What a Purchase Manager Checks on a Supplier Website Before He Calls

A purchase manager with a requirement does not start by telephoning suppliers. He searches, and more and more he asks an AI assistant, then opens the websites of the names that come up. By the time he calls, he has usually reduced the field to three or four. The website decides whether you are among them.

What follows is drawn from the 62 questions industrial buyers ask, a list we keep for our work on manufacturers' websites. They fall under three larger questions.

Do you make what I need?

This is settled first. If the site does not answer it in the buyer's own terms, he never reaches the rest.

• Do you make this exact product, in my size and grade? He is checking whether you are a maker of his item or a general supplier who might arrange it. A good answer is a page for that product, named the way he searches for it, with the size range, grades and standard in a table.
• What is the largest and smallest you can make? He wants to know whether his requirement sits inside your range or at its edge. Write the limits out: longest length, heaviest casting, thinnest wall, largest diameter.
• Which standards do you manufacture to? He needs to write your product into his specification without a deviation. Name the IS, ASTM, EN or customer standard on each product page.
• Can you make it to our drawing? Say plainly what custom work you take and what you need to quote: drawing, quantity, material, delivery point. Then give him a form that accepts the drawing.

The commonest failure here is a single "Products" page with a grid of photographs and no figures. The buyer cannot tell a maker from a trader, so he assumes the worse.

Can you handle my size of job?

A buyer with a large order has to believe you can deliver it before he asks for a price.

• What is your installed capacity? He is working out whether his order is a fraction of your month or more than all of it. State capacity as a number, in the unit he orders in: tonnes a month, pieces a day, metres a shift.
• Can you deliver this quantity by this date? A delay holds up his project. Give typical lead times by product, as ranges, and a line on how urgent orders are handled.
• What plant and machines do you have? A list of the main machines, the plant location with town and state, and the plant area tell him more than any adjective.

When we read 30 Indian manufacturer websites as a buyer would, 14 stated production capacity as a number and 15 gave a machine or equipment list. The other half left the buyer to guess.

Who has trusted you before?

The last question is about risk. Nobody wishes to be the first to try a supplier on an important job.

• Whom have you supplied? Clients named in text, not only as a strip of logos.
• What exactly did you supply to them? One past supply described properly, with what, where, for whom, the year and a quantity, does more than twenty logos.
• Which approvals and certificates do you hold? Name them, with the version and validity, and let the buyer open the certificate.

This is where sites are weakest. In the same check, 2 of 30 described a past project or supply in any detail, 6 named approvals or vendor registrations, and on 1 a certificate could be opened or downloaded. The full study is here.

Why does it matter that the answers are in text?

Because the buyer is no longer the only reader. Google and AI assistants such as ChatGPT read the same pages to decide whom to show or name, and they read text. A capacity figure inside a photograph of the plant, or a client list that exists only as logos, is invisible to them. Written out, the same fact helps the buyer on the page and puts you in the answer when someone asks who makes your product in your region.

What should you do first?

Take your three most important products and check each against the questions above, on your phone, as if you were the buyer. Wherever the answer is in your head or in a brochure and not on the page, write it on the page. No new machine, certificate or customer is needed. The facts already exist.

Questions manufacturers ask about what buyers check

What is the first thing an industrial buyer looks for on a supplier website?

Whether you make his exact product in his size and grade. He looks for a page for that product with the size range, grades and standard stated. If he finds only a photo grid, he usually moves on.

Why do buyers want capacity stated as a number?

Because it tells them whether their order is a small part of your month or more than you can handle. Capacity in the unit they order in, such as tonnes a month or pieces a day, answers that at a glance.

Are client logos enough to show past work?

No. Logos show a name but not what was supplied. One past supply described with what, where, for whom, the year and a quantity is more convincing, and it is text that Google and AI assistants can read.

Do AI assistants read these facts too?

Yes. Assistants such as ChatGPT and Gemini read the text of web pages to decide which suppliers to name. Facts shown only in images or PDF files are largely invisible to them.