Nope, they’re actually not the same thing, and the results you get from your relationships with each can heavily depend on what expectations you have, and how you put them to work for you. Simply put, there’s a huge difference between giving clients and customers what they want, versus what they need. Probably the best example that I can think of relates to delivering babies.

Yes, I said babies

My wife is an OB-GYN, and encounters a large number of women who, while being admitted to the hospital, are dead-set on having all-natural births. Absolutely no caesarian sections or epidurals for me, thankyouverymuch doctor. The reasons are varied, but mostly valid – they don’t want the scar, they read something about it breaking the mother-child bond, etc.

Now the unfortunate reality is that a large portion of these women experience some kind of complication that is usually easily remedied with a c-section, whether it be for the mother’s health, the baby’s health, or (usually) both. Guess how many of those women are upset about the c-section when they joyously embrace their baby for the first time? (hint, it’s somewhere between 0 and ‘not many at all’). When it comes down to it, going with an all-natural birth was a request that the doctor overrided in the patient’s best interest – with the outcome being far more satisfactory to all parties involved. Despite ignoring what it said on the spec sheet, the doctor was able to deliver (literally) the goods.

This isn’t to say that vendors don’t have their own role. With some tasks, you can skip the ponderous hand-wringing, and go straight to execution – oftentimes benefiting you with lower cost and greater speed – in other words, it’s ‘good enough‘. The master himself, Jerry Seinfeld explains it best: “Fine, just get where it says on the ticket”.

Identifying partners versus vendors

There are several telltale signs that can help you determine which you’re talking to.

Partners	Vendors
Ask TONS of questions Talk more about goals Frequently ask why More likely to drive innovation Cost more Are more flexible, and able to cope with open-ended assignments Need less management and more trust to be effective	Just want the specs (ma’am) Talk more about timelines and deliverables Ask comparatively fewer questions Give you exactly what it says on the spec sheet – anything else is a bonus Cost less Are typically best put to use for specific tasks Need more specific info and hands-on management to be effective

That last one’s a doozy for many of us – in order to get a partner to fulfill their potential, you have to let go, and open your mind to different approaches from what you’d normally have happen.

The Formula

All of this can be boiled down into a simple logic process for your decision. I warn you now – there may be code (eep!):

If (Speed + Low Cost) > Innovation {
Go with a vendor
} otherwise {
Go with a partner
}

What do you guys think – are there other factors that come into play when choosing who to ask for help with a task? Shout, shout, let it all out in the comments!

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