How to strengthen the relationships with your suppliers and customers

“This is not the time to ask what your suppliers and customers can do for you, but what you can do for your suppliers and customers.” This adapted John F. Kennedy quote perfectly summarizes the second webinar of the Venturelab web series: Nanci Govinder—a business coach, angel investor, and advisor to hi-tech startups—offered the participants guidance and inspiration to help strengthen relationships with customers and suppliers during COVID-19 and beyond. Govinder was joined by Dr. Ata Tuna Ciftlik, CEO and co-founder of Lunaphore, who explained how he and his team have supported suppliers and customers in the last few months. 

Right at the beginning of the webinar, Nanci Govinder made one thing clear: Business is not about products or features; business is about relationships. Building and strengthening relationships with suppliers and customers is, therefore, a strategic imperative. For many startups, suppliers are particularly critical in the beginning, as many services and processes are outsourced. Transforming the relationship with a supplier into a partnership can help ensure anything from timely delivery to being able to negotiate volume and payment terms.

Strengthening relationships with suppliers and customers during COVID-19
In the times of COVID-19, stress and anxiety are ever-present, and relationships become more important—with both suppliers and customers. Even though we are in uncharted territory with this pandemic, Govinder makes it clear that this is not the time for selling, demanding, and playing hardball. Now is the time to demonstrate leadership, reach out, and show empathy. It is the time to be human.

Here are three ways to strengthen your relationship with suppliers and customers:
 

• Show that you care: Send an encouraging email or social media post, make a phone call to thank them for their support, and show solidarity in these trying times. Remember that you are also someone’s supplier and customer: How would you like to be treated?
   
• Up your communication game: It is important to stay in touch with suppliers and customers: Make sure customer service is open and available, respond quickly, and, if possible, offer virtual coffee breaks or video meetings. Small tokens of appreciation can go a long way, and sending croissants, vouchers, or even care packages can make a big difference.
   
• Provide resources: By being flexible and creative, entrepreneurs can offer their time, services, equipment to help out suppliers and customers. Maybe employees can even help with a specific challenge. 

Lunaphore: Finding new opportunities
For the second part of the webinar, Nanci Govinder was joined by Dr. Ata Tuna Ciftlik, who is the CEO and co-founder of Lunaphore, a fast-growing medtech company that advances in-situ tissue analytics for cancer research and diagnostic purposes. Lunaphore was a Venture Kick winner in 2015, a Venture Leader in 2014, and a Venture Leader China in 2017, as well as one of the TOP 100 Swiss Startups for the last six consecutive years (2014-2019).

Ciftlik explained how he and his team at Lunaphore have been strengthening their relationships with suppliers and customers while weathering these uncertain times:

“As a startup, we have a short supply chain. If one supplier is out, our survival is at risk. For us, the key was to establish a two-way communication process: We checked up and talked to our suppliers to make sure that everything is okay. We were also able to temporarily renegotiate some of the terms. Finding common ground on new delivery times, volumes, and payment terms was critical and gave us the peace of mind that we will have enough supplies.

“We sell to labs, but many non-essential labs had to temporarily close, so we made sure that we let our customers know what we are still allowed to do and what we can offer, including troubleshooting or deliveries. We also called our key accounts to support them and help them alleviate any pain—by offering to do some assays in-house, for example.

“Furthermore, we conducted a survey to cut through the noise and really get a feel for what is happening in our industry. A big takeaway from the survey was that budgets are not so much of an issue, but the fact that labs cannot work is a big pain point. This information helped us understand the limiting factors and made it easier to find ways to support our customers. These are unusual circumstances, but by communicating and collaborating, we learned that people are very understanding.”



Do you want to learn more skills that help you become a successful entrepreneur? Check out our upcoming webinars: 

Perfect your market analysis online (30.4. 2020, 15:00-15:45) 

Develop a financial mitigation plan (5.5. 2020, 15:00-15:45) 

Grow your online presence (7.5.2020, 15:00-15:45) 

Make your PR writing stand out (11.5.2020, 15:00-15.45)