Mapping Partner Potential

Quality business partners form the lifeblood of a healthy enterprise, and C-store operators understand this better than anyone. They need quality partners not just to succeed, but to keep their doors open. Wholesale distributors, technology companies, service technicians, third-party inventory providers, and product manufacturers are all part of this mix.

What these companies offer is broad in scope. Getting product on your shelves. Repairing a malfunctioning POS. Executing a task you can’t get to. Delivering robust business analytics. Offering insights on marketing and branding. Making available promotions that attract new customers and keep existing ones engaged.

It’s important to optimize partner relationships because they create synergies that pay off in many fruitful ways, such as locating the best deals, finding the right employee, getting in contact with a local repair technician, or uncovering additional business opportunities. When you’re clicking with your partners, you gain access to a host of possibilities for you and your business.

Given the upside for all involved, it’s only to be expected that a technology company serving the C-store market might wonder what steps it could take to facilitate partner relationships.

Well, SSCS did, and this week we went live with an exciting new tool as a result: the National Vendor Database. Accessed from the main page of our website for no cost, it allows visitors to search a database of vendors, suppliers and technicians based on the geographic data typed in.

Each partner is represented on a map of the United States by an icon corresponding to their service type and location. Click the icon to call up a label with the vendor’s name and address, an image of the geographic range they serve, and a hyperlink to the vendor’s website. It’s intuitive to use, and early indications are that even the casually interested quickly find themselves engrossed in exploring the United States of C-Store Vendors and Suppliers.

Don’t take our word for it, though. Visit the SSCS website and click “Tour the National Vendor Database” in the lower right-hand corner, or for convenience, click right here.

There’s never been a better time to tap into partnership potential, so why waste another minute? If you have any questions or suggestions about the database and map, feel free to submit them as a comment to this blog post. We look forward to it and appreciate your feedback.