| CRM, in fact, is something of an industry, with | | | | whom you do business, then answer me this: On a |
| technology providers offering simple to fancy | | | | scale of 1 (terrible) to 5 (outstanding), what is the quality |
| automated solutions and specialized consultants and | | | | of your relationship with each of those parties? If you |
| other experts flooding the information space with their | | | | are coming up with a lot of 2s and 3s, you may want |
| opinions, recommendations, and case studies. | | | | to rethink your approach to VRM. |
| Managing customer relationships is very important to a | | | | Vendors are businesses too, and they are looking at |
| service business. Services are by nature highly | | | | their own client base the same way you are looking at |
| relationship-oriented, and investing in the monitoring and | | | | yours. They will assess their relationship with you (in |
| maintenance of good connections with your clients is a | | | | terms of both quality and quantity) and act accordingly. |
| key success strategy. | | | | For example, if you figure in to that small percentage |
| But what about your VRM program? That is, how well | | | | of top revenue-producing clients (a la the Pareto |
| are you managing vendor relationships? I assert that | | | | Principle), you are likely to get extra perks, more |
| businesses that pay attention to the quality of the | | | | favorable terms, or better pricing than the bulk of their |
| connection with their vendors will have a significant | | | | clientele. As far as the quality of customer service, |
| competitive advantage over those that don't. | | | | they may be far more responsive to you and go out |
| A familiar mantra in the early 21st century business | | | | of their way to delight you in order to keep and |
| environment is "concentrate on your core | | | | hopefully increase your spend with them. |
| competencies," meaning that a business needs to | | | | Benefits like these make a direct difference to your |
| devote as many of its resources as possible to | | | | bottom line, but there are also less apparent benefits |
| whatever is directly generating revenues and find | | | | that come with maintaining good vendor relationships. |
| other ways of attending to adjunct areas. As a result | | | | Even the simplest third party relationship-your copier |
| of implementing this strategy, companies of all sizes | | | | paper supplier for example-can adversely impact your |
| rely on many types of third party providers. Some | | | | business if it isn't working well. And just like with |
| providers are outsourcers (e.g., janitorial services or IT | | | | employees, high turnover in your vendor pool can slow |
| management firms), others are independent | | | | down or disrupt operations. It takes time to forge a |
| contractors (e.g., web programmers or graphic | | | | good relationship between clients and vendors; trust |
| designers), and still others supply goods and materials | | | | needs to build, and each party must acclimate and |
| (e.g., printing firms or computer equipment vendors). | | | | adjust to the partnership. |
| Take a moment and think about the third parties with | | | | |