The article below was published in one of our company newsletters and although I could have taken out our company name I decided to leave it in. Please feel free to insert your company or organization name because I feel strongly that this message is universally applicable.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OK we all know the economy has been tough! We continue to promote to you that The Vernon Company has weathered the financial storm very well and this in fact, very true!
What is evident though is that many suppliers have not been so fortunate in this regard. There is news every day about mergers and acquisitions taking place. It is our belief that there are many, many more suppliers, some that you are not reading about, that are suffering terribly and just trying to make ends meet. Our fear here is that many of you may be using some of these suppliers on your orders!
I need to say that way too many salespeople, in an effort to save a few bucks, are going way outside of the normal supplier lists and submitting orders with people that we do not know. This is fine if things work out but it creates BIG problems when there are issues with the order and let me tell you there have been a lot of ISSUES with these orders. One sales rep told me recently that the supplier was absolutely phenomenal UNTIL we gave them the order and then it quickly turned into one of the worst experiences of this reps life in the promotional product's business. Of course when we look up the supplier we see that we have no track record with them, no orders in house and really no experience at all. This means that we have no LEVERAGE either in helping to get something corrected or an order expedited.
I am urging everyone to try and use preferred suppliers when you can. I am not saying that they are perfect or that they do not make mistakes. Believe me they do and and I will say that anyone who has been in this industry for a while will readily admit that they do but what happens when they make the mistake is where most of them earn their money. Do they back up their product? Do they jump when Vernon calls? Do we know their top management personnel so we can help you in a jam? These are the key components of what makes the best suppliers really good.
Saving a dime here and there for your customer is important. I certainly recognize that but a large part of your job should also be using and recommending products from reliable and trustworthy vendors. If you save $100 on a vendor that you have not used before, one that Vernon really does not know, and they do not deliver the product...how much have you really saved at the end of the day?
Think about it! I can think of about a dozen cases like this in the last month or so where the rep thought they were doing the right thing to save money for the buyer however when all was said and done and because they chose an unknown vendor everyone ended up losing....the customer, the salesperson and the Vernon Company. If you are lucky in these situations you might live to get another order from the buyer but this is not a given! Too many times the supplier has trusted in you that you will steer them in the right direction for products and manufacturers who you know and trust! If you don't know a supplier of a product that your customer is asking about I think you need to let them know that and offer up some alternatives where you feel confident about the product and the delivery.
Aren't your customers too valuable to be playing "Russian roulette" with their orders? I think so!
Selling exclusive Vernon and Preferred Supplier products...that is the way to go! Yes, points are involved for Vernon's incentive programs such as the trip and the national sales meeting but much more important than all of that is your relationship with your customers!
No comments:
Post a Comment