White Papers & Articles

​The supplier selection process is an important and vital step for any size company.  Making the wrong decision leads to countless hours of wasted time and of course money down the drain.  A successful supplier selection process is even more important for small and start-up based business where financial considerations are at the top of the pecking order.

​When looking for a new supplier follow these steps to best position yourself and company for success:
1.Know What You Need Before You Need It
Two reasons this is important: 1st – if you don’t know what you need how will you be able to explain it to a supplier?  When we know what we need and therefore want we're better prepared to explain those needs while setting expectations for what a successful partnership and outcome looks like.  This minimizes miscommunication and opportunity for expectations falling through.  2nd - Waiting till the last minute to find suppliers often leads to decisions being made which may get you out of a momentary jam but leads to larger problems down the road.  For this reason it’s vital you are proactive in establishing relationships with vendors and suppliers.
 
2.Establish Minimum Expectations for Vetting Suppliers
Establishing minimum expectations means that you will vet all potential suppliers with the same list of needs, criteria and expectations.  This will help to create an even playing field when vetting suppliers and their capabilities.  Similar to #1, when you know what you want and have created a way to gather information which allows you to do equal comparisons your chance of making the right decision increases dramatically.  If need to create a checklist to hold yourself accountable to making the right decisions then by all means do so.
 
3.Be Strategic
Once you know what you need from a supplier it is important to think about other associated or cross functional activities which need to be done that could be accomplished by a single supplier.  The ideal situation is you find a supplier that can do more than just one component of your needs, therefore providing more value in the long run. This also saves time because you have less suppliers and vendors to managed increasing your efficiency and effectiveness.
 
4.Supplier Identification
Referrals, referrals, referrals.  Once you know what you need the best approach to finding the right supplier is by reaching out to others in your industry, or industry associations, to learn who they use, and just as important who they don’t use.  Take the time to read reviews, gather intel from people you trust before you start calling potential suppliers. While sites like Thomas.net and Google can provide this information it is likely you will quickly find yourself overwhelmed with information.  In the end the most useful data is those that are unbiased or comes from experience which is best collected from trusted resources.
 
5.Outreach and Selection
When speaking for the first time with a potential new supplier try to connect with the people you will actually be working with, not just the company’s sales person.  This is important because once the relationship is established the majority of your time won’t be spent with their sales people rather those delivering the service or product. What is their communication like?  Do they respond quickly and address mistakes immediately?  What is their customer retention rate? Find out how long their employees have been with the company too.  If the company suffers from consistent turnover that should be a big red flag as you will likely have to be much more involved with this supplier helping coach and direct new employees to ensure the work is done properly.  You don't want to be in a situation where you're training your suppliers new employees just so they can turn around and bill you for it.  Also, where are you in the pecking order of the level of importance to the supplier?  Don’t be fooled, not all clients are treated equal, even if they tell you otherwise.  When you know where you stand it is easier to build a relationship based on realistic expectations.  In the end, supplier selection should come down to three things, in ranked order:

1. Performance
2. Relationship
3. Price

At the end of the day it doesn’t matter how affordable or cost effective a supplier is, or how nice they are as people.  If they can’t perform, and do so consistently, the other two don’t matter.  I’ve also found that paying a bit more for the right service and relationship often times is worth the investment it in the long run. 

​Assumption is the KILLER of opportunity. 

When we assume we make stories up in our heads about what our experience or expectations should be.  In business the act of assumption can lead to major loss of opportunity simply because many of us aren’t aware we’re making the mistake in the first place.

Many of us do this, including me!

Last week I had the opportunity to attend an interesting workshop put on by Mark Leblanc, small business guru, author and keynote speaker.  Marc’s approach to success in the small business world was straight forward – take things one step at a time and measure your success constantly.

Throughout the morning Mark covered a variety of topics ranging from the 9 best small business practices to high value activities.  As the morning came to a close I caught myself laughing as I had recently committed one of the simplest mistakes people can make in business.  I didn’t just do one of them, I did both on Mark’s list which he refers to as the ‘Two Deadly Business Sins’.

Are you an assumption sinner?

Business Deadly Sin #1:
If my customer wrote me a check once they’ll call me if they need me again

Business Deadly Sin #2:
If my customer wrote me a check once they automatically know all that we can do for them

(note:  the word ‘customer’ is meant to reference an actual external customer however it can also be considered an internal colleague, cross functional team or business unit if you do not interact with external customers)

The first of our two delightful sins points at the assumption that if we’ve done business with a  customer once they will “of course call us back the next time they need help”.  This couldn’t be farther from the truth yet so many of us in sales, services, entrepreneurship, small business, you name it, fall victim to this fallacy. 

Mark further shared with us that it’s not uncommon for our customers to think “Matt hasn’t called me in a couple months, he must not want to do business with us any further.”  The assumption on Matt’s end that the customer will just call him when they’re ready furthers the issue as Matt doesn’t follow up leading the customer to believe he’s no longer interested in their business.  For Pete’s sake!  That couldn’t be farther from the truth it’s just Matt doesn’t know it yet.

