Most supplier relationship management programmes are, in practice, supplier performance measurement programmes. A scorecard is produced, a meeting is held, the supplier explains variances. This is worth doing and it is not what SRM was supposed to be.
Segment honestly
You cannot have a strategic relationship with two hundred suppliers, and pretending otherwise dilutes the effort into meeting attendance. The genuinely strategic list is short, and it is not the same as the highest-spend list — a critical single-source component may sit well down the spend ranking.
Bring something to the table
Suppliers allocate their best people and their early ideas to customers who are worth the investment. Being a large buyer is not the same as being an attractive one. Predictable forecasts, prompt payment, quick decisions and a named contact who can actually decide are worth more than most negotiated concessions.
Make innovation a process, not an aspiration
“We would like our suppliers to bring us innovation” is on most SRM slides and rarely happens by itself. What works is specific: a defined problem, a route for the supplier to propose against it, a decision timeline they can rely on, and a commercial model that lets them benefit if it works.