Today’s post is by Dave Wenig is the Senior Vice President of Sales and Services at SafeSourcing Inc

Let’s get right to the point. What incentive do you have to reduce the costs that are within your control? Would you get a bonus? Would you get a bigger boat? Maybe a vacation home? Maybe it’s just one of many KPIs that gets tracked and rolled up into your performance review. What is it that would change the way you’re living?

The answer to that is going to be different for everyone, of course. But that’s also the answer to the question posed in the title of this blog. So what?

SafeSourcing is constantly proving that we can deliver an average 24.8% savings. But if that doesn’t matter to you, then why bother. If you are not responsible for managing expenses, then who is, and would it matter to them?

The reality is that payroll expenses are on the rise even while headcount is low. Vendors are pushing their price increases again with incredible frequency and at awfully high levels. In fact, we’re hearing stories about being understaffed by about 20% while those same companies are seeing seven figure salary expense increases to maintain their operations through overtime and other pay increases.

What’s your “so what?” If you don’t have one, I promise you that someone in the organization does and they would be very happy if you helped them reach their goals.

For more information, please contact SafeSourcing.

Today’s post is by Margaret Stewart, Director of HR and Administration at SafeSourcing Inc.

It is often said that happy employees are productive employees and productive employees are happy employees. So, how do the two affect each other and why? We will look at what kinds of things promote better morale and what can boost productivity.

Morale – First, morale is enthusiasm, ability, and confidence of a group. This means if your organization’s team is able, confident, and hopeful then their morale is high. If morale is high, your team is likely pretty happy with what they are doing. However, is morale is low, you may find your employees lacking motivation and drive. So, how can you boost morale? Below are a just a few ways to help morale when it seems low:

• Talk to your employees – this may seem simple, but it gives everyone a chance to say whatever is on their mind and also opens up a line of communication that might otherwise be unused.
• Give positive feedback – this one is essential to keeping happy employees. Giving positive feedback shows someone what they have done well and what they should do more. Small wins in the workplace are still wins and can encourage more positive behavior in the long run.
• Be a teacher – when something doesn’t go the way expected or desired, being a teacher and giving positive advice on how to handle it and what methods could help. This is a morale boosting way of addressing a problem without placing blame or outright accusing one of erring.

While we may all want our employees to be happy simply because we value each person’s happiness, there are more reasons to help boost morale. The two are, in fact, correlated. While low morale can cause job dissatisfaction, absenteeism, and affect turnover, high morale can do the opposite. A happy employee is more likely to stay longer with a company, is more dedicated, and is more productive. On top of all of this, they can help boost the morale of other employees, helping to boost morale of an organization as a whole, increasing retention and productivity.

Another great way of boosting morale in a company is when the company itself is doing well and one particularly great way to help a company is by implementing a procurement partner. Every company has things they need to buy and source and a procurement partner can help your employee’s morale by providing assistance, expertise, resources, and results that can help everyone involved

For more information on how SafeSourcing can help your procurement efforts, or on our Risk

Free trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative. We have an entire team ready to assist you today.

Today’s repost blog is by Gayl Southard, Vice President of Administrative at SafeSourcing.

At one time, buying milk was simple. Your local dairy used to deliver it right to your doorstep.

Today, however, we have nonfat, low-fat or whole milk. There are also soy milk, almond milk, hemp, or oat milk. Do you want cow milk or goat milk? With or without lactose? Raw or pasteurized? Plain or flavored? There is controversy as to which drinks can even be called milk.

 Christopher Gardner, Ph.D., a Stanford Nutritionist Scientist, is working hard to clear up some of these myths.   Most of us grew up believing milk was good for us. It built strong bones! It was considered a source of calcium, a factor for good bone health. However, there are countries such as Japan and India where the country is predominately lactose intolerant and milk consumption is low and so is the rate of hip fractures. Many of these cultures also do more weight-bearing activities than Americans. Gardner advises that people are better off on relying on physical activity to build strong bones than consuming milk to strengthen bones. Gardner further advised milk can improve bone density, but whether it prevents bone fractures remains debatable.

