A third-party relationship shouldn’t be a case of “out of sight, out of mind”, especially in a world where most people are just an email or text message away. No supplier can operate in a vacuum, so the more you participate in the relationship, the better the outcomes. Start by giving your new supplier an in-depth briefing session on your requirements – for example, we would need to know not only your design preferences, but also your audience and key messages in order to create your perfect web design! And always be polite, and appreciative, it goes SUCH a long way!
Keeping a good line of communication will help the relationship extend far beyond the honeymoon period – happy, unstressed people work better! Furthermore, if your supplier has done good work, recognise it!
Have these tips helped bring you some clarity on how to go about choosing a supplier? If you have any more thoughts, tweet us @topleftdesign. If you want to have a chat about how we could help you with your web design services, get in touch: keren@topleftdesign.com

Tagged in:
  1. relationships
  2. suppliers

No comments

Leave a comment

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>