Successful Vendor Management – Define Your Terms

One of the keys to communication between two parties (say, client project manager –> vendor project manager) is realizing that words carry baggage. And I do not speak of “baggage” here pejoratively, as we often do, but simply descriptively.

There is the dictionary definition of a word or phrase. Then, there is the meaning and significance embedded in our individual minds, which is attached to subjective ideas, past experiences, images, people, issues, etc. That is the internal definition or metadata (metadata means “information about information”).

These meanings may have quite a bit of emotional freight, or conceptual misunderstanding, attached to them. So in dealing with business communications, NEVER assume that everyone understands words the same way. Define. Discuss. Put it in writing. Do not leave it in the verbal ether, and discover 3 weeks down the road that even though it sounded like there was agreement when words were spoken – there clearly wasn’t.

So, in any business setting, it is vital to define your terms – to agree on the metadata. Here’s my 1-minute take on it:

Assume nothing. Clarify everything. It’ll save an awful lot of grief down the road if you have the metadata sync’ed up at the beginning!

Other one-minute videos:

Successful Vendor Management – Be Realistic

Successful Vendor Management – Communications

 Successful Vendor Management – Work for Hire

Successful Vendor Management – One Sentence

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Impactiviti is the Pharmaceutical Connection Agency. As the eHarmony of sales/training/marketing, we help our pharma/biotech clients find optimal outsource vendors through our unique trusted referral network. Need something? Ask Steve.

Learn more about us here.

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Successful Vendor Management – One Sentence

It’ll make or break any project. Clear alignment (or lack thereof) at the kickoff of a new initiative.

How to gain alignment among ALL the stakeholders, on both the client AND the vendor side? In my Successful Vendor Management workshop, I advocate for a one-sentence summary:

Believe it or not, a majority of projects don’t start out with a clearly-defined charter like this, which is the main reason projects go off the rails during the development process.

Here’s a one-minute video on the importance of the one-sentence summary:

(Hint: I find that that most challenging part of the process is coming to clarity and agreement on the project goal, which is an actual business outcome, not merely a description of project features).

There may be some steps you can skip along the way during a given project. But the one-sentence summary is not one of them. Up-front clarity among all involved parties is not a luxury – it’s a necessity!

Other one-minute videos:

Successful Vendor Management – Be Realistic

Successful Vendor Management – Communications

 Successful Vendor Management – Work for Hire

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Impactiviti is the Pharmaceutical Connection Agency. As the eHarmony of sales/training/marketing, we help our pharma/biotech clients find optimal outsource vendors through our unique trusted referral network. Need something? Ask Steve.

Learn more about us here.

 

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Successful Vendor Management – Work for Hire

Three simple words. They can save you a fortune.

Do you own the work others perform for you? Maybe – and maybe not!

If you contract out work to vendors and don’t know the meaning and import of these three words – Work For Hire – please do yourself and your company a favor and invest one minute (ish) with the following video:

Bottom line – there is a huge difference between licensed content/program/systems, and that which is custom-created for you. One, you have the right to use. The other, be sure you own.

Want to learn more about work for hire? Wikipedia can help. And, did you know that if you are an employee of a company, the default setting is that your employer has the (authorship) rights to whatever you produce? Yep – work for hire.

Other one-minute videos:

Successful Vendor Management – Be Realistic

Successful Vendor Management – Communications

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Impactiviti is the Pharmaceutical Connection Agency. As the eHarmony of sales/training/marketing, we help our pharma/biotech clients find optimal outsource vendors through our unique trusted referral network. Need something? Ask Steve.

Learn more about us here.

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Lining up for the Kickoff

In order to have the most effective roadmap for successful vendor and project management, I advocate for a structured kickoff meeting with all stakeholders in place (that is, those with financial, business, or procedural skin in the game).

There’s nothing worse than getting partway through a project, then having it derailed by some stakeholder who suddenly decides that a bunch of previously-unspecified changes are in order (see my recent “Dear Client…” blog post).

The question below came to me via private message, and it’s a good one. It mirrors a concern I’ve heard voiced during my Vendor/Project Success workshop:

“I love the concept of having all the important stakeholders involved early on in the development process. Sometimes though it’s like herding cats. What are your thoughts on implementing this strategy?”

I certainly don’t have all the answers to this. But I’m sure that some of you have learned a few tricks and best practices for lining up the players and getting a good kickoff. How would you answer this question? Please share in the comments – lots of folks would love to learn from you!

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Impactiviti is the Pharmaceutical Connection Agency. As the eHarmony of sales/training/marketing, we help our pharma/biotech clients find optimal outsource vendors through our unique trusted referral network. Need something? Ask Steve.

Learn more about us here.

Read Full Post »