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Purchasing
1. Specify What You Want
1.1 Identify the most important features of the goods or services being supplied.
Decide what you want your purchase to do, and how well it should do it. Agree details with the potential supplier, and set them out in a specification. This might include:
- Size.
- Quality and appearance.
- Technical features.
- Delivery schedule.
1.2 Do not over-specify.
Unnecessary or unreasonable specifications are counterproductive.
- Costs will be increased.
- Suppliers will be irritated.
1.3 Agree everything in writing.
The specification and the terms you agree will form the basis of the purchase contract.
- Relationships often break down because of misunderstandings. Having a written contract avoids this. Verbal agreements are also binding in law, but are difficult to prove.
- Unless you propose your own terms, you may be agreeing to the supplier's terms.
- All the specific terms agreed under points 3.5 to 3.7 should be included in the written contract.
Faceless Customer
Bridget Biddell's toy-making business got off to a flying start. But, as it grew, late deliveries, substandard products and bungled paperwork began to cause problems. Her production manager was always calling the suppliers to complain about something or other.
When Bridget took up the local Business Link's offer of a free 'company health check', the business adviser suggested she should go and discuss the problems directly with the suppliers and meet everyone involved.
She did. She met the managers and salesmen she already knew. Then she met the machine operators who made the components, the warehousemen who packed the goods and the clerks who did the paperwork. With each person, she discussed the problems that individual could personally help to solve.
It worked. The machine operators took more care when a batch was 'for Bridget', as did the warehousemen and the clerks. They were all more than willing to help.
Faceless Customer
Bridget Biddell's toy-making business got off to a flying start. But, as it grew, late deliveries, substandard products and bungled paperwork began to cause problems. Her production manager was always calling the suppliers to complain about something or other.
When Bridget took up the local Business Link's offer of a free 'company health check', the business adviser suggested she should go and discuss the problems directly with the suppliers and meet everyone involved.
She did. She met the managers and salesmen she already knew. Then she met the machine operators who made the components, the warehousemen who packed the goods and the clerks who did the paperwork. With each person, she discussed the problems that individual could personally help to solve.
It worked. The machine operators took more care when a batch was 'for Bridget', as did the warehousemen and the clerks. They were all more than willing to help.
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Business Advice