Influence Through Verbal Commitments - Part 2

Verbal commitment without really committing ...

I often get the verbal commitment and a date, but with a caveat - "I will do my best, but I can't guarantee/promise ".  I still go check with him at the date he said, but then it is hard to really hold the person accountable for his commitment.

Of course, like Mark said, anything is better than the work not getting done. Still ... if anyone has some tips or a way to get a more firm commitment I'm all ears.

What About Gaining Commitments from Partner Companies?

Does anyone believe that this works differently when one is trying to gain a commitment from someone external to one's own company? Does Peer Feedback apply to inter-company relationships as well as intra-company.

I routinely deal with Partner companies, and work very hard to cultivate a Partnership (rather than a pure supplier-customer relationship). In spite of this, I am often let-down by the Partners. As I have been tonight. Although I gained a verbal commitment that I would have a deliverable by close-of-business today, tomorrow I will have to ask for a new deadline, and am considering applying Peer Feedback.

The Partner company seemingly does not realise that every time they over-commit and under-deliver, they go down in the estimations of our company. Worst for me is that I am associated with the failure of the Partner company (rightly so as I am the Partner Manager) yet it often seems as if there's very little else I could have done to ensure that the deliverable is er, delivered.

Mark

You can use with external partners.

Mark,

I work in Business Development (not sure if my profile is up to date) and my whole world is partners (consulting, NGO's, Resell, Technical)

While the term "Partners" is broad and can mean a lot of things, I suspect in any case it would be OK to use the Peer Feedback Model with partnerships.   Companies that are very good with partners (i.e. Cisco, Big 4) do this all the time and are very candid.   You should feel free to do the same.    While I'm sure you know this, its worth repeating

1.  Put it in conext for them (i.e., when you deliver late, it makes people in my company question how serious you are in your relationship.)

2.  If its systemic, you may want to consider moving to new partnerships assuming the switching costs aren't too burdensome.   Even if it is, you should consider an exit strategy (i.e., stopping giving them new work and start building an alternative)

-Sean

Wow, you can get things done by being nicer....

Amazing.  This stuff is like the Jedi-Mind trick....

Thanks so much Mike/Mark.  You aren't charging enough :-)

George

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