Milk can be a healthier alternative to soda. The popular vanilla and chocolate plant-based milks are often laden with sugar. It is important to check the nutrition labeling. Gardner stated, “The nutrition label also allows you to compare the amount of fats, protein, carbs and vitamins in each type of milk. For example, the plant-based milks generally don’t have saturated fat like cow’s milk so they don’t raise LDL-cholesterol as much as dairy milk, but they do have about the same amount as calcium,’ he said. And soy milk has the same amount of protein as dairy milk, but almond milk has much less protein.”1

Another milk misconception is that 2 percent milk means 2 percent of calories are from fat, but it’s 2 percent of the weight (which is mainly water) and 35 percent of the calories. Whole milk has nearly 50 percent of calories from fat, and 1 percent milk has about 20 percent. The old belief was whole milk made you fat and skim milk helped you lose weight was refuted by Harvard in a study that followed over 100,000 nurses over 30 years including their dietary changes. The study revealed switching from whole milk and skim milk did not make any weight change.

For more information on how SafeSourcing can help your procurement efforts, or on our Risk

Free trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative. We have an entire team ready to assist you today.

Citations:

1 Jennifer Huber, Stanford Medicine Scooe, 8/14/2918

Here’s a repost from Ivy Ray, Sr. Procurement Specialist at SafeSourcing Inc.

Stress is a part of life for all of us.  As long as we face encroaching deadlines, competing responsibilities, overloaded schedules, last-minute crises, financial troubles, and social conflicts, we’re going to encounter it often. So, when my cardiologist tells me ‘you have to keep yourself stress free’, my response is who does that?  Doctors have typically been telling their patients this for decades, which causes people to spas out when confronted with a stressful situation. The new science of stress reveals that how you think about stress matters.

Kelly McGonigal, PhD, a health psychologist, has a life-changing solution: “make stress your friend”.  In her 2013 TED Talk, Dr. McGonigal presented a scientific study which studied the stress patterns and responses of 30K people for 8 years.  The finding was that stress was deadly for those who believed that stress was bad for their health. Stress is not the culprit, but your thoughts surrounding stress can kill you. You should view your body’s stress response as helping you to get through a tough situation.

Anyone struggling with stress at work might take a few pointers from Major League Baseball’s mental-skills coaches. Currently, 26 of the 30 MLB teams employ sports psychologists or mental-skills coaches to help players’ mental game which can make the difference between success and failure. Ken Ravizza, a mental-skills coach for the Chicago Cubs, teaches players to stay aware of their mental state by imagining an inner traffic signal: It’s green when your body is calm and the mind focused. It turns yellow when your heart rate and blood pressure start rising and you begin having trouble focusing. It flashes red when you start believing your self-doubts. Your muscles tighten and you lose control. Dr. Ravizza directs players to choose a focal point to look at during tense moments, such as a foul pole or spot on their glove, and imbue it with special meaning.

Jonathan Fader, a former mental-skills coach for the New York Mets, coached a self-employed trader who worried so much about hitting his monthly profit targets that his performance began to slide. He advised him to let go of the outcome and focus on attaining the mental state he hoped to experience after he succeeded—calm, masterful and capable of quick, rational decisions.  By improving his performance on measures he could control, the trader began netting better monthly results. We can’t always control stressful situations, but we can control our thoughts and how we deal with them.

For more information on how SafeSourcing can assist you in exploring your procurement solutions for your business or on our “Risk Free” trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.  We have an entire customer services team waiting to assist you today. We look forward to your comments.

References———————————————————————-

https://www.ted.com/talks/kelly_mcgonigal_how_to_make_stress_your_friend

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trouble-at-the-office-baseball-can-help-1528724159

Today’s Post is our archives SafeSourcing 

Technology is the keystone to sales success. In this day and age, we have the world at our fingertips. From pinpointing a certain location, to finding a company’s profile, the internet has our back. In sales, product knowledge is needed, but there are a lot of other things just as important. For example, knowing the indexes for certain commodities, knowing your target market, and knowing how to approach your target. Every salesperson should have tools and know how to use them. No I do not mean a wrench and hammer. What I mean is a way to keep track of your customers, reach out to potential and new customers, as well as let them reach you. Everyone should know how to use a spreadsheet or write or a power point. But there is more than that. Here is what I believe to be the top 5 tools in every salespersons tool bag.

