Sean Blanks of cartridgesave.co.uk highlights why it is better for businesses to work with suppliers rather than trying to “squeeze” them.
Marketing Director of printer cartridge company cartridgesave.co.uk Sean Blanks has written an article on Channel Pro on the subject of suppliers, arguing that businesses should take a collaborative approach to working with them as opposed to seeing it as a battle and adopting tactics to “unsettle and win over suppliers”.
Blanks begins with what he believes is the most important piece of advice: “share your data with suppliers”, adding that by showing suppliers the traffic their product receives on your business’ website will enable them to see the volume of products they could be shipping or demonstrate the boost in volume sales generated by a previous discount.
Producing theoretical models to show the profit made by both your business and the supplier is also listed by Blank as a good way of collaborating with suppliers as “your suppliers won’t renegotiate prices if the only benefit they can recognise is a larger profit margin for you”. He also urges businesses to “be realistic” in terms of pricing and ensure that they are sensitive to suppliers’ margins and brand protection as “no one wants to see their item being flogged”.
Offering a further incentive to suppliers is a further suggestion by Blanks to show support of their product, for example by making their product a featured item on your website’s homepage. Additionally, trialling different prices could also beneficial, Blanks adds, as it may demonstrate that more business could be generated, as long as new prices are trialled during a season that would not invalidate the results.