For providers · 2 min read
Eleven questions to ask any supplier before you order
Written to be used against us. If a supplier cannot answer these without friction, the friction is the answer.
A practice evaluating supply is usually shown a deck. The deck is not the useful artefact. These are the questions that separate a supplier who has built something from one who has assembled a website, and they are deliberately written so that we have to answer them too.
About the material
- What exactly is this — the specific material, not the category it belongs to?
- Where was it manufactured, and what standard does that facility operate to? A real answer names the standard.
- Is the facility registered, certified, both, or neither? Those are different words and only one of them is issued by a regulator.
- What is the intended use stated on the label, and does it match what we are discussing?
About this lot, not lots in general
- May I see the certificate of analysis for the lot I would actually receive?
- Who performed the testing — the manufacturer, or an independent laboratory?
- What was tested for, and what were the limits? A pass with no stated limit is not a result.
- What is the expiry, and how was it established?
About getting it here intact
- What are the storage requirements, and what happens if a shipment arrives outside them?
- Is there a temperature record with the shipment, and who is liable if it fails?
- What is the lead time when you are not trying to win my business?
The one that tells you most
Ask what they are not claiming.
A supplier who has thought seriously about this will answer immediately and specifically: not approved for the treatment of any condition, not a substitute for clinical judgement, no promise about outcome. A supplier who has not will either pause, or produce a sentence that manages the question rather than answering it. Both are informative and neither takes long to notice.
What a good answer looks like
Documented, specific, and available without a follow-up call. The distinguishing feature of a serious supply relationship is not enthusiasm — it is that the paperwork arrives with the material rather than being produced on request, and that it refers to the thing in your hand rather than to a representative example.
If you would like the version of this conversation where we are the ones answering, that is a conversation we would rather have early than late.