Salesforce

1. Keep Track of current and potential clients
2. Set appointments and reminders with easy to use User Interface
3. Perfectly Portable with mobile application

LinkedIN

1. This is a fantastic way to view your clients
2. Find companies using keywords or specific search protocols
3. Networking is key

Clearbit Connect

1. Integrates with Gmail
2. Easily search for people and emails
3. Upgrades current contacts with full company details and roles

Zapier

1. Links over 500 apps for seamless integrations in  the sales process
2. Set personalized events from receiving emails to the next action
3. Simple fill in the blank setup

YesWare

1. Instantly see when messages are opened
2. Includes tools like email templates, send later, reminders and more
3. Integrates with all top email providers including Gmail and Outlook

Of course any tool is only as good as the person who uses it. So learn to use your tools. There are always online videos and seminars, not to mention each one of the applications listed have a great training staff always on standby to help with simple questions. There are tons of tools and applications out there not to mention cellphones and the internet. Staying up to date with technology is beneficial to all salespeople. Selling is all about efficiency, from product knowledge to customer relations. Know who, what, when, where, and of course why, because if you don’t your competitor will.

For more information on how SafeSourcing can assist you or on our “Risk Free” trial program, please contact a SafeSourcingRepresentative we have an entire team waiting to assist you today

Today’s Post is from our archives at SafeSourcing Inc.

“What if” is a question we ask ourselves a lot. Typically the “what if” factor can be what causes us to be our own worst enemy. Ever since I was around 8 years old, I have been afraid of biting into an apple fearing I will lose a tooth. That fear meant anytime I wanted to eat my favorite fruit, I had to have a knife or some way of slicing it. Well, that ended recently when a co-worker came into the office with a bunch of small delicious looking apples. He offered me one and I looked forward to cutting it up and eating at lunch. Well the day blew by before I knew it, it was time to go home. Not wanting to warm up my lunch and try to navigate rush hour while trying to eat, I decided to just go home and eat when I got there. As I pull onto the highway entrance ramp, I see a sea of stopped traffic. Afterabout 15 minutes, I had successfully entered the highway. With a ravishing hunger, looking through my lunch bag, there was nothing that I could eat that didn’t require some kind of prepping. I was about to close the bag and there it was, that delicious looking apple. So I decided to take the chance and it was great! I ate the whole thing and didn’t lose a tooth! That made me think I had spent a major part of my life afraid to bite into an apple.

This got me thinking about everything I had turned down or have been too afraid to do. How often I missed an opportunity. This also had me thinking on how often I have spoken to companies and they have told me how they are afraid to try e-procurement because it may not grasp the entire scope of what they are looking to take to market. They also feared this may upset their incumbents or they may be wasting their time and not see any savings. I have also spoken to potential vendors we invite to participate in the bidding process. I often get the infamous “we do not participate in e-bids”. Once I follow up on that response, it often boils down to they have never participated in one, do not know how it will work, and fear they may be wasting resources by participating and not being awarded the business. I love explaining to them our SafeSourcing representatives are here to help them through the entire process and we are practically bringing the business to them, all they have to do is put their best foot forward. By coming up with strong pricing and a plan, the worst thing that can happen is they may not be awarded the business, but it may help them reflect and gauge where their prices stack up.  SafeSourcing has successfully helped another clients and has brought new business to a happy sales team. This may not be “apples to apples’’ but it can be a great change! SafeSourcing offers “Risk Free” Trials and Pilot Agreements and we pride ourselves on an average savings of 24% across all categories. Can you imagine the savings you could see and what you could so with those savings? Overcome the “What If”!

For more information on how SafeSourcing can assist you or on our “Risk Free” trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Representative we have an entire team waiting to assist you today.

​Today’s blog is by Margaret Stewart, Director of HR and Administration at SafeSourcing.

A product equivalent is an item that is comparable to another product, accomplishes something another product does, or functions the same way another product does. For nearly every product out there, there is likely a product equivalent available. There are always exceptions to this, as in the case of patented products or one of a kind service.

Whether or not you realize it, you are likely more familiar with product equivalents than you might suspect. For instance when you shop for groceries, you may have noticed similar items on the shelves. You may have even noticed some items look just like the original, but with a different name, different packaging, and a different price. These are product equivalents and , while they are not likely the exact same, you may find it serves its purpose well enough.

Often times these product equivalents are private label. Private label is when a product is made by a manufacturer who then applies a companies specific brand and formula to the product instead of using the larger name brand. For some items, like cleaners or medicine, you can see exactly what is in the product and decide if the brand name or the equivalent better serves your need. For other items, like foods, it is much more subjective on whether or not it tastes good. I for one prefer brand name items of some foods, but prefer the private label items of other foods.

No matter which product you prefer, a hearty market will often have several choices which allows for more competition and more growth opportunity, not only for retailers, but for suppliers as well. All of that is good news for the consumer.

For more information on how SafeSourcing can help your procurement efforts, or on our Risk

Free trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.  We have an entire team ready to assist you today.