One of the most common requests we get, from both clients and participants in a session, when we are training sales teams is – How do I sell into procurement. We have a whole course on it, but, here are 6 quick practical tips you can use today:
Six Tips for Selling into Procurement:
1.There are at least two stakeholders involved – end-user and procurement. Make sure to think about both when you bid for the business.
2. Procurement teams want to minimize price, but they also want to minimize risk. Do not make the common and critical mistake of only focusing on price.
3. Consolidation is likely beneficial for procurement and the vendors, so try to accomplish this whenever possible.
4. Probe for their interest. Sometimes they will provide them and sometimes they will only provide their position, but either way, it doesn’t hurt to try.
5. Procurement may try to minimize your value proposition – keep in mind that this is their job. Don’t take it personally, counter this by methodically working through the bidding process and by building strong relationships deep and wide within the organization so that you have as many backers as possible. If they push to break down ever line don’t be afraid to push back, but make sure to provide your total solutions in a very easy to understand and practical way.
6. Try to figure out the decision-making process early on. This will help with creating and maintaining timelines, as well as minimizing surprises deep in the process such as good cop/bad cop and switching decision-makers.
