56
Knowing your supplier Understanding how you are perceived by your suppliers, in particular your key suppliers, is vital to establish the appropriate SRM strategy. The question in figure 2.9 seeks to understand how well customer organisations know their suppliers by asking if they know if they are regarded as a strategic customer. This feedback tells us several things. Firstly, 42% of buy side organisations are regarded as a strategic customer by less than half of their key suppliers . Also, a relatively high proportion (16%) don’t know.
Figure 2.9. Proportion of key suppliers regarding your company as a strategic customer – buy side
1
22%
21%
21%
21%
16%
76 100%
51 75%
26 50%
0 25%
DON'T KNOW
Figure 2.10. Proportion of SRM programme with strategic customers – sell side
Looking at sell side feedback, it is evident that SRM programmes are not always aligned between customers and suppliers that regard each other as strategic. Over 25%of sell side respond- ents report being engaged in SRM programmes with customers whom they do not regard as strategic. The relatively high proportion of don’t knows also suggests that it’s not only the buy side that aren’t entirely sure about the strategic nature of their rela- tionships.
33%
28%
23%
YES
NO
DON'T KNOW
The chart above reveals the strategic mismatch between customers and suppliers that can quite frequently occur when supplier segmentation doesn’t take in to account how the customer is perceived by the supplier. Seeking a strategic relation- ship with a supplier that doesn’t regard you as strategic is without doubt a challenge. However, it is inevitable that some key strategic suppliers will not regard the customer as in any way strategic. This is where other factors come into play, such as a review of long term sourcing strategy and the development of a customer of choice strategy to develop some degree of mutuality.
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