You've done your research on the Internet and now you are ready to evaluate prospective partners who will assist you with your ERP implementation. It's a good bet that those vendors will want to tell you more than you want to hear about their expertise and experience. But what proactive questions can you ask that will help you separate fact from sales pitch? Here's some advice.

First, interview like an HR professional. HR professionals know that behavioral-based questions will give you more insight into a candidate's true qualities than standard interview questions. A traditional interview question such as “Why did you leave your last job?” will get you a standard, prepared answer. A behavioral interview question such as “Tell me about a time when you were asked to do a task that was not in your job description?” will give you much more insight.

Make sure you involve the right players. So how do you apply this principal to your implementation partner? First, you will want to engage more than the salesperson to get complete answers to the questions. The owner and at least one project manager should be able to meet with you to share past experiences of the implementation team.

Ask these five behavioral-based implementation questions. Here are five questions that can give you excellent insight into your future with potential partners.

• Tell me about an implementation in which your team had to deal with users who did not want to learn the new system.
• Give me an example of a project that had cost overruns and how you handled it.
• Tell me about a training program you delivered that got users up and running quickly.
• Give me an example of an integration or customization that you started, but the scope turned out to be different than what was defined.
• Tell me about an implementation that was completed ahead of schedule and/or under budget. Why was it so successful?

As you can see from the tone of the questions, the idea is not just to ask about problems, but also how you might work with the provider to make the implementation go better. You'll learn more about the philosophy of the company and whether the company's culture is a good fit for your organization.

Prepare the questions in advance and even solicit input from users to make sure you hit the topics most important to your team. A great implementation partner will work to ensure that you get the most from your ERP investment.