Hello and welcome to Business 300. My name is Philip Kulenshov and this is 300

seconds about business. We're all a busy people, so I have five minutes or less to get my point across.

Five more. Off we go.

This is part three in our little series on working with suppliers.

The goal is to focus on providing them with value before asking them for value.

Last time I covered the first two value offerings, that was expectations and payment.

Expectations should be clear and reasonable, and payment should be fair and timely. This time we have the remaining three. The third value offering is volume that is considerable and continuous. Business owners are in business to work. The more considerable the volume, the more valuable to customer. You build up your perceived value in the eyes of your vendors and trade partners when you can offer more volume. A more

considerable volume might even justify a lower price. This is just normal business practice.

There is value in being a large account. Your volume should be considerable. But that volume is more

valuable when it isn't only considerable,

but also continuous. That means you want to be able to provide a good flow of work, not

just to bring it in large spikes. A hurry-up-and-wait sort of customer is not only not as valuable,

but may create more burden than blessing. Large volumes that spike up and then dry out create

instability for the vendor,

putting his entire business at risk. Sometimes a continual drip in the bucket is more valuable

than a large splash all at once. Your volume should be considerable and continuous. The fourth value

offering is a schedule that is consistent and predictable. The schedule should be consistent. Your vendors are

running a business with multiple customers of their own. Having a consistent schedule, one that is the

same, makes it easier for them to manage their workload. Maybe your work volume is not continuous,

meaning it's not happening all of the time, but it is consistent. It's not every day, but it is every

quarter. There's value when the vendor can bet on you providing work at a normal pace.

The schedule should be consistent, because that makes it predictable. When the schedule is the same, then the vendor can bet on you coming through, it makes it predictable.

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