Students Corner 201

The Buyer-Seller relationship is the backbone of any business transaction, we know.  Many facts influence this relationship; among them, the major facts are the need of the buyer and the ability of the seller to meet the need. The simple phrase, ‘ meet  the need’ remains even now the greatest challenge the marketers face .  Of course, the simplest definition of marketing is said to be ‘ meeting needs profitably’. The whole crux of the problem which can be called say ethical, legal , or moral, is  how to arrive at  a universally acceptable definition of profit.  The money you get in excess to the investment you have made in business is largely looked upon as profit; again, the ticklish thing is about the word excess.  This general description of profit as excess money involves lots and lots of possibilities of nuances in trying to quantify the ‘excess’.

Every component of this vast business field has grown phenomenally and keeps growing to such an extent that no one can confidently and justifiably claim that he knows all about all .  We will discuss later ‘the need of the buyer’, ‘ the ability of the seller to meet the need’ and ‘ meeting needs profitably’, the three major areas of deep concern for any business man . 

Now, we shall move on to see another buyer-seller relationship, namely, contractual business transaction.  It simply means two parties agree to exchange mutually services or products relevant to them.  Agreement in writing is a legal document; that is, it can be produced in the Court of Law as evidence of agreement. Generally, in administration oral instructions come only next to written ones.  In fact, in any company, administration prefers written instructions since they become in a way a sort of regulation. A cotton merchant agrees to give five bales of cotton to a fabric manufacturer. If both of them have known each other for some time and know that both keep words, then, just for an example, they may not rush to a contract. In case one of the two slightly feels diffident of the other, he may choose contractual agreement.  Here, between the seller and the buyer, if coordination and cooperation don’t seem to flow naturally and conveniently, no wonder they would prefer a contractual agreement. It ensures that the seller will definitely dispatch the agreed upon number of bales and the buyer would get them from him without fail.  Reason is not far to seek; any lapses or violation attracts legal action. For fear of legal action, the parties may not wish to fail in their obligation.

In such a case, the parties are not related to each other but just in contextual commercial relationship.  Supposing the seller of cotton bales fails to send because of some valid reasons,  say monsoon failure, or non-availability of labour or as it goes on now some hideous pandemic,  his failure though not deliberate still affects the business of the fabric manufacturer; if he understands the difficulties of the seller and does not press for damage despite there being a contractual agreement,  there he is somewhat related. More than money in the transaction, man is taken into consideration.

This is one another type of buyer-seller relationship. Lot of things can be said about this type just mentioned above. For and Against.