There's a difference between a vendor and a partner, and you usually discover which one you signed when something goes wrong. A vendor delivers what's in the contract. A partner cares whether it actually worked.
Questions to ask before you sign
The brochure and the demo tell you what a provider does on their best day. What you want to know is how they behave on their worst — when there's a problem, an ambiguity, a thing that isn't quite their fault but is squarely your headache. Ask the questions that surface that:
- When something breaks at an inconvenient hour, what actually happens — and who do I talk to?
- Will I work with senior people, or be handed to juniors after the sale?
- What happens when our needs change — are we trapped, or accommodated?
- Can you tell me about a time this went wrong for a client, and what you did about it?
A vendor answers the question you asked. A partner tells you the thing you didn't know to ask.
The cheapest provider on paper is often the most expensive in practice, once you count the cost of being on your own when it matters. Choose for how someone behaves when things are hard — because eventually, with anyone, things will be.