In the construction industry, building good relationships with your suppliers is an excellent way to ensure that your company has staying power in the industry. When you can’t get along with suppliers, you’ll find it extremely challenging to establish a stable business workflow and it could cost you many projects. The importance of good relationships with your suppliers is amplified due to the current medical situation affecting the world. With more and more suppliers working at suboptimal capacity, many are unable to supply for everyone and will generally prioritize clients that they know will be around after the outbreak passes.

So in this brief but informative post, we’re going to be discussing how you can build better relationships with your construction suppliers.

Identify suppliers that provide unique or specialist materials

When it comes to common materials that most suppliers offer, it generally doesn’t matter who you work with. While it can affect the overall cost of the materials, common items are usually easy to find regardless of who you work with. The relationships that you absolutely do need to focus on are the ones with specialist suppliers. For example, if your construction company requires corrosion-resistant materials, then finding specialist Hastelloy C276 suppliers can be tricky. If you only know of two suppliers that can offer it with fast turnaround times, then working on those relationships will be a great investment of your time and effort.

Focus on becoming a valued customer

Suppliers tend to organize clients based on how valuable they are to their business. Here are the things you should be focusing on:

  • Always pay suppliers on time. Suppliers find it difficult to work with companies that don’t pay on time. If you can’t, make sure you contact them and discuss your issues. Communication is key here to ensure there are no misunderstandings when it comes to paying for your goods.
  • Don’t hesitate to share information with suppliers. If you keep in touch with suppliers then you can generally prepare them for future orders. You can also let them know if you’ve been expanding or if you’ll be needing more materials. This helps create a thriving business network that can lead you to get more jobs based on their recommendation.
  • Always give plenty of lead time. When ordering something from suppliers, try to make sure that you give them plenty of time to fulfill the order. If you only give them 24 hours, then it’s unlikely they can give you an accurate estimate or provide immediate services unless you’ve built a very healthy relationship. This not only reduces stress on their business, but it also gives you a better estimate of when you’ll receive your materials

As long as you focus on suppliers that have a great track record, you’ll find that it can be fairly easy to establish a good working relationship with other companies. It’ll ensure that your company can continue functioning even amidst disruptions to the economy, and it’ll offer peace of mind when dealing with large or complicated projects.