Do you tell suppliers they lost the bid?

Stirling · Aug 22, 2022

pricing is wild these days. I feel we are in the bend over and just take it mood
In saying that…
What are your thought on telling company’s they lost the bid?

I’ve had some talks with salesmen lately asking where I’ve been/how’s business. Nice people. I like them. But I’ve been honest and tell them it’s a continuing slow growth which leads them to ask why my needs have been less from them. I’m honest. You keep overbidding. Do better.

In saying this…

What’s your thoughts on replying to material quote/bid that missed?
“Sorry to inform you but we have chosen another supplyer for ——— reason”

It seems dicky. Like haggling at a garage sale. But then again… sure does feel like some opportunistic pricing lately tho…
Give them a chance to sharpen their pencils again?

What do you all feel about this kid of conduct?

eKretz · Aug 23, 2022

No. I've never done that. I will let them know if they call and ask; otherwise not.

DanASM · Aug 23, 2022

It takes too long to respond to everyone who is quoting work. Purchasing agents are very busy people and have tasks to do every day. There job is to get companies to make them parts at a reasonable price and delivery. Once they award jobs to vendors they then move on to the next task.

Responding to everyone who didnt get the job would be too time consuming and take them away from their duties.

If you call and get someone on the phone, I am sure you can get a reason why you havent been getting jobs as they are already on the phone with you.

If 10 companies bid on a job and only 1 gets it, how long would it take to email the other 9 and tell them they did not get the job? multiply that by 10s-100s of jobs daily/weekly. It would prevent them from doing their job very well.

If you did not get the job, then its 90% of the time because your price was too high. The other 10% is mostly for lead times. Companies will pay more if they have to, but not if they dont.

CatMan · Aug 23, 2022

I never let a supplier know they didn't get the bid, unless they ask.

And I seldom go back to a supplier and ask for a better bid. I expect the best bid first. No one has time to go round and round.

The only time I do go back and ask a supplier to do better is if they're not bidding against anybody. Sometimes they know they don't have competition, sometimes they don't.

Labrat · Aug 23, 2022

eKretz said:
No. I've never done that. I will let them know if they call and ask; otherwise not.

CatMan said:
I expect the best bid first. No one has time to go round and round.

I do the same. And I understand that is standard practice everywhere.

No one wants to deal with a haggler. You may save a buck when you start that, but not in the long run. I haven't met a shop that is making obscene profits yet, so where is the money going to come from? Then inevitably you are going to lose that money in ways that doesn't show up on the spreadsheet.

eKretz · Aug 23, 2022

When you're working with the same companies over and over you get to know the sales guys fairly well (unless you're a cyborg?) so they generally will try to do the best they can for you and keep that steady relationship going. Every now and then you might get a new guy, and he may ask for a little advice or what have you. I will generally try to be helpful to those guys.

If a place is routinely way higher than another, they may still get the order because I take into account other things also - are they routinely and consistently on time or even early with deliveries? Is the quality better than the other guy? Are they local so I can finagle a free delivery since they're already nearby while out and about? If I need a rushed burnout TODAY, can I get it? That kind of thing is worth paying a little extra for, even on other jobs. Etc.

Fish On · Aug 23, 2022

Most of the metal company sales guys will follow up in a day or so to see how they did on the quote. I tell them that so and so had the best quote, so material is on the way from them. Occasionally we'll get into specifics, often not.

Only time I'll ever ask a company to match/beat another is if there's an availability or other non price issue with the lowest bid - low bid is 1.5 weeks out, can the tomorrow delivery guy meet that price? Or, low bid guy doesn't stock one item on the rfq, etc.

david n · Aug 23, 2022

I usually get prices from at least 3 vendors(material)..................every once in a while I get asked if they came in first and I tell 'em they need a sharper pencil next time.

Funny though............lately I've been gettin' asked more and more "where do we need to be?"..............I just tell 'em they can have another shot at it on my next RFQ...........places are slowin' a bit 'round here. Local trucker says they are picking up at EMJ once a week, down from 5 days a week a few months ago...................

escapethewrmhole · Aug 25, 2022

Stirling said:
pricing is wild these days. I feel we are in the bend over and just take it mood
In saying that…
What are your thought on telling company’s they lost the bid?

I’ve had some talks with salesmen lately asking where I’ve been/how’s business. Nice people. I like them. But I’ve been honest and tell them it’s a continuing slow growth which leads them to ask why my needs have been less from them. I’m honest. You keep overbidding. Do better.

In saying this…

What’s your thoughts on replying to material quote/bid that missed?
“Sorry to inform you but we have chosen another supplyer for ——— reason”

It seems dicky. Like haggling at a garage sale. But then again… sure does feel like some opportunistic pricing lately tho…
Give them a chance to sharpen their pencils again?

