Will the Suppliers in the Room Please Raise Their Hand?

I had the pleasure of making the closing keynote address at the National Association of Educational Buyers New England Annual Conference on Cape Cod late last week. I spoke about the importance of supplier relationships and right after I began my talk I realized that there were suppliers in the room. Goodness….buyers enjoying breakfast, and a great talk (!) with suppliers. While they seemed to be enjoying themselves I know many purchasing professionals would claim that they were giving comfort and support to the enemy. Me? I was happy that they were there….and learned a bit more about our profession. They even asked some pretty good questions.More and more purchasing conferences have a supplier component to them. This “unholy alliance,” according to some, is primarily for financial support. Conferences are expensive to produce and the registration fee hardly covers costs. Suppliers are charged to exhibit and that sponsorship fee goes a long way in making the conference financially viable. Simply, the more suppliers the lower the registration fee for the buyers. Fundamentally we understand that but many are not happy.

Suppliers are usually stabled in a conference room and the buyers visit…often when prompted or cajoled with the promise of raffle gifts. They will need to get their card stamped or initialed and many buyers are torn. If they could have 5 foot arm extensions they might never need to get close to “the enemy.” And then there are the times when desert is offered in the supplier area. I don’t want to even consider the cheese and mouse analogy I am thinking about. We look just so petty.

Enough! We are big kids and having relationships with sellers are part of the process. The suppliers at this conference were nice, professional and one even did a lot of business with my college. He made contact with me and I’m glad he did. I want to think I help further develop the relationship. Imagine that.