PPB April 2015

QUESTION

Paul Gellman

Vice President

Markon Pen & Pencil, Inc.

UPIC: TEEGEE

Although the supplier should have

given the distributor more advance

warning about missing the deadline

date, the communication works both

ways. The distributor should have con-

tacted the supplier a few days before the

deadline shipping date and sought con-

firmation. In this case, a plan B could

have been enacted that might have satis-

fied the distributor and his client.

Michael Crooks

VP, U.S. Operations

Weepuls

UPIC: WEEPULS

You lost the sale and it didn’t go

unnoticed by the supplier—they lost a

sale also. When you consider how many

things must go right in the entire chain

of events that turns an order into deliv-

ered, decorated products, it’s a miracle

that anything ever gets done. The order

has to be entered correctly. Raw materi-

als have to be in stock. Machines have to

operate correctly. The right label has to

go on the right box. Shippers’ equipment

has to work properly.

Yet, hundreds of thousands of times

a day, a million little things go right and

we enjoy a million little miracles.

If you’ve worked with this supplier a

lot and it’s never happened before, then

A Distributor Asks:

My supplier promised an in-hands date and then called at the last

minute to say they weren’t going to make it. This meant my

client didn’t have the products they ordered for their event and I

lost the sale. I’ve worked with this supplier a lot and this has

never happened before. What should I have done?

FASHIONABLY LATE

APRIL 2015 •

PPB

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