A vendor sells you a service once, a partner sends you business before you even ask, and the difference is almost always the follow-up. Larry Chiang’s External API idea is about plugging into something that already works instead of building your own distribution from nothing. A vendor who already has a full client list is exactly that: an existing system you can plug into if the relationship goes past the invoice.
Most people pay the bill, say thanks once, and never follow up again, which keeps the relationship stuck at vendor. The follow-up that changes it is specific: a note after the job is done, naming what went right, sent before the vendor has to ask for a review. Karma in this framework rewards the person who moves first, and a vendor relationship is one of the easiest places to move first because the exchange already happens on a schedule.
Reciprocating fast matters here too, sending a referral back to the vendor within days rather than whenever one happens to come up. Once a vendor trusts that you talk about them well, they start doing the same for you, which is the actual moment a vendor becomes a partner.
That trust is what makes the External API work in your favor, their client list becomes a place your name gets mentioned without you asking for it. None of this requires a formal contract, Larry’s model runs on what he calls DJ two things that exist, matching what you need with what the vendor already has.
The relationship still has to make money for both sides, a partner who never gets paid work eventually goes back to being a vendor. Keep following up after the invoice clears, since that is the part almost everyone skips and the part that actually builds the partnership.
Details: Watch Larry turn a vendor into a partner
#VendorRelationships #ExternalAPI #Web12