We can all agree that employees and staff members should be considered members of the “company team” and contribute accordingly.

Well, what about suppliers?

Shouldn’t they be part of the team as well? I would suggest a resounding YES and add they should be vetted as carefully as employees in this regard.

 Service suppliers fall into one of three categories:

• Vendors

• Partners

• Team Members

Let’s explore the differences. “Vendors” provide a service, get paid and they are satisfied at that level. It is “a good days pay for a good days work” and that is as far as it goes. “You call, we respond”. All is well. Is it?

Service Partners engage in meaningful ways with clients helping them improve and grow their client’s business. They are proactive, aggressive and client success is paramount with this group. Service Partners engage with top management of client companies.

Service Provider Team Members are proactively engaged with the client internal team helping them achieve positive results. Thus similar to the Service Partner, yet dealing with a lower level management client team with the same fervor.

So where do you fall?

For Edoc, we have no desire to be a “vendor” regardless of the financial potential. We desire results for the clients from our efforts. We will either be a Service Partner or Service Provider Team Member, never a vendor.  Anything less than client success is commonplace; but not on our watch!

One last point, if you are truly driven for success, treat your service partners and service team members well; fire your vendors.