Twice recently, clients have opted to use vendors that are cheaper rather than my recommended suppliers. In both cases, this has entailed my doing a lot more work to manage the vendor and a loss of quality. It doesn’t even make economic sense as the client has to pay me for the additional time!
Supplier relationships
I’m an old fashioned sort, I prefer building up relationships with suppliers. Yes, that means I don’t always pay the cheapest price, but I know that when I need them to pull through for me, they will go the extra mile because I am a loyal customer. I also don’t have to hand-hold them, I know that they know how to do their jobs and do them better than I can.
Shopping around
This doesn’t mean I take their prices as given and don’t shop around. I do check prices are reasonable against alternative suppliers and I do ask them, when I think they need to, to revisit their pricing structure. it is all about communication and building that trusted relationship.