Vendor/Customer Relations

You know you've thoroughly irritated a vendor when they don't even finish their Powerpoint slideshow.

It's important to know which potential vendors are out there, but it's also important to weed out the ones who will help you from the ones who won't.

When I finally ask a vendor for help, here are the results:

When I ask them to obtain pricing for me and they throw up their hands and say they can't do anything at all, I don't go back to the vendor.

When they direct me to the manufacturer's website (where the List price is) and tell me that's it, I don't go back to the vendor.

When they beg me for business (read as "call more than twice a month to touch base"), I give them an opportunity, and they drop the ball, I don't go back to the vendor.

So what does a good vendor do?

When you ask them for help, they don't have to know all the answers, but they should say one of the following:

• "I don't know, but I'll find out and let you know."
• "Let me get back with you on that."
• "We don't have an expert on that in-house, but I have a contact for you."
• "I'll do what I can. What's your timeframe for that phase of the project?"

Under no circumstances should a vendor ever throw up their hands and say, "I dunno."

So when meeting a new vendor, I let them know up-front that when I don't have a budget, communications need to be kept short. I don't have time for conference calls about our needs, etc. when I don't have a budget. If you need info, shoot me questions in an e-mail and I'll get back with you ASAP.

So why the most recent vendor decided to put together an 8-page slideshow JUST for us and then schedule a conference call when I already told the representative I didn't have a budget and wouldn't until 2009 is beyond me. They didn't finish the slideshow, though, and cut the call short.

Hopefully follow-up communications (if there are any) will be clearer. I simply don't have the time to muck around with vendors who don't listen. If they don't listen to me now, how can I know they'll listen when I need good information from them??

Grr.