Strengthening Relationships with Key Business Partners

Challenge

During a barrage of supply chain challenges—strained global dynamics, component shortages, increased costs, geopolitical uncertainties, and disruptive events like facility fires, tariffs, and the Suez Canal blockage—supplier relationships became a vital factor in the downstream success of the business. The existing programs dealt with a serious lack of engagement and barriers to dissemination. While the relationships were historically good, there was a strong need to foster greater relationships to strengthen the supply chain and maintain the company’s leadership in the manufacturing space.

Solution

Our strategic communication program led this transformation through adversity:

• Annual partner events navigated strategic alignment and collaboration, seamlessly transitioning to virtual events during the pandemic.

• Relationship Quality Assessments became the compass, establishing trust benchmarks, and showcasing significant improvement post-events.

• Relationship case studies strategically highlighted downstream benefits, offering customers a comprehensive view amid supply chain challenges.

• Targeted email programs and regular video updates transformed communication, ensuring transparency along with partner and customer-friendly engagement in the face of increasing challenges.

• Implementation of an internal platform facilitated precise audience targeting, with a dedicated dashboard for continuous improvement.

Results

This work underscored the shift from good to great relationships:

• Consistent yearly increase in relationship quality among key partners, notably accentuated by the partner events.

• Increased perception as a growth partner. This metric surged from 4.25 to 4.92 on a 5-point scale over three years.

• Improved trust in adapting to market dynamics. This metric rose from 4.44 to 4.84 on a 5-point scale, a crucial aspect amid turbulent times.

• Business relationship improvement. This metric improved from 4.16 to 4.76 on a 5-point scale, showcasing tangible progress amid multifaceted challenges.

• 93% growth in program audience year over year. Achieved remarkable growth, in just 12 months.

• Achieved 60%+ open rates on program emails. This mark was 2x greater than our benchmark of 30%.

• Content output increased 2x year over year. Distribution went from 68 emails in year one to 271 distributed in year three.

Through strategic communication initiatives, we helped the company not only navigate the complex terrain of supply chain challenges but also elevate relationships from good to great, solidifying its standing as a trusted and resilient business partner in the face of unprecedented difficulties.