Selling The Value of Procurement

Question 1

Many of the traits which make procurement professionals good “buyers” tend to limit our ability to be effective “sellers”

Answer 1

Supply chain organizations must become ‘marketers’

Question 2

Why Do People Buy

Answer 2

Buying decisions are motivated by a desire or need. We can only convince our internal customers that they have a need for procurement’s services

Question 3

. Consider the following premises of selling

Answer 3

• Needs are perceptions which exist in a customer’s mind.
• Perception of needs vary by individual and by situation.
• Customers will act to satisfy a need when that need becomes strong enough.
• All of procurement’s services have features, which can be adjusted or enhanced to appeal to the needs of our customers.
• The right combination of features can satisfy a customer need.
• If a feature can satisfy a need, the result is a benefit to the customer.
• Need + Feature = Benefits

Question 4

Needs Procurement Can Satisfy

Answer 4

• Reduced total cost
• Participation in enterprise volume agreements
• Skilled negotiation support
• Ease of ordering via catelog-based eProcurement technologies
• Lower risk
• Shorter Procure to Pay (P2P) cycle times
• Higher product and service quality
• Contract management expertise
• Supplier performance benchmarking

Question 5

.A good procurement marketing strategy should address the following elements

Answer 5

1. Determine your major customer groups
2. Develop marketing tools to help procurement staff educate and support customers.
3. Prepare for customer interaction
4. schedule regular meetings with key customers to become familiar with their needs and to pro-actively become involved in their upcoming procurement actions
5. , after every key sourcing or supply chain project, immediately contact the customer to review and critique the project, enhance future interactions, and identify additional opportunities
6. through the company newsletter or internal web site, continually advertise the ‘value add’ of new procurement programs.

Question 5

When you are not practicing, remember someone somewhere is practicing, and when you meet him he will win

Answer 5

Ed Macauley - basketball player

Question 6

Now think about the relation between helplessness and choice. If we have choices in a particular situation, then we should be able to exert control over that situation, and thus we should be protected from helplessness. Only in situations where there is no choice should vulnerability to helplessness appear.

Answer 6

Paradox of choice

Question 7

Having the opportunity to choose is no blessing if we feel we do not have the wherewithal to choose wisely. we must learn to be selective in exercising our choices. We must decide, individually, when choice really matters and focus our energies there, even if it means letting many other opportunities pass us by.

Answer 7

Paradox of choice

Question 8

Every choice we make is a testament to our autonomy, to our sense of self determination.

Answer 8

Barry Schwartz- the paradox of choice