CLOSING ACTIVE SEARCHES IN SHORTLISTER

WHY CLOSE OUT AN ACTIVE CLIENT

Closing out your pending client opportunities benefits the client and you. Whether there was a winning vendor or not, it’s important to communicate the final decision through Shortlister.

In a perfect world, vendor selection projects would be released and closed with a winner within 60 days. However, all sides of the industry understand that every consultant process, client, requirements and vendor field are different which in-turn makes timelines vary from brief to lengthy.

To build respect between consultants and vendors, we suggest closing pending client engagements out through Shortlister when a winning vendor has been selected (*see below if no vendor won). Yes, the chosen vendor may already know they won the business, but keep in mind these important points:

  • Vendors who offer a discount through Shortlister’s Consultant Incentive Program (CIP)** need to understand how you’d like to allocate that discount: retain as commission or pass to the client as a discount. If the contract is already signed/in-force when you close the search in Shortlister, we cannot guarantee the vendor’s discount will be honored.
  • Closing the search triggers quality surveys from Shortlister to provide feedback on winning vendors. These ratings and reviews provide a central yet powerful repository that continues to build with each new search.  
  • Gain quick insights into vendor wins and losses across your team. Easily identify which client projects are in process or complete. Quickly identify trends and details of placed business.
  • Provide closure on opportunities to the vendors who weren’t selected. They have invested time into their proposal responses and a conclusion provides them the opportunity to update pipelines and annual projections.

HOW TO CLOSE OUT A PENDING CLIENT OPPORTUNITY

Here is a step-by-step on how to do this:

1.  Click into the pending search and click the blue “Close Search” button:

2.  Select the winning vendor (*see bottom of the page if NO WINNER) by clicking the “Winning Vendor” box below their logo:

3.  Complete the requested information to the best of your ability:

> Client contact information is collected to send the quality survey requesting feedback on how the winning vendor is supporting the client 6 months/18 months/30 months after implementation.

> Provide best estimates under program information (Term/Annual Cost/Implementation Date/First Payment Date). If the vendor is offers discounting through the Consultant Incentive Program, we will reconcile with the vendor, but your estimates make the reconciliation process quicker.

> Consultant Incentive Program discount allocation: You will tell the winning vendor how you’d like to allocate any discount if they’re participating in Shortlister’s Consultant Incentive Program. There are two options:

  • To pass the discount to the client, enter the discount amount in the field “Client %”
  • To retain the discount as commission, leave the “Client %” blank and notice the system confirms the “+Broker %” collected by Shortlister and paid out to your organization quarterly. When the % is retained, you’ll need to confirm a broker contact- Shortlister will send the quarterly commission check to this contact.
  • See below for an overview of the Consultant Incentive Program details.

4. Click “Complete Search”- A couple IMPORTANT items are communicated when you close the search, as highlighted above:

> The winning vendor receives a confirmation email that they won the business. In that email, the allocation of any discount offered is confirmed. As mentioned above, this is especially important when you’d like to pass the discount to the client to ensure the vendor applies that discount to the final contract. Alternatively, if retained as a commission, the vendor understands that Shortlister will begin collecting that on your behalf.

> Communicating that a client has made a decision to the losing vendors is also a best practice. The vendors have taken the time to scope out the opportunity, provide pricing information and other collateral and this is now an open opportunity in their pipeline. Taking the time to thank them for participating and providing one sentence of feedback on why they did not win creates good rapport and encourages them to believe in the process.

NO WINNER: When a pending client opportunity has no winner, click into the search, then click on “Close Search” and scroll to the bottom to click on “None of these vendors won the bid”. Please provide a brief explanation to the vendors on why the client decided not to move forward.

**Consultant Incentive Program (CIP) Overview: Vendors who participate in CIP offer a discount to you for placing business with them through the platform. When you place business with a vendor who offers a discount, you choose if you’d like to retain the % as a commission or pass it to the client for a reduction in program costs. Keep in mind, vendors do not include the discount in the proposals that they upload to the platform because you have the option to pass or retain it. Should you choose to retain the %, Shortlister collects that commission from the vendor on your behalf quarterly. In the event that you pass the % the vendor should apply the discount to the final pricing within the contract.

You can easily identify CIP vendors within your search by the orange bar near their logo:

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, PLEASE REACH OUT TO US AT SUPPORT@MYSHORTLISTER.COM