Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of an article from Convenience Store Decisions magazine.
Aligning your vendors to a common business vision is a daunting task. In many cases, vendors for retail outlets number in the hundreds, if not thousands. How is the retailer expected to manage all of them?
In years past, I used to organize an autumn annual vendor conference that allowed our company to explain where we were headed in the upcoming year. Hundreds of vendors would be in attendance, hearing firsthand from the senior team what our financial and key initiative projections were for the upcoming year.
Align to a Common Vision: The annual vendor conference provides the ultimate platform to efficiently inform, educate and align your vendors for the upcoming year. The vendors that attend are "in the know" and potentially have a leg up on vendors that are not in attendance.
Force Your Team to Plan: From an internal standpoint, the annual vendor conference creates a budget and planning deadline that your team must meet in order to be effective at the event.
Apply Peer Pressure: There is nothing better than having competing vendors in the same audience hearing a common business vision and determining how they will outflank one another.
Negotiate While in the Zone: When the vendors are all "hyped up" after the senior management presentations, it's time to close the deal. The expectation should be set in advance that the annual conference is the place where "deals get made" and vendors should be ready to sign on the dotted line. Clearly, this is an opportune negotiating tactic for the retailer, but more importantly, it creates a sense of urgency to finalize the plans with vendor commitments allowing for a focus on executing those plans.
Senior Management Attracts Senior Management: Use the draw of access to your senior team to attract the senior teams of your vendors. The more aligned you are "up the chain of command" at your vendors, the more attention — and resources — will come your way.
Invest Dollars for Returns: An annual vendor conference is a critical strategy to not only align your vendors, but provides a sense of urgency for your team to plan for the upcoming year. While there are dollars to be invested to court and entertain vendors, the resulting impact of an efficient platform is substantial in the return of investment by your vendors. The squeaky wheel gets the oil, and if you can pull off a well-orchestrated annual vendor conference, the investment will return handsomely.