Relationships matter more than products to small business newsagents

Newsagents, like many small business retailers, often place more importance on the relationships with those who represent a supplier than the products they source from the supplier.

Put another way, a supplier with the best products and a poor representative can fail while a supplier with poor product and an excellent representative can succeed.

What makes a good supplier representative? The answer all depends on who you are. A supplier will say it is someone who gets results for their business while a retailer will say it is someone who gets good results for their business. This is what some call a win win. The reality is a win win is rare in business, especially between two businesses of vastly different sizes. That is not necessarily bad, the assessment of a win will be different to each side.

The newsagency channel has some excellent representatives in the supplier community and some appalling ones. It is the appalling ones we remember and talk about.

I am interested in what makes a bad rep a bad rep. Is it them, the rules of the company they work for, their manager? These are all factors to consider.

Just as a bad employee in your newsagency is your responsibility since you hire, train, motivate and fire them – it is on you to have good employees, you are in control.

The same is true for our suppliers. They are in control, if they want to be. It is their obligation to have good representatives with whom newsagents want to do business.

But back to the question I want to contemplate today: What makes a good supplier representative? I think it comes down to them exhibiting the following attributes in all their contact with newsagents, their customers. A good supplier representative is someone who:

1. Listens.
2. Communicates clearly.
3. Communicates more about business and less about themselves.
4. Documents what is agreed.
5. Knows how to work with others in the supplier business.
6. Knows the value of data and relies on the right data from the newsagent to guide good decisions for the business.
7. Does not wast time.
8. Can talk business strategy and know what they are saying in the context of the customer’s business.
9. Knows when a product in their portfolio is not right for a customer.
10. Understands the business of each customer: where they are at and where they want to take the business.
11. Does not bend the rules, knowing that it will come back and damage the relationship.
12. Is not greedy.
13. Does not harm your business by putting the same product elsewhere close to you.
14. Helps their customers make more money.
15. Knows that selling something to a newsagent does not, of itself, necessarily ensure the newsagent will make money.

I did not intend the list to become this long. But it did. In fact, I could add more.

For our part, we newsagents have an obligation to supplier representatives to match the above list with our side of each point. For example:

1. Our requests need to be data based, based on fact and not emotion.
2. We need to listen.
3. We need to communicate clearly.
4. We need to know the reading terms, trade within them and not request supplier representatives to trade outside the trading terms.
5. We need to not be greedy.
6. We need to not waste time – supplier contact is about business. Coffee, drinks, meals etc get in the way of doing business.
7. we need to help our suppliers make money.

In fact, the last point here is at the heart of the newsagent / supplier relationship. Most frustration I hear relates to one or the other party, or both parties, not making the money they need to make in order for the relationship to be of optimal value.

There are two sides to every relationship. However, since suppliers rely on us to agree to take on their stock, the onus is on them to serve us better for without us, they have fewer retail outlets through which to promote and sell their products.