What does a person do when your chosen supplier of tempered and thermal panes, starts to bid against your company for commercial work? I have been able to build to the point I am allowed to purchase metal direct. Obviously they just got their last penny from this shop, aside from that, what does experience tell us?

Paul from reading this web site i understand you have a consultant business, i would expect you might have dealt with this previously. When bidding for commercial work, i have yet to experience anyone but the lowest bidder recieving the job.

The population for our market is maybe around 200,000, although this town is 30,000 people. Geographically speaking there is not enough work to support a shop staying local.

Hello Ralph,

You are right, yur vendor just received their last order, for now. You should give your orders to another,, as long as they are as good in quality and deliveries. Even if they are a couple of per cent more in cost, you'll still feel better. I would contact the other fabricators and let them know why you are switching, and encourage them to bring a route truck to your area. Additionally, since you are shopping for a new vendor, let them know what your most important needs are, service, price, lead time, depth of product line, and let them bid for your business. You may even come out with a better package than you have now!

On the other hand, as your business grows, you will be in the same position someday. You may want to enter a new market, carry a new product, quote a new customer. Someone will be loosing a customer if your bid is successful. Learn your lesson from this. Each new customer you earn, means someone else will be upset. If that someone else is a friend, or another good customer, you have to weight this consideration. Most often, the other person is a competitotor, and then, all is fair.

If your current temperer evenutally pulls out of this market and then comes back to you trying to be a vendor, don't be easy on them. Make them earn your business all-over again.

As the economy tightens, you may find this happening in other product lines. All levels of business have overhead to cover, and expanding sales reach is the first thing that most companies try.

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