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Below is a transcript of this video, modified for your reading pleasure. Have a question that you'd like answered? Drop us a line!
The number one part of the organization you should love is procurement. Now that might sound like I have been smoking out in the back before I filmed this and you may think I am crazy. I am not crazy. Here is the deal. There are some myths out there about procurement officers. Some people think procurement officers run around and kick puppies on the weekend for fun. Some believe they are evil and they are looking to take your knees out.
It is just not true. Procurement officers are experts in the buying of services. Their only goal is to help their organization and please their clients. Their clients are their internal clients, who are your core clients. They are just trying to please the people that help choose who to use for different services like yours.
What we need to do when we think of procurement is to think of them on an equal playing field or in the same vein that we think of our normal clients. We need to think of them as the folks that we go to lunch with, the folks that we go to dinner with, the folks whose spouses we might know, the folks that we might entertain. They should be people that we like and who we love helping. We need to think of procurement folks just like we would anyone else.
Here is how you do it. Think of procurement like your clients. Ask them to go to lunch. Ask them if you can be helpful to them. Ask them if you can update them on trends in the industry. Ask them what they are looking for in the proposal. Ask them if they have a target price in mind they are trying to steer towards. Ask them what it will take to win this particular RFP response that you are working on. Ask them what their priorities are. Get them involved and engaged in the process, treating them with every last bit of respect and proactiveness and helpfulness, just like you do your normal clients.
On the other hand, here is what you should not do. You do not want to call them or pull them in with the idea that they are negative. You should not avoid talking to them and you should not be fearful about calling them. Each of these are built on myths that are just not true. Treat procurement as advisors and experts that are just trying to help your client just like you. They just have a different lens to it.
If you will do that, you will deepen your relationship with procurement at the same time that you are helping your core clients. The beauty of it is that your competition is likely not doing that. They will continue running around believing the myths about procurement officers. Meanwhile, you will be treating them as the experts they are, which can be a massive, decisive differentiator in the buying process.
As with all of our videos, we hope this one helps you help your clients succeed.
