EXPERT VENDOR ONBOARDING

CONTRACT TIPS

& INSIGHTS CHECKLIST

CLARITY COUNTS
As you enter an agreement, be abundantly clear about what the contract requires. When you rely solely on boilerplate, you usually leave out important things and include unnecessary terms.
CHOOSE WISELY
To avoid problems, choose your partners wisely. Make appropriate background and past performance checks. Conduct a pre-award survey if appropriate. Look for the character in the people you deal with.
CLAUSES COST
Keep extraneous words out of the agreement. Make sure that you and your vendor have read and understood the contract and that you both understand and respect the vendor’s roles and responsibilities.
NEGOTIATE TO WIN
Design the negotiation process to build the relationship. Reid prefers to follow the process described in Getting To Yes, by Fisher, Ury, and Patton. The book models win/win negotiations and works toward building the relationship while creating a quality contract arrangement.
HOST A POST-AWARD CONFERENCE
Each contract with a new vendor should include a post-award conference in which you review and clarify administrative details, such as preferred communication methods, invoicing and payment requirements, and report, inspection, and meeting requirements. If you conduct this process conscientiously, problems are less likely to arise.
KNOW HOW TO END THE RELATIONSHIP
One area where problems arise is defining with certainty when you’ve completed the contract. You should make the contract clear and review it with your vendor. What are the inspection and acceptance criteria? Are they objective? Do the people conducting the inspection know these criteria? Problems often arise when an inspector or manager disregards those questions and the contract in favor of what they would prefer to see.

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