Vendor Meeting Planning

Meetings with AI vendors are important touchpoints in your buying journey. These interactions give you the opportunity to evaluate technology capabilities, assess cultural fit, and gather crucial information for decision-making. A structured approach ensures you maximize the value of these meetings.

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Why This Template Matters

When evaluating AI technologies, vendor meetings often fall short for several reasons:

• Inconsistent evaluation criteria across different vendors
• Lack of preparation leading to surface-level demonstrations
• Assymetry of knowledge with vendors being more prepared
• Missing key stakeholders whose perspectives are essential
• Failure to address specific requirements for your organization’s use case
• No structured follow-up resulting in lost insights

This template helps you overcome these challenges by providing a comprehensive framework for planning, conducting, and following up on AI vendor meetings.

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Template Components

The Vendor Meeting Planning template includes four key sections designed to guide you through the entire meeting lifecycle:

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1. Pre-meeting Preparation

This section helps you identify all necessary participants and materials needed before the meeting occurs.

• Participant identification: Internal stakeholders and vendor representatives
• Meeting objective setting: Clear goals for the session
• Pre-meeting materials: Documents to share with participants
• Evaluation criteria: What success looks like for this meeting

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2. Meeting Agenda Creation

A well-structured agenda ensures efficient use of time and comprehensive coverage of topics.

• Time-based schedule: Keeps the meeting on track
• Role assignments: Clarifies responsibilities for each section
• Demonstration requirements: Specific capabilities you want to see in action
• Key discussion topics: Critical areas to explore with the vendor

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3. Question Development

Tailored questions for different stakeholders ensure all perspectives are addressed.

• Technical questions: Architecture, integration, data management
• Business value questions: ROI, use case alignment, implementation timeline
• Governance questions: Security, compliance, data ownership
• Support questions: Implementation assistance, ongoing maintenance

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4. Post-Meeting Notes & Feedback

Structured follow-up ensures insights aren’t lost and next steps are clear.

• Meeting summary: Key points and discoveries
• Evaluation framework: Structured assessment of vendor capabilities
• Follow-up actions: Tasks, owners, and deadlines
• Decision inputs: How this meeting impacts the overall evaluation

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Example: AI Vendor Meeting Plan

Here’s a sample plan for a meeting with an AI vendor specializing in generative AI solutions:

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Pre-meeting Preparation

Meeting Objective: Evaluate [Vendor]‘s large language model capabilities for customer service automation and assess integration requirements with our existing systems.

Date & Time: [Date/Time]

Internal Participants:

• [Name], CIO (Meeting Owner)
• [Name], Customer Service Director
• [Name], IT Security Lead
• [Name], Data Privacy Officer
• [Name], Enterprise Architect

Vendor Participants:

• [Requested roles: Account Executive, Solution Architect, Implementation Specialist]

Pre-read Materials:

• Project overview document (shared with vendor)
• Current system architecture diagram
• List of technical requirements
• Specific customer service scenarios for live demonstration

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Meeting Agenda

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Key Questions

Technical Questions:

• How does your LLM handle multilingual customer inquiries?
• What level of customization is available for tuning the model to our industry context?
• How do you manage model drift and ensure continued performance?
• What integration options exist for our current CRM system?
• How does your solution handle PII and sensitive information?

Business Value Questions:

• What metrics should we track to measure successful implementation?
• How does your pricing scale with usage and what controls exist to manage costs?
• What is the typical timeline for implementation and training?
• How have similar companies in our industry benefited from your solution?

Governance Questions:

• What security certifications does your platform maintain?
• How is customer data used in your model training?
• What data ownership rights do we maintain?
• What compliance frameworks do you support (GDPR, CCPA, etc.)?

Support Questions:

• What implementation support is included?
• What ongoing training do you provide for our team?
• How do you handle model updates and improvements?
• What is your SLA for critical issues?

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Post-Meeting Evaluation Framework

Evaluation Criteria (Rate 1-5):

• Technical capability match to requirements
• Integration complexity
• Data security and governance
• Implementation support
• Cost and licensing structure
• Cultural fit with our organization

Follow-up Actions:

• [Action items with owners and deadlines]

Decision Timeline:

• Follow-up meeting date
• Decision deadline

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Benefits of Using This Template

By using the Vendor Meeting Planning template, you will:

1. Ensure consistent evaluation across different AI vendors
2. Demonstrate preparedness that commands respect from vendors
3. Uncover deeper insights beyond standard sales presentations
4. Include all critical perspectives from various stakeholders
5. Create actionable documentation that supports decision-making
6. Reduce meeting fatigue through focused, efficient sessions

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Next Steps

To use this template in Kowalah:

1. Navigate to the “Supplier Selection” stage
2. Select “Help me plan for a vendor meeting”
3. Answer the guided questions about your specific meeting needs
4. Customize the generated plan to your requirements

Related templates:

• Vendor Evaluation Scorecard
• Requirements Document