Last year, my company started working with a new customer. They liked our pricing and our quality. We built about a half-dozen part numbers for themโno issues.
Then one day, we received an RFQ and the customer had accidentally CCโd their incumbent PCB supplier on the email.
After that? Radio silence.
Really?
Yes, itโs embarrassing. And yes, long-term supplier relationships matter. But when an incumbentย freezesย because they saw you looking at options, thatโs not loyalty.
Thatโs leverage.ย ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ช๐ณ leverage.
And it raises an uncomfortable question for every PCB buyer: Whoโs running your sourcing strategy? Your organization? Or your supplierโs feelings?
Hereโs the reality: in the supply chain, the customer is the decision-maker.
Your suppliers should never be surprised that youโre qualifying and quoting multiple sources, especially in a world where lead times swing, capacity disappears and material volatility is the norm.
If you only quote your incumbent(s), you are teaching them a lesson:
* Youโre unlikely to challenge price.
* Youโll accept โinflationโ without proof.
* Youโll prioritize comfort over competitiveness.
That lesson will show up in your margins.
Pricing doesnโt stay sharp by accident.ย It stays sharp when suppliers know you have credible alternatives and youโre willing to use them.
This isnโt about being disloyal. Itโs about being disciplined.
So if your incumbent gets weird the moment you run a market check, donโt shrink. Do the opposite: Normalize it.
Tell incumbents up front: โWe quote and qualify multiple sources as standard practice.โ
Make your bench real.
Donโt keep backups as names on a slide. Keep them quote-ready. Keep them engaged. Reward performance, not tenure.
If a challenger wins on price/lead time/tech and can execute, give them real work, not just โtest quotes.โ
Because the best โtrainingโ a vendor can receive isnโt a tough email. Itโs a missed PO.
And if you build your vendor bench but never use it, you donโt have a strategy. You have a single point of failureโฆwith a friendly face.