What a vendor scorecard should weigh, and what it shouldn't

A vendor scorecard is only useful if the categories it scores are things a buyer can actually check. Price and delivery time are easy to compare and tend to dominate informal scorecards, but they say nothing about whether a vendor is who it claims to be.

Four categories carry more weight than they usually get: confirmed business registration, a verifiable physical address rather than a mailing address alone, references that can be independently contacted rather than supplied only by the vendor, and complete documentation, export licenses, quality certifications, insurance, that matches what the vendor states in its bid. A vendor that scores well on price but poorly across these four is a common pattern in bid comparisons, and it's exactly the pattern a price-only scorecard misses.

The scorecard template gives each category a weight so the comparison reflects that balance. Running the actual verification behind each score, registration checks, a physical presence visit, reference calls, document validation, is the vendor verification service, delivered as a signed PDF report. Request a vendor verification report.