An Audience with Procurement Part 2

Following for last week’s piece on Procurement, I promised I would delve further into the view from the other side of the table and how, we, as sales people, view procurement and some of the practices which help or hinder sales and partnership effectiveness. And what our common enemy is.

So let’s take a look at the other side of the table.

Many a seasoned sales person can tell you story after story about the ‘Gunna Gunna’ customers:Gunna do this, gunna do that be it never goes anywhere.

Customers who spend very little with us but take up enormous amounts of our time or who are really nice but we know they do not have the potential to develop into long-term revenue generating accounts for our business in effect, keep us from working with customers where we can get a better return on investment.

And the cost of the sales effort escalates.

Fit sales organisations are really looking at the viability and potential of customers and whether they are worthwhile working or not.

Fit Sales Organisations segment their customers and their markets and then work out the most cost-effective way to sell and service these customers or not as the case may be. We have to work our what it cost us to get a sale.

Depending on the industry, it can costs an in-field sales person and their company anywhere from $1000 to $1,500 per client sales meeting (that’s taking into account things like the cost of travel and time in the meeting – approx. 1 hour). Given this cost we want to be very discerning about;

(a) how long it took us to get a customer on board and
(b) about the value and potential of the customer could give our business

What we are guarding against is trying to sell to those customers who do not and never will meet our criteria for high potential and high value.

In sales it is just as important to know when to say no and walk away. It’s about how you use your time and effort.

I am sure you are aware that today business is a 2-way street and while customer have often been in the drivers seat around choice of supplier the balance of power is being readdressed and shifted to a more partnership arrangement .

Suppliers are now weighing up their options as well. For instance before we accept an RFP (request for proposal) or Client Brief many of us weigh up is it worth it working with that organisation or not?

Personally I believe that Procurement is a public relations exercise.

Goods sales organisation will weigh up the cost of getting the sale. If your procurement process portrays your organisation as smart, easy-to-deal-with, enlightened, focused and disciplined and you fit our criteria for potential and value then we will put in the effort to work with you. If not then we will often go else where for better quality sales. Unless we are working in a very limited market we often have many customers to chose from in this global economy.

Making procurement processes too hard or unnecessarily complicated may limit a businesses from accessing the very tools, products, systems or advice they so desperately need.

For instance some of the recent e-procurement experiences I have had have been less than favourable. Meaning they failed to do the job. And wasted a lot of time, money and effort. Time, money and effort we could have been investing in better sales opportunities.

Just because a big company has a name doesn’t necessarily mean we want to work with them.

What good sales people would like is to be given a chance work with people in partnership not competition.

For all the “us’ versus ‘them’ that gets said about sales and procurement, we should all recognise the common enemy

• Isn’t men against women or
• Sales people against procurement people

The common enemy is WASTE.

• Wasted resources
• Wasted time,
• Wasted relationships
• Wasted opportunity
• Wasted ideas

That is why I am finding more and more people saying they want to work with others (suppliers, partners and customers) in a spirit of cooperation, consultation and respect not competition or deceit. This personal insight and awareness makes for much better business relationships and much better business results for all concerned.

As the Buddhist saying goes: Without the cooperation and kindness of others we cannot exist.

Recently I was approached by the head of CISP Australia (Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply) www.cipsa.com.au, Jonathan Dutton to be their after dinner speaker at the Women in Procurement Conference on 19 June 2008.

This was a new event on CIPSA’s calendar which provided a unique educational and networking opportunity for those interested in the advancement of women within the procurement profession. While procurement has traditionally been a very male-dominated profession, an increasing number of women have achieved success and recognition in recent years. The conference aimed to examine the challenges women face as they try to make their way in this male-dominated environment and what lessons can be learned from those who have successfully gone before them.

So given my career background in sales it may have seemed like an odd choice to have me as their after dinner speaker. In fact if the truth be known they probably came to the conference to get away from people like me.

However the organisers had their reasons. They asked me if I would be prepared to give the audience an insight into what it is like being in sales today, what it’s like from the other side of the table and, in particular, what it’s like to be a sales woman in what has been a traditionally male dominated environment.

Given the tradition male orientation of sales and procurement, I thought that maybe it would be a good opportunity for women in procurement and women in sales to reflect on what we work with everyday and what we would like to see happen in the world of business to make our lives and those we work and interact with better.

In preparing for this presentation, I also realised that I had never given any real considered thought to the world of procurement and in particular women in procurement. I know technically speaking any sale is a form of procurement however I have always thought in terms of the ‘customer’ not procurement specifically.

While I have selectively responded to many an RFP in my time, participated in formal procurement processes good and bad and worked with various stake holders on large projects over the years, I realised that I had viewed procurement as a process rather than considering the people involved in the process. I realised I had missed something important. So I saw this invitation as an opportunity for me to learn more about the world of procurement and share experiences as women in business.

This was the fist time I had ever been asked to speak to formally to people in Procurement and I understand this was a first for CIPS Australia as well.

