Really?? The Rant Continues!

I recently penned a commentary on a few things that have had me scratching my head asking ...Really?? This struck a nerve with our audience and was the most opened FreePromoTips e-newsletter we have had in recent years. If you missed this article, you can find it here. Our personal and professional lives are filled with ...Really?? moments.

This first ...Really?? article touched on my occasional frustrations working with suppliers. While distributors love to rant about suppliers, it should be noted that suppliers can be equally as frustrated with distributors. At the heart of the issue is effective communication and having a mutual respect for the roles we each play in the business process. We can both make mistakes and drop balls, but it is how we pick them up that makes the difference in the end.

In this Rant, I'm going to share one more ...Really?? experience and a "real world" example of how the supplier/distributor relationship can work. It seems logical to me that we all work together to generate profitable, positive business relationships. Does that make sense to you? A future Rant will address communication from the supplier perspective and the multi-line rep perspective.

Recently, I had the opportunity to do a nice little slam-dunk job for a city department. Because of the relationship I had established, it was a "give us as many pens as we can get for $2,000.00" deal, which is their no-bid threshold.

I chose to give the business to a supplier that I had a relationship with. I had ordered samples via ground shipping and set up an appointment with the client, unaware that this was somewhat of a rush for them. They selected a blue pen and I started the ball rolling to speed the order along. I emailed the supplier letting them know the PO and art would be forthcoming the next business day, casually mentioning that I pray they had 2,800 of these blue pens. In the ensuing flurry of emails back and forth about the order, the one e-mail letting me know they are out of blue unfortunately never got to me.