The Quest To Become A Strategic Supplier

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How You Can Become More Strategically Important To Your Customers

An Inspirational Story

A print company spotted a nationally advertised request for tenders in respect of the printing of inflight magazines for a major airline. Printing is an industry well known for its price sensitivity, just as airlines are known to be going through difficult times.

With all this in mind you would imagine that there is little any supplier could do to position itself as being strategic in responding to this tender. Surely, it would simply be a matter of lowest price wins. Read on, how this particular print company approached the tender offers inspiration or us all.

The print broker spotted the publicly advertised contract for the design and print of in-flight magazines for a large airline. So too did many others. However, this brokers proposal separated its solution from the pack by connecting an otherwise low cost commodity item with something that really mattered to the buyer.

In its response the broker showed the airline how it could produce the magazines using lighter paper and a number of other design features so as to greatly reduce their weight. It provided some rough calculations showing the impact that this could have on airline profitability.

Lower weight means lower fuel consumption for the airline. With thousands of passengers and hundreds of flights per day those savings were compelling. The print broker focused the buyer on the total cost of ownership or the total value of the solution in order to beat the competition.

The challenge we all face as sellers is to find ways to connect what we sell, with what the customer cares about most – their strategy and results.

The lesson is that if what you are selling is not strategically important, then find out what is and be creative in connecting your product, or solution to it. In other words if you want to matter, first find out what matters to the customer.