You've probably heard about vendor development, where you take the time to carry along and develop a vendor instead of kicking them to the curb.  It used to be that an under-performing vendor would be berated for their lack of performance and then likely get a letter from the customer describing that the vendor was in breach of the contract.  Termination soon followed.  Not so much anymore.  

Unless the vendor is really screwing things up or unwilling to prop up their performance, there's a trend to develop the vendor to get them to the level where they need to be.  That's a good thing.  In fact, in some cases, I have a tough time with some of my customers who want to see blood.  When I talk through the issues with them, and vendor development seems to be a viable option, my customers sometimes think I'm going soft.  I have a recent case, where the vendor isn't as sophisticated as my employer is, and we're actually sharing some policy and standards with them to bring them up to speed.  We're even offering them access to certain of our employees so that we can share best practices and do knowledge sharing.  In this case, the vendor wants to perform and we actually flew some folks (on our dime) to meet with them.  It's a touchy situation that needs to be handled delicately because people and companies sometimes don't want to admit they need help--especially if they think they'll be taken out at the knees if they do admit to needing help.

The real reason for this post is not to rant about vendor development--that's a whole different future blog topic.  What I do want to cover is "reverse marketing."  I think of reverse marketing as the umbrella concept under which vendor development falls and is only a part of reverse marketing.  Actually, reverse marketing is a fancy, nice word for "aggressive procurement," and I mean aggressive in a positive context.  "Aggressive procurement" or "reverse marketing" is all about making vendors want to do business with you.  Believe or not, vendors may not be falling all over themselves wanting to do business with you.  Particularly in this era of "assurance of supply" needs...  If you buy raw materials like concrete or steel, you know what I mean.  You're competing with customers in China, India, and Abu Dhabi for vendors of those materials.  But even if you don't buy raw materials like that, you're still going to experience competition for vendors--even for IT goods and especially for IT services.

So how do you compete with other customers for vendors?  Reverse marketing, of course.  It's really a twist of a mind-set that some procurement folks have a hard time getting their minds and attitudes around.  Instead of the vendor wining and dining you as the customer, you need to "wine and dine" the vendor.  Not literally, of course, but more figuratively.  Here's what I mean...

My employer consumes a tremendous amount of hotel room nights every year.  Around 62,000+ room nights or about 170 years of hotel room nights every year.  Yeah, we do a lot of travel.  With most of the chains, we're in the top ten of their customer base.  So much so, that I have a personalized, autographed picture of Paris Hilton on my desk.  Hey, it was the thought that counts...  Anyway, there is tremendous competition for hotel rooms and business travel (despite the financial situations of the airlines) is booming.  If you've stayed in a hotel room in a top tier city lately, you know, via the hotel room rate, what I mean.  Hotel rooms are not getting any cheaper any time soon, and that's because demand is outstripping supply.  So, even though we're a huge customer, we still need to court the chains to get the supply of hotel rooms we need.  How do we do that?  Again, reverse marketing.  

We recently held an event where executive representatives of the hoteliers were invited to a nice venue (and fed), as we presented the various events we were planning for the next 5+ years (yes, we plan that far out; in some cases, to 2020) and the desired cities for the events.  Our meeting planners introduced themselves and discussed their roles and responsibilities, and the Director of Meeting and Event Planning reviewed the strategic initiatives for her department.  The hoteliers left happy, full, and informed.  Do you think we stand out as a customer as a result of this?  Do you think this makes the hoteliers want to do business with us more than another customer that doesn't reverse market themselves?  Heck, yeah!  We also make an effort to attend hotel industry events, and we're a member of several convention and visitor bureau's advisory boards across the country.  We're one of a few organizations that sit on the Hilton Sales Board.  Why do we do all these things?  Because we know that we need to actively reverse market ourselves to keep ourselves relevant to hoteliers.

For you technology procurement folks, you can do the very same thing (and I do it).  Invite your top tier technology vendors to your facility, and have your IT execs share non-confidential portions of the IT strategic plan and annual business plan to the vendors.  Do it well, rehearse, and, most importantly, have food.  Be professional about it and sweat the little things, like giving the vendors directions to your facility and greeting them "at the door."  Have tables pre-set with placards with the vendors' names on them.  Like our vendors, your technology vendors will appreciate your efforts, they'll walk away with a better understanding of where they fit in and how they can contribute, and, more importantly, they'll want to do business with you.  What does it cost your company?  A little bit of your execs' time and some catering.  Big deal, considering...

Another suggestion is for you to visit your strategic vendor's facilities.  How often do you think customers really do that?  When we visit our technology vendors, they can't believe that a customer actually took the time to visit them.  In some cases, we've been the first customer that has ever visited their facilities--and I'm talking about vendors that have been in business for years.  Vendors love showing off their facilities, staff, and capabilities, and it gives their staff a huge morale boost.  It makes your account exec look great to his or her bosses.  This type of reverse marketing really puts you ahead of other customers.

Another suggestion is to attend your vendor's industry events.  And I mean really "attend."  That means offering to speak or present, not just showing up, at a suppler's event.

You know better than I do what efforts your company can take to reverse market itself.  My point of all of the forgoing is that my fellow procurement friends need to make the mind shift.  Instead of being pursued, you need to pursue.  It takes effort and you may need to do some convincing with your execs, but it's worth the pay-off.  You don't need to do it with every vendor or for every commodity, but you likely need to do it for someting.  But, I have a feeling that if procurement folks don't get smart on reverse marketing sometime very soon, they could find themselves competing at the bottom rung for some of their vendors' products and services.