As I mentioned in a post last week, I had just finished reading a book entitled \u201cTreat Your Customers\u201d by Bob Migliani and was surprised to find many purchasing lessons, primarily directed at small businesses.<\/p>\n
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In that post, I shared the author\u2019s lessons learned on the subject of paying suppliers on time. In today\u2019s post, I wanted to share the author\u2019s purchasing principles discussed in a chapter entitled \u201cAlways Offer Your Delivery Guys A Milkshake.\u201d<\/p>\n
In that chapter, the author describes how he and his family, who owned a Dairy Queen store, would, on every hot day, offer something cold to drink to their supplier\u2019s delivery men. Not only did this receive appreciation from these supplier employees, but the author explains that \u201cthis professional kindness has helped us to weather many storms known as inventory shortages.\u201d<\/p>\n
The author goes on to explain that holiday weekends are the worst time to run out of inventory. This is because the suppliers\u2019 delivery truck drivers are usually off those days.<\/p>\n
However, the author writes, \u201cif the supplier finds a driver willing to do it, they OK it. Our delivery guys have gone out of their way for us because they know important it is to our business. They\u2019ve come through because we\u2019ve treated them well \u2013 like more than just inventory suppliers; like friends\u2026Anything is possible when you have a good relationship with your suppliers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, it is unlikely that you have a soda dispenser at your desk. And most of your interaction with supplier employees is likely by phone or email. But, after reading this, I am hoping that you can acknowledge that sometimes you need your suppliers\u2019 employees to go above-and-beyond the call of duty for you.<\/p>\n
Are you inspiring your suppliers\u2019 employees to go out of their way to help you the next time you\u2019re in a jam?<\/p>\n
The seeds of a good relationship you plant today can pay you back many times over when supplier employees can give you assistance that they normally wouldn\u2019t give to \u201cthe average customer.\u201d So treat your supplier contacts well!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As I mentioned in a post last week, I had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":4110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-procurement"],"yoast_head":"\n