Every day, businesses are challenged with making the right decisions that will keep them profitable and gain a competitive edge. One of the most critical decisions for any business is selecting the right suppliers they do business with and control risk. The way a business manages their supply chain is now under the spotlight like never before. Read on to find out why.

Why allocate resources to supplier management?

Transparency around who you do business with is paramount to be considered a company to be trusted and survive public scrutiny. Supplier management, however, can be a time-consuming process with back-and-forth emails, managing data in spreadsheets and saving files, documents and information, all wasting days, weeks and even months. Allocating time for supplier management can be even more difficult for resource poor SMEs struggling to keep up with new demands from customers and their own suppliers. 

Our clients tell us that they are dealing with an increasing number of daily requests from their customers who are demanding clarity around their supply chains. Companies keen to manage risk are right to request transparency around who suppliers are using and how ethical and sustainable the supply chain is. Consequently, every business must ensure they are buying from the right suppliers to mitigate risk that a supplier could expose your business to.  

Making sound, informed decisions about your company’s supply chain can be difficult. Especially when there are so many factors to consider, however, compromising on quality can be a deathblow to any business. The challenge for businesses without dedicated procurement teams is that they are struggling to reallocate resources. It is difficult to gather the right information and review suppliers to identify the ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) gaps. However, refusing to compromise on who you do business with will help you thrive in demanding times.  

The challenge today is how can a business facing rising inflation and rising costs allocate resources to supplier management and gain the competitive edge.  The solution is Pulse Market.

Managing and aligning your supplier is easy! Talk to Pulse Market

Pulse Market is changing the game for SMEs and procurement professionals. Our platform provides clarity in an increasingly complex world, giving you the relevant information you need to manage your supply chain. Now you can upload, categorise, grade, and manage all your suppliers in a centralised digitised location.  

Get in touch today for a demo and take the pain out of supplier management. 

Being competitively priced is no longer enough to gain the competitive edge. Today organisations are judged on who they do business with and how they do business. Reputation can be damaged overnight by one weak supplier. Just one supplier can pose a huge risk to your business by exposing your company to vulnerabilities such as cyber security leaks, high carbon emissions or modern day slavery.

Take practical steps to attract the right suppliers

There are practical steps that businesses can take to ensure you attract the right suppliers, ones closely aligned with your values and will protect your businesses reputation. 

Firstly, it is important to be easy to deal with and this comes from within your organisation. Before contacting suppliers, ensure that internal communication is clear and goals are agreed upon.

Secondly, businesses should build a level playing field for all supplier types – small businesses should have the same opportunity to compete as larger businesses. Also, ask the right questions when considering suppliers, be specific about what you want in order to avoid wasting your time and your potential suppliers. Next, be highly specific about what you are looking for in a supplier. This will help to narrow down the search and ensure you find a supplier that meets your specific needs.

Remember that supplier management is an ongoing process – it is not a one-time exercise. You should assess, review, and maintain your supplier relationships on a regular basis to ensure the smooth running of your business and minimise risk.

Delve deeper and collaborate with your current and potential suppliers to support each other during the economic downturn and energy crisis. Now is a good to talk frankly and discuss ways to you can both save costs for example managing realistic deadlines to avoid overtime costs.  

Adopt the latest technology to streamline processes, collaborate and share information easily and enabling you to respond faster. By storing and retrieving relevant documents, you will be able to respond quickly to DDQs from third parties who are checking your cyber resilience, ESG accreditation.

Employ automation to avoid tedious copy and paste or arduous word searches seeking files on company systems. This frees up valuable resource to spend building meaningful human relationships with suppliers and accessing their expertise to proactively improve supplier relationships, together.  

In summary the 7 steps to building a good supplier relationship are: 

1 Be easy to deal with 

2 Agree priorities internally before reaching out to suppliers e.g cost, turnaround times, qualifications etc 

3 Build a level playing field for businesses of all shapes and sizes 

4 Ask the right questions to avoid time wasted 

5 Be highly specific about your requirements 

6 Outline your organisations minimum ISO requirements and accreditations 

7 Provide constructive feedback 

By attracting the right supplier you will help your business to run smoothly and avoid business disruption and damaged reputation.  

Ready to manage third party risk? Find out more about VRM on Pulse Market and book a call.