Anytime you are setting business relationships up, you try to do everything you can to keep everyone happy, right? What happens when you find yourself in a situation that does not seem like anyone will ever be pleased? Something interesting happened to one of my Internet businesses in the last week that involved a couple of my drop shippers, so I wanted to talk about it, and hopefully provide some good information for anyone who could find them self in the same situation.
Most of the time, I would say probably 90% of the time when you are working with a supplier you will not have to worry about conflicts of working with multiple suppliers. Most of them really do not care as long as you continue to sell their products. I had a situation with one of my suppliers that telling me I had to drop my other supplier, and work with them exclusively.
Let me give you a little more background to better understand the situation. On this specific site (I am talking about) I currently work with 4 suppliers, and two of them are pretty much non-existence (Long story, I won't bore you with those details). However, I do have two main suppliers that I use quite often for all of the sales that come through on the site. Both of them are amazing, and I do not want to lose either one. Here is the deal - The one supplier telling me I have to drop everyone else is going to be doing some pretty amazing things for me if I drop everyone for them (I mean, the stuff really is pretty impressive what they will be doing for us) so I do not want to make them mad and risk losing them, or having them think I am not serious. Are you starting to see my very difficult situation yet?
The solution -
Find a way to keep both, and please them both. No really, DO EVERYTHING you possibly can to keep both, as it will help your business grow in the long run. Plus, you never have to worry about having product if one company goes under one day. In the situation I gave you above, here is what I figured out that I will do - I will keep one supplier as my "eBay" (or shopping/buying solution sites) supplier, and the other one will be my main (and only) supplier on the website. I do big business on both fronts (website and buying solution sites), so the one supplier that is no longer a part of my website (as a drop shipper) will never even realize. The main (and now only) supplier on the website will be happy because that is the only area they care about. The other supplier that I will use for just eBay, (or the other buying solutions sites) does not care where I sell their products, just as long as I am selling their products and making them money!
It is always a good idea to have a back up plan. I would never expect one of my suppliers to go belly up one day, but I have been in business long enough to know that kind of stuff happens (and I have seen it happen too). When you have multiple suppliers, you know you have a back up plan and that your business will keep making money. That is why I recommend never tossing to the side, a supplier that you have a really good relationship with. I came across a really great article yesterday that gives more tips about keeping good relationships with your dropshippers.
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