Measuring The Intangibles In Sourcing Vendor Evaluations

When selecting suppliers during the request for proposals (RFP) process, evaluating the suppliers' tangibles is normally the easier part of the process. Quantifiable information such as financial figures and number of staff members and engagements can easily be reported and scored. Best practice typically entails populating a vendor evaluation matrix that you align with the key questions and capabilities sought in the RFP instrument itself, which is a reasonably straightforward — if not always simple — process. Yet successful selection also depends on getting the intangibles of a sourcing relationship right. For example, how well does the vendor match up in terms of cultural affinity? How will that supplier grow with the client over a multiyear engagement? Few of these questions show up in a typical RFP, but they are essential to the health of a strategic vendor relationship. Finding the answers to such questions typically involves the difficult yet extremely important task of interviewing colleagues, reference clients, and even vendors; this report provides the essential questions to ask when measuring the intangibles.