Resolve Problems BEFORE They Occur
This is a “Big Theme” in navigating vendor management issues:
Do everything to mitigate risks and mismatches BEFORE the problems arise.
There are ditches on either side of this road – ditches that I articulated in my last video – do you remember them?
On the one side, I can micromanage my vendors so tightly that I destroy my relationship with them.
On the other side, I ignore my vendors and what they do. Then I am blindsided by the issues that arise – issues that could have been foreseen and avoided.
Between these two ditches is a narrow road. You navigate this road by identifying potential issues and ensuring that corrections or contingencies are in place to mitigate the risks.
Let me give you an example
My company’s finance team receives daily, weekly, and monthly reports from our processor.
I need to ask the following questions:
What percentage of those reports are they using?
What works best in those reports?
What are the pain points in those reports?
To what extent can our company’s finance team flex its processes to better utilize the processor reports?
What options and flexibility does our processor offer with regards to report content and cadence that would better match the needs of the finance team?
With these questions answered, I can work with our processor and the finance team to put together a solution path that will optimize the report flow.
These types of investigations and negotiations should be part of your regular quarterly meetings with your vendors and your quarterly meetings with your internal teams using those vendors – you DO have those meetings, right?!!
No??
I have a question for you.
How are you going to understand your business process flow, your internal partners, and your vendors without regular meetings and ongoing constructive interactions with them??