Why You Should Work Only With a Few Vendors

Finding and working with a good quality vendor is one of the most important aspects of your liquidation business. Though you may not realize it yet, the vendors supplying you with quality products will help your business grow into a success that you never thought possible.

However, before you start looking for these suppliers, it is crucial that you find out about the qualities of an expert vendor, the benefits of hiring just a few, and the suppliers that you need to stay far away from.

The Qualities in a Good Vendor

You will find thousands of so-called good suppliers who will be ready to offer you their merchandise and products. Unfortunately, not all of these vendors will keep their promise, which is why you need to look for the following qualities.

Transparent and Ethical

Vendors who have been in the business for a long time and have ample experience will always want to keep their relationship with clients ethical and lawful. These suppliers won’t try to convince you to go through unlawful means to get more money. Instead, they will spend plenty of time and make sure that everything is done in the right manner.

Attentive and Focused

If you want to have a long-term relationship with the vendor that you have hired, make sure that you look for someone who actually takes a genuine interest in your liquidation business. Such a professional individual will always be eager to listen to you and ask relevant questions regarding your business and the way you work. In addition, they will always take their time to understand your problems and requirements so that they can provide you with the best possible products.

Takes Responsibility

One of the ways in which you can spot a good vendor from a lot of unprofessional ones is to notice whether they take responsibility for their actions or not. No matter how perfect your provider is, they will make mistakes because that is only natural. However, when a mistake or slight error has been made, the important thing that they should do is to take responsibility for their actions and hold themselves accountable instead of pinning everything on you.

Recovers Quickly

Another quality of a good vendor is the ability to get back on their feet once a mistake has been made. After they have taken responsibility for their actions, they shouldn’t sulk or think about it for days on end.

Instead, they should talk to you and think about the best actions that they can take to avoid such issues in the future. Because things are bound to go wrong at one point, your supplier must be able to recover quickly and start providing you with top notch merchandise and branded items.

Provides Client Support Service

Since you’ll be buying wholesale liquidation products, you will be the supplier’s client or customer. What this means is that the provider needs to make sure that they are offering you the best client support services round the clock.

As a result, you can ask them things about their products at any time or day. On the other hand, if a supplier is not returning your calls and doesn’t provide such services, move in the other direction as they are only interested in earning a quick buck.

Delivers on Time

You are running a liquidation business, which means that you must look for and hire a supplier who delivers things on time. Though it may take you some time to find reliable vendors who mostly deliver shipments in a timely manner, you shouldn’t make the mistake of hiring someone who doesn’t provide you with merchandise when you need it the most. One of the best ways to find such a supplier is to ask people who have actually used their services in the past.

Provides Early Warning

As with mistakes and small errors, delays and issues are sometimes inevitable, even if the vendor has a near perfect track record. However, if the supplier thinks that there is going to be a delay in the shipment or that they are going to miss a deadline, they should inform you of this beforehand so that you can prepare accordingly. A supplier who keeps you in the dark cannot be trusted because they will cause you many clients.

Reasonable Prices

Finally, along with other vital qualities, the most important is that the vendor should be able to provide you with reasonable and affordable prices. Moreover, you will find that most of the professional suppliers of wholesale liquidation products offer discounts and promotions for clients who have been in business with them for a long time. So look for these providers and you’ll begin to make huge profits.

The Benefits of a Few Vendors

A common misconception about the liquidation industry is that the more vendors there are, the better it is for your business. Though having more suppliers means that you can turn to others when one is acting unprofessionally or is delaying your processes, you must only keep a few vendors.

If you have a large number of vendors that you buy your merchandise from, your chances of getting confused are much higher. When you have multiple vendors to keep track of, you will get overwhelmed and you won’t be able to nurture a relationship with any of them. Here are a couple of other benefits of having a few vendors.

Minimize the Risks of Serious Issues

Because you will be dealing with only a few vendors at a time, you will be able to build good, strong, and long relationships with them. This, as a result, will enable you to minimize the chances of issues and mishaps that every liquidation business owner is bound to encounter while working with a larger number of suppliers.

Moreover, because of the lower number of vendors, you won’t need to build separate platforms for each of them. Therefore, you will be able to save a lot of time and energy.

