When would a vendor suggest that you should use a consultant? The short answer is “NEVER”!
Of course, a vendor typically will not suggest that you bring in a consultant. That would be like that vendor saying “How can I help you lower your costs today?”
If a vendor finds that you are bringing in a consultant to review your agreements, pricing, content, etc., they may tell you something like:
- You don’t need a consultant to negotiate your contract. I’ll give you the best price!
- We already have a relationship. What would a consultant do that I couldn’t do?
- You’re already getting the best price because we’ve been doing business together for so long.
If the train starts to derail, then you may hear:
- We won’t be able to show you all of your usage reports because you now have a consultant.
- If you hire a consultant, we will rescind the current offer we just gave you.
- if you use a consultant then we won’t give you our best pricing, even though you have an agreement with your consultant.
Yikes!
Here is what the vendor is really saying:
- I don’t want a consultant that knows the product and has a fiduciary responsibility to represent the firm’s best interest.
- I’m not going to give you any valuable usage reports and prefer to give you reports that really don’t tell you anything.
- I’m going to use my “strong market presence” and intimidate you into not using a consultant.
- I don’t want to work with a consultant that will challenge my margins and suggest removing unnecessary services that I propose.
This may not apply to all vendors, however, if a vendor feels so strongly against using a consultant, then why are firms hiring consultants? It is extremely bold for a vendor to tell you who you can or cannot hire to help you.
It appears that some vendors are pushing firms into hiring consultants due to lack of transparency or making them feel like they aren’t getting the best deal. If a vendor tells you that if you hire a consultant then you won’t get the best price, how does that build trust?
The vendor is actually sending a message that the consultant is getting the firm a better deal than if the firm negotiates directly with the vendor.
This is not a good look for the vendors with this approach. Are these vendors trying to hide something?
Legal Counsel Consulting has the resources to evaluate contracts to assure competitive pricing.
If there is any way I can help or if you would like to schedule a brief conversation, please feel free to contact me.