Why Do We Have To Manage Vendors In the First Place?

“Can’t vendors just do what they’re supposed to do? I mean I’m paying for this AND we have a contract!” I’ve heard this phrase or sentiment more times than I can count. When I was tasked to build a VMO (Vendor Management Office) at a company that never had this before, there was resistance from people who never had to work with a Vendor Manager. They never had to talk about their vendors, they never needed to partner with them. They felt that talking about their service provider performance was a waste of their time, and in fact, one person told me this directly to my face. “They just need to do their job”. I lifted my chin and thought to myself challenge accepted. “Alright,” I said, “you want them to do their job?”

Well…

Think of it this way – most people who are hired by a company have performance reviews once or twice a year. You are paid and you have a contract, but you and your manager still sit down to discuss what worked in the last year, what needs to improve, and hopefully, both of you can partner together to get to a win-win situation. Your manager gets the best work they can get out of you, and you, in turn, let your manager know what you need from them.

Well, it’s similar in this case. Just because you paid the vendor and they have a contract that you hope they are honoring, you still have to partner with them to make sure both sides are getting what they want/need out of this. You need to be involved to know if contract SLAs are being met. It’s for your benefit that they are met. If your contract calls for penalizing SLA violations, then it’s also for the vendor’s benefit to not violate any – as well as for their reputation. 

The vendor also needs to feel comfortable having an open discussion with your team and providing feedback. You know the line from Jerry Maguire, “Help me..help you!”? Well, this applies to this situation. Give the vendor what they need so they can do their best work for you. For example, the vendor may need to touch base more frequently, so the project can be completed on time. If they’re building something for you, they may need to double-check the sketches that were provided or suggest better material that will last longer in the future. If they feel they can have these conversations with you, things will go so much smoother, will be completed on time, and everyone will be happy.

Another important factor in managing vendors is strengthening your relationship. The client and the vendor are a partnership that at the end of the day wants to reach the same goal (you want a good product, and quite honestly, most vendors want to give you a good product). To have these conversations, to negotiate new contracts, to continue to improve together, you need to build that foundation and be open. You need to build this partnership between companies.

You may be wondering, well? Did she change that person’s mind??? Did the skeptical individual from the beginning of this story say, “You opened up my eyes to the truth!” How amazing would it be if they have? In reality, they just gruffly left the meeting after we were done. But, I did end up proving how important a vendor management office is after a few months. The individual did eventually say “Even though I have to do more work, I’m starting to see a positive outcome with this process”. The comment made me so happy. The biggest critic was coming around!