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Vendors are Valuable Assets in Commercial Property Management

 •  3 min read

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Cameron Wilson

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Management companies work hand-in-hand with multiple vendors to keep tenants and owners happy

In commercial property management our vendors, or suppliers of necessary services, are one of our most valuable assets.

Happy vendors translate to more responsiveness, better pricing and placement at the top of their list when things do go wrong. Here are some tips for building and maintaining a solid vendor list that will make the management of your building(s) that much easier:

1. Keep them busy

Volume is key to attracting and keeping the interest of quality vendors. This is substantially easier in a larger firm, where you have several managers and numerous properties. When you can offer the prospect of income far beyond the immediate job, vendors will make your bids a priority , and will also be as aggressive as possible on their pricing.

2. Keep them honest

Complacency is your adversary when it comes to vendor management. While it is easier for a property manager to find one good vendor and use them exclusively, it is not the most advantageous arrangement for our clients. To keep your vendors “true,” a good property manager will regularly put their projects out to bid with multiple, and preferably new vendors. By doing so, you ensure that your vendors are always giving you the best possible price in order to keep your business.

3. Keep them separate
I never have multiple vendors meet to review a project at the same time. It is disrespectful, in my opinion, and makes them less willing to bid on the current and any future projects. Even if you are bidding a project out to several vendors, and even if they know the project is going out to multiple parties, just schedule their meetings a few minutes apart so they aren’t having to see their competition directly. It seems silly, and perhaps on some level it is, but at the end of the day you want your vendors to value their relationship with you, and making them bid in a multi-vendor environment devalues that relationship.

If you can manage the three items above, you are well on your way to developing a strong vendor base which will make your life as a commercial property manager that much easier.

 Cameron Wilson is director of brokerage and business development at Bradley Scott. He can be reached at (360) 479-6900 ext. 219.

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