Your Brand is How Your Vendor Talks About You Behind Your Back

Okay, so let me tell you about something I totally wasn’t supposed to overhear. A few years ago, I was at this supplier meet, nothing fancy, and I stepped out to take a call. Walking back, I passed a room where two of our partners were chatting. One goes, “Yeah, they’re good to work with. Always pay on time. Respectful. Makes my life easier, honestly.”

I just smiled and kept walking. But, oh man, that stuck with me.

Here’s the deal. Your brand? It’s not your Instagram highlights or those perfectly polished LinkedIn posts where everyone’s a thought leader on a Tuesday morning. Nope. Your brand lives in what people say about you when you’re not around. And guess who’s doing a lot of that talking? Your vendors, suppliers, and even your delivery guys.

Nobody Googles “vendor reviews,” but maybe they should

Founders obsess over customer reviews like detectives stalking an ex. One bad review? Panic mode. But here’s the thing: there’s an entire crowd chatting about you behind the scenes.

The printer cranking out your packaging at midnight because you “forgot” the files. Oops. The freight company rerouting shipments because your forecasts are, let’s say, ambitious. The manufacturer who probably knows your supply chain better than you do.

They’re all forming opinions. And yeah, those opinions spread faster than your latest viral TikTok.

If you’re late on payments, they know. If you’re difficult, they remember. If you promise one thing but deliver another, word gets around. Suddenly, you’re *that* brand. The one vendors avoid. The one they charge extra “just in case.”

Here’s my spicy take: your vendors are better brand ambassadors than your customers. Customers judge your product. Vendors judge your character.

The day our packaging guy ghosted us, sort of

Confession time. We were pushing a packaging vendor pretty hard on a big project. Tight deadlines, huge pressure. One day, our account manager mentions, “They’re not prioritizing us anymore.”

I’m like, “Wait, what? We pay well, don’t we?”

Turns out, it wasn’t about money. It was how we communicated.

That stung. We weren’t rude, just transactional. Cold. Demanding with zero context. Like a vending machine: insert order, get box, repeat.

So we changed things. We shared *why* deadlines mattered instead of screaming “URGENT” in all caps. We celebrated wins. Paid faster. And we actually asked how *they* were doing. Revolutionary, I know.

The relationship flipped. That vendor started recommending us. They became partners, not just suppliers.

Your reputation lives where you don’t look

Want to know how strong your brand really is? Don’t check your Google reviews. Ask your vendors. The folks working while you sleep. The ones who’ve bailed you out during emergencies. The ones who pick up your call even when you’re not their biggest client.

If they speak well of you when you’re not around, that’s trust. And trust is the only thing that scales.

So here’s my question: if your vendors were asked about you tomorrow, what would they say? Would they vouch for you or just do the job and move on?

Your brand is built backstage. In midnight Slack messages. In early payments. In the “thank you”, that sounds real.

So, how do your vendors talk about you? Because I promise, they’re talking.

Regards,
Rupesh Sanghavi