Guest Author

Ronan Gavin

Following on from my last blog post on the role of procurement I wanted to share some insight and strategies to help identify a win-win outcome with procurement.

Procurement Managers are under increasing pressure at present to deliver real cost savings. When positioning a solution make sure you can show a savings benefit that he can position with the business i.e. make him look good amongst his peers. Also try and get a clear view on procurement’s relationship with the business as you could win a useful ally if you can bolster his position internally by arming him with new innovative ways to tackle a problem that he can sell to the business.

Understand the process that procurement go through internally with the business from detailing specifications, assessing the market, going through formal evaluation process and selection and negotiation with preferred supplier. Understanding this is as important for you in setting expectations internally in your own organisation as to the effort involved and timelines of a sales opportunity.

Getting procurement to map out their sourcing process from start to finish will also enable you to identify and plan how and where you can differentiate yourselves from the competition. It is important to remember that evaluations carry a price and non-price element and a good relationship with procurement will enable you to get an indication in some instances how the evaluation is weighted.

My final conclusion is that traditional selling approaches of selling to the business and then defending your position at the very end of the cycle is not effective, particularly in today’s economic climate where the spotlight is on procurement. Be brave – invest the time with procurement as early as possible in the cycle and you can reap the benefits of selling through and not at procurement.

What are your views and experiences on the above? Let’s hear from Procurement people as well!

Ronan Gavin is Business Development Manager with Supplierforce. With over 16 years experience in the technology and financial services industries, Ronan has a unique combination of solution selling and procurement knowledge. With a career which has spanned sales, marketing, consultancy and corporate banking, Ronan has extensive experience in new business development and global account management roles across multiple industries internationally.

Guest Author

Ronan Gavin

Amongst senior sales professionals, the word “procurement” typically brings an emotive response, usually in the negative. There are two reasons for this;

1. Sales professionals do not understand the role of procurement within their organisation and the internal challenges that procurement face with their own business stakeholders.

2. There is a great variance in the professional capability of procurement professionals in the Irish market in particular and a lack of awareness amongst senior sales professionals how to recognise the role procurement managers play within the target organisation. This is a contentious point but a very valid one.

On the first point, it is important to understand that procurement grapple with an ongoing challenge to prove their personal value to the business. From experience I advocate engaging with Procurement at the outset as a very useful strategy. This is because capable procurement managers will always look for new innovative ways from suppliers to bring enhanced value to the business (and budget holders). They are primarily compensated on cost savings but delivering increased value and lower cost on a sustained basis is what maintains and increases their value to the business.

On the second point, bear in mind that procurement managers are not all the same. Some procurement managers are only brought in at the end of the sales cycle as a matter of policy to extract lower pricing from you and it is important to recognise these tactical practices. As a general rule the level of sophistication of procurement usually drives how early the business get them involved. By engaging early in the sales cycle with procurement or even when there is no sales cycle in place, this enables you to decide on the most appropriate sales strategy to adopt with Procurement.

There are different approaches and strategies I have adopted over time to ensure the most successful outcome, but the main advice I would give is to clearly understand the role procurement play within their organisation as early as possible in the sales cycle. You may be surprised to know that procurement can be of assistance in some organisations to position new solutions to the business.

Ronan Gavin is Business Development Manager with Supplierforce. With over 16 years experience in the technology and financial services industries, Ronan has a unique combination of solution selling and procurement knowledge. With a career which has spanned sales, marketing, consultancy and corporate banking, Ronan has extensive experience in new business development and global account management roles across multiple industries internationally.