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Is your sales team ready to deal with professional procurement departments?

Buying has changed - and so too must sales teams when dealing with procurement

Organisations with professional procurement departments are well prepared for complex sales conversations. These departments are often armed with large amounts of data about your organisation's performance globally and comparative competitor data. They may know more about your organisation than you do. Plus, they have a variety of smart tactics at their disposal to lock-in better deals for their organisation. All of which creates a challenging environment for sales people to successfully penetrate - your sales team needs a new way of dealing with procurement.

Sellers without the experience of knowing what works - and what doesn't - especially in the complex sales arena, may find winning the business a difficult and expensive learning curve.

So, to help companies sell into procurement we've combined our extensive understanding of best practice in procurement with deeply researched best practice in sales and account management, developing an approach to dealing with procurement which has been shown to deliver real sales improvements.

‘The Procurement Masterclass has been a valuable timely intervention to help our business in Asia. Going behind the minds of procurement helped us leverage on the key power assets during negotiation. Understanding the Power and Dependency approach supported the entire negotiation process which eventually led to the award of this business despite our company being the highest price bidder vs others.’

ML,General Manager
Global Oil, Fuels & Lubes Supplier

WEBINAR TASTER SESSIONS

Our Dealing with Procurement live webinars are a great way to learn more about procurement's motives and tactics. Join us as we ask the questions, "Who has the power in any relationships you have with procurement departments?" and, "Are you developing the most effective engagement strategies?"  To register your interest in attending a future webinar contact us.

WORKSHOPS & MASTERCLASSES

Over 300 global sales professionals have attended our Procurement Masterclass workshops - remotely or in a group situation - where we equip senior level sales leaders with a clear understanding of the mentality of professional buyers and the strategies, processes and tactics they adopt. Key account managers and sales leads work on real accounts to develop actionable plans as part of a larger Win or Account Plan. These are based on an approach to account management and negotiation that combines your existing processes and frameworks with our best practice templates, practical advice and expert selling skills. To chat about the workshops contact us.

 

  • <b>CURIOUS?</b>

DEALING WITH PROCUREMENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

  • An appreciation of the ‘new realities’ of buying and selling, and how senior level sales leaders can recalibrate their own thinking and approach.
  • Identification of which type of professional procurement organisation account managers are dealing with and the most effective strategies for successful engagement.
  • Comprehensive understanding and application of the power levers in the relationship and their impact on selling success. The ability for senior level sales leaders to take control of the power dynamic.
  • Understanding the core procurement category management process; with each stage’s sub-steps, tools, practices, and behaviours all comprehensively explained.
  • Account and Negotiation planning and execution approaches that specifically address the interests of all constituents in the customer business; professional buyers and their colleague stakeholders.
  • ‘Holding up the mirror’ to senior level sales leaders and determining how credible they are in the eyes of the professional buyer. In other words, the ‘blueprint’ for the ideal senior level sales leaders.
  • The senior level sales leaders become knowledgeable of procurement’s ‘power plays’ and is forearmed with appropriate responses.
  • Confident senior level sales leaders, delivering better business retention and more success in winning new tenders.

“In attending sales training for over 20 years, I learnt more in this programme than any of the others. It has really helped us engage better with the procurement function."
EK - General Manager, Manufacturing

“Understanding the thought-train behind procurement is critical for us to position ourselves for a win. Great facilitation, highly interactive. I would recommend it for any sales professional.”
JH - National Accounts Manager, Fuels & Lubes

“The expertise in the area of procurement has really helped us to drive important improvements in the way we manage our international key accounts. Moreover, the no-nonsense and direct approach makes the sessions dynamic and refreshing.”
JK - Account Director, Services

5 TOP TIPS TO MAKE PROCUREMENT RELATIONSHIPS WORK FOR YOU

Lots of salespeople, be they junior or very senior, shy away from engaging with procurement. Maybe they view them as some sort of ogre. They aren’t, they are human beings. However, their agenda is very different to that of the salesperson. You need to get ready for the right conversation.

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3 WAYS TO BUILD SALES RELATIONSHIPS WITH PROCUREMENT

What strategies do your Sales Account Management teams have in place to win your next contract? How do they work with sophisticated procurement departments? In this blog post we discuss three of our top tips for building successful sales relationships with the ‘professional buyer’.

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FIVE TIPS FOR NEGOTIATING WITH THE PROFESSIONAL BUYER

We often get asked how modern-day category managers think, and what is it about their practices that can create such tension in customer-supplier relationships. Here, David Atkinson discusses the complex subject of professional procurement and how Sales Account Managers can improve their negotiation strategy.

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GEARING UP FOR YOUR NEXT CONTRACT NEGOTIATION WITH PROCUREMENT?
PERHAPS WE CAN HELP

Bear in mind that cost reduction might be firmly on procurement’s minds – perhaps even more so following the recent challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. Bear in mind too that they will be asked by their bosses to secure the best deal, and high on that list will likely be delivering year on year cost savings from suppliers. They’ll be assessing supply chain risk and leveraging technological advances further driving sales teams to step up their game. If sales teams want the balance of power to shift towards them, learning how to deal with procurement will be key to unlocking the possibility of sales improvements.