Selecting a new supplier: Method and benefits

When a business starts to run smoothly, it’s important to make the right decisions, including surrounding yourself with the right suppliers, with the aim of sourcing in the best possible way: a clever mix of different criteria, combining quality, cost and delivery times.

This in-depth work is crucial for everyone. Working with the best partners requires a great deal of effort, both in terms of researching suppliers and analysing and maintaining relationships with them. To remain competitive, it is important tosurround yourselfwith the best players to stay one step ahead.

But how do you unearth the nuggets from the flood of information available on the internet? That’s what we’ll be looking at in the following article.

We have collected and listed the various criteria to be taken into account so that you can, with complete peace of mind, search for and work with the supplier that suits you best:

List and determine your search criteria

Before you start looking for suppliers for your goods or services, it’s essential to devote time and effort to developing comprehensive criteria that perfectly meet your company’s needs.

To define these criteria effectively, draw up a list including what you need in the short and long term, such as the raw materials, products or services involved in the manufacture of your final product.

It’s crucial to take the time to define comprehensive and relevant criteria that are specifically tailored to you and your business. By drawing up a clear list of your requirements, you can ensure that potential suppliers meet your expectations perfectly.

By following this approach, you will be ready to seek out future suppliers who can adequately meet your requirements and contribute to the success of your business.

When establishing the criteria for your potential suppliers, you need to consider several important elements:

• The quantity required, whether in bulk or wholesale.
• The type of materials you need.
• The quality of the materials needed to meet your standards.

It is also crucial to consider

• Purchase costs, which must be competitive and in line with your budget.
• Availability of materials and delivery times, to ensure that there are no delays in your production process.
• Packaging and labels, which can play an important role in presenting your products to customers.

By taking all these aspects into account, you will be able to draw up comprehensive criteria that will enable you to select the suppliers best suited to your needs and ensure the success of your business.

for example, if you were the owner of a company specialising in the manufacture of T-shirts, the elements required for your production process would include fabrics, dyes, colorants and embroidery machines.

Once you have precisely identified the products and materials essential to your business, you can narrow down the list of potential suppliers according to your specific criteria.

When it comes to choosing a supplier, it’s important to consider other aspects too.

Supplier reliability

When choosing a supplier, there are a number of key factors to consider.

Firstly, a supplier’s reliability is based on factors such as dedicated customer service and the ability to meet your company’s current and future needs.

It is therefore advisable to favour suppliers with a proven track record of satisfied customers over the long term, rather than suppliers with a large number of customers in the short term.

In addition, respecting your internal budgets is a crucial aspect. Although there are many suppliers on the market, only a few will really meet all the procurement criteria and prove reliable for your business.

Respecting budgets

It’s also essential to stay on budget. Don’t automatically assume that a supplier offering materials at a higher price guarantees better quality. It is crucial to understand the breakdown of costs, including overall prices, taxes and administrative costs associated with the collaboration.

By taking these factors into account when selecting suppliers, you can establish solid, long-term partnerships that will support the success of your business.

Values and respect for commitments

When choosing a supplier from a list of potential vendors, it is crucial to look closely at the compatibility of the organisation’s values and culture, as well as ease of communication.

In this consumer-driven age, customers are looking for brands that share their values, beliefs and ethics.

Successful brands need to be aware of the values and beliefs of their target audience. They must align themselves with these values to remain relevant to their customers.

As a business owner, it is therefore imperative toestablish relationships with suppliers who share the same values, culture and moral integrity.

Cultivating good supplier relationships translates into greater customer satisfaction and sustainable profitability for your business.

These values can be multiple, and each depends on your own corporate culture.

For example, compliance with environmental standards (Corporate Social Responsibility, better known as CSR) may be a daily battle in your company, and your suppliers have a duty to respect your commitments, and therefore to comply with these standards in their own manufacturing processes, so that the relationship can be healthy.

Offshore supplier vs. local supplier?

Should you import or favour local suppliers? There is no single, obvious answer to this question.

The best approach is the one that best meets your company’s needs while preserving its brand image.

At a time when brands are increasingly seeking to connect with consumers who are concerned about the environment and looking to buy locally, sourcing local materials is perfectly aligned with modern brand values.

However, there are also advantages to importing products or materials from other countries.

For example, companies that import from countries such as Portugal (for European companies), where there are many production centres, often benefit from lower prices and greater availability of materials.

In this case, importing becomes a cost-effective and reliable option for drop-shipment companies looking for a trusted supplier, rather than sourcing locally.

When choosing a supplier, it is essential to ensure that they have both the capabilities and experience to provide quality materials that meet the expectations of your business and your customers.

Weproc and the selection of new suppliers

Weproc is a purchasing management software that focuses on compliance with your company’s purchasing policies.

From purchase requisition to supplier invoice management, you can communicate with your external partners, such as your suppliers.

Our SRM software (Supplier Relationship Management) makes it easier to communicate and collaborate with your suppliers.

With just a few clicks, our consultation management module lets you put several suppliers in competition with each other and centralise their offers in one place, so you can compare them easily and select the supplier that’s right for you, thanks to our automatically-generated comparison of offers.

Want to learn more about our procurement management software Weproc? Contact us or request your free 15-minutes demo below!

Team Weproc

Weproc is a SaaS software specialized in digitizing the procurement process of companies. From purchase requests to supplier invoicing, through the validation process, Weproc is designed to simplify the purchase management of SMEs and mid-sized companies by centralizing all purchase-related activities.