Question

Ryan, the owner of Home Value supermarket chain, wants to terminate a contract with a supplier. During the tenure of the contract, Ryan had interacted with the representatives of the supplier mainly over the phone or email. Which of the following will be interpreted by the supplier as a less-than-straightforward way of saying no and ending the working relationship?

Ryan takes the supplier representatives out for lunch and thanks them for being such great friends.

Ryan ensures that his written message leaves the door open to future business.

Ryan provides rationale for his decision so that the supplier company can improve its competitiveness by focusing on its weaknesses.

Ryan keeps the written message short, but ensures to include a neutral subject line as buffer.

Ryan uses an indirect message structure to convey the bad news instead of a direct structure.

.

Answer 1

The correct answer is "Ryan takes the supplier representatives out for lunch and thanks them for being such great friends."

Supplier relationship management is the strategic planning and managing the interactions with the suppliers in order to have long-term relationship and mutual benefits. Taking the supplier representative out for lunch and thanking them for being a great friend is not a straightforward way of ending relationship as this will not give them any hint what Ryan is trying to say or do. Taking them out for lunch will make them happy and they will believe that the Ryan is trying to build relationship.