Why Procurement can and should be the epicentre of innovation for business

By / / Business Acumen, Collaboration, Environment & Sustainability, Ethics & Values, Innovation, Procurement

Procurement, whether they are aware of it or not, are the epicentre of innovation and leadership of complex systems management within organisations and across the supply chain, or at least they should be.

Their exposure to all elements of the supply chain can and should inform them and in turn other key stakeholders within and outside their organisations of the latest, the easiest, most sustainable, faster, ethical, better ways of doing business.

While they cannot expect to be experts in every area of business, they can and should be experts in systems, managing complexity and managing relationships which is what a supply …

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2019 Sales Trends Event  – Trust me, I’m in Sales

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Business Acumen, Collaboration, Environment & Sustainability, Ethics & Values, Gratitude, Innovation, Opportunity, Optimism, Procurement, Sales Consulting, Sales Leadership, Sales Pioneer, Sales Research, Sales Trends, Selling Better, Strategy, Success, Sustainability & Environment

On 27 March 2019 we hosted our 7th Sales Trends Business Breakfast celebrating the 10th edition of the Barrett Annual 12 Sales Trends Report with Trust as our central theme.

Over 120 people attended the event, mostly business people but we also had the Year 11 International Baccalaureate Student Representatives of the Melbourne Montessori School attend to further their knowledge and education as they study Business Management.

The attendees heard from our special guest speakers, Suzanne Paynter, Strategy and Policy Advisor for the Future Business Council, and Andrew Smith, Head of Business Customer at Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, and myself, where we …

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Sales Trend 3 – Trust me, I am in procurement

By / / 12 Sales Trends Pages Category, Attitudes & Behaviours, Collaboration, Procurement

Guest author: Ben Shute, FCIPS , Chief Executive Officer Comprara & Purchasing Index

Sales Trend 3 from looks at how trust influences procurement and how changes in the industry are affecting this relationship, see the Barrett 12 Sales Trends Report for 2019.

What does it mean to trust someone? It certainly does not mean that we know everything about them. Indeed, after a certain point, further information is meaningless. Studies have shown that once an impression is made, new facts don’t necessarily trigger a reassessment. If our trust is formed based on first-hand interaction, we are even more resistant to …

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Sales Trend 11 – Sales cycle taking longer (much longer)

By / / 12 Sales Trends Pages Category, Attitudes & Behaviours, Procurement, Sales Trends

Sales Trend 11 from the Barrett 12 Sales Trends Report for 2018 explores the sales cycle and looks at the factors that are making it longer.

In a B2B environment, the sales cycle is usually defined as the days/ weeks/ months that pass from the first time a salesperson makes contact with a lead to the moment the client signs the contract. However, most definitions of ‘sales cycle’ have flaws because it’s nearly impossible to have one definition applicable to every business. Sales cycles vary enormously from industry to industry and organisation to organisation.

Regardless of what your definition of a …

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Should clients pay for tender and RFP submissions?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Ethics & Values, Opportunity, Procurement, Uncategorized

In principle, and ideally in practice, yes they should.

Why?

Because there is a lot of time, effort, money and IP that goes into preparing a tender or RFP (request for proposal). This also includes RFIs (request for information).

The companies requesting these tenders, RFPs and RFIs are freely benefiting from the expertise of suppliers if they are requesting highly detailed responses and expecting to pay nothing for this information. With the advent of software these companies can easily compare offerings and strip mine the IP to serve themselves at the suppliers’ expense. Basically they are getting knowledge and expertise for free and …

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Why you shouldn’t respond to every RFP and tender

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Opportunity, Procurement

Do you have clear criteria to assess the relevance and risk of every tender or RFP (request for proposal) that comes into your business?

Do you know how much it will cost you in terms of your time, effort, people resources and money to respond to a tender or RFP?

Do you know what the probability of you winning a tender or RFP is?

If you cannot answer these questions with hard facts and information you are likely to be putting your business at risk when it comes to responding to tenders and RFPs. And that’s even before you have won the deal.

Here …

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Sales Trend 11 – Sales to Add Value to Procurement, Not Just Follow the Process

By / / 12 Sales Trends Pages Category, Procurement, Sales Trends

Sales Trend 11 from Barrett’s 12 Sales Trends for 2017 Report is about Procurement. Guest author Ben Shute, CEO of Comprara, shares his insights.

It was 1999 when De Vincentis and Rackham (of SPIN Selling fame) wrote ‘Rethinking the Sales Force’, a book describing how the rise and rise of procurement challenged sales professionals about how best to organise business-to-business sales teams. Fast forward to 2016 and there are 15,000 people working full time in procurement in Australia, and the proportion of sales revenue that is won through competitive processes is rising year on year. …

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If you complain about price being a barrier, wear a bicycle helmet

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Procurement, Prospecting, Sales Tips

Salespeople who complain about price as a barrier need to wear bicycle helmets.

As a salesperson, the next time you feel you are losing deals because of price, take your prospect to a cycle shop and ask them if they were to ride a bike, which one of the helmets they would buy – the one that’s on sale for $10 or the sleek, ventilated $150 model that promises it meets all testing standards?

The bet is they’ll opt to buy the $150 model. Why? You need guaranteed protection from a helmet in a crash; as a cyclist you need good ventilation; …

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Sales Trend 7 – Buyer Behaviours in Transition

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Procurement, Sales Research, Sales Trends

Sales Trend 7 from the Barrett 12 Sales Trends for 2016 Report is ‘Buyer Behaviours in Transition’.

For some time now we have seen many suppliers falling victim to the ‘race to the bottom’ mentality and tactics driven by various businesses and their procurement teams, especially from the oligopolies that exist here in Australia and the large international corporates.

As highlighted in 2015, our Sales Trend 1 was  ‘Race to the Bottom’ which showed the culmination of the disastrous effects of such short term thinking and tactics on business success, innovation and profitability.  While this …

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Buyer-Supplier Relationships: Finding Value beyond Price

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Procurement, Sales Research

A call to action – be a part of a ground breaking research project and tell us what you think about the current state of Buyer / Seller Relationships. (See our survey link below)

We have previously written about the importance of healthy buyer-supplier relationships and how we are approaching a rather worrying state where buyers are chasing suppliers in a race to the bottom.

But, what can be done to improve the buyer-supplier relationship and avoid this outcome? What can suppliers do?

As a supplier, do you feel valued by your buyer organisations? That your insights are sought, that …

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