The Key Decision Point When Choosing A Vendor

Your company has its own vendor selection process, with key criteria against which you’re going to measure each of the vendors competing for the next contract.

You’re going to see some very good proposals.  To have made it to the final cut, all candidates will have proven they understand the project and have the knowledge, skill and resources to do the job.

But you won’t really know whether you’ve made a good choice until the first problem or “sudden change in specs” shows up.  That means all during the selection process you have to be asking yourself one question about each candidate: Is there someone here I can call when there’s a problem,  and are they likely to respond and fix or adjust quickly so we can move ahead?

How can you test for this critical quality in the selection process?

1.  When you talk with references — other clients for whom they’ve done similar work — ask them directly about their experience with the vendor’s find-it/fix-it responsiveness.

2.  Before signing on for the big contract, try a small sample project and see how it goes.  How easy are they to reach?  How quickly do they respond? How effectively do they resolve the problem? How fast can they get the project back on track?

We all know — or should know — going-in that everything’s not going to work perfectly or even as well as any of us hope.  So the best vendor for the job is not necessarily the one with the best presentation or even the most robust capabilities, but more likely the one with people who’ll react quickly and effectively to new information, whether it’s a problem or a change in the way something has to work.