Vendor-Client Relations - Winning Strategies

It's not our fault; oahu is the vendor's fault! Sound familiar? After over 25 years in the Financial Services industry as a vendor and a company of vendor services, I have observed the most effective and worst of vendor relations. Using this experience, I offer you a quick outline of practical strategies to create a win/win scenario together with your vendors.

The very best place to begin on creating a solid vendor relationship foundation is to know what you would like to accomplish together with your vendors and your vendor relationships. Define your approach to vendor relations clearly within your organization organization throughout your strategic plan development. I cannot emphasize enough the significance of an intensive iterative strategic plan for your organization organization that features initiatives necessary to promote good vendor relations. Don't stop there! Cascade your strategic initiatives into ethical policies, procedures and practices through the organization so you build a culture around good vendor relations. Ensure everyone knows, understands, and is focused on adopting and practicing the strategic concepts supporting good vendor relations. Consider utilizing a documented positioning statement requiring attestation like a Vendor Code, Vendor Affirmation, or Vendor Ethics publication.

Once your organization organization's strategic intentions are clearly defined and cascaded through the organization, evaluate your vendor selection processes. Vendor selection processes ought to be driven by selection guidelines and methodologies split into two components, general and specific criteria. General criteria connect with any vendor and would include evaluation components such background reviews of vendor financial performance, references, litigation history, principle leadership, and industry information. Specific criteria connect with the precise vendor product requirements needed seriously to satisfy the business enterprise objective and include items your organization would put within an RFP or even a call-for-bids. There are vast bodies of knowledge (BOKs) on building sound ethical general and specific selection criteria in various purchasing and supply chain professional groups. This body of knowledge far exceeds the scope and capacity of this article to define. I refer one to these'well-healed'BOKs for detailed analysis and guidance on developing your final detailed selection process. However, from a relationship standpoint, here certainly are a few key points to remember throughout your vendor evaluation and selection:

• ·        Does owner have a clearly defined strategy for client relationships that goes beyond an organization chart and hierarchical account executive and sales representative assignments?
• ·        Do key executives for owner organization make their contact information available for you along with the assigned account executive or sales executive?
• ·        Does owner organization have a mechanism to periodically evaluate client satisfaction and remediate any areas of concern?
• ·        Does owner seem to create an endeavor to know about your organization and your industry?
• ·         Is owner willing to go beyond the scope of your agreement to supply meaningful recommendations to your organization that could help build revenue or cut costs?
• ·         Does owner extend an open invitation to visit or tour their house office and or remote locations?

Many of these are questions designed to help you determine if your vendor is "vested" available relationship beyond the clinical terms of your agreement and willing to embrace the ability for a healthier vendor relationship.

With an ethical vendor selection methodology set up, and a vendor(s) selected, the next step is always to negotiate an agreement. Never accept the vendor's standard agreement at face value callcriteria. Negotiate the basic terms of your agreement and let the legal staff's of both organizations build a binding contract that features the basic terms of your negotiated agreement and reflects each organization's values toward vendor/client relationships. Lots of the contract terms are customary, mechanical in nature, and include NDA's, cost schedules, prescribed duration of service(s), SLA's, performance rewards and penalties, and specific deliverables. While they are undeniably crucial that you creating a clear comprehension of each party's performance obligations, certain other language in the contract will point to an agreement that also represents obligations toward establishing and maintaining a healthier vendor/client relationship. Too often, the sensational wording of the mechanical and legal areas of an agreement take precedent and relationship tactics place second - whenever - to the required legal tedium necessary to pin down deliverables. Each of the mechanical and relationship agreements are equally crucial that you a defining a healthier vendor/client relationship.