At a time when you are more dependent than ever on vendor performance to meet your goals, let’s give thanks for those vendors that live up to their promises. The ones that offer you a fair contract at a fair price and would never dream of sneaking in a hidden fee. The ones that never shirk their responsibilities, so when problems occur, they fix them promptly and would never charge you to rectify their mistakes. The ones that are your good partners and have your best interests at heart, working so you can succeed instead of lining their own pockets…
Wait a minute…
If this doesn’t sound like your vendors, you’re not alone.
Credit unions and community banks continue to deal with vendors locking them into unfavorable, expensive contracts, providing mediocre offerings that do not deliver what they paid for, and ignoring their concerns while being timely when submitting invoices.
This Thanksgiving season, as well as for the past 20 years, we at Maple Street are thankful that we have been able to help our clients thrive by making their relationships with their vendors more like the vendors in the first paragraph.
That’s why we developed the Vendor Advantage System®, the only experience-based, real-world framework that defines the results you want from vendors and provides accountability to measure and achieve those results. Powered by Maple Street professionals, the Vendor Advantage System® includes:
- Vendor Selection so you have the right vendor for the job
- Contract Negotiation from RFP development to negotiation for best prices and terms, plus relationship contracting to make certain you and the vendor are working together for your goals
- Compliance services that will do almost all the work for you and guarantee you’ll pass your exam with flying colors
- Vendor performance evaluation including scorecarding, because you can’t fix what you don’t measure
While we may be a bit tongue-in-cheek, we believe that by choosing the right vendors, getting the right contracts that hold vendors accountable, and by having a clear understanding between you and your vendor as to what is expected, then working together to achieve results, you can have a vendor management program you’ll be thankful for and vendors you can rely on.
In the process of helping our clients do vendor management correctly, we have saved them over $350 million and counting. That’s something else we are thankful for.
If you’d like to have a better working relationship with your vendors and save money, call Maple Street at 800-513-6839 or email mssales@maplestreetinc.com.
From all of us at Maple Street, to all of you,
we wish you a very happy Thanksgiving!