Selling to Procurement: Get stronger at pushing back against Procurement

“Are your people strong enough at pushing back against Procurement and processes that don’t make sense?” I heard, sales coach and bestselling author, Mike Wineberg, pose that question at the end of one of his podcast episodes. On that episode, he had expressed frustration with the way Procurement gets in the way of sales. Regardless of what the answer to his question is for you or your team, building more strength to deal with Procurement can never be a bad thing. So, in this article I’m going to answer the question, “HOW can you get stronger at pushing back against Procurement and processes that don’t make sense?”

Building strength in any area of life pretty much follows the same principles. If, for example, you want to build physical strength by doing weight training, there are 3 areas you need to pay particular attention to.

Understanding the basics

The first one is knowledge. You need to understand the basics of how the building of muscle works – what combination of food to eat in what quantities, what exercises to do and how often.

A similar principle applies when it comes to building your strength in dealing with Procurement. You need to understand how the function thinks, plans and acts. How do they perceive value? What motivates them? How are they rewarded? How do they negotiate? Etc.

Technique matters when pushing back against Procurement

But when you are building strength, knowledge on its own isn’t enough. You need to develop the right technique. If you are lifting weights and you don’t get the technique right, not only won’t you make much progress – you could actually hurt yourself.

It’s much the same way when dealing with Procurement. Use the wrong approach, and it could hurt your sales. This is certainly true in terms of when and how you engage with them. But it’s also true when it comes to negotiating with Procurement. Often the rigidity and unreasonable behaviour sales professionals experience when dealing with Procurement are actually part of their negotiation tactics. So, you need to develop effective techniques to counter these negotiation ploys. And if you are playing the RFP game, you need to develop effective techniques to massively tilt the odds in your favour.

Repeat, repeat, repeat!

The last thing you need to do if you want to get stronger is repeat, repeat, repeat. Gym memberships normally sell very well in January when we sign up with the best of intentions. But that’s no good if you don’t actually keep up your exercise routine throughout the year.

It’s the same way when it comes to your ability to deal more effectively with Procurement. If you always avoid them you don’t get to practice getting better at dealing with them – you won’t build the muscle you need to push back against Procurement and against processes that don’t make sense.

Invest 30 minutes of your time to become stronger at pushing back against Procurement

So, to stand stronger in your interactions with Procurement, you need knowledge, technique and perseverance. If building the muscle you need to deal more effectively with Procurement is important to you, then you could benefit from using the proven process that I share during my free 30-minute webinars called, “Sell more in less time by taking control of your relationships with Procurement”. But grab your seat quickly! After 10 January 2023, the webinar will no longer be available.

Just click on the button below to register. The timer indicates when the next available session starts.