When an agreement is reached between a client and an outside services firm, the negotiation establishes the scope of work to be provided, the payment terms, and other legal provisions as to ownership of intellectual property, liability and such.

Yet an attorney often doesn’t draft contract language around the conversation that sets a commitment for the success of the engagement at its outset: does the client seek a vendor or a partner? And does the consultant know its own dominating trait as defines how it performs best? Do the client and consultant have compatible values, work styles and expectations? What does each organization stand for going into the relationship? What impact does each enterprise intend to make beyond their respective core missions and how will this be reflected in how they work together?

Within the infinite business spectrum that is outsourced consulting there is a place for both of these organizational personalities. But often the word “partner” is bantered about so casually that it risks implications and assumptions largely unexplored in the process of binding a consultant and client at the outset of their association.

To achieve a business DNA match it’s imperative to understand these distinct organizational personalities and to have the big conversation that predicts if your engagement will be a match or a miss. Consider these perspectives:

A vendor consultant provides an important specialized service for which their expertise, speed, facility and value proposition create advantage for their client. There is a transactional quality to the way an outsourced vendor works, providing one-off services like printing or making widgets to a specific work spec. The focus is on the end deliverable, and there is little exposure of the work process that reveals any evolved thinking prior to the final outcome. The vendor is not a member of the inner circle of the client. In fact, they are kept deliberately at arms length and work independently.

A partner consultant suggests a more ongoing, future-facing connection between them and their client. The client executives are willing to open up about the inner workings of their enterprise, their true goals or vulnerabilities and are generous in sharing concerns, strategy and success with their consultant. There is a sense of unity and trustful collaboration with a borderless interplay between both sides. By contributing their knowledge to key decisions, the partner behaves as an extension of their receptive client organization.

So how do both parties get what they want and expect for mutual success and satisfaction?

In a word– communication.

While experience has taught the importance of this conversation early in the new business dialog, its important to revisit this topic at the outset of any program planning or whenever a key leadership change occurs on either side. Both parties need to know: does the client want a vendor or a partner? How do those organizational behaviors differ? How is work to be developed and information shared? What is the expected interplay between both sides? And the consultant needs to self-assess its own organizational character and determine its preference to be a vendor or a partner. This is essential in order for the consultant to know if its work approach and driving values jive with a client’s expectations and work style.

Here are ten questions to start this conversation:

1. Do you invite unsolicited observations or insights to inform your business?  Is constructive criticism or probing back and forth welcome?
2. Are you willing to view documents or work product in a raw, developmental state when doing so achieves speed and joint input?
3. What is your humor threshold? How informal can we be with you? Can we be authentic when we interact?
4. Do you want us to hold strictly to the boundaries of our work spec? Can we propose value-add ideas without being viewed as overreaching? Are you interested in hearing about conferences, networking venues or other events that are outside of our primary scope of work but which might be relevant to your professional or even personal pursuits?
5. Will we each be equally committed to each other’s successes, to include being an ambassador for our respective brands?
6. Do you believe that doing good in the broader society is good for business? Does your organization dedicate assets to civic causes or social philanthropy?
7. Are we both willing to invest extra time in this engagement to be successful?
8. What are your benchmarks for our performance beyond quantitative metrics? Do you fund mechanisms for measurements against our program goals?
9. Do we understand and accept the respective personalities and temperaments of our principals?
10. Are your senior executives accessible to us and do they buy in to our engagement’s goals?

This doesn’t have to be a difficult conversation and it shouldn’t be since you’re in the process of setting a joint course of business engagement to achieve favorable outcomes. But like any formative relationship, both parties need to know what the other one wants, what makes them tick, and how best to mesh communications styles. Effective work planning needs to go deeper than mapping a tactical calendar based on strategy– it needs to establish both the tempo and permissible content to guide how ideas and work product will be shared between a like-minded client and consultant. What questions would you add to this list?