A Guide to Finding Your Next Service Partner

The time has come! It’s been on your mind for a while and now you have a contract that has expired, a service incident that was the last straw, or your favourite account manager has changed one too many times; it’s time to pick a new service provider. Once you decide to make the big change, it becomes real in your mind and a new cycle of evaluation kicks off and a question looms in your mind “How do I select a new partner that takes the things that I have learned over the past years, but also mitigate the risk of the new partner potentially being worse than one existed today.”

Although not an exhaustive list, here are five things that you must consider as you embark on this exciting journey of picking a new partner.

1. Define Your Must-Have Before Starting to Talk to Vendors

It’s imperative that you first define the key buying criteria before you start shopping around for a solution. Similar to the analogy that ‘you shouldn’t go the grocery store hungry,’ it’s very easy to have your requirements defined by the shiny, convenient or fast-food options that exist. Map out what capabilities exist today, and what capabilities your business needs and then associate those back to tangible requests for delivery. Not only will this make qualifying potential suitors much easier, but it will also help to reduce the risk of unneeded scope creep for base services. Similarly, when requesting pricing, ensure these base services are priced separately so you can get a true sense of ‘apples to apples’ for your base requirements, and then apply a different decision-making framework to any innovations.

2. Leave Innovation as an Open Door

Building on the base of services, there is also an incredible amount of value that can be gleaned by leaving a blank canvas for innovation for the service providers to share their insights around. These service organizations have the luxury of seeing into numerous other businesses and often have novel ways of delivering innovations that are proven and can drive you forward. By separating these innovations, and letting your vendors drive the conversation of what others are doing you don’t risk muddying the water of your base requirements (where you want to be more prescriptive), and chances to let the industry lead you forward with something new.

3. Be Clear with your Decision-Making Framework

Before engaging with potential partners, it is also clear that you and your team decide how you are going to make the decision. There are a variety of factors to consider including compliance (do you have to go to RFP?), culture and bandwidth to ensure the process delivers what your organization needs. It will not only help you stay on track by defining this upfront but will also create a sense of expectation and transparency with your suitors and hopefully guard you against the urgent end-of-the-month ‘hard closes’ as much as possible.

4. Look Behind the Curtain

Once you have shortlisted one or two partners it’s always recommended to dive a bit deeper. My advice is to always meet the team that will be delivering the service (and the ones that aren’t professional salespeople), and get a sense of the culture, tenure, office (if there is one) and overall gut feeling. The more people you can meet across the organization, the better you can root out any red flags or surprises.

5. If It Doesnt Make Dollars, It Doesnt Make Cents

Finally, understanding the financial model is critical. This goes past deciphering what you will be paying on day one, but also getting a sense of how and when billing works, what the contract scaling mechanisms and triggers are and how projects are handled will save you much heartache down the line. It’s okay to acknowledge that as a business you need to be fiscally responsible, but also that the engagement has to be profitable for the service provider as well (they are also a business as well). Having open and honest conversations about the financial engines for both parties can lead to incredibly productive and aligning discussions.

Although there are many more variables at play when you make a change of this magnitude, the upside of having the right partners at the table, and in the right seats can dwarf any short-term efforts. At the end of the day, having a clear sense of what you are looking for and being transparent about that with all parties you are speaking with, will lead to you some eye-opening and productive conversations.