Get New Features Quicker

When dealing with a small number of vendors, you will be able to keep track of them and get the new features a lot sooner as compared to if you would opt for more suppliers. Once again, this will only be possible because you’ll be able to communicate with your providers a lot more efficiently. You’ll also be able to ask them to give you any features that they may have on the products and merchandise that they provide you with.

Save Time and Energy

One of the biggest benefits of working with only a few vendors is saving a lot of time, money, and energy. This is advantageous because you will have more time to concentrate on other aspects of your business and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

When you have many vendors who supply you with merchandise, you won’t only have to track and check each of the shipments provided to you. You will also have to spend time in communicating with them. Therefore, the best thing that you can do is invest some time and effort in comparing the vendors you believe can benefit you and only hire the ones who you think will provide you with the best products.

Enhanced Reliability

If you have a chain of vendors that are providing you with wholesale liquidation merchandise, you will notice that no one takes responsibility and everyone points a finger at the suppliers. However, when you have only a few providers, they won’t be able to blame mishaps on each other. Instead, they will take responsibility of their own actions. This will also enable you to pinpoint the vendors causing major issues, allowing you to resolve the problems or maybe re-think continuing a relationship with them.

Easier Management

With only a small bunch of vendors to follow, you don’t have to record multiple contacts, phone numbers, and invoices. The truth is that it is simply a lot easier with just a few suppliers. Period. However, once again, you must ensure that you look for the best vendors for this case because if you choose suppliers randomly and they end up giving low quality merchandise, you’ll be in a lot of trouble.

Faster Understanding

Because your vendors will understand your business and provide you with services and merchandise accordingly, it will be a lot easier and quicker for you to communicate with them and explain your business thoroughly. On the contrary, choosing more than three to five vendors will force you to spend more time and energy in this phase.

Though you may think that having more vendors is the best thing for your business, this is simply not true. However, even if you stick to a limited number of vendors, you must be careful while selecting the right supplier for the job. Investigate each potential provider to ensure that no one tricks you out of your money.

To further ensure that you know who to trust, the following section highlights the types of vendors you should stay a mile away from.

Vendors You Need to Stay Away From

Now that you know the qualities of a good vendor, it is also important that you to find out about the bad vendors who you need to stay away from. So, for your convenience, here are a few things that you must steer clear of.

Unreliable

Yes, your vendors are allowed to make a few mistakes here and there, but if their shipments start arriving late consistently or are otherwise damaged, it will be a good idea to consider finding someone new. Once again, remember that vendors will experience temporary difficulties as a result of starting a new product line, shipping procedure or training programs so delays and issues in a couple of months is quite normal within reason.

Lack of Communication

Communication is the key to any good relationship. Therefore, if you are dealing with a vendor who doesn’t reply to your emails and doesn’t answer your calls, it is time to call it quits. These suppliers will never be able to provide you with the best possible merchandise because they will simply not pay attention to you, your business, and your requirements.

In fact, you will find that a lot of inexperienced vendors who provide wholesale liquidation products are like this, so you need to look for those who do have ample experience.

Extra Sales and Shipment Costs

One reason why you are probably starting a liquidation business is because you’re able to find quality or slightly damaged products for a lower price and sell them for profit. Therefore, if one of your vendors has suddenly started to charge extra sales and shipment costs, it is time for you seriously start considering alternatives. Though you should speak to the vendor so that you don’t misunderstand things, you should get rid of anyone who tries to justify the cost by using excuses.

Lack of Competitiveness

The liquidation industry is always changing and if you have a vendor who doesn’t alter their techniques and methods according to what’s new, you should think about letting them go. You can also try pointing out the issues to your current suppliers and ask them for an explanation. However, if they don’t have the answers that you are looking for, wrap things up and move ahead.

The Bottom Line

 When you start a liquidation business, most of your time will be taken up by finding and striking a deal with the vendors or suppliers. However, to be able to have a good name in the industry and your clients, you must research extensively about the suppliers available to you and not make a hasty decision.

Don’t just look for these vendors online, but also try asking a few of your friends, family and colleagues who are still in the same industry as you because they may be able to give you the names of a few good suppliers.

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