Group Buying - Non-Financial

 

Etradealliance could organise group Buying Trips for the members.

Benefits of Group Buying

There are numerous benefits that Independents derive from being part of a Buying Group. In general terms these benefits can be categorized into financial benefits that go straight to the bottom line, and non-financial benefits that are harder to quantify but none the less provide real value to the members. Some of the benefits of membership are listed below: financial and non-financial.

Non-Financial

Forum of like business owners to share ideas and discuss solutions to common problems. Buying Groups regularly bring their Members together for various special events, meetings and trade shows. These functions provide industry specific information that assists the Independent in running their business. However, this industry specific information’s value is often dwarfed by the value of the exchange of ideas and the discussions surrounding common problems faced by the Members that occurs informally at these functions. www.etradealliance.com.au

The Independent without a Buying Group often must make major decisions about his/her business alone because few of his/her personal acquaintances understand what he or she is facing. It is hard to put a monetary value on being able to pick up the phone and talk to someone who understands your business issues, and has a vested interested in helping you succeed as a Member of the Buying Group.

Generation of a pool of potential purchasers if you decide to sell your business. For many Independents, the prospect of selling their business for what it is worth is very slim. Buying Groups not only can provide the required assistance to help in this process, they have a vested interest to ensure that the new business owner continues to be an active supporter of the group. Many times, it is another Member from the Buying Group that ends up purchasing the business and the Group can help facilitate this.

Annual meetings with the Supplier’s senior executives. Suppliers want the companies that sell their products to be successful at doing so. Most want to know what they can do so those same companies can sell even more of their products. Buying Group events held specifically to foster dialogue between Preferred Suppliers and the Members can accomplish this. Both Members and Suppliers benefit from the sharing of knowledge that can help improve both of their top and bottom lines. Senior Executives from the Preferred Suppliers can afford to take the time to meet with Members at a Buying Group function, but rarely could they afford the time to call on each one separately.

Affinity programs that generate real benefits. Many businesses belong to Associations like the Chamber of Commerce or Industry Association that offer Affinity programs to help with the cost of some expense items like telephone and group insurance. The nature of these programs is that most of the financial benefit accrues to the Association not the Independent business. A Buying Group sponsored Affinity program has all the financial benefits accruing to the Members through the Group. In addition, the Buying Group is a specialist in negotiating the best deal possible for their Members.

Centralized negotiating for major product categories improves results and frees the Independents time to focus on Customer Service. The task for an Independent of determining which Suppliers of key product lines are the best from an overall value proposition is daunting. With limited information and hundreds of potential Suppliers to evaluate, the decision making process can consume weeks of valuable time and often results in less than ideal outcomes. A Buying Group is able to survey all of their Members with regards to the experiences of dealing with a Supplier, have presentations from all key Suppliers vying for the Groups business, have a committee of “category expert” Members assist in the evaluation process, all lead by a Professional Manager who is an expert in negotiating to insure the process results in the best decision being made. Members can focus more time on growing their business, knowing that the products they sell are coming from the Suppliers that provide them with the best overall value.

Life time friends. The life of an Independent business owner can be a lonely one. Few neighbours and acquaintances understand or appreciate the time, commitment and resources required to make your business successful. In a Buying Group, all do. In many Buying Groups, the Members become like a fraternity or even a family; caring and supporting in times of need, fun loving and great to spend time with at other times. Often annual events are structured to encourage family participation.