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How To Build Quality Relationships With Vendors And Lower Costs
One great way to build your relationship with someone is to send them as many referrals as you can. By sending them recommendations and referrals they will see your relationships as having more value then just someone they do business with. When I do this with the vendors I work with I am now not only benefiting them by giving them business but by also bringing more business to them. This puts me in a much more favorable light then most of their costumers. You want to give them as many benefits as quickly as possible - sending referrals is a very easy method to do so.
I've also done joint venture projects with my vendors. Here's a quick scenario. One of the people that I was working with was a graphic designer. We decided to do a joint venture project together, where she would do the graphic design at no cost, I would provide the product and then put for the marketing effort, and together we would split the profits.
Just like that I saved myself a ton of money! The costs for a graphic designer were gone and when I was first starting out I used this strategy a lot because I simply didn't have the money to put down for elements like that.
Some people tell me, "Yeah, but Stu, you're giving away 50% of the profits. That's a big chunk of money." Well, time out for a second. I'm of the viewpoint that it's better to get your projects completed and making some money versus keeping all of nothing and not getting anything completed.
If I wasn't willing to work on building that relationship with that vendor, that project would have never been completed. If I didn't get that project done I would be making no money from it. Instead that project would remain in the pile of possible ideas, bringing in no profit.
You really have to push your creativity when you are on a tight budget. Joint ventures is a creative idea I have used more than once. Web developers is another vendor I have used this strategy with.
Another tip to save money that I have learned over the course of using vendors is to have as much work done ahead of time. By doing this you are cutting down on the time and effort your vendor needs to use on your project. You can even ask your vendor questions, like, how could you decrease they're effort, reduce your overall costs, etc. Vendors will answer these for you, they want to work with you. Everyone has a budget to work within and vendors will be willing to help you stay within it, they are always interested in your business and will help you meet your goals.
Another idea is to create a template versus a one-off project, so that you can use it over and over again without incurring more costs each time. Let me explain that in a little detail.
Let's say, for example, you were looking to develop an E-book. Rather than asking the graphic designer to do a specific layout just for that E-book, why don't you hire the graphic designer to create a template for which you can use for any E-book that you generate?
That is a completely different approach, yet it will save you hundreds - if not thousands - of dollars in the long-run. Yet, it's pretty much the same amount of effort for the graphic designer. So that's another creative idea on how you can save a lot of money when working with vendors, and also building relationships with vendors.
In this article, I've outlined a few really quick and easy strategies that can help you build stronger relationships with your vendors and fulfillment companies while saving your money. Many more strategies will come to you once you really start thinking about it.
Ideas will come to you when you explore the possibilities of creativity!
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