If you have been in business for any amount of time, you know that managing your suppliers can be a time consuming and sometimes frustrating task. Whether it’s dealing with a product that isn’t up to spec, or whether it’s having unexpected delays in shipping and delivery, you can waste a lot of time and energy just trying to get all of your ducks in a row when your suppliers don’t come through. That’s why it’s important to choose reliable suppliers from the beginning, and save yourself some serious headaches down the road.
How do you identify and choose a reliable supplier, however? It’s not always as easy as it sounds. You might see an advertisement, for example, and be convinced to give the vendor a try. Or, you might see a list price provided by the vendor, and want to give them a shot so as to save some money. In the long term, however, you’ll have much better luck if you’re deliberate about how you choose your vendors.
There are some common characteristics that reliable suppliers have. Knowing what to look for from a vendor is key to choosing the right one. For example, reliable vendors produce a product that is up to specifications. Not every product is the highest quality, of course, but the product needs to do what the vendor says it will do, and the product needs to meet any industry standard specifications, if there are any for the particular product.
Reliable vendors also need to be consistent. You need to be able to rely on delivery dates, for example. You also need to choose vendors that are stable businesses. You might even consider sticking with vendors that have been in business for a certain amount of time, although longevity doesn’t always indicate reliability.
Being able to identify vendors that have those characteristics can be a challenge, as well. It’s not as if a vendor is going to say to you, “we’re almost always a week late on our shipments” or “our products tend to fall apart easily.” Instead, you’ve got to look elsewhere to figure out if a vendor is reliable.
One of the best sources you can use to figure out if a vendor is reliable is your peers and competitors. Word of mouth is, even in a high-tech world, still one of the most valuable references you can have. Check a vendor’s reputation with its current, as well as its former customers to see how reliable they seem to be.
Another great way to determine if a vendor is reliable is through industry or consumer publications and websites. There are even websites that will gather information about all of the vendors for a certain type of product and then consolidate that information for you and let you view it in one convenient place. If such a publication or website exists for your field, you should consider using this type of resource to research vendors.
While finding reliable vendors isn’t always easy, it’s always worth it in the end.
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