Vendors are something we all have in our departments, either to a great extent or minimally. I’ve been on both sides of the vendor coin as vendor and vendor manager.
Here are my keys to the vendor relationship.
=== Regular Communication ===
A systematic and regular form of communication is important to establish early. This is important for two reasons:
1. Reduce Anxiety : As a vendor, I knew that my point of contact at the client’s office was being measured by how I performed as a vendor but, most importantly, they were being measured by how well they managed me. Every vendor should realize that they need to make their client point of contact look good. One very easy way of doing this is by reducing anxiety. Having a systematic and regular form of communication forced me as the vendor to “think ahead” of what the client is going to ask me and it allows the client a medium to release any anxiety they may have about the success of the project or ask a question of you that they were asked and did not have an answer for.
Everyone wants to look good to their boss, everyone wants to look like they are under control and that the project is being managed well. Boss’ secretly believe that if those three things are happening, then the project will have a successful outcome.
“Wait! I hate weekly meetings!” – Me too, primarily because people do not think them through, prepare for them, or realize the opportunity they have to promote/sell a new idea, create synergy as a team, etc. Most often, those dreaded weekly meetings are never prepared for because vendors think they can just “dog and pony” their way through the entire meeting and update. Not true.
As a vendor, I created a list of ideas that I wanted to implement. Some very minor in terms of changes, some were pretty radical. But I had ideas. So on a regular basis – probably once a month – I would pull out a new idea. It would surprise my client, sometimes they would react positively and grant my wishes to implement the idea and sometimes they wouldn’t. With either outcome I win because it showed the client I was thinking about them strategically, or I was giving them ideas that they could take back to their boss and – here it is again – look good to their bosses. It is a mutually beneficial situation; I get a longer life as a vendor and my client point of contact has no anxiety, looks good to their boss and feels that they are managing me very well.
=== Crisis Management ===
2. Increase camaraderie : We all have those YIKES! moments where we think the world in crumbling in on top of us. When something in the project does go wrong, if you don’t have the documented outcomes of #1 above then guess who gets the bear the burden of the fall – the vendor. I’ve managed a vendor where we had a crisis and all I wanted was to be in constant contact. I got nothing from them. They knew things were wrong, I knew things were wrong and they were not responding to phone calls or emails.
To me, as the client in this scenario, I thought I was going to be fired because – here it is again – it didn’t look like I was managing my vendor well, I didn’t look good to my boss and I was full of anxiety. I was “contents under pressure” and hardly anyone makes a good decision under those circumstances.
I wasn’t keying in on the mistake, I was keying in on the complete lack of information coming from the vendor. That is what made me the most angry and is the reason that we will no longer work with that vendor.
