Choosing the right suppliers for your business is a laborious job. You need to find suppliers that are affordable, punctual, and easy to deal with. As more and more businesses also try to be as ethical and sustainable as possible, you might also be looking for suppliers that align with your business values. This is important for your own business integrity, but also to show your customers that you’re serious about upholding the values that you espouse. If your brand has certain values, it makes sense that your suppliers should hold those values too. So how can you find suppliers that align with your business values?
Define Your Business Values
If you want to find suppliers that align with your business values, you first need to ensure you have defined your values. This is something that you should ideally do when conceptualizing your business and building your brand. But if you haven’t thought about your brand values before or you think that they need a rethink, it’s time to make sure you know what your business stands for. You can even write a mission statement or a list of values that you can share with your employees and your customers, as well as potential suppliers.
Find Transparent Suppliers
When you’re looking for suppliers that align with your values, you need suppliers that are transparent about their practices and their own values. Suppliers like Superior Farms are willing to be open about their sustainability practices and supply chain, so you can easily assess whether they’re right for you. If a potential supplier is shady about how they do things or unclear about what their values are, it becomes difficult to really understand what they stand for and whether they’re the right pick for your company. It may be better to move on if you can’t get answers to your questions
Spend Time Assessing Suppliers
Even when suppliers are transparent about what they do and how they do things, it’s worth spending time to assess them properly. As well as finding out about their values, you might talk to their representatives about how they conduct their business and what their processes are. It could be a good idea to look for reviews or to speak to current customers who might be able to give you some insider information on how they feel about the supplier. You could also do things like looking into the supplier’s accounts or seeing if they’ve been in the news.
Review Your Suppliers Regularly
Even after choosing your suppliers, it’s a good idea to review them regularly. When you review them, you can make sure that they still align with your business values. Over time, your business can change and theirs can change too. If your expectations are different or your customers expect something different from you, it might mean you need to change suppliers. Suppliers might also make changes to the way they do things, meaning they’re no longer suitable.
If you want suppliers that align with your business’s values, take the time to assess candidates carefully.
No comments yet.