The Money

Rarely will anyone admit this but this is the most important part of any business relationship. If this part feels off then everything is going to feel off. Follow along to make sure everyone feels good about the money.

Stop negotiating

Did I lose you yet? Budgets are finite, I get that, but the price is the price. Most vendors aren't making things up as they go. They've developed their pricing over the course of many clients and projects. When you push back on their pricing, you undermine their whole operation.

Does that mean don't talk money? Of course not! Be transparent about your budget, share what you can spend, and develop an SOW based on that. You may not get everything you want but you'll get to work with your desired partner and you never know, they may be able to make it work on their end. Transparency is the basis of any strong relationship and it starts here. You'll get much further being honest than playing games.

Understand their payment terms (and your own)

Net-15. Net-30, Net-60? Who cares?... Your agency does. They have bills and staff to pay. When they put net-15 on an invoice and you agree to it, the expectation is that the money is in their bank account in 15 days. Not all AP departments can move that quickly so it's important to understand how your own finance department handles these things and what's a realistic timeline. That should be communicated to your partners.

Get ahead of travel, per diem, and discretionary budgets

If you've never had a contractor meet you in person or spend their own money for something on your behalf, you can skip this section, but for the rest of you make sure you're thinking ahead. As a contractor, spending your client's money already feels weird. When you don't know how much is reasonable or you're going back and forth (after the initial back and forth on overall fee), both parties are going to feel awkward. Be open up front about any travel expectations and what an acceptable budget is. 

Pay them!

It's weird that this still needs to be said, but pay your vendors. Pay them on time. Don't make them chase you. If there's one thing that will affect the quality of the work, it's this. If the money's right then the work will be too.

Onboarding

Once the money is settled, it's time to get started, but as we all know there's a ton to figure out before anyone can actually get to work. This is how you handle onboarding with your new vendor.

Talk about the people (respectfully)

Every project has a list of stakeholders. Some are great, some aren't—you know who's who. Take the time to walk through who the key players are, what their roles are, and how best to work with them. We've all seen too many projects blow up because the wrong person wasn't in the loop or because someone prefers to receive information a certain way.

As the connective tissue between the internal team and the agency, it's on you to make sure everyone knows how to work together.

Walk through what procurement, legal, and security look like

I had a project recently where it took longer to go through procurement than it did for the work itself. It sucked because I had time planned for the work and I couldn't get started for weeks because of the internal process. Vendors know to expect this but that doesn't make it ok. Be up front about this stuff because it's a pain for you too!

Define your systems, provide access, and share expectations

Each of our teams has tools, software, and other preferences for how we work together (s/o Jason Ett for the reminder on Linkedin). Define those ahead of time and make sure you share them in a vendor guideline. This will avoid unnecessary questions down the road and set the expectation for everything from reviews to approvals. Make sure you get started on access early—especially if that needs to go through procurement or security.

Nail down where and how you communicate

Slack? Email? Whatsapp? Make it clear how the team communicates and where you expect communications to occur. Once the channels are down, nail down the schedule. Nothing worse than getting a late Friday or Saturday message and not knowing what to do. Yes, you want them to be there for you, but you also need to respect boundaries.

Define the timeline

This feels like table stakes but make sure you work on defining the project timeline including reviews and approvals. Put those on the calendar and make sure the key stakeholders are in the loop early. None of this "wanted to be respectful of your calendar" stuff. If you want things to get done on schedule then you need to put it on the schedule.

What do reviews look like?

Every project has multiple official (and unofficial) review rounds. Make sure it's clear who should and shouldn't give feedback (you're DACI-ing this thing, right?), what is and isn't open for feedback, and what those feedback windows look like. Reviews can't be a free-for-all and setting the right constraints around feedback will make the project successful rather than chaotic.

Teach them about the product or service

The best work comes from context. Don't just share a URL and expect someone to have the same knowledge as you do about your hyper niche B2B offering. Walk them through the product, explain what it does, who it's for, and why it exists. These things are going to be critical regardless of the work they're doing.

Working Together

Now that it's time to get to work, it's important to ensure that everyone is on the same page when it comes to working together. This is section is all about respecting each other as people and professionals.

Nail down the SOW

This is another one that seems obvious but that often gets ignored. Your scope of work is the one document that will make sure the project is clear. By defining the project deliverables line by line (and including omissions—for example I always mention that creative isn't included when delivering a strategy) you can avoid a lot of stress down the line about what is and isn't getting done.

This is especially important when it comes to to the money conversation because you start putting parameters around what your budget buys.

Define expectations

Have you ever been in a meeting with an agency or vendor expecting a strategy or a pitch and it turns into something completely different because expectations weren't set from the start? This is one of the biggest killers of time and morale.

Is it a pitch? Do we need a deck? Are we brainstorming? Set the expectation ahead of time for what the time together is. This one is just as important internally so that conversations can stay productive and not go off on tangents—I'm looking at you brand loving CEO!

Don't ask for favors

Every vendor wants to build a strong relationship with you. It makes the work easier and it's the best way to get more business down the road. But a strong relationship doesn't mean freebies, so stop asking for favors.

Yeah, it's only a "quick thing" or a "small thing" or a "related thing" but it's not part of the SOW which means they're not getting paid for it. Cut it out!

If it's that important ask for their hourly rate.

Respect their time

Stop demanding that your vendors are on call 24/7. They're people with families, obligations, and yes, other clients. Set a schedule for recurring meetings, agree on what comms look like (async via Slack is beautiful), and treat each other like grown ups. That's not to say things won't happen that require immediate attention but if there are that many fire drills there's likely a bigger issue than availability.

Also stop canceling meetings last minute. you already know you're not going, just mark it as "not attending."

Share more than you think you need to

There's a lot of down time during the evaluation and onboarding phases of an engagement. Same when it comes to feedback. Make sure you're sharing what's going on with the vendor proactively (even when you have no updates).

Evaluating multiple vendors? That's ok, let them know. The head of security is on vacation? That's ok, let them know. The key stakeholder didn't get a chance to review yet? That's ok, let them know. These things happen. Address them and move on. The silence is what ends up getting to people and forcing them to fill in the blanks themselves. Just share what's going on.

Include them in your conversations

Maybe it's because they're not colleagues but sometimes an us vs. them relationship develops between in-house teams and their agencies. If you want your new vendor to do their best work, include them in the conversation. Don't just share what you think is relevant, share it all. The vendors are an extension of your team and you should trust that the additional context will lead to better work.

Listen!

Throughout all of this we sometimes forget that we hired them. Whether it was because we didn't have the skills or the capacity to do the work ourselves, we went out to get help—so listen. Take the time to learn from their expertise. I know that you're the pro when it comes to your business but they've done whatever it is you're asking for dozens if not hundreds of times (probably for your competitors too), let them share what's worked and what hasn't. It's ok to ask what they think you should do too. I'd guess the person who's done it a few hundred times has some ideas on a new way to do it.

I bought a new domain and I'm working on a toolkit. Now I need your help! 

The idea is to help more businesses get set up with good processes. It's not the bespoke solutions I provide as part of my consulting business but the essentials to getting started.

So far I'm thinking:

• Intake
• Decision Making
• Meetings and attendees
• Reviews and Feedback
• Retrospectives
• Metrics

Here's where you come in, think back to when you were building your team or getting started with your own process. What did you need? What was missing? What would've fast tracked your success? That's the stuff I'm looking to learn more about. If you're willing to share, get in touch and I'll make sure you get access to the kit when it's ready. Thank you!