At this year’s Super Summit the one question I was asked the most was “What do you do as a Chief Marketing Officer?”
After providing multiple vexed responses that contained words like “strategy”, “multi-channel attribution” and “marketing trendz” I finally responded to one of the attorneys “You know? A big piece of my job is managing our vendors.”
It was difficult to admit because when I envisioned being at this level I never would have assumed that vendor management would make up such a large portion of my day to day.
QUOTE: “Vendors, the right vendors, have the ability to accelerate your law firms growth more quickly and efficiently than internal efforts often times.”
countable. Below are 5 things I wish I knew before I hired my first vendor:
1. SETTING UP YOUR CONTRACT CORRECTLY
Include it. Whatever it is that you know you want your vendor to do, include it in the contract. Do not just agree to market exclusivity, ensure it’s part of your contract. Do not assume monthly or regular meetings are included with your new partnership; include it in your contract. This needs to happen for a few reasons. Firstly, it is unlikely that the sales person that is saying “yes” to every request you make will be the account manager or team member executing the deliverables within your contact. They are agreeing to your requests to make the sale. In their defense, it is their job. Secondly, if that “monthly reporting” or another variation of “but the sales person said that you guys did provide monthly reporting” is to include the things you know you want or need in your contract.
Before I get into this list I will say this: vendors, the right vendors, have the ability to accelerate your law firms growth more quickly and efficiently than internal efforts often times. However, and similar to employees, they benefit you best when they are managed well and held ac-
2. VENDOR COLLABORATION MEETINGS
“The left hand doesn’t know what the right-hand is doing” could sum up this rule. Because the marketing industry is fragmented it is easy to silo your digital, public relations, or television efforts. While the industry may be fragmented, your brand is not. Your brand is succinct with one voice and one set of goals. Sometimes “vendor collaboration” is as simple as making sure the language used in your television ads mirrors your PPC page language. Other times it is more impactful like obtaining the necessary backlinks from community and public relations efforts. To make sure that your efforts are both presented in one voice and fully maximized, facilitating vendor collaboration meetings are imperative. These can be organized regularly or as needed. A note: This should be a deliverable in your contact. We have worked with a digital vendor that refused to meet with any other vendors.
3. OUTSIDE AUDITS
I still remember one of our partners telling Seth Price with BluShark Digital that we were going to routinely have someone audit our site and both samphant “Sure!” has followed. I don’t know if Seth knew that his company was just that good or if he did not believe that we were going to follow through but either way shout out to Seth since the first thing the auditor said was “This is a pretty good site.” This “to know” is a tricky one, especially for digital. Firstly, I’d never claim an audit from a company that reached out to me offering a free one-i.e.a they were trying to sell me. They are looking for something to fix. Secondly and would recommend that you get your audits from a vendor whose primary focus are audits or find an out of area agency to complete for you. Audits happen often for SEO efforts, but look to audit your other large spends like PPC, television, or your internal marketing department.
4. USE VENDORS FOR WHAT THEY SPECIALIZE IN
While I don’t live by this rule, I do consider it often. If I am working or plan to with a PPC company that has specialized in PPC for 12 years I may not be interested in having them do my social media marketing. Why? Well, if the appropriate resources will be allocated to the company’s newiest of venture, I say this with the understanding that having less vendors to communicate with could make your life a lot easier. If you are interested in using one marketing vendor to handle all or several your strategies, then ask your account manager how many people are on the new team? Again, an indicator of the necessary resources being allocated. Does the new department have the necessary industry certifications or education? Did the company hire new employees or transition current employees into the new department? Is the newer venture just a 3rd party company your vendor has contracted?
5. CALLING REFERENCES
I’ll say it so that it can be said but my biggest calling references is already a key part of your vendor strategy. Before hiring vendors, call current clients. Ask your vendors for a small and a large client that you could speak to to discuss what it is like working with them. Hopefully, these clients have longevity and can speak big picture with you. Ask these current clients what are the vendors strengths and weaknesses and how the vendor managed any hiccups throughout the relationship. Drill down as much as they will allow you and send them a bottle of wine after as a thank you.
Again, these vendor “to knows” are not to deter you from working organizations. Instead they are to maximize the partnerships you have with them. If you are attending Internet Domination in October, I will be speaking in depth on this topic as I believe it to be a pain point for many of us. I am looking forward to seeing you all then.
