Do you know how to trade with suppliers? This is a fundamental skill for anyone who owns a business. After all, knowing how to trade with suppliers can balance cash flow, make the company more competitive, and guarantee prices and terms more appropriate to the business objectives.
Thinking about all the benefits that a good trading can bring to your business, we have separated 8 tips on how to trade with suppliers. Check out!
- Make a plan
As in any stage of the business, negotiating with suppliers also requires the definition of strategies and good planning.
Do not arrive at the time of negotiating without knowing what you need and what is best for your company. This is especially important for you to stick to your proposals and have compelling arguments for your suppliers.
Also, this planning is essential to define its limits. How flexible can you be and what can you give up? To answer this question, determine the maximum acceptable term and how much you could pay for the materials provided.
It is also important to make a list of what products you need to buy and the quantity of each one.
Coming up with these definitions to talk to your supplier, you also demonstrate organization and seriousness, which can increase your credibility.
- Align deadlines and prices
Following the previous tip, aligning deadlines and prices is one of the most important points when negotiating.
trading is not a dispute to see who loses and who wins. The goal is not to win, but to ensure the best possible scenario for both parties.
Therefore, you and your supplier need to agree to establish the optimal terms and prices for both.
So, go to the trading “table” with some possibilities in mind. After all, you may need to be flexible, but always within your means.
Having some pre-established options prevents you from making decisions on the spot, motivated by the emotions of the moment.
To define which terms and prices are best for you, consider cash flow. What are the ideal dates for you to make the payment? When do you usually get paid for sales?
Set deadlines that give you room for action. If payments from your sales are late, you are not in default with your supplier.
- Build trust and strengthen ties
Gaining trust and strengthening ties with your suppliers can guarantee even better prices and conditions for you in the long run.
For this, it is important to keep your promises. So, don’t delay payments and try not to retrade what has already been established. Keeping in touch, making visits, and having strategies for the loyalty of suppliers – just like you do with your customers – is a great way to consolidate the relationship.
Another important point is to try to diversify your suppliers to reduce the risk of any surprises. Create a network of partners and seek to strengthen ties with each of them.
With that, it is possible to extend the relationship beyond the purchase and sale of products. Along with good partners, creating strategic actions together becomes a reality, such as marketing campaigns and benefits for common customers.
- Do market research
Doing market research is important not only to trade better but also to choose the best supplier. You need to know what your options are and choose the one that is most in line with your goals.
One tip is to quote at least four different suppliers of each type of product to get a sense of the market. If the values and terms are very different, look for more options for a more global view. You do not necessarily have to choose the cheapest or the shortest term.
The idea here is to have more arguments to trade. Knowing what the market average is, you can bargain with suppliers who have quality, but who charge a little more.
Now, be careful: do not put too much pressure on the intended supplier with the argument that the competitor offers better conditions. This can compromise your relationship from the start, giving you the feeling that you are belittling the products of the future partner.
In the same way that you seek benefits when negotiating, your supplier also has this objective.
- Leave the emotion out of play
To stay focused during trading and not lose your balance, you need to work with emotional intelligence. If you are very anxious, for example, you are more vulnerable to the supplier, who can take advantage of this fact.
Again, going into trading with data and good planning helps to keep track of the situation. Also, of course, the preparation gives you more security to expose the arguments.
In this sense, it is also important to pay attention to body posture and not to say too much. Listen carefully to your future partner to counter-argue and observe how he behaves during the trading process.
- Use technology in favor of trading
In addition to making tradings more fluid and dynamic with video calls, technology today allows contracts to be signed online.
This ensures the safety of the process, in addition to speeding up agreements that could take months to close, depending on the location of the supplier.
Take advantage of digital media, such as email, WhatsApp, and Skype, to make meetings or contacts faster. At the same time, it is not because technology facilitates trading that you do not need to have face-to-face contact with your supplier.
Whenever possible, make visits to the partner’s places of action to strengthen ties, humanize your relationship, and deepen your knowledge of each other.
- Have a plan B and a C
Remember what we talked about planning? So, when it comes to designing your trading strategies, have a plan B.
Sometimes, we can believe that we have put together the ideal proposal for the supplier and, at the time, the trading takes a completely different direction from that planned.
This also applies to the choice of your business partners. Make a ranking with the suppliers you have mapped. So, if it doesn’t work out with the first one, you already know who’s next in line to try to trade.
In addition to making the process faster and more efficient, this method means that you are not in the hands of a single supplier. If you only have one option, the chances of accepting unfavorable terms for your business are greater.
- Make a killer presentation
Trading is also a process of persuasion. You need to convince the supplier that he will make a good deal if he decides to establish a partnership with your company.
Do you know that maxim that the first impression is what remains? So, make an excellent presentation of your business in the first contact with the future partner. Thus, he will see value in your company and be more flexible to establish the conditions. After all, your business seems to be worthwhile.
If you already work with other suppliers and have a good relationship with them, this can be a card up your sleeve when negotiating with a new partner.
Testimonials and directions give authority to your business and count even more points for someone to agree to close a deal with you. This shows that your company has credibility in the market.
For the supplier, sometimes, it is more worthwhile to sell cheap to a company that will certainly meet the established deadlines, than with one that accepts any price.