In this fast moving world where there is a lot of completion in the market there is a need of managing buyer-seller relationship. A better relationship between the buyer and seller is advantageous for both. A good relationship between the buyer and seller especially in business to business organization help them to gain a competitive advantage in the market. A better understanding of buyer’s need and a good performance will help the seller gain buyer’s trust and loyalty.
In order to manage a good buyer-seller relationship the supplier need to take a one step further in building the relationship by offering lower prices to the buyer and asking them to order larger volume. Sometimes the buyer does not order a large quantity of product yet expect lower prices from the supplier, in such cases the supplier need to cooperate and come up with good offer which will be the first step towards the relationship building and gaining the trust of the buyer. In the beginning of the relationship the supplier need to show the skills and systems they have which leads them towards the competitive advantage.
By supplying a quality product at lowest price the supplier will then get a chance to further deal with the same buyer and then eventually with the passage of time the supplier will start getting big orders from the same buyers once they get into a good relationship. As the sales volume increases the manufacturing cost goes down due to mass production and hence the revenue of the sellers increases. This is the time when the supplier’s initiative in building the relationship with the buyers pays off. (Robert, Pg 180, 2008)
Having good communication between buyer and seller is also very important in managing buyer-seller relationships as the seller can keep the buyer well informed about the rewards they are getting by dealing with the suppliers which will give the buyer a sense of satisfaction and result in continuity of trust and loyalty between the buyer and seller.
Both the buyer and the seller need to set mutual goals and objectives so that they can get the competitive advantage. Setting mutual goals will ensure a long term relationship between the buyer and the seller as they both will be depending on each other. By delivering the best quality of goods the sellers gain the trust of the buyers and therefore get orders on permanent basis which will save the cost of spending too much on sales people for attracting many new customers all the time and start building a relationship with new customers from scratch which is not much profitable for the suppliers as they don’t get benefits in the beginning of the relationship.
Offering incentives to the customers helps retain good relationships. The seller should make sure that they respond to any complains immediately and get it fixed while the buyer should make sure that they give payments on time so that the suppliers will be motivated to deliver the order on time. In this way both the buyer and the seller can manage a good relationship among them and enjoy the benefits. (Robert, Pg 180, 2008)
REFERENCES
Robert M. Monczka, (2008), Purchasing and Supply Chain Management, Cengage Learning, Page 180