What are the perfect chemical suppliers?

 In the eyes of buyers, what is the perfect chemical suppliers like?

In recent years, the UK's railway, public utilities and construction industries have become stronger and stronger. The launch of major projects such as HS2 and the world's largest offshore wind farm have created opportunities for suppliers.

It can be said that the perfect chemical suppliers is able to meet the needs of buyers, but this is not the case.

Here, let's take a look at the five qualities that we think buyers want from the perfect chemical suppliers.

1. Keep up with the industry standard

Ultimately, buyers need to know that suppliers do not add additional risk to their organization's risk profile. The main way to ensure this is to ensure that the supplier runs in a compatible way. In Achilles, each of our communities works on relevant industry standards, but they tend to center around the same area, such as ensuring suppliers comply with modern slavery laws, having a good health and safety record and a clear position on corporate social responsibility.

In fact, a study commissioned by Achilles found that when dealing with SME suppliers, buyers are most concerned about ensuring that they comply with the latest procurement standards and regulations.

Buyers tend to be particularly wary of small contractors' ability to comply with the latest laws, so it is crucial for suppliers to prove that they are doing well in this area.

2. Keep up-to-date information

Secondly, in the buyer's view, a perfect supplier should always ensure that its records are up to date.

Whether it's about insurance certificates, financial performance, health and safety, environmental policies or completed training courses, enterprises need to ensure that all information is relevant and updated regularly.

This not only makes it easier for suppliers to master their policies and documents, but also helps buyers make better decisions.

Achilles collects information about relevant industries in various fields during the prequalification questionnaire survey stage, which is a prerequisite for joining our community and requiring suppliers to update regularly, at least every year, to further ensure that these data are up-to-date and that buyers like things very much.

3. Strive for continuous improvement

For those suppliers who have been audited by Achilles, the score (which can be in the form of pass / fail or digital depending on the community) will show their performance and show it to the buyer together with the audit report.

Prove to the buyer that your organization is committed to continuous improvement through learning from the audit results and achieving better audit scores than last year, and show the buyer that your organization is constantly meeting the rising buyer standards. You may not always be perfect, but the action plan to make sure you have where you need it will go a long way.

4. Show innovation

Innovation is a key trend in the current supply chain, and buyers want to see signs of this from the suppliers they work with, as it may give your customers an advantage.

The Achilles prequalification questionnaire includes a special "supplier profile" section where companies can show their qualifications, give them the opportunity to show off their achievements and anything unusual, and they may work in internal or external organizations.

Buyers want their suppliers to be ahead of the game, always looking for a better self, while maintaining compliance. Therefore, for contractors, it is important to remember that buyers will look for signs of innovation, but they will also look for compliant suppliers, so these two factors need to exist at the same time.

5. Proactive attitude

Last but not least, a perfect supplier should have a positive attitude.

Join the Achilles community to show buyers that suppliers are serious to meet the requirements of buyers and the industry.

However, just joining is not enough. Remember to keep in touch with customers outside the Achilles platform, and your own marketing team or person in charge of marketing drives your organization to success. You can do these things on their company websites, social media, exhibitions and email signatures - let your creativity go.