When someone is helping you assess a supplier, one question matters early: whose interests do they represent? Source With Trust works for the buyer. Our assignment is to examine the questions you have agreed with us and report what the available evidence supports.
You pay for the work, not a purchasing outcome
Our fee is agreed for the services and scope of the assignment. It is not a percentage of your purchase order. We do not accept supplier commissions or earn a margin on the products you buy.
This means our role does not depend on persuading you to place an order with a particular supplier. A finding may support proceeding, suggest further checks or raise a concern you need to resolve. The purchasing decision remains yours.
Working with suppliers without representing them
Effective verification usually requires communication with the supplier. We may need documents, explanations, access to a facility or clarification from the people responsible for production. Working professionally with those people is part of gathering information; it does not make us their sales representative.
Before an assignment, we agree the questions to investigate and the access needed. If a supplier restricts access or cannot provide relevant information, that affects what can be concluded and should be understood by the buyer.
Evidence before reassurance
A professional-looking website, a confident explanation or an attractive sample can be useful starting information. Each still needs to be considered in relation to the particular claim being checked.
For example, seeing machinery at a facility does not by itself establish that the facility made your sample or can meet your order schedule. The useful question is whether the observations, documents and explanations fit together. Where something remains unresolved, an honest account of that uncertainty is more useful than an unsupported assurance.
Independence also means clear limits
We do not control the supplier’s future conduct or guarantee the success of a transaction. Our value lies in the agreed work, the observations made and the clarity of the findings. You should be able to understand both what was checked and what remains outside the assignment.
Tell us what decision you are considering and what you want independently examined. We can then discuss a suitable scope of work.