A supplier that tells a potential buyer about its financial problems may accelerate its own demise. Potential buyers will shy away from the supplier while existing buyers will begin to qualify new sources. While our parents told us that honesty is the best policy, it is a policy that is sometimes buried deep in the back of a supplier’s playbook. It is not that the supplier’s personnel are inherently bad or dishonest. They are simply practicing self-preservation. What are some tools and techniques that buyers will use to qualify a supplier prior to doing business with them?
