eder ist eine Agentur für Produktkommunikation und Experte für Marketing- und Vertriebsmedien.
eder ist eine Agentur für Produktkommunikation und Experte für Marketing- und Vertriebsmedien.

Real Value through Partners

Robert Laub ist Geschäftsführer der Agentur eder und Experte für Digital Twin und Online Produkt-Konfiguratoren.

Robert Laub

Managing Partner Agentur eder

“Real value doesn’t come from a supplier. It comes from a partner!”

Robert Laub, Managing Partner Agentur eder

Not long ago, I read the above statement on the website of a manufacturing conglomerate. On the face of it, their industry would seem to have little in common with our service-focused agency world.

But for weeks afterwards, those words kept coming to mind, urging me to reflect on what “supplier” or “partner” really means, particularly in the context of a business year dominated by coronavirus.

“Is a business relationship purely that of customer-supplier or more of a collaboration between partners?”

If there is anything positive to be taken from Covid-19 (or rather from the changes in the world that the pandemic has brought about), then it is the catalytic and subjectivist separation of virtually all areas of life into what is personally “important” and “unimportant” to us.

This stretches from our private lives, in which reduced contact with other people is leading us to re-evaluate friendships (or realise they were overvalued), right through to everyday business life and the question of whether a business relationship is purely that of customer-supplier or more of a collaboration between partners.

“No one wants to be just a supplier and, if asked, every customer will claim the collaboration is a partnership, as if it were almost self-evident.”

Let’s be honest: no one wants to be just a supplier and, if asked, every customer will claim the collaboration is a “partnership”, as if it were almost self-evident. Things look very different in reality, however. The principal issue here is not the problem of “providing a service” from a “supplier” perspective and the automatic allocation of roles this supposes. Instead, the collaboration needs to be examined from the customer’s viewpoint. Assuming the business relationship has come about purely for cost reasons, “supplier” would indeed be the correct term to use. Things get more complicated, though, when customers demand not just the “best price” but the proverbial “best value for money”, coupled with various often vaguely formulated tasks calling for almost supernatural levels of empathy: “innovation”, “support”, “optimisation”, “added value” and, of course, the universally popular “flexibility”.

We are not talking here about that age-old complaint – the price is so low that any additional soft skills requested cannot be provided, simply on grounds of cost. Rather, customers must ask themselves whether the collaboration is really based on price alone, meaning they are ultimately just seeking a “supplier”. Or, looking beyond the cost aspects, do they actually require other skills that cannot necessarily be set out in black and white when drawing up the job specification? This should be the point where the customer decides to find a “partner” for a collaboration shaped by open communication, idea-sharing, boldness, trust and mutual respect.

“This should be the point where the customer decides to find a “partner” for a collaboration shaped by open communication, idea-sharing, boldness, trust and mutual respect.”

During the course of the past business year, the coronavirus pandemic and the handling of its economic consequences have shown very clearly which customers are looking for partners with whom they can manage the crisis together – and which are approaching suppliers as a tool they can use to get through to the other side. Since the pandemic’s economic impact will continue to be felt far beyond 2021, opting for partnerships is in most instances the only way to overcome the challenges.

Ultimately, there is nothing wrong with using a supplier in the purest sense if the role is limited to exactly that (the supply of goods and services) and is also clearly communicated as such.

If, however, your sights are set on technically innovative solutions, support with complex problems and optimisation of quality, processes and costs – which together add real “value” – then suppliers should be treated as vital “partners”.

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