“There is no danger that Titanic will sink. The boat is unsinkable and nothing but inconvenience will be suffered by the passengers.” – Phillip Franklin, vice president of the White Star Line

(After the accident, a penitent Franklin walked back his remarks. “I thought her unsinkable, and I based my opinion on the best expert advice.”)

After the Ink Dries: Delighting Vendors

So the contracts are signed.

Congratulations.

Now the real work begins.

Most entrepreneurs believe the finish line is getting the agreement executed.

It isn’t.

It’s the starting gun.

Redefining “Customer”

My definition of a customer is broader than most.

A customer is anyone who receives your time, attention, or communication.

Yes — that includes the person buying your product.

It also includes:

• Your vendors
• Your consultants
• Your contractors
• Your strategic partners

And if we are being honest — your spouse, your children, your dog, and your friends.

Anyone who interacts with you is experiencing your leadership.

The goal?

Delight them.

Not impress.
Not manipulate.
Not “manage.”

Delight.

Through email.
Through phone calls.
Through meetings.
Through follow-through.

Of course, technically, you are the vendor’s customer too. They should be delighting you.

In practice?

That is rare.

So set the tone.

The energy of a relationship is often set by the most intentional person in it.

That person must be you.

Why Vendor Delight Matters

As a start-up, you cannot afford mediocre engagement.

If your telesales partner sounds bored…
If your marketing agency feels indifferent…
If your fulfillment house treats your shipments as “just another box”…

Your growth suffers.

Vendors who like you work harder for you.

They respond faster.
They flag problems early.
They squeeze you into busy schedules.
They introduce you to opportunities.

Not because the contract demands it.

Because they want to.

People go the extra mile for people they enjoy working with.

And enjoyment in business is criminally underrated.

The Startup Advantage

Large corporations struggle to delight vendors.

They are bureaucratic. Slow. Impersonal.

You are nimble.

You can:

• Reply quickly.
• Express genuine appreciation.
• Share wins.
• Celebrate milestones.
• Introduce them proudly as partners.

Simple gestures matter.

A short note saying, “Your team handled that launch beautifully — thank you,” can move mountains.

Vendors talk internally about clients.

You want your name mentioned with a smile.

Communication Is Leadership

Delight is not flattery.

It is clarity, responsiveness, and respect.

• Be precise in what you need.
• Pay on time.
• Avoid unnecessary drama.
• Own mistakes quickly.
• Share credit generously.

These are not soft skills.

They are strategic tools.

Delighted vendors become your invisible, unpaid sales force.

They recommend you.

They prioritize you.

They protect you.

They quietly advocate for you when you are not in the room.

That is leverage money cannot buy.

The Energy Principle

When someone has a winning idea but does nothing with it, the idea fades.

The same is true of relationships.

If you neglect them, they cool.

If you nurture them, they compound.

Your company is not just a product.

It is a network of human relationships.

Delight the network.

Feed it attention.

Fuel it appreciation.

Because after contracts are signed, the difference between average companies and exceptional ones is not paperwork.

It is how people feel when they work with you.

And people who feel good — perform better.

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Even small vendors can employ large teams.

And in large teams, many people feel invisible.

Another headset.
Another login.
Another employee number.

Very few wake up thinking, “Today I will make a meaningful contribution to someone’s vision.”

That is where you come in.

When you share genuine gratitude…
When you forward glowing feedback from customers…
When you say, “Your team handled that beautifully”…

You interrupt the monotony.

You remind them that their work matters.

That they matter.

And that connection changes performance.

Build a Two-Way Channel

Vendor relationships must be open and respectful.

Feedback should flow both ways.

You share customer responses — good and bad.
They share operational realities — early warnings, improvements, ideas.

The aim is simple:

Create a network so effective that your daily involvement becomes unnecessary.

That only happens when vendors are enthusiastic about your company.

Enthusiasm cannot be contractually mandated.

It must be earned.

Train Them Like They’re Yours

At every vendor, I invest heavily at the beginning.

Especially with the people who will interact directly with my customers.

I treat them as if they are my employees.

They receive:

• A full overview of the company and mission
• A clear understanding of the business model
• Comprehensive product or service training
• Context for why what they are doing matters

This often involves on-site sessions — or structured virtual “in-service” meetings.

Once or twice a year, I conduct refresher training via video. Everyone can raise concerns. Ask questions. Hear updated market feedback.

Remember: the frontline personnel at vendors are often junior staff.

In a traditional hierarchy, they would never speak directly to a CEO.

So when the CEO shows up — live — thanks them personally, and copies their manager on a note of appreciation?

It delights them.

And delighted people try harder.

