How to Pick a Vendor

This week we are going to talk about vendors.

I’m making some assumptions.

To make your mark with something that matters you are going to need help. You are going to need vendors that you can trust and that will solve problems for you. Aside from the usual portfolio and references, I think that there are two key ideas that you need to consider when you are looking for vendors.

Vendor relationships all come down to one question. Will the person or company that you are going to work with do what they say they will do?

Doing what you say is very hard. There is so much that can happen along the way that will make it very challenging. As Matt Kearney says, “I guess we’re all one phone call from our knees.” Or, as my good friend says, “Shit happens.” Life is hard, and things happen that you can not anticipate. So, one of the first questions you should ask a potential vendor is: “When life goes sideways, how do you manage your customer’s expectations? Give me examples.”

Some of the things that this potential vendor needs to address are schedules, communication, and deliverables. How they answer the question will help you understand how you will be taken care of when (Not if!) things go sideways. When they give you examples, you are looking for humility and maturity. I would offer up if they say that they don’t have examples they are lying or they are just getting started. A company with more than 10 minutes of experience will have had to deal with complex issues.

Here’s some “Shit Happens” questions:

Mostly, talk about it. Play with scenarios and make it an intellectual exercise. This way you can sort out how they think.

The other idea I want you to think about is the idea of partnerships. You are not looking for a partner. It’s popular right now to use the idea of partnerships as a way to solicit participation in your crazy idea. Or, conversely to work with someone else. What it adds up to are lax deadlines and unclear boundaries. This only makes life harder later.

A true partnership is an agreement where two separate entities work together on an area of mutual interest. However, when you are developing something, and you want help building it, you want a service provider. You need to be honest about that when you are recruiting vendors. They are not your partners; they are going to apply their expertise to your MVP so that your idea succeeds. Start there. If what you want to do is too complicated or expensive and you are going to give away equity, that is different.

The last note about partnerships is when you are starting out you want things to be as simple as possible. Invariably, things will get complicated. And if you have drag on your MVP, you are asking for headaches later on. Keep it as simple as possible. If you can’t explain the agreement in one sentence, it might be complicated.

Finally, don’t forget…

You want examples of past work, testimonials/referrals from past clients or colleagues as well as examples of what they do in the wild.

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