How To Build Quality Relationships With Vendors And Lower Costs
Getting your products and services from concept to cash you need vendors and fulfillment. Anyone from web programmers, fulfillment houses, graphic designers. Whatever type of vendors you may need to use in your business this article will outline a few tips about how you can lower your fulfillment costs while building quality relationships.
One great way to build your relationship with someone is to send them as many referrals as you can. By sending them recommendations and referrals they will see your relationships as having more value then just someone they do business with. When I do this with the vendors I work with I am now not only benefiting them by giving them business but by also bringing more business to them. This puts me in a much more favorable light then most of their costumers. You want to give them as many benefits as quickly as possible - sending referrals is a very easy method to do so.
Joint venture projects is something else I have done with my vendors in the past. An example of this is when I worked with a graphic designer on a product. She did the graphic designer element, I put together the product and did the marketing side and then we split the profits.
Boom! Just like that I had almost completely eliminated my cost up front and now don’t have to worry about coming up with that money. Starting out, this was really helpful as I didn’t have the money to put up front to hire a graphic designer. So this strategy is really great for that reason and many others.
I’m sure some of you are thinking, “Good plan, except your only going to make half of what you could have made.” Just stop and think about it. I take the standpoint that it is much better to get your projects actually completed and make some money instead of not getting anything completed and make no money.
If I wasn’t willing to work on building that relationship with that vendor, that project would have never been completed. If I didn’t get that project done I would be making no money from it. Instead that project would remain in the pile of possible ideas, bringing in no profit.
You really have to push your creativity when you are on a tight budget. Joint ventures is a creative idea I have used more than once. Web developers is another vendor I have used this strategy with.
Another tip I suggest when working with vendors and you want to save a lot of money is to do a lot of work ahead of time. By doing this you are going to save the vendor time and save them effort. Don’t be afraid to ask them questions like, how you could save money, or what else you can do to cut down their time or effort. Vendors want to help you, they want to do business with you. They also know people have budgets to work within and they will help you figure things out.
Here is another tip - create a template instead of just a project. This way you can use it more than once, without having to pay for the same thing twice. I’ll go into more detail to explain it better.
Let’s say, for example, you were looking to develop an E-book. Rather than asking the graphic designer to do a specific layout just for that E-book, why don’t you hire the graphic designer to create a template for which you can use for any E-book that you generate?
This is a different way about going things - the thing is you will save tons of money - thousands - in the long-run. As for the graphic designer its about the same amount of effort for them to put forth. This is just another idea about how you can again build your relationships with your vendors, but also save a lot of money.
Your vendors and fulfillment companies can really make a difference in your business and these are just a few ideas on how you can build your relationship with them and also cut costs. More strategies will come to you if you only start thinking outside the box!
By exploring your creativity ideas will come to you when you need them the most!
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