What do you all feel about this kid of conduct?

If they ask, I'll tell them. If they don't I don't.

jccaclimber · Aug 31, 2022

I'm in a slightly different seat, but I tend to give feedback when:
1. Someone specifically asks for it.
2. It's something I think they can change, and that I would give them more business if they changed it. For example, if supplier B has better prices than supplier A, but their lead time is always barely enough longer that I can't make it work, or they routinely are missing one item that makes it so that I can get full order elsewhere vs. having to multi-source if I use them. At that point I'll either state and highlight the requirement in the next RFQ, or suggest "Hey, if you can do X it'll make me more likely to buy from you".

You'll notice that "You're straight up too expensive" isn't on my list of example that I'll volunteer without them asking.

jscpm · Sep 6, 2022

Yes I do. After I win a contract I email all my competitor that lost. The content of the email is: "Nyah nyah, nyah nyah".

DouglasJRizzo · Sep 6, 2022

Stirling said:
pricing is wild these days. I feel we are in the bend over and just take it mood
In saying that…
What are your thought on telling company’s they lost the bid?

I’ve had some talks with salesmen lately asking where I’ve been/how’s business. Nice people. I like them. But I’ve been honest and tell them it’s a continuing slow growth which leads them to ask why my needs have been less from them. I’m honest. You keep overbidding. Do better.

In saying this…

What’s your thoughts on replying to material quote/bid that missed?
“Sorry to inform you but we have chosen another supplyer for ——— reason”

It seems dicky. Like haggling at a garage sale. But then again… sure does feel like some opportunistic pricing lately tho…
Give them a chance to sharpen their pencils again?

What do you all feel about this kid of conduct?

If it's a supplier that is normally very competitive, I will call them and talk to them. I have vendors that I've worked with for years, and if a particular job is out of line, I'll call. Sometimes they see things I don't.

latheman78 · Sep 6, 2022

I only respond if asked, most of mine is just ordering material. If it is for machined products and outside services I think it is the right thing to do to respond to an inquiry if someone questions what a job went for. It could be the prospective vendor needs an education. The last guy I worked for would get all excited when huge quantity quotes would come across his desk for simple small screw machine parts. First he had no aptitude to learn machining, albeit being a great salesman, and never been in the same zip code as machines I had been around in the distant past. It was rinse, repeat when these jobs came up for quote, drove me insane. We could not even bid 3x what the winning bid was and make money with our machines.

EmanuelGoldstein · Sep 6, 2022

latheman78 said:
I only respond if asked, most of mine is just ordering material.

If it's just ordering material or whatever, no big thing but if it's for a time-consuming bid, I think it's polite to at least send a "thank you for your quote, we are ________ (waiting for the job, going broke, quitting the business, giving it to someone who knows what they are doing, fill in the blank) and we'll ______________ (get back to you later, keep it on file, inform you if we get the job, tell you to go suck eggs grandma, whatever)".

It just seems polite, if I spend a bunch of time quoting something complicated I'd at least like to know they looked at it.

SND · Sep 6, 2022

jscpm said:
Yes I do. After I win a contract I email all my competitor that lost. The content of the email is: "Nyah nyah, nyah nyah".

Do they reply with " Congrats on being the lowest bidder! " ?

BarnFab · Dec 30, 2022

I let them know for the simple reason that when i ask for quotes I hate it when people don't get back to me so I think it is only fair to get back to them.

Sure some don't care but it doesn't take that long it impacts my world and I find it helps establish better supplier relationships.

Peter Colman · Friday at 6:11 PM

I:have been both buyer and seller in this situation, when selling, we work out the cost and then the price we want to charge, when buying we want a good price but also accurate components and delivery promises. The seller wants the best price without driving the customer to explore the market.
We want to develop a relationship between the buyer and seller based on trust. Feedback from the customer is an important part of this relationship.
To give you an example, I was selling fasteners to a large American owned company in the UK. The buyer asked me to look at hundreds of other machined components that they were sourcing in the uk from lots of suppliers, I was given the prices that were being paid. All they wanted from me was to find reasonable prices and organise and control supply so they could reduce the numbers of suppliers. It’s not always about price.

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Do you tell suppliers they lost the bid?

Stirling

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eKretz

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DanASM

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CatMan

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Labrat

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eKretz

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Fish On

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david n

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escapethewrmhole

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jccaclimber

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jscpm

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DouglasJRizzo

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latheman78

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EmanuelGoldstein

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SND

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BarnFab

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Peter Colman

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