Decideware

More than just Gap Analysis

I was involved in an interesting discussion last month with a key marketing purchasing leader around why it is important to have an agency or supplier self-assess their performance as part of a formal evaluation process.

I had always considered that the major reason for suppliers to self-assess was to generate 'gap analysis' data - information used to directly compare a client's assessment with the supplier's self-assessment, and to focus discussion on the obvious differences between the two ratings.

Do you understand?

However, my purchasing colleague believes a key benefit of asking an agency to self-assess is simply to ensure they understand the assessment questions.

• The process of self-assessing forces the agency to think about the true objective of every question.
• Then when both parties meet to discuss the assessment report, they come with the same understandings and the meeting is dramatically more effective.
• There is no wasted time in discussing the meaning of each question; rather the focus is on the results and the actions that lead from them.

In other words, when agencies are invited to self-assess they need to develop an understanding of each assessment criteria prior to their self-completion and the results review meeting.

And if they are unsure of the purpose of an assessment question, they need to seek clarification from the client.

Satisfaction is not just about performance

Of course, a further point is that COMMUNICATION of expectations is a key driver in relationship satisfaction, having expectations alone does not help!

Satisfaction, by definition includes two key dimensions of 'what I expect' and 'how you perform'.

And it would seem to me this is exactly what self-assessment can help to deliver - communicatiing my expectations (and how I measure them) , then aligning my expectations as a client with the resources of the agency or supplier. And finally, measuring it as part of the formal evaluation process.

Author: Richard Benyon, Decideware