A Guide for New Buyers: Getting Buyers Up to Speed

Published in: IPA Bulletin, March/April 2006

"Whenever an individual or business decides that success has been attained (or what they're doing is good enough) progress stops."

Thomas Watson, Jr., IBM, Investors Business Daily, March 13, 2006

In February at the Sawgrass-Marriott, Chadwick Consulting sponsored a Business Development Conference. Attendees included an organization that is evolving from a traditional prepress service bureau. A member of his organization made a stunning presentation about a New Buyer's Guide. (Attendee presentations of exceptional practices and models with customers are the core format of our conferences.)

The New Buyer's Guide was developed for a new buyer at one of their largest (international, and publicly traded) customers. The new buyer had little graphic arts background; had significant pressures and complexities of duties to manage; was easily frustrated; and, because of her newness to her company, had little invested in the supplier working relationship. Thus, she appeared to have little hesitation to change suppliers if that appeared to be what was needed to "ease her sources of frustration and pain."

Her sources of pain? Utterly complex promotions that were rolling out every 30 days to literally thousands of retail locations.

Our presenter in this segment at the conference was a long-term client of ours and a supplier to a major fast-food organization. Understandably, the customer represented a significant amount of the supplier's business.

The "short version" of the story is that promotion production was expected to move at an unusually fast pace, creative changes were frequently made to work-in-process, a different promotion program was rolled out every 30 days, and this buyer didn't know how to communicate with this (or any other) promotion supplier about the numerous and intricate details of what was needed. If you're the supplier in such a situation, you're in jeopardy, and ignoring the situation and "conducting business as usual" can be deadly.

Without much imagination required, the situation was becoming clear. If a simple, direct "system of communication" were not developed quickly, this buyer and her significant (and most important) business would soon be irrevocably lost, resulting in serious financial damage to the supplier, who was very much dependent on this customer for supporting ongoing operations.

The lead account executive recognized that an inflection point in the account relationship was occurring. Communications was the key. And nothing short of a systems program approach would solve the conundrum. If the account executive didn't become urgently proactive with such a strategy, she and the company would lose this strategic account.

On the other hand, a "correct next step" could not only retain the customer, but also gain for the supplier the dominant position with the buyer and customer against all other suppliers.

To the account executive's credit, she reviewed the problems that had occurred, the miscommunications that had been experienced, and thought through the conditions the new buyer was experiencing. Her solution was to develop a Buyer's Guide for the new buyer.

A Buyers Guide will provide expertise for the client while saving time and money for the supplier and the client.

The Buyer's Guide

Contents of the Buyer's Guide included:

• A title page, and table of contents.
• History of the working relationship.
• Numerous newspaper articles about the growth and meaningful press releases about the buyer's division. Human Resources had provided this new employee with nothing of this nature.
• Copies of correspondence between the two organizations — for two years.
• Identification of all items currently available to be ordered, including an explanation of the alpha-numeric system for identifying each item.
• A list of all items on order.
• A list of pricing, and how pricing was determined on each item.
• * Instructions for ordering an item — step-by-step — on the Internet.
• Sample change order (with description of each item).
• Sample invoice (with description of each item) and instructions for going online to check the status of an order.
• Instructions for reaching her supplier contact team at night, during a weekend, or on a holiday.
• Photos and professional bios of her supplier contact team — account executive, CSR, fulfillment manager, bookkeeper, prep manager, etc.
• History of the supplier organization.
• What her supplier was capable of doing that the buyer wasn't already buying.
• An exhibits section showing photos of promotions set-up; a glossary of technical terms; a Request For Estimate (RFE) sheet, with accompanying explanation; and samples of what had been produced.
• A schedule of cultural events for the local community, which in Texas were numerous and well known — unless you were new to the area, which this buyer was.

"An idea can turn into dust or magic, depending on the talent that rubs against it."
— William Bembach, Investors Business Daily, March 15,2006

Three notebooks with numbered pages were prepared: one for the buyer, one for the customer service representative assigned to the account, and one for the supplier's fulfillment manager.

Implementation and Stunning Reward

The Supplier Team, led by the account executive, reviewed the Buyer's Guide with the buyer and the buyer's supervisor. To offer a summary of the value of the information presented, there were well over 1,500 SKU's the buyer organization might order, and this number was increasing by about 125 SKU's every 30 days!

Subsequent to the presentation, the new buyer revealed to the account executive that none of her other suppliers had developed a program system for ordering that was organized, logical, and had a "supportive, documented guide." Additional copies of the Buyer's Guide were subsequently requested for Accounts Payable, Creative, Marketing, and the Franchise Council.

After about 60 days, the new buyer surprisingly handed-over to the account executive a list of products (with related prices) bought from three other suppliers. She confessed that she had shown the other suppliers the Buyer's Guide and asked them to put together a similar system for explaining what they did. She heard nothing from them as she continued — with frustration — to awkwardly place orders with them.

Every item that the account executive's company could supply at those prices was theirs to supply if a similar, supportive buying system were developed. And it was developed —in less than three weeks.

Interestingly, the buyer's supervisor and senior management recognized that the buyer had been "brought-up-to-speed" in less than one-fourth the time usually required. Purchasing subsequently developed a "standard of practices" for future suppliers that required a Buyer's Guide.

What happened, in effect, was that the Buyer's Guide had become institutionalized!

Customers Determine Who Stays In Business

This account executive, from a moment of extreme threat and near panic, put together a Buyer's Guide that not only radically changed the way the buyer organization perceived the supplier, but in the process also noticeably changed the economic future for both organizations.

If we can accept that we are in business to serve and create customers, and, through that process, elevate their accomplishments and economic performance, then we have a chance at creating reasons for the marketplace to sustain and reward us.

Certainly it's important to understand technology and its potential applications, just like it's important to abide by the laws that govern our society, and to wash our hands before eating. However, in the hierarchy of priorities that influence how we conduct our lives, may we never forget that it's ultimately customers who determine who stays in business, and what our industry looks like.

If we can have everyone in our organization, and in our suppliers' organizations, understanding what this means on a day-to-day, and "how I do my job" basis, then we have a chance at truly making a positive contribution to our customer's economic well-being — and sustaining our own economic well-being in the process.

We can only come to such insights of "what to do next" if we — as individuals and as an organization — are on a mission to improve our customer's economic well-being through orchestration of our collective resources. That's basically why our organization should be allowed to exist, and that's what our great industry should be about.

Excellent quality, delivered on time, at competitive prices no longer wins us the next order, or even the opportunity for the next order.

It's expected!