Are you meeting with a supplier diversity manager from your dream company? Supplier diversity professionals can be your advocates within their companies, so their opinion of you matters.

Let's walk through some common mistakes business owners make when meeting supplier diversity professionals and what you should do instead.

Companies institute and develop supplier diversity programs for a number of reasons, not the least of which is how it enhances their public image in their respective industries and communities. In our 2018 State of Supplier Diversity report, when asked to list primary drivers of their supplier diversity programs, 36 percent of the professionals who answered our survey (note that respondents could select more than one answer) chose “gain market share/enhance brand image.”

Supplier diversity brings high ideals to the business world and the overall economy. Opportunity, inclusion, community, success—these are common goals for supplier diversity professionals and the suppliers they find, hire, and develop. Yet the two sides aren’t as united in achieving these goals as perhaps they should be.

Earlier this year, we released our second annual 2018 State of Supplier Diversity reports created from a comprehensive survey taken by over 300 respondents in the industry.

We gained valuable insight from diverse suppliers themselves that both confirmed some of our hunches (most diverse suppliers have been in business for over 11 years) and surprised us (the large number of diverse suppliers working with 10 or more corporations).

The following infographic is a brief visual overview of some of the key highlights from our findings in the diverse suppliers report.

As you might have heard, CVM launched its second annual State of Supplier Diversity survey earlier this year to get an idea of how much the industry could change in just one year. Both supplier diversity programs and diverse suppliers provided input as we sought to get a full picture of what both sides of the coin experience.

We released the results in April, and to date, more than 700 people have downloaded the reports.

While the full reports have 40+ pages of statistics and analysis, we wanted to offer you a visual snapshot of the results. This infographic features highlights from the supplier diversity programs report.