In the world of B2B selling sales people who ignore the role of the (not so) 'hidden' customer do so at their peril. So who is he or she? They work in the Procurement Department and control the budgets, raise the purchase orders and get paid a bonus to save the company money.
Sales people sometimes fall into the trap of thinking (and telling their boss) that the deal is 'in the bag', only to be faced with the prospect of being referred to Procurement at the 11th hour, and the deal dies.
Someone told me a great about this very issue. He had the deal 'in the bag' and was referred to Procurement, and his new 'friend' asked for a discount. Rather than guessing he asked how much, to be told "if you can find 3% (I forget the exact figure) that would help me greatly. Please revise your proposal and add 'less 3% discount negotiated with Fred Smith of Procurement' and resubmit and I will raise the PO immediately".
My friend and I agreed that he probably collected these 'one liners' and presented them to his boss once a month to qualify for his bonus.
So the next time you are referred to Procurement at the 11th hour, ask them what they want, negotiate if it is too much, but TRY TRY TRY to find out what they need PERSONALLY to get their bonus.
Find out what they want and if you can give it to them, do it. Is there better advice to move the sale forward quickly?
Posted by: Tim Rohrer | June 21, 2008 at 05:11 AM
Asking questions seems such a simple idea but I'll bet there are a plethora of reasons why sales people don't. I wonder how many sales people would have haggled, juggled, negotiated and battled to this new "adversity" to the deal?
Posted by: nesh thompson | June 24, 2008 at 12:30 PM
Great point Chris. Procurement are become increasingly influential in all major sales - and the old tactic of trying to "go round" them just isn't working - you really have to treat them like any normal customer - figure out what they wat (asking them is a good start) and doing it.
Ian
Posted by: Ian Brodie | June 25, 2008 at 06:14 PM