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Vendor to Customer Relationships aren't always external
By Denis A. Baldwin
When most business people think of marketing in terms of the customer-supplier relationship, they think of you the customer buying from an external supplier or you the supplier producing goods, marketing services and vending them to your external customer. This classic model is the cornerstone of business.
However, consider that external customers are never your only customers. Operations within your facility are also built on this model. Every department is a customer or supplier to another department in your facility. Every person in every department is a potential vendor or potential purchaser or receiver of goods and services from other departments. From classic examples of this process in a purely vendor-to-customer format within your business are:
- Your stock room supplies your production personnel.
- Your sales force supplies your production personnel.
- Your marketing team supplies your sales force.
- Your production personnel supplies your shipping department.
- Your human resources department supplies all of your employees.
- Your management supplies your department heads with guidance, budgets and ideas.
- Your maintenance crew supplies your cleaning and repair needs throughout the facility.
There are many more examples, but you can now see how important even the simple vendor/customer relationship is to how your business works.
Now consider how failing to accommidate any one of these steps could be a disaster. What happens if there is a cut in this supply chain? What happens if one end of production doesn't keep up with another? What happens if someone calls out sick that is integral to this supply chain? Do you have redundancy? Do you have a plan? Do you have a way of supplying and being supplied if kinks in the supply chain emerge?
We are all customers and all vendors. Be sure both hats fit nicely, as you'll be wearing both as long as you are in business.
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