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Win-Win Business Practices

When you own a new or growing business, you are constantly struggling to get an advantage in the market place, whether it's buying better, attracting new customers, cutting overhead or any other way to improve your profit margin. The important decision you have to make early on is, are you in business for a quick score, or are you in business for the long haul? The short sighted business owner thinks 'how can I make the most money the fastest", with no regard for laying the foundation that's required for going the distance. The "how cheap can I buy it and how many can I sell" mentality will burn out the sources for getting product, and lose the customers who got stuck with the inferior product. Long haul planning requires relationship management, and this is where Win-Win thinking comes in to play.

Your business strategy, when it comes to customers, should include asking the question "what will work for the customer, and how can I make it work for me"? Low prices may work for the customer, but they don't work for your profit margin, and high prices and no customer service won't work either. Convenient hours for you probably are not convenient for your customer, and the list goes on. All of your business practices, in order to build a good foundation, must be based on what works for you and your customer. In the beginning, the balance most likely will be more in the customer's favor, with you knowing that the scale will tip back toward you down the road. To keep customers, you need to make sure doing business with your company works for them, and it needs to be profitable enough for you to stay in business and grow. This is Win-Win.

Vendor relationships fall into the same category. Maintaining good relationships with your suppliers is critical because they are the pipeline of the product you need to stay in business. Competitive and timely shipments of inventory are key to your success. Unless you are a huge company, (and sometimes even if you are), when you over negotiate with a company and make the pricing and delivery too lopsided in your favor, you may get one or two shipments, but you won't get any more after that. It won't take long until they realize they got a bad deal. They could even try to make it up with shipping inferior product or shorting the shipment. It's all dollars and cents.

If the vendor is stingy and won't give you competitive pricing, you can't afford to do business with them. When you are small, it can be hard to get a large vendor to work with you, and that's where your persistence and research comes into play. If you can't get a vendor's attention, try to get a competitor's line in and do a great job of marketing it. If you run a good business, down the road the product you wanted will become available to you at a competitive price, and then it's your choice if you want it or not.

You don't need a one way supplier, and you can't be a one way customer. Your job as a customer is to pay your bills, do what you say you are going to do, report overages in shipments (not just the shortages) and do a good job marketing the product. Your vendors' job is to provide you with agreed on quality, timely delivery, competitive prices and to stand behind the product.

Business relationships, that last, have to work both ways, whether it's a customer, vendor, employee, consultant or professional. You always need to protect your best interest, and so does everyone else, so make it work for both. Make it a Win-Win.
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