Tales Of A Fourth Generation Textile Executive: Maximizing The Vendor/Quilt Shop Partnership

This week the sale force will be receiving their brand new  July samples. Of course, they will be anxious to get on the road to see customers before too late in the summer when things tend to slow down. With this in mind, I want to offer up some general guidelines and suggestions about how to make the best of our customer and vendor partnership, as I like to call it.

APPOINTMENT MATTERS:

• All sales calls must begin with an appointment.  This is usually created when the rep contacts the shop owner by email, phone or in person.
• Please understand that when reps are making appointments that they are juggling several appointments at the same time in order to be efficient with travel. It is greatly appreciated when you can be flexible to accommodate the rep when he/she will in fact be in your area.

• If you are contacted about an appointment and you know you won’t be purchasing any fabric, it is best if you just tell the rep that you will see them the next time they pass through.
• If you have to cancel for any reason, please try your hardest to make contact with your rep by email, phone and/or text as soon as possible. No one likes getting stood up!  This is really a worst case scenario for a rep because it hits them hard in the wallets since they are getting paid based on sales and are obligated to cover all their own expenses.  The rep will appreciate your respect and understanding of the challenges of their job as road warriors.
• If for some reason the sales rep has to cancel on you, he/she will try to do this in as timely a fashion as possible so as not to disrupt your schedule.
• Please do your best to work through the appointment with your rep in a timely fashion.  At the same time, if you have a limited time to work with your rep, please let him/her know immediately so that he/she can accommodate your schedule and expedite the call.
• Long story short, good communication with your rep about your appointment is a big plus for everyone.

CREDIT MATTERS:

• Like all vendors in our industry, we truly appreciate when our customers stay up to date with their payments as this helps to make everything run a lot smoother for them, their business and for us and our business.

• Please understand that your credit line will be reviewed based on all of your business with the Jaftex Companies.  So if you are late with Studioe, that will affect your Blank & Henry Glass orders.
• Unfortunately, when credit becomes an issue, it can create all kinds of delays and undue effects with your account.  For example, a customer had an order that was to ship in July for Row by Row, but unfortunately the customer was not up to date on payments and was in fact 60 days past due.  Therefore, we were forced to hold up the Row by Row order which caused problems for the store’s Row by Row program. Of course, it was not our intention to do any harm to the customer, but by not paying, our hands were tied and we couldn’t make more shipments until the account was made current.
• Please help our credit team by making yourself accessible to them by phone and/or email.  Also, let them know what is the best way and time to reach you so as to avoid a game of chase.  Moreover, please return calls as quickly as possible.  When our credit managers have to call day after day and week after week with no luck and no return call, we become very concerned.  If you want to continue with the partnership with our companies, you need to try not make payment challenging to come by.  If you put yourself in our shoes, you can understand the challenges we face.
• On the other hand, if you have credit issues and communicate with our managers, that definitely helps to keep the partnership alive and healthy. Our managers are instructed to try to work with you as best they can as we do understand that cash flow issues do arise.

• If you know that your credit is not in good shape, please opt to not take an appointment with your rep and place new orders, but rather, please make an effort to get your account up to date instead.  There are always more opportunities to see the rep down the road when your finances improve. Since we sell so far in advance, missing one cycle will not preclude you from buying a collection.

CANCELLATIONS:

• Cancellations of orders are a fact of life, but we of course like to try to keep this to a minimum.  As a shop owner, you too can relate to how we feel when an order is cancelled as you do experience cancellations of orders or similarly returns.
• If for some reason we decide not to bring a line to market that you ordered, we, or your sales rep, will make an effort to advise you of this.
• Some cancels hurt worse than others.  For example, our sales reps recently started carrying the Stof line from Denmark.  These goods were specifically purchased based on orders that we received from our valued customers.  In other words, we imported this just for you and it cost us a lot more than our own lines do and will be more painful to closeout.  That being said, we are taking a being hit on these special order type items. Another line that would fit in to this category would be the 3 Wishes line that our reps offer.  Once again, these goods are imported based on your preorder, so please consider that before placing an order of this sort.
• Cancellations of the lines that we regularly produce are not as harmful to our business because we are actively selling these lines.  So the damage isn’t as bad.  In any case, thank you for ordering within your means and trying to make every effort not to cancel orders unless truly necessary.

In closing, I wanted to thank you for being a loyal customer.  I greatly value our customers and truly appreciate every effort made to maintain a good partnership with our companies.  Thanks for reading through this blog and thank you for taking the time to hear things from the other side. I would be interested in hearing your suggestions on how we can improve the partnership from our end as we are always seeking to do better. Thank you in advance.

Have a great week and please continue to enjoy the summer!

Scott