The aim of the workshop is to equip participants with an awareness of sales techniques in order to neutralise supplier’s tactics, and to emulate sales behaviours in influencing internal stakeholders during the procurement process.
Introduction
This workshop explores business to business sales techniques and particularly the ways in which sales practitioners seek to influence the sales/procurement process for significant sales. The workshop will address both how the procurement team can seek to neutralise the tactics and strategies of the sales person, and how the procurement practitioner can emulate the tactics and behaviours of the sales person in order to manage the internal and external interfaces.
This course is designed for:
This course will benefit those involved in category management, strategic sourcing, procurement or vendor management who manage complex business to business acquisition projects.
Course structure
A practical one-day workshop consisting of nine session involving exercises, case studies, presentations and trainer-facilitated discussions. Each of the sessions will be led by an experienced facilitator and will feature the key principles and practical methods which may be used in the procurement process, together with practical case study sessions to maximise the transfer from the workshop to the workplace.
Benefits of attending
This workshop will help practitioners reduce the likelihood that their procurement process is subverted by suppliers’ sales processes.
As well as this delegates will gain three key benefits from attending:
- More understanding of supplier’s sales techniques in order to neutralise supplier’s tactics
- More engagement of the client’s business and better alignment to the procurement project’s goals and objectives
- Less likelihood that the procurement process is sabotaged or subverted by the participants in a bid or negotiation process
Key learning outcomes
- Describe the sales process and a variety of methods that sales people use to influence buying behaviour in business to business sales
- Identify which sales strategies, tactics and behaviours can be adopted to influence stakeholders within our own organisations
- Develop appropriate mechanisms to neutralise the influence of sales people on the procurement process
- Drive out real business needs in an agnostic way that ensure that procurement decisions are reached in an environment of probity and transparency
- Detect and neutralise a variety of common negotiation tactics and promote a culture in negotiations of transparency and ethical behaviour
Course Content
“Selling to” versus “buying from”; the change in business to business sales processes
- The “hard sell” and features and benefits
- The “soft sell” and value based sales
- “Strategic selling” and buying facilitation
- Accessing and engaging the “VITO”
- Key ways salespeople try to influence the procurement process
- Negotiating tactics and ploys
- Needs identification; explicit and latent needs
- How procurement practitioners can outwit the sales person
The “hard sell” and features and benefits
- What is the “hard sell”?
- Features and benefits
- Dale Carnegie and “old school” sales methods
- Why benefits matter; the business case
The “soft sell” and value based sales
- What is the “soft sell”?
- SPIN® selling
- The diagnostic phase; tools and behaviours
- The presentational phase; tools and behaviours
Strategic selling and buying facilitation
- Strategic selling in theory and practice
- Diagnosing roles and orientation
- Developing an account management plan
- External relationship mapping
- Buying facilitation
- The salesperson’s role in the facilitation process
- The buyer’s role in the facilitation process
- What are the benefits of buyer agnosticism?
Accessing and engaging the “VITO”
- Who is the VITO in your organisation?
- Identifying and managing gatekeepers
- What will get the attention of a C-suite officer?
- To ask or to tell? What to say in the first 5 minutes
- The three-part script and the call to action
Key ways salespeople try to influence the procurement process
- Influencing the end-user or budget holder
- Influencing the budget
- Influencing the business case
- Influencing the procurement strategy
- Influencing the bid evaluation criteria
- Influencing the specification
- Influencing the bid list
- Influencing the bid scoring
- Influencing the award
- How can we create an agnostic and robust decision-making process
Negotiating tactics and ploys
- The volume-price agreement; what it is and how to deal with it
- The package deal; what it is and how to deal with it
- The loss leader; what it is and how to deal with it
- Nickel and diming: what it is and how to deal with it
- Standing room only: what it is and how to deal with it
- Creating a culture of transparency in negotiation
Needs identification; explicit and latent needs
- The business need; a key concept
- Who defines what we need?
- Needs and wants
- Explicit and latent needs
- How we can facilitate existing and future needs
- Is uncovering latent needs legitimate sales practice or manipulation?
How procurement practitioners can outwit the sales person
- Communicating the need for a robust procurement process to the stakeholder
- Governance about single sourcing or non-competition waivers
- Business case approvals
- Developing commercial awareness
- Separation of budgetary and commitment approvals
- Managing disclosure and liaison with suppliers before and during bid processes
- Calibrating scoring during bid evaluation
- Building agnosticism into the procurement at each phase of the process
