Sales v Procurement - Let’s make this work

Salespeople going behind the backs of Procurement and talking directly to the business? Procurement folks focusing purely on price at the exclusion of everything else? Each side thinking the other is the villain?

 Sound familiar?

 These are some of the common cliches in the longest running soap opera that is Sales V Procurement. But in this new age of enlightenment, let’s ask ourselves “is there a better way?”

 I listened to an intriguing and thought-provoking podcast from The Art of Procurement the other day, entitled The big debate: Procurement vs. Sales (if you haven’t yet discovered this series of insightful pods on Procurement topics that really matter, I’d certainly encourage you to do so).

 The pod featured senior luminaries from both Sales and Procurement sides talking about what salespeople think of Procurement and vice versa, and how salespeople adjust their behaviour and commercial response in light of the overall package of “signals” they receive from their Procurement counterpart.

 Spoiler alert: from a Procurement standpoint, a willingness to collaborate and jointly focus on business outcomes gets you a better result. A bit like a “good behaviour discount”. We all knew that, right? Well, it seems not everyone.

The thing is, Sales typically view Procurement as “margin thieves” or “compliance police”. Full disclosure, I’ll hold my hand up to say that I’ve been guilty of these in the past, too.

Frankly with this reputation, who can blame Sales from occasionally trying to circumvent Procurement by talking directly to the business stakeholders?

 I know this is a huge generalization, and of course there are plenty of amazingly talented Procurement professionals out there (who are probably aghast at this post) but if this is the perception from senior Sales figures of multi-million dollar companies, it doesn’t speak highly of the Procurement profession, does it?

 You see, it turns out that salespeople have a heightened sense of being able to easily identify if a buyer is likely to turn into a valuable prospect: it’s way more than just consideration of the top-line value of a single deal being tabled as part of an RFP. Naturally, salespeople are more interested in sticking around for the long-term and having the opportunity to grow their business, sustainably, over time.

 When Procurement-led interactions with Sales are narrowly focused on price-squeezing, are devoid of any attempt to build rapport, or to understand the suppliers’ business and how it might help solve the buyers’ business problems, this makes the alarm bells ring in the minds of salespeople.

 This kind of behaviour smacks of short-term, tactical quick win stuff. Not something that’s going to get the salesperson enthused, excited or become an advocate for getting the Buyer the best deal “back at the ranch”.

 Of course, I am not naively suggesting that this approach is applicable in all buyer/seller interactions. There are, and will always be interactions that are simple, purely tactical and focused on getting the lowest price for the here and now.

 But considering interactions involving more complex products and services, where a successful outcome is multi-faceted, more subjective and can be evaluated through a number of different lenses, it’s that little nugget – how the salesperson advocates within their own organisation for getting the buyer the best deal – that’s absolute gold.

 If the “mood music” is right: the conversation is strategic and biased towards delivering the business outcomes for the buyer, the buyer shows a genuine interest in the suppliers’ business (their objectives, current challenges, product advantages and complementary products that could be of value, for example) and the buyer builds rapport, guess what?

 Yes, you’re right – the salesperson will advocate and fight that much harder to get the best possible deal they can for the buyer during internal decision-making.

 As one of the protagonists (Chris Donato – CEO of esellas) put it in the podcast, “The more sales knows and the better we feel about the relationship, the more we’re going to fight to give you the best price”.

 These are some of the stepping-stones on the journey for the buying company to becoming the hallowed “customer of choice”, which post-pandemic has become something of an increased ambition. Or in the worst case, even getting the supplier to respond to the RFP (because, by the way, suppliers have a choice about who they deal with, too).

 So, there you have it. Insights from the highest echelons of Sales, proving that Procurement is currently leaving value on the table and that a better deal is out there for Procurement to seize if only they could break out of their strait jacket and behave more entrepreneurially.

 Oh, and there’s more. By way of giving you a “bonus track” (yes, I recognise that reference is probably wasted on the “streaming generation” of music fans) I can inform you that salespeople do their homework on “Buyer personas” too. Blimey, these Sales folks are smart, aren’t they?

 Are they dealing with a Buyer who’s an Analytical, Amiable, Controller or Expressive persona type? Each of these personas has to be approached and treated in an entirely different way in order to be influenced, persuaded and to get the best out of the relationship. More to come on that topic in a future blog.

 As for the long-running soap opera, long may it continue; it’s more fun that way.

I teach a number of Procurement skills courses as well as persuasion and influencing. If you think I could help your organisation get a better deal, please get in touch.

The best days lie ahead

Martin