Vendor Scoring

Vendor scoring is a common part of every RFP or quarterly business review process. It’s an attempt to quantify objectively the quality of the vendor’s proposal or performance.

The idea is to rate the vendor 1-5 in various aspects from deliver to relationship, growth, and risk. The weighted average of the scores reveals the quality of the relationship in an objective way.

Vendor scoring can be a useful tool to structure thinking and conversations about the vendor’s performance or proposal. By developing the criteria to be scored, the internal team gains a clearer understanding of their needs. By applying those criteria to a vendor, the team comes to consensus about quality.

Vendor scoring for making decisions

Often, if a vendor scoring exercise fails to deliver the desired results, there can be a strong temptation to manipulate a vendor’s score by revising the numbers. We might feel like we’re correcting results which do not accurately reflect the vendor. This temptation is only human.

Humans (being one myself) make decisions on a subconscious level. They follow their gut, go with whom they trust, and listen to their sixth sense. The attempted objectivity of a scoring exercise misaligns with our decision-making process. Vendor scoring is an effective input for the process but a poor substitute.

Using scoring after selection

Vendor scoring provides documentation for the process, putting in writing our assumptions and beliefs about the vendor. Months later, we can test those assumptions by rescoring on the same criteria. These data can help us improve our vendor selection process, improve vendor delivery, and ensure we get the full value of the vendor’s agreement.

Vendor scoring is an effective way to think about what you want out of a relationship. It also is effective in measuring the quality of the relationship and the quality of your assumptions and expectations after you’ve lived through it.