How to Deal With Vendors as a Strength Coach

This is a guest blog from TeamBuildr customer Nate Shaw - Head MLB Strength Coach at Arizona Diamondbacks.

Vendors serve an important role and can make your life really easy as a strength coach. However, vendors can also make you have to create excuses to your superiors because of late or unfulfilled promises.

Over the years I have built solid relationships with key vendors. There are vendors who will treat you and your player development staff the same and there are frontrunners that treat you special because you are a MLB Strength coach. If they are capable of treating you and your staff differently from other strength coaches with less recognizability then you can expect that there will be some inconsistencies in the way they deliver the services you need.

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I would say that all strength coaches are in the trenches and all deserve the same level of respect from vendors. In general, I appreciate vendors who under promise and over deliver. I am simple and I tell the truth. Naturally, I resonate well with others that do the same.

There are many vendors that hustle to make the sale and upon completion their availability becomes suddenly sparse. I also have had vendors say they could deliver products or services at the MLB Level and have failed miserably. The unsettling part of that is that I am usually the one making apologies and trying to mop a mess. I choose to use vendors that have proven themselves over time with reliability and a quality product. Over the years I have learned that what you say and what you do needs to match up.

I try not to recommend staff or equipment that does not fulfill standard expectations. So for me, knowing how to deal with vendors and having one that I can count on for a specific project is crucial. The list is small, but I am always open to making it bigger. Or smaller.