Selling to procurement

Procurement isn't the enemy of your deal. It's the team that decides whether your deal is easy to approve or painful to approve.

Treat them like a seat on the committee, and they'll treat you like a supplier worth keeping.

What procurement owns

Procurement owns how the company buys. Vendor selection processes, contracts, supplier risk, payment terms and the preferred vendor list. In services, they often run the RFP and manage the master service agreement.

At large companies, there may be a category manager just for professional services or IT services. That person knows every firm the company pays, what they charge and how they've performed.

They don't own the problem you're solving. The business leader does. But procurement owns the path between a yes and a signed contract.

What they're measured on

Procurement is judged on savings, risk and process. Did they get a better price than last time? Did they reduce the number of suppliers? Did every vendor go through proper onboarding, security review and contract terms?

They're judged on speed too, though less often than they'd like. A business leader who waits months for a contract will complain, and that lands on procurement.

So the best way to help them is to make their numbers look good. Clear pricing. Clean paperwork. No surprises on terms.

What they ignore

They ignore your pitch about capability. That's the business leader's call, and procurement trusts them to make it.

They ignore relationships you built around them. A seller who gets a verbal yes from a VP and then tries to rush procurement is a seller who's about to get a long wait.

And they ignore pressure. Procurement teams handle impatient vendors every day. Pushing harder just moves you down the pile.

The signals that bring procurement in

An RFP or vendor search is the strongest buying signal there is, and procurement is usually running it. When a company posts a tender or announces a vendor review, procurement has already been told there's money for this work.

Vendor consolidation is another. When a company says in a filing or an earnings release that it's reducing suppliers or running a cost program, procurement is the team doing it. That's a threat if you're a small incumbent and an opening if you're not on the list yet.

A new chief procurement officer is a strong signal too. Like any new leader, they arrive with a mandate. Often it's consolidating spend, renegotiating big contracts or rebuilding the supplier base. Their first 90 days are when the preferred vendor list gets rewritten.

An example opener

Say a mid-sized manufacturer names a new chief procurement officer, and its latest 10-Q describes a cost program that includes reducing the number of outside service providers.

You joined as chief procurement officer as the company committed to reducing its outside service providers in the latest 10-Q. That makes the supplier list one of your first decisions. My guess is the harder part isn't cutting the list but knowing which firms deliver well, since performance data on services vendors tends to live in people's heads. Is that accurate, or is the bigger challenge something else?

It doesn't pitch your services. It talks about his job. And it suggests you'd be a supplier who makes consolidation easier, not harder.

Work with them, not around them

Bring procurement in early. Once the business leader is engaged, ask who in procurement will be involved and introduce yourself. A short, respectful note saying you'd like to make their process smooth goes a long way.

Get your paperwork ready before they ask. Insurance certificates, security documentation, standard terms, a clear rate card. A firm that's easy to onboard wins ties.

And give them a range early. Procurement hates surprises at the end. There's more on that in when they ask what it costs.

Respect the role

Procurement sees more vendors than anyone else in the company. They know who's easy to work with and who isn't. That reputation follows you to the next project.

Make their job easier, and they'll remember. Be the supplier who brought clean paperwork, a clear price and no drama.