Sourcing and Saving in Tough Times

April 8th, 2020

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to haunt businesses, most look for immediate cost reductions

 

Today’s post is from Dave Wenig is the Senior Vice President of Sales and Services at SafeSourcing Inc

In our personal lives, it’s difficult to focus on much more than COVID-19. The effects have sunk in for most of us here in North America and those effects have been severe. Students have been displaced to home-based learning, local governments are issuing varying orders to keep their citizens at home to enforce social distancing, so many have become unemployed, and businesses are reeling.

At SafeSourcing, we’re no different. We made the hard decision to temporarily switch from our offices to working virtual for all of our employees proactively before we were required to do so by government order. We did so out of an abundance of caution and in consideration of our safety and the safety of the community at large. At SafeSourcing, we fall into the non-essential category, but that does not mean that we must cease our operations. It simply means that we needed to adjust. For many of our customers, they are facing the dual challenge of adjusting to allow for the safety of their employees and keeping their doors open to the public. Our retail customers are mostly still open, and they are on the front lines by making sure our communities have access to the essential supplies that we all need to survive.

All businesses, whether they are officially deemed essential, are struggling. Many are facing challenges managing the operational expenses against challenges like changes in demand, temporary closures, and more. This can be seen in a variety of news sources. This can even be overheard on the street. Fortunately, COVID-19 hasn’t taken away the fact that it is spring. On one beautiful evening, I sat enjoying the weather at home and accidentally eavesdropped on one side of an interesting conversation. Well, it was interesting to me.

A father with his son was walking by my house while on the phone. His conversation was clearly related to COVID-19 and the challenges he is facing. He recounted the story of a large account that had recently asked all their vendors to reduce their costs by 10% and set that as the new price moving forward. He noted that this effort had found that account about five million in savings. On the surface, that might seem impressive, but it’s not. It’s just a small start.

If SafeSourcing saves customers almost 25% on average on the categories they source with us, then that means that particular account has left around 15% in savings on the table. Worse, many markets are down at the moment, so the savings they have captured might have been available had they asked for the corresponding price decrease anyway. Meanwhile, it’s probably safe to assume that based on this unknown account’s actions, they are in desperate need of as much cost reduction as they can achieve. It’s a safe assumption because most accounts are.

Yet, it’s all too easy to still look out and feel as though you are too busy dealing with the challenges caused by COVID-19 to take the time to work with SafeSourcing and do something to affect a positive change. It’s really not; working with SafeSourcing might just address a very critical cash challenge and would do so much more effectively than just asking for a discount.

Please stay safe and don’t be shy if you need assistance. We’re all in this together.

For more information, please contact SafeSourcing.

 

 

 

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