prospect is liasing with procurement now to discuss our offer further.
how should I follow up?
bareknuckles
Procurement
9
There’s very little detail here to provide you with any help of sustenance
Yep, SOE would be very helpful here. Understanding procurement's role in the process will be helpful. Some procurement processes are significantly more cumbersome than others.
Did you try to find out their process along with the timeframe before sending the quote?
Create a joint execution plan to line up their paper process alongside yours.
Simple and easy way to build a timeline and get insight.
You didn't give much info but I'd be happy to help.
Simple and easy way to build a timeline and get insight.
You didn't give much info but I'd be happy to help.
need more detail here but really you should just ask a bunch of questions about why the procurement team needs to get involved, what their process looks like, align on timing, etc.
I'd probably set five more appointments if it was up to me.
They can’t give me a timeframe as this is part of a wider digital transformation.
Absolutely they can, and should. "Digital transformation" is something almost all companies are doing. Your piece of it may rely on other decisions, but you're going to need to get that info from them. Some things I'd want to understand if I were you:
1) where does (my solution/service/component) fit into this overall project?
2) what other decisions are being made, and how do they affect this decision?
3) what's the budget for (my solution/service/component) and is it affected by the TCO for the entire "Digital Transformation"?
4) is my solution a priority, or is it at the back of the line, and likely to be the first pushed back or cut?
5) who's making the decision? Procurement sometimes runs the final stages, but someone in the business made or is making the decision. Who is that person?
I'm sure I'm missing something here, but you get the gist. I'm always looking for hurdles to getting a deal done, and I'm paranoid. I want to know where things can go wrong and how I can get beyond those. For deals I know are unlikely, I want a realistic view of my chances so I can forecast appropriately and focus my attention on what's real and more likely to close.
Good luck!
1) where does (my solution/service/component) fit into this overall project?
2) what other decisions are being made, and how do they affect this decision?
3) what's the budget for (my solution/service/component) and is it affected by the TCO for the entire "Digital Transformation"?
4) is my solution a priority, or is it at the back of the line, and likely to be the first pushed back or cut?
5) who's making the decision? Procurement sometimes runs the final stages, but someone in the business made or is making the decision. Who is that person?
I'm sure I'm missing something here, but you get the gist. I'm always looking for hurdles to getting a deal done, and I'm paranoid. I want to know where things can go wrong and how I can get beyond those. For deals I know are unlikely, I want a realistic view of my chances so I can forecast appropriately and focus my attention on what's real and more likely to close.
Good luck!
This is great advice. @Sunbunny31 is 100% right. They have to be able to give you a timeline. No matter how big the initiative there will be internal
milestones and targets. If your prospect can’t advise you of where they are and advocate on your behalf to procurement, do they actually have decision making power?
milestones and targets. If your prospect can’t advise you of where they are and advocate on your behalf to procurement, do they actually have decision making power?
Going in now to find out their procurement process
need more info to go off of here
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