Written by OLI Director, Sales and Marketing Dave Brown
Throughout my professional career I have observed several phenomena that everyone wants and hopes for – things like:
· Upgrades. Everyone likes the sitting in the big chairs…
· Appreciation. A kind word propels all of us.
· Respect. Being liked is nice, being respected is inspiring
· Communication. We all want to know….
Since joining On Location Inc. (OLI), a consistent topic of conversation with customers has been Communication. Specifically, how customers would like us to “communicate with them”. Often the context of the discussion is “when things are not going as planned”. This is a really important subject and has led to some fruitful and deep conversations as to when and how we are relaying information to our customers.
But one conversation really stands out to me. One person made a quick comment, “how come you are not asking when and how we communicate with you as a vendor”. In the moment, we acknowledged the importance of “two-way communication”, but this concept has been rattling around in my brain ever since.
It made me think, how am I relaying information, concepts, and expectations to vendors we deal with. So I have been field testing two new questions. “Is there anything I have not shared that you want or need” and “Is there anything I should have asked but did not”. The second has really been any eye opener and one which is getting added to my repertoire for sure.
Question for you – do you or your company look at how you are communicating with your suppliers / vendors / partners? Follow up being, “do you place the same level of importance of communicating with your suppliers as you do the supplier communicating with you?”.
I would like to think that all our goals are the same – support the people who write our paychecks to ensure they are positioned to be successful. Food for thought, what does a two way communication street look like to you, your company, and your suppliers? Onward!
