2. Translate terms into your corporate vocabulary

The second point is that, unless customer and supplier come from the same molds, or almost, there are often terms that it's best to have clarified, especially when certain terms can correspond to different interpretations.

For example, if a table base is to be supplied in synthetic material, and is to be finished (sanded and polished, for example), the specifications may well read: "the surface must be hard and allow the object to be finished". For some, the term "hard" will mean "unassailable" and "finishable" will mean "smooth", whereas the writer intended this phrase to mean that the material should not be sticky at all, that it should be sufficiently friable to allow fine sanding, without too much effort, to allow finish polishing.

Such differences in interpretation are not uncommon, unless you've already worked on similar projects with...