I've posted this a few times. I'd love to give the HONEST non BS rebuttal! Reach out in person!
Todays post is by Ron Southard CEO at SafeSourcing
This is a repost from a couple of years back because I just came out f a discovery session with a roomful of buyers and heard at least 5 of these. Fortunately the company CFO who was in attendance asked the following “If this is so, why does Ron have so many examples of products and services we buy every day at lower costs than we pay”.
The following are the objections we hear all of the time after we have presented to a prospect that has not been exposed to e-procurement tools in the past.
1. We already get the best cost.
2. We’ve done business with this supplier for years.
3. We don’t have product specifications.
4. We don’t have time for this.
5. Switching costs will be too high.
6. We can’t insure the same quality.
7. We need to adhere to certain standards.
8. We are aware of all of the sources of supply in this area.
9. Our business is different!
Often the real reason for these objections is a lack of understanding as to the services being provided which actually extend the productivity of financial and procurement knowledge workers. An underlying reason is that these same knowledge workers believe they are already doing a good to great job. They believe they understand the detail of the category, the supplier community and the leverage point for driving quality results.
So what does it mean to your procurement knowledge workers when based on the above the very first e-procurement event you run returns dramatic savings from your incumbent as well as several other suppliers you were not aware of? Does it mean your team is not doing their job? Does it reflect poorly on them as individuals and or a team?
This author does not believe so, what it simply means is that they are not aware of how much more they can accomplish, how much further they can extend their reach and how much more time they will have to evaluate data instead of collecting and assembling it based on the use of modern strategic sourcing tools that extend their knowledge base.
If you would like to learn more about how your team can accomplish more in a shorter period of time, please contact SafeSourcing.
We look forward to and appreciate your comments.
