How can I be a

customer of choice?

…and attract supplier

innovation.

YOUR COMPANY Your Power of Attraction THE SUPPLIER

To be the company of choice to

gain access to innovative

developments from suppliers,

you need to polish your

ATTRACTIVENESS.

Take a pen and

write down

what you can

do to make

your company

ATTRACTIVE!

Marketing has its 5P’s to

outline what a company has to

offer to clients

Marketing has its 5P’s to

outline what a company has to

offer to clients

Here are 5P’s for

Purchasing to define what a

company has to offer to

suppliers

If you compete head to head to access innovative developments from suppliers, you could simply benefit from being more supportive, accessible and

easier to work with. You could openly share on opportunities and risk on a regular basis. Trust and openness can often offer a real advantage in terms of

attractiveness. However, you need to continuously deliver on such expectations to stay ahead of the pack.

Pal Up

In some instances, a supplier could be particularly interested to access your

company, as they think you can turn their innovation into gold or fame. The suppliers

see you as a source of growth, as a great brand to work with or as a springboard to new customers. This will call to share your roadmaps and bring a spirit of ambition.

This is something you can build on as long as you understand what makes them tick. They will deliver an extra mile for you but

you need to be ready to help them develop or sell.

Promise

In some instances, you might not be the obvious customer of choice for a supplier. Here you might be able to position your company as

a lead user, as an unexpected customer of choice or as an attractive brand. For instance

you might bring them valuable technical challenges, relevant feedback or market

knowledge. This might also call for a more relaxed attitude to Intellectual Property

compared to their regular clients. If this is giving you a real advantage vis-à-vis

competition, this could be a very fruitful way forward.

Position

Here we keep the word partner for formal long term relationships. We all know that long term contract offer visibility to suppliers and can be really

attractive to them– also you might want to consider IP sharing deals that offer you some form of exclusivity without jeopardising all opportunities to your

supplier.

Partner

If a supplier holds the keys to access the innovation, You might need to pay something to access an innovation. This can be done upfront as co-investment or by offering the supplier an opportunity to be profitable over the long term. If such an innovation provides you an opportunity to be the first to market and

to gain a competitive advantage, this could be the right way forward

Pay

Now,

Find

Your

Own

Key

To

Unlock

Each

Situation

Pay Promise

Partner

Pal up

Position

Lead user

Knowledge

Shared IP

Long term contracts

Easy to work with

Openess and trust

Growth

Help with sales

Co-investment

High margin

Thank you!

Hervé Legenvre EIPM Executive MBA Director

If Value Creation sounds like an important topic to your company, participate in

our Survey and join our upcoming Webinars.

www.eipm.org