Top Reasons why You Need Supplier Development for a Successful Supply Chain

Top Reasons Why You Need Supplier Development for a Successful Supply Chain

James Diaz
Procurement and Sourcing Hub
3 min readJan 14, 2020

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Suppliers play a pivotal role in any supply chain. In today’s world, the relationship between supplier and customers are more critical than before. Nowadays, the procurement teams are embracing supplier development freelancers to make their business successful.

What is supplier development?

This is a business strategy that motivates procurement team to work closely with diverse suppliers to boost performance and drive continued growth. It involves accepting the skills of the suppliers and aligning these skills with the aim of the purchasing organization. Diverse suppliers build connections and create benefits for both parties. This method is related to partnering and supplier relationship management. There is no single approach involved in this. The procuring firm and supplier will pick a strategy that suits their relationship, industry and the supply market.

Reasons for choosing supplier development

Outlined below are the top reasons why organisations should invest in supplier development:

Earn a competitive advantage — With the help of proper education and guidance, companies can form a partnership with the vendors and sourcing freelancers who understand every side of their business, from quality to pricing. This empowers the suppliers to provide you with more quality-standard service and competitive price.

Motivate collaboration between suppliers — Often, diverse suppliers lack skills, resources and experiences to meet complex business goals. Supplier development programs can motivate individual suppliers to work together to come up with solutions that they would be unable to offer alone.

Drive innovation — Motivating diverse suppliers to collaborate and work together to create innovative solutions. This forces them to think out-of-the-box, increasing their level of creativity. In the end, this can result in the creation of services and products that are currently not available in the market.

Develop powerful long-term supplier relationships — Supplier development freelancers require collaboration and trust which encourage firms to foster long-term relationships with their suppliers. This will assist them in gaining economic and business resources which they need for evolving growth and success. Eventually, this can nurture a stronger and beneficial partnership for both of them.

Resolve quality and performance problems — When companies do one on one communication with various suppliers, it opens the door for many new opportunities and improvements. For instance, a supplier can tell about multiple ways in which a customer can bestow support like, access to specific documents or improved interaction. In return, the customer can also highlight the areas in which the supplier’s service can be enhanced.

Improved customer satisfaction — The supplier development aims towards improving the supplier’s performance, giving advantages to the purchasing company and personal relationships with them. This, in turn, also has a good impact on the customer’s end. Improved customer-supplier relationships lead to enhanced interaction, greater efficiencies and superior quality products. Sourcing freelancers should focus on the organisation that works with multiple supplier base. Stronger supplier relationships in a supply chain give good products and better customer satisfaction.

These are the prime reasons why supplier development and healthy supplier relationships are necessary for a successful supply chain.

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