theprideofmanagement

Account Executive

Stuck in procurement purgatory

I screwed the pooch & let procurement become the intermediary between me & the operations team. The gentleman in procurement fundamentally doesn't understand what his operations team is looking for, what we're offering, or anything in between. To boot, he's refusing to share any data (which we use to derive our value) unless "he decides they are going to sign with us".

Obviously, the goal isn't to end up in this situation but it happens. How do y'all navigate it? How do you keep him happy enough to get you back in front of operations? When do you go scorched earth & cut him out?

👑 Sales Strategy

7 comments

Sort by:

MrMotivation

Politicker

Sales

Go around them and back to your champion. Procurement folks are power hungry and want to be in control. That's your job. You need to get the convo back on the right track and involve procurement when it is time to sign. They shouldn't be evaluating a product that they don't use/see day to day value in

LordBusiness

Politicker

Chief Revenue Officer

Agree 100% here, the only hope you have here to do impact the speed/trajectory of the deal from the inside.

softwarebro

Politicker

Sales Director

If the business wants your product they will force procurements hands.

Robot

Politicker

AE (Account Executive)

I have a pending 100k deal with a county in California that's been in procurement for over 4 months now. In jobs past, I usually see the process take 4-6 months depending on the size of sales, redlines, negotiations, and closes.

Sometimes I ask about sole-source solutions and if we qualify or how can we qualify for it. Additionally, I ask about the penny taxes they take to fund these deals so that you can probe any type of timeline. When I speak with the POC, I usually get the inside scoop and normally it leads to some type of political scandal of some sort.

Good luck, Government transactions are never promised haha.

CCO

Good Citizen

Business Director

What are you selling? I can't remember a time when I had procurement get in between me and the person making the req. If that has happened, go around immediately. If you can't get back in front of the operations team (assuming they are the potential consumers here) you might have bigger problems than a bad purchaser. Buyers are liars!

beerisforclosers

Politicker

Account Manager

I have one customer where this always happens. We go in with a stupid high price, let procurement see it, and then "fight management" and save them 10%. Why? Their procurement team is tasked with 10% cost reductions.

IT Director knows this is the game we're playing. He knows we tack 10% margins on every initial quote. Everyone needs to feel like they're doing their jobs, and he trust me to get him the best pricing I can, add the 10%, then back it down to the price he and I are in agreement on.

It's a bit sketchy, but that's the only way we can get procurement's buy in.

1nbatopshotfan

Politicker

Sales

Can you “empower” the procurement team to give their timeline for choice, rollout and adoption? Then take this information back to your stakeholders and show them that procurement is way behind their goals, to help your buyers push this faster?

Bravado is a community of trusted sales professionals endorsed by their customers.

Products

The War Room Jobs Salary Guide Tech Sales U

Company

About Us How It Works Blog Bug Bounty

Contact

Press Careers

If you are hired as a contract sales rep by a Bravado customer, we may ask you to prove access to the employee email account provided to you by that customer. This data will be shared with customers to track your sales productivity; customers can use this data to confirm you meet the minimum activity requirements to pay out your ramp stipend and commission.

theprideofmanagement

Stuck in procurement purgatory

7 comments

Related posts

Ever had to go through procurement just for a demo?

Can Procurement actually squash a deal if you don't play ball and discount?

Deal Stuck in Procurement