How to deal with ôlyingö vendor? 1

[Cutiee]

As an E&I engineer, I often have to call up sub-vendors to get quote and order instruments, I noticed that quite a lot of times the goods didn’t come on the delivery date they “promised”, some even weeks out. Once my manager told me that some companies would “lie” just to get your orders, then find all kind of excuse for the delay of delivery.

I’m young, inexperienced, just out of university, and a female, I was told I sounded younger even; I’m generally very nice and a big softy. My colleague have suggested that I should be firm, strong, “aggressive” if necessary, as I’m the buyer, but I found it’s rather difficult, it’s not my personality. Sometimes the vendors gave me attitude just to get me off the phone; I didn’t know what to do.

My project manager kept pushing me, I wanted to get the work done asap as well, but my words seemed so “weak” to the vendors. :s

Any advice? Many thanks.


Cuttie

 

[ykee]

Getting to know vendors is all about small talk. A little small talk first, then on to business. You need to find a little bit of information on the vendor, and ask them about that. Commone topics:
1. Weather (always start with this one if you've got nothing else)
2. Fishing/golf/hobby
3. Family/kids
4. Industry news
5. Upcoming projects

So much of engineering is about working in teams with people. If you can learn to get out of you shell, you will work better with others.

On a side note, try to enjoy your small talk conversations with vendors, that really, really helps.

David.

 

[cranky108]

Sometimes venders just don't handle some equipment right. And I've found that they do well with what they stock, but they don't do well with special items.
That's another thing to keep track of. If they don't stock it, and they don't manufacture it, all there doing is adding there markup to it.

On the other hand there are manufacture reps. that don't stock anything, and they are really great at helping with deleveriy problems, and if they have to many they may drop that companies line.

Direct call manufacturers are another story as the sales people don't have direct control of delevery. In some cases you need to call the factory directly. And sometimes they will bump you for a bigger order. That's where delevery penielties do help some. But being a pest also works.

 

[Unotec]

I think have very good relationships with most of my vendors and the cards I play are:
Deep voice, Latin accent, VERY polite and NEVER loose my temper (at least until I hang up). I am confident on the phone and, usually, read (even over the phone) the type of personality and exploit it when I can with small talk appropriate to the personality.
Having said that, nobody can be a golden coin to be liked by everyone else. Thus, some vendors and I don't do small talk, just straight business.
In any event, I do give the chance of an explanation for a delay and judge afterwards. I have let go few vendors which I had a good relationship with.
If you're on the purchasing side, my suggestion is, pretend they are customers and treat them with exceptional customer service attitude but be fair to yourself. Let them know that, not because you're not screaming, means you're not upset. I found that most times subtlety and class go much further than loosing your temper. Now, look for your strengths and exploit them. (given your handle , just be careful not to over exploit your looks, that can and have caused trouble in many places)
If they are professionals they will reply in kind, if they are not, look for a different sales rep in the company or start looking for their competition.


<<A good friend will bail you out of jail, but a true friend
will be sitting beside you saying ” Damn that was fun!” - Unknown>>

 

[jmw]

A certain global valve manufacturer somehow lost part of its business and manufacturing to a UK company and finally was able to strike a deal where their got back their valve business in the UK.
A number of managers decided this was a good time to quit and set up distributorships.
Why?
Because elsewhere this was the golden goose.
The manufacturer would assess the markets, impress stock on the distributors and take their money. The distributors then had to sell the valves.
No problem. When the oil price was high, and these valves were almost a consumable item, the offshore platforms had a "money no object" approach to getting what they wanted when they wanted it... like yesterday. The valves would fly out of stock and if one distributor didn't have the right stock item it didn't take much to find it with another.

Ooops!
Sadly, the bean counters, happy enough when some distributor paid for stock, were less happy about tying the companies own money up in stock.

Having acquired the UK manufacturing the manufacturer decided this was such good money they'd do things differently and sell direct.

It was a disaster for a while.

I don't, I regret to say, know how it turned out in the end as my association with this company ended a divestment or two later.
But I take away the messages from these and other experiences.
What matters is not how well the company met its delivery promises but how well they met the client's expectations but it is surprising how few companies actually take this message on board (or any other "truth").


JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com