Building off of last weeks post on 5 questions to ask yourself about your product before you decide to choose your conveyor type, I wanted to sit down and give you my insight into how you choose your conveyor supplier. 

Now there are several blogs like this out there floating around on the web, and those authors make very good points; but in my opinion they go off topic by exploring how to choose the conveyor system itself, not the supplier. Many suppliers handle multiple types of conveyors so maybe I am off base here, but I dont think it is as imperative to choose your supplier based on their product as it is to choose a supplier that has experience with their product lines and who you can rely on.

We have had times when our vendors, who dont carry multiple conveyor lines, have called us because their customer needed something to which they did not have access. That is loyalty to their customer right there. Thats what you should be looking for.

I am confident that whoever you choose to provide you with a conveyor will be able to find you a gravity, roller, belt, or tabletop conveyor if that is what you truly need. The question then, isnt really whether or not they carry the product; it is whether or not you can trust them to get you the best solution, even if it isnt their premier product.

Im not talking about a situation where the vendor truly believes that their product is the best on the market, because each one of us has to believe in our product. Otherwise why would we sell it over the next thing? I can extoll the differences between FlexLink, MODU, and MultiFlex, or mK and Dorner all day long. Alright, maybe for about an hour After that I start to sound like a bad Billy Mays advertisement.

My point is that it is imperative to have a relationship with a vendor who is going to help you do what is best for your situation not their pocket book. You need a partner who will have your back.Will that partner bend over backwards to try to help you if a line is down, or tell you they’ll get to it because it went down at 4:45 pm on a Friday? Do they know the product well enough to troubleshoot your problems with you over the phone? Can they look at a picture, or better yet go snap a picture to share with you to help you figure out what you need?

How do you do that? How do you find that kind of vendor? I think it starts with being willing to have a dialogue with them. Build a relationship. Know them, as a salesperson and as a company.

Give me a shout, I promise you that if I can’t help you personally I probably know someone who can (that is the bonus of being in a family business after all), and I would love to have the opportunity to try.