Key Factors to Consider When Purchasing a Service

SMB service buyers are usually teams of individuals in small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) responsible for purchasing products and services from suppliers. If you’re a member of this team, it’s critical you know how to make the right purchasing decisions from smaller teams. Making the wrong choice can lock you into an unideal vendor or service arrangement, costing significant time and money, so your company’s bottom line depends on it.

But what are the key items you should consider before making a decision?

If you are selling a service, these are the essential points every service provider should think about to meet client expectations.

Price 

Start by ensuring the supplier’s costs fits your budget and reflects fair value for what is being offered. While consumer products might have significant markups (because of branding), this is less applicable in B2B transactions. Affordability is essential to preserve margins in most businesses.

Commitments

Next, review the contract. Consider the factors in the terms that matter to you, like the length, minimum period, cancellation policies, and renewal conditions.

If the commitments don’t serve your business interests, see if you can negotiate with the supplier. Sometimes, they will change the terms if it means they can secure business from you. If necessary, be prepared to walk away and find another service.

Quality of Service 

Exploring the purported quality of service is also critical. You won’t actually know how good a supplier is until you use them directly.

However, there are things you can do as proxy methods, like check reviews, testimonials, cases and studies. Our favourite approach is to go through their previous work to confirm the provider’s reliability and standards. This study will help you assess the quality of service of potential service providers.

Timeline and Deliverables

Look for services that explain clearly what they will deliver and when. If anything in the timeline or scope seems unclear, ask the service provider to walk you through the details. Make sure you understand any limitations, key dates and how the work will be carried out. Where needed, request that these points are added to the quote or written into the contract so expectations are fully aligned from the start.

Communication and Support

Communication is critical when working with smaller service providers. You should be confident that you can get responses in a timely manner when you need information or updates. A good provider is supportive, helpful and willing to answer your questions throughout the process. These qualities are often more valuable than the size of the team behind them.

Reputation and Credentials

Finally, we recommend looking at the provider’s experience, qualifications, certifications, and industry standing. Time in the industry and other accolades are a good proxy for quality.

For example, suppose you want to work with an IT consultancy. If they have a raft of relevant qualifications and industry recognitions, it’s probably a safe bet to go with them.

Time to Purchase Now

Once you have reviewed the price, commitments, quality of service, timelines, communication approach and credentials, you should have a clear picture of which provider is the best fit. If everything aligns with your expectations, and the supplier has addressed your questions and concerns, you are in a strong position to proceed. Making a well-informed choice reduces risk, prevents costly lock-ins and ensures your business gets the value and support it needs from the service.