How to Find Out Who a Company Buys From

How do you find out who a company buys from?

You find out who a manufacturer buys from by asking its buyer on a call, after the pitch, how often the plant reviews the current arrangement, and buyers answer that question with the supplier's name attached. A buyer explains a review cycle by describing the deal, and the description carries the name, the length of the agreement and the month they last looked at alternatives.

Paid routes exist. Customs data services sell US import records that tie an importer to its overseas shippers, and a public company sometimes names a key supplier in its annual report. Both miss the regional job shop that machines the part your prospect buys each month, and a job shop owner wants that local competitor named first. The buyer at the plant knows the name and will say it to a caller who earns the answer.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's Regulation S-K lets a smaller public company describe its business with the names of its principal suppliers (opens in a new tab) (17 CFR 229.101(h)(4)(v)), to the extent they matter to the business. A prospect that files with the SEC may hand you that list for free. A private plant files nothing, so the buyer on the phone stays your best source.

What question makes a buyer name their current supplier?

"You already have a solution, but do you revisit this annually?" is the question our salespeople use to make a buyer name a current supplier, because it asks about the buyer's own process and leaves the name for the buyer to offer. The coach who listens to our live calls played a recording of a call the coach made at a September training. The buyer had said they were covered. The coach asked about an annual review, the buyer started explaining how they buy, and the call ran on to a meeting ask.

Buyers hear a cold "who do you buy from?" as a competitor fishing for a customer list, and they end those calls. Two closed follow-ups keep control once the buyer is talking: do you add a second source at review time, or replace the first? Is the review tied to your budget year or to the contract date? Our coach trains salespeople to ask closed questions one at a time and to stop talking after each.

When in a cold call should a salesperson ask about the incumbent supplier?

A salesperson should ask about the incumbent supplier after the buyer has heard the full pitch, because our call rules mark no account as nurture or not interested until the pitch is done. A buyer with ten seconds to spare has no reason to name anyone. Our salespeople decline those ten seconds, log the call as connect incomplete and dial again in three to five days.

Before a salesperson marks any account not interested, they ask one more question: would a callback in three to six months make sense? Answers such as "budget is set for six months" or "we replaced them last year" move the account to nurture with a date beside it. Clients can review the recordings, so the attempt has to be audible on the tape. An account with a named supplier and a review month gives your salesperson a reason to call back and a date to do it, which a fresh contact on a purchased list cannot match.

What should a salesperson log when a buyer names a supplier?

A salesperson should log four things when a buyer names a supplier: the supplier's name, how long the arrangement has run, the month the buyer reviews it, and the buyer's own words for why the plant stays. The review month sets the callback, which our note on sorting a we-already-have-a-supplier account places two months ahead of the review. The buyer's words go in as spoken, because a plant that stays for delivery and a plant that stays for price open different conversations a year later.

At most plants the engineer who specifies the part knows the supplier and purchasing holds the agreement, so the referral matters as much as the name. Our salespeople log a referral when the buyer gives a specific person; "talk to someone in sales" logs as nothing. The referred contact goes into the dialer with a note on who sent them, and the salesperson calls that person with the engineer's name in the first sentence.

How many supplier answers does it take to map a market?

A market map takes a run of repeated supplier answers, and our outbound advisor treats eleven conversations in a row that end the same way as a finding worth reporting to the client, even in a week with no meetings booked. The incumbent column on the dashboard that comes with every appointment setting engagement counts supplier names across the month. Two names holding most of your list tells you where your opener has to land: a reason a buyer would add you as a second source to one of those two.

On one program the column filled with supplier relationships older than thirty years, held by companies older than our client's founder. The column showed that market was closed to cold calls, and we told the client so. Job shops sit at the other end. A named incumbent lets a job shop price its first quote against a known competitor, and the stages after that quote are in our note on a machine shop's funnel from RFQ to PO.

Three questions to take to your own call data

Of last month's conversations that mentioned a current supplier, how many carry that supplier's name in the call notes?
Does each named supplier have a review month and a callback date beside it, set two months ahead of the review?
Name the two suppliers that hold the most accounts on your list: does your opener give a buyer a reason to add you as a second source?

Which suppliers hold your target accounts, and how to find out in one call