In preparation for this talk I contacted and spoke with a number of women in procurement. I asked them about their views and thoughts around sales people, being a woman in procurement and the changes they are seeing taking place in the world of business today.

Here is what the women had to say:

• They were sick of dealing with sales people who promised the world and didn’t deliver what they say they would
• or sales people who are too pushy and tried to bully their way into a sale by aggressive or intimidatory means
• or sales people who didn’t listen to want you needed and just gave you want they wanted to sell
• They were tired of the professional visitors masquerading as sales people who only want to ‘do coffee’
• They wanted sales people to educate not just gesticulate.
• They were also frustrated by their own managers who went behind their backs to do ‘deals’ and didn’t respect the procurement process, or managers who wouldn’t look outside the square at new opportunities, innovations or ideas or other suppliers who could bring better business outcomes
• And the women didn’t want to go out and have lunch or dinner or drinks to ‘do the deal’ for all sorts of reasons including: they don’t have the time, they’re not interested, it’s not transparent, it could lead to other unsavory conclusions being made, and its OH SO 20th century.

They also pointed out the following to me:

• They are noticing many of the younger sales people are taking a far more professional approach to selling, are better informed, more business savvy and are better to deal with overall than the more traditional transactional sales person who remained too product focused and blokey.
• They believed that Procurement started from the top down and the more informed their people were about the business, personal and global benefits of procurement practices the better it would be for all concerned.
• They stated that their ability to communicate and take quality briefs from their key stake holders was critical to their success.
• They stated that the ability to assess the total live cost of procurement was critical as this related to the opportunity to really make a difference around overall sustainability, business viability, the environment and cost effective solutions.
• They realised that procurement was more than just a numerical figure on a spread sheet and they were looking for real value add in the form of other services, creative ideas and innovative thinking to solve otherwise to hard to solve problems.
• That procurement need to professionalise itself even more with better education and better career paths.
• And rather than the adversarial model that is often talked about and promoted in business they see and regard a more professional consultative model as being better able to serve their needs to make informed business decisions based on value at all level not just economic ones.

These findings came as no surprise to me because this is what I am finding out in the sales field and what my Sell Like A Woman research has also highlighted.

I went on to give them overview of the changing face of sales and the shift away from the old stereo types and approaches which are making way for a more enlightened, consultative, big picture focused, business oriented, cooperative sales person who is well organised, disciplined, can prospect proactively, is fully aware of their product and business’ value to their customer market, their competitive edge and how to make business work for them and their customers.

Next week I will delve further into the view from the other side of the table and how, we, as sales people, view procurement and some of the practices which help or hinder sales and partnership effectiveness. And what our common enemy is.

Picking up from my recent posting We’ll meet again… I thought it would be worth looking at how First Impressions can impact our opinions of other people and their opinions of us. In turn first impressions can affect the desire to work together or not. Have you ever regretted a time when you didn’t make a favourable first impression? Did you wish you could have your time over again to make a more positive impression? I am sure you are not alone. We can all think of a time when we messed up. As the old saying goes: ‘You don’t get a second chance to make a good first impression’.

According to one university study*, people make eleven decisions about us in the first seven seconds of contact.

They are:

1. Education Level
2. Economic Level
3. Perceived Credibility, Believability, Competence and Honesty
4. Trustworthiness
5. Level of Sophistication
6. Sex Role Identification
7. Level of Success
8. Political Background
9. Religious Background
10. Ethnic Background
11. Social/ Professional / Sexual Desirability
(*Source: Michael Solomon, PhD, Psychologist, Chairman, Marketing Department Graduate School of Business, NYU.)

And then according to this study the rest of your time is spent finding evidence to prove your original impression of that person, whether that impression is true or not. This study emphasises the importance of creating good first impressions.

Here is an interesting exercise to test the impact of making a good impression:

• Check out the next 10 places where you spend your money, whether in person or on the phone, and see how effectively the people you come in contact with make a favourable impression with you.
• Notice how you are greeted when you call or go into a business or are contacted by its employees.
• How effective are they in creating a favourable and positive impression with you?
• Do they pay attention to you and treat you, as you would like to be treated?
• How do you and your team make good first impressions?

Not everyone knows how to make a good impression. Many people are often too preoccupied with themselves to pay due attention to you. And many people forget about using common courtesies that could make all the difference when communicating with you. Common courtesy, sadly, isn’t so common any more. So here are some tips on making a good first impression:

• Tune your world out and them in – really listen and pay attention to what they say and do.
• Think about what you can learn about them and in turn what you can learn about yourself by interacting with them.
• Think, “There is something about you I like” especially if they are very different from you.
• Whenever someone treats you kindly, show your appreciation, express your gratitude, and offer your thanks.
• Scatter the dark clouds of gloom and spread sunshine with your smile. Remember, a smile is a curved line that can straighten many problems.

I hope this goes some way in helping you and your team make positive first impressions with those people you interact whether it be in business or on a personal level.