Benefits of forging strong links with your supply chain

Frustration. It’s a powerful emotion. Frustration with suppliers or key business support services. They don’t understand you. They don’t understand how busy you are, how simple your request is, how much pressure you are under.

Suppliers, whether they are wholesalers, IT companies or pharmaceutical companies, get frustrated as well. They are trying to do their job. They want to help, but they don’t know what you want. They think you don’t understand their predicament. They’re paralysed by fear of getting it wrong.

This is a binary relationship with the relationship undeveloped, and both sides are now working against each other, rather than with each other. All a breakdown in the relationship because it hasn’t been developed.

In practice, we deal with a number of different types of supplier and business support service relationships. These include suppliers such as pharmaceutical companies, diet companies, wholesalers, our IT and practice management suppliers as well as business service companies, such as buying groups, building service companies, waste companies, CPD providers and even preferred referral practices. There will be others; within specific practices others will have even greater importance.

However, in all the relationships, we need something from them and they want something from us. In all successful relationships, this exchange is more than purely commercial. It is harnessing, acknowledging and developing the areas that are keys to developing a successful relationship.

Push and pull

With any binary relationship, push and pull factors are present on both sides. You want to push them to get the best deal or service offering you can get; they want to push you to purchase their products or to work in a way that aids their support service. You want to pull them in so that you can count on them when you need to; they want to pull you in so that they can rely on your loyalty. It’s the nature of these “pull” components that forms the basis of your collective relationship.

Of course, these factors are overly simplistic in many ways and the best relationships go beyond the simple exchange to an understanding of each other’s needs. You must first seek to understand the needs of your supplier or business support provider and you should expect the same. If your supplier or business support provider doesn’t understand your needs, they will be unable to empathise with your situation. If they can’t empathise, I guarantee you will be frustrated.

Knowledge is key

Knowledge is the key in a good, strong, positive relationship. This includes knowledge of each other, as well as a knowledge exchange. Even if the company you are dealing with is selling or providing something tangible, the nature of the relationship is intangible.

Years ago, Peter Drucker highlighted this need for development of knowledge, its value and how it must be developed if an organisation is to grow and succeed. If you want to be on the winning part of this equation, you must develop these relationships with both your clients and your suppliers. You must develop your knowledge to know as much as you can about them.

This creates familiarity, and in business this breeds comfort and reassurance rather than contempt. If you need something from a supplier it is much easier to ask for it from someone you know, someone you are familiar with. If you want to know if a client wants a product or service he or she has had from you before, it is much easier to approach someone you have a relationship with. They are much more likely to listen to you and to trust your recommendation if they are familiar with you.

It is important to remember that relationships are two-way streets: you must give – and be prepared to give – in order to receive. If not, it isn’t a relationship, it is a commercial-customer transaction. Sometimes that is what you want and need, but to progress you must cultivate your relationships and develop your knowledge of both suppliers and clients.

Think long term

Getting your team and staff to understand and accept this may be another thing. So often an adversarial “get the best deal at all costs” attitude prevails. This may be fine for one-off transactions, but generally doesn’t do anyone good in the long run. You don’t want to be perceived by your clients as a disinterested, money-grubbing clinician, so what would a supplier think if you behaved the same way? Would you want to do business with a supplier who you felt was thinking only of the short-term sale and not the relationship?

And herein lies the challenge. As Tom Peters wisely put it: “If knowledge is the source of most value-added, how do organisations accumulate it, how do members of dispersed organisations learn from one another?” It is important to lead by example, to share information within the practice about clients and suppliers that will help not just you but the whole practice to develop relationships. Strong relationships create an easier way of doing business together; one that is more likely than not going to be less stressful and more productive.

Relationship balance sheets

I hope a strong relationship is self-evident, but for the sake of argument, let’s take an example. Many suppliers are adding more and more business support services into their offering: it provides you with more value-added, it helps to differentiate them in a crowded market and it makes their jobs more interesting. Most of all, when engaging in business support services, it allows them to develop business, practice relationships much more easily.

Let’s say as a practice you have made a decision to start using a new service. You choose: a new software program, a new referral service, a new wholesaler, a new CPD provider. Right now, both you and the supplier have opened up a relationship balance sheet and you are in credit. Your satisfaction is the gap between what you expect and what you will get.

If your expectation is very high, you may be a bit more tolerant as the dividends will be that much higher. However, when you ring, you have to wait and then it’s a struggle to speak to who you need to speak with: your relationship balance sheet credit grows. They promise to send you information which doesn’t arrive on time: it’s now getting critical. You may not know exactly what should be happening or how, but you are an expert at knowing what isn’t going right. And without a relationship in place, they may not even be aware how poorly they are servicing you.

Now, someone takes the time to follow up and when they learn what’s gone wrong, they take personal responsibility and they get it sorted immediately. You now have a name and they’ve put a bit of credit in their relationship. The service you organised exceeds expectations. Your contact doesn’t take you for granted and having learned something about you passes on some information that may help you in another matter. Thus the debits and credits of a relationship balance sheet (in a very simplified form).

And it isn’t too difficult to reverse the scenario in your mind with a client coming in, not getting the best service to start with, and how it can be salvaged and corrected by investing in a relationship. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a vet, a VN, a receptionist, the practice manager or the owner. It can be anyone; and should be everyone.

Conclusion

Don’t let frustration get the better of you. Likewise, don’t let suppliers get the better of you. Invest in the relationship, selectively, and you can make your practice more successful and your life less stressful.

Remember, there are push and pull elements in all relationships and they are always two-way streets.

All relationships operate a type of relationship balance sheet and it is easy to find yourself in debt. But it is also possible to build credit through a bit of effort and knowledge.

So enjoy life, enjoy business and do business with people you like – people you have a relationship with.