Make It Easy for Them to Win

For customer service teams, I provide structured support:

• FAQ binders
• Best-answer guides
• Phone scripts
• Clear escalation pathways

Everyone receives my direct work-only mobile number.

They are told explicitly:

Call me with any question — no matter how small.

If they escalate quickly, I respond quickly.

And I always follow up with a grateful email copied to their supervisor.

Employee delighted.
Supervisor delighted.
You delighted.

These small gestures compound.

The Reality of Staff Turnover

Here is where vigilance matters.

With one vendor, I learned too late that trained customer service staff had been reassigned. New people were placed in front of my customers with only minimal handover.

By accident, I stumbled upon an online forum where a customer was criticizing my company for terrible service.

Wrong shipments.
Incorrect charges.
Frustrated tone.

It had only been happening briefly, and I was able to fix it immediately.

But the lesson was clear:

Initial training is not enough.

Ongoing training is essential.

I implemented a new rule: the vendor had to notify me immediately whenever personnel changes occurred in any role touching my business. I would then train or brief the replacement that same day.

After a few months, most teething issues disappear.

Then the function hums.

The Hardest Part: Letting Go

Most vendors are exceptionally competent at what they do.

The real challenge is resisting the urge to interfere.

One vendor once wrote to me after our annual review:

“We appreciate the trust you place in us. Many clients struggle to let go and contact us daily. We spend significant time managing egos rather than executing. Interestingly, the more involved a client is in the day-to-day details, the more issues tend to arise…”

That email was one of my proudest moments.

Trust reduces friction.

Friction creates problems.

The Vacation Test

The first time I took a week-long vacation and the company ran so smoothly that no one noticed my absence… it felt strange.

Almost unsettling.

My corporate conditioning had trained me to believe:

Everything is urgent.
Everyone must be busy.
There are never enough hours.

In the virtual model, I experienced the opposite.

Systems ran.

Vendors executed.

Customers were served.

And I had time.

So much time that I briefly felt guilty.

That guilt was simply conditioning dissolving.

To paraphrase Lao Tse:

The best Virtual CEO is the one whose contractors say,
“We did it all ourselves.”

That is the goal.

Not control.

Not busyness.

Not constant visibility.

But orchestration so elegant that the music continues — even when the conductor steps away.

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Another adjustment — and it is a psychological one — is geographic dispersion.

If you have spent your career inside a single building, with all departments under one roof, the virtual model feels almost rebellious.

No hallway conversations.
No centralized headquarters.
No parking lot politics.

Instead?

Your company becomes a constellation.

For my first virtual company, the LLC was registered in Delaware — because that was the legal norm for the industry. The official mailing address was near Seattle.

Accounting was handled by a firm in Dallas. Their systems gave me real-time access to every transaction from anywhere, on any device.

Warehousing was in Kentucky — with a live online inventory dashboard.

Regulatory services operated out of Chicago.

Sales and marketing were managed from New Jersey.

Legal services were based in Georgia.

Research and development occurred in laboratories in California and Taiwan.

On paper, it looked chaotic.

In practice, it was seamless.

Everything was coordinated from my home office — or from a mobile device wherever I happened to be.

A few clicks.
A few dashboards.
Regular video calls.

That was the “infrastructure.”

I visited the warehouse once a year — not to fix problems, but to thank the team and update them on company progress.

There was remarkably little else to do.

That is the point.

The real heavy lifting happens at the beginning:

• Selecting the right vendors
• Negotiating sensible, cash-flow-friendly contracts
• Training their teams properly
• Setting up clear reporting systems

Once that foundation is solid, the model largely runs itself.

You hold regular update calls.
You monitor dashboards.
You review performance metrics.

And then?

You focus on growth.

Marketing.
Partnerships.
New product lines.
Acquisitions.

The CEO becomes strategic — not operational.

Eighteen months after launching that first virtual company, I overheard an investor telling a colleague it was the best-run small business in their portfolio.

He was not praising me personally.

He was commenting on the efficiency and transparency of the structure.

Every function had live data access.
Everyone could see what was happening in real time.

Transparency creates security.
Security creates confidence.
Confidence improves execution.

In a traditional company, information often travels vertically — slowly.

In a virtual company, information flows horizontally — instantly.

The surprising truth?

Dispersion does not create disorder.

Poor systems create disorder.

With the right systems, dispersion creates resilience.

If one geography has an issue, others continue operating. If one vendor stumbles, you can see it quickly and act.

The world becomes your headquarters.

And once you get used to it, you may find it difficult to imagine ever going back to a single building full of fluorescent lights and office politics.

The hub model feels lighter.

More modern.

More intelligent.

And when it is built properly, it feels almost unfairly efficient.

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