PurchTips edition #358

Question From NLPA Member: How do you get stakeholders to cooperate with RFP process best practices?

First, you must continually work to create a culture where the procurement department is invited to engage with the stakeholder as close to the time when a need for purchased goods or services is realized. Second, you must communicate why cooperation is important and, specifically, how management and stakeholders can cooperate.

Either when a procurement department is first engaged in an isolated procurement or when procurement decides to bring about an enterprise-wide change, it is helpful to communicate procurement’s new expectations in writing. If you’re SPSM-Certified or enrolled in the SPSM Certification Program, a “Sample RFP Preparation Letter” is one of the many free tools you have access to in the NLPA Library. Learn more at https://lms.nextlevelpurchasing.com

Question From NLPA Member: We often put in a milestone on our timeline of when we will announce the selected vendor and finish the contract after. How do you balance announcing a winner but then keeping competition after they are announced while finishing the contract?

I recommend never announcing the “selected supplier” until the ink is dry on the contract or your order accepted. Only bad things can happen by announcing a supplier selection before it is official, such as:

The supplier learning that it is the selected supplier and, as a result, having no incentive to capitulate to any requests for concessions you make in negotiations between the announcement and the order or contract being awarded.
Finding out that the “selected supplier” isn’t going to work out after all and having to select another supplier, thereby embarrassing the procurement department to all who were told that the first supplier was going to be selected.