2 Communicate your expectations

Once you select a vendor, you need to communicate your expectations clearly and consistently. This means defining your goals, requirements, deliverables, and timelines in a formal contract or agreement. You also need to establish your quality criteria, feedback mechanisms, and escalation procedures in case of issues or disputes. You should also communicate your values, culture, and brand identity to your vendor and ensure that they align with yours. By communicating your expectations, you can foster a collaborative and transparent relationship with your vendor and avoid misunderstandings or conflicts.

3 Monitor your vendors

After you sign a contract or agreement with your vendor, you need to monitor their performance and compliance regularly. This means tracking their progress, outputs, and outcomes against your agreed metrics and indicators. You also need to verify their adherence to your contractual terms, industry standards, and legal obligations. You can use tools like vendor performance dashboards, reports, and surveys to help you with this process. By monitoring your vendors, you can detect and address any issues or gaps that may affect your reputation or satisfaction.

4 Review your vendors

At the end of a project or a contract period, you need to review your vendor's performance and feedback. This means analyzing their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats based on your experience and results. You also need to solicit and provide feedback to your vendor on their performance, quality, and satisfaction. You can use tools like vendor review templates, meetings, and ratings to help you with this process. By reviewing your vendors, you can learn from your successes and failures, improve your future vendor selection and management, and recognize or reward your vendor's contributions.

5 Manage your risks

Throughout your vendor relationship, you need to manage your reputational risks proactively and strategically. This means identifying, analyzing, and prioritizing the potential sources and impacts of reputational risks related to your vendors. You also need to develop and implement risk mitigation plans, contingency plans, and crisis management plans to deal with any reputational issues or incidents that may arise. You can use tools like risk registers, matrices, and scenarios to help you with this process. By managing your risks, you can reduce your exposure and vulnerability to reputational damage and enhance your resilience and recovery.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?