The second deadly sin addresses the assumption that if you’ve done business with a client once they should then automatically know every aspect of your business, where you can help them and where you can’t.

If you’ve ever had a customer say “Gosh Jillian, I didn’t even know you offered that type of service.  We would have loved to work with you but we just signed up your competitor because we weren’t aware you could help us in that area.”  It’s like getting slapped in the face with a wet leather belt which leaves a welt for weeks.  Your customer, who self admittedly loves working with you, went to your competitor for help simply because they didn’t know you could help them.  Ouch. (and yes, I’ve actually done this more than once)

So how do we remedy this?

Let’s start by focusing on never assuming about the relationships you may or may not have with your customers or what they know about your product or service.  It’s always better to pick up the phone and call rather than wait for the phone to ring on your end.  Take the initiative!

When speaking with your customer ask questions about how their business is doing and which areas they need help in the most to best determine how your product or service can be a value add to their pain points.  Remind them often about what you do and how you do it.  Be consistent!

The craze of the new hot app, Pokémon Go, has taken the world by storm as people meander aimlessly trying to catch little creatures to their hearts content.  As users continue to increase and we gain a better understanding of the fanfare this game has adopted an interesting parallel is developing which isn’t necessarily what the game is about at all, yet it’s a great learning opportunity for anyone in a leadership role.
Before we get into that, let’s start off with what the heck is this game anyways?
What is Pokémon Go?
It's a free-to-play, location-based, augmented reality, multiplayer online mobile game.  It’s a rebirth of a game that came out originally in the early 90’s which allows you to search for critters, catch them, train them and battle with them.  The game that was launched on July 6th uses your phone's GPS to track where you are while making use of a stylized Google map as the primary game board. Your character moves in the game as you walk around in real life, and events and objects – known as PokéStops – are associated with specific locations in the physical world.  You can look at the game world through your phone's display which serves as a viewfinder that mixes reality with game objects.
What has Pokémon Go accomplished?
It took a mere 3 hours to hit #1 on the iPhone app sales charts and a total of 13 hours for the game to hit the top of the US sales charts, bringing in $2M a day in revenue.  If that wasn’t impressive enough, its daily user penetration rate (% of people who download the app per day) is 10.81% whereas other blockbuster apps prior were only around 1.67% and 0.84%.  The average amount of time a user spends on the app each day is upwards of 45 minutes and the games retention rates are double the industry norm.  Lastly, this single app managed to raise Nintendo’s (creater of the app) market share by more than $7 billion, or 25%.  Basically it’s minting money left and right for the gamer maker. 
Why are so many people across such a large age range totally immersed in this app and what could we learn from it to implement in the workplace?  After reading that some of you might be thinking “why do we need to learn anything from it?  It’s a game, not work.”  That’s a valid point and you would be justified in saying that however I think there’s a great learning opportunity for any business owner or person in leadership to take note.
People like Pokémon Go because it’s an experience!
As leaders in business if we took anything away from what this app has accomplished it should be that the majority of people out there respond positively to things which elicit an interactive, creative and fun experience.  Is it then possible to harness the Pokémon Go experience and create that in a business setting?  You bet your backside it is, it’ll just take a little creative licensing to make it work.
Before we get into the 'how' let’s quickly explore why we would want to do this in the first place?
It’s a simple fact that happy employees produce successful companies.  When employees are cared for, respected and engaged successfully their productivity levels and general happiness soar in the workplace.  When people are happy they take less sick days, require less vacation and go above and beyond on the regular.  They don’t need to be told to go above and beyond as they do so naturally.  It’s not a utopian day dream to think that this is possible for every company out there because it is indeed possible.  It just requires someone to recognize the need for positive change and actually do something about it.
Now we’ll take what we’ve learned from the Pokémon Go experience and translate that into the workplace.
To create an experience that people will gravitate towards in the workplace we first have to listen and give people what they want, not what you (the leader) wants.  Once we know what our people desire we need to deliver on it by creating a work environment and culture that people are drawn too.  As Pokémon Go shows us people are willing to adopt things very quickly when it meets their needs and interests.  Creating a culture and environment that supports collaboration, appreciation and respect, along with having fun, are good starting points.
We also need to keep in mind that over complicating things at work doesn’t necessarily make it a better experience.  In fact, the simpler something is the better.  Pokémon Go does this perfectly by using something we already know (our phone GPS) and integrates it with our personal space and creative expression.  As a result we, the user, are put in the drivers’ seat to create an experience that is catered to our unique interests.  What that looks like at work is giving people the autonomy to make decisions and do their job effectively.
There’s an added bonus for us in the workplace!
We can create an experience that is stimulating and rewarding without the worry of being hit by a car, running into light poles or literally falling on our faces, which have been some wonderful experiences to come as a result of using Pokémon Go.