{"id":3243,"date":"2013-01-24T21:21:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-24T21:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/2013\/01\/24\/how-procurement-professionals-can-win-over-reluctant-internal-customers-part-ii\/"},"modified":"2023-07-26T13:48:51","modified_gmt":"2023-07-26T17:48:51","slug":"how-procurement-professionals-can-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/how-procurement-professionals-can-win\/","title":{"rendered":"How Procurement Professionals Can Win Over Reluctant Internal Customers, Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Last month, I published Part I of this post.\u00a0 In Part I, I said that \u201cit takes at least two very important things to convince [reluctant internal customers] to let the procurement department get involved\u201d in their areas of spend:\u00a0 benefits and proof.<\/p>\n

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In Part I, I talked about the first item, benefits.\u00a0 In this Part II, I\u2019ll talk about proof.<\/p>\n

If there is one truism in internal customer relations, it is this:\u00a0 internal customers think that the procurement department can only screw up their operations by getting involved.<\/p>\n

Sorry if that is a bit frank, but that is the perspective of a great many internal customers of procurement departments.\u00a0 By communicating the benefits specific to internal customers of allowing procurement department involvement, you may begin to change internal customers\u2019 perception, but it takes more than that.<\/p>\n

It takes proof.<\/p>\n

Proof that you won\u2019t screw up their operations.<\/p>\n

So, how can you prove that?<\/p>\n

Well, it\u2019s best if you have a well-documented track record of your success of not only succeeding at applying procurement best practices to a new area of spend, but also not screwing up the operations of the stakeholders of that area of spend.\u00a0 You want to be able to demonstrate that you\u2019ve worked with other internal customers with the same concerns and, ultimately, they ended up being glad that they trusted you because their world is so much better now that you entered it.<\/p>\n

After reading Part I, you know the benefits of procurement involvement in the eyes of the internal customer, now you need to document real-world examples of how you actually brought those benefits to other internal customers.\u00a0 Imagine an internal customer writing this:<\/p>\n

\u201cI really thought that we had our operations down to a science, so I was very tentative towards the idea of the procurement department coming in and changing things that, to me, appeared to be running smoothly.\u00a0 But, my fears were unfounded.\u00a0 The procurement department was very sensitive to my concerns. (Provigil<\/a>) \u00a0 They made sure that our key processes were not disrupted.\u00a0 Then, they did the unexpected:\u00a0 they relieved us of some of the most time-consuming parts of our jobs that aren\u2019t core to what our department does, they made our lives easier by setting us up with suppliers who don\u2019t give us headaches, and they saved our department budget money that can be deployed on some other things that we have been hoping to do.\u00a0 I never thought that I\u2019d say this, but I am so glad that we teamed up with the procurement department!\u201d<\/p>\n

Think about how that could help you break down the barriers to working with a reluctant internal customer.\u00a0 Well, testimonials like this are part of the \u201cproof\u201d that I talk about you needing in order to get cooperation.<\/p>\n

Have you made the connection?\u00a0 That using a testimonial like this is something a new supplier would do in an effort to win a contract award from you?<\/p>\n

If you have, that\u2019s good!\u00a0 Because this proof thing requires that you think like a supplier\u2019s marketing department.<\/p>\n

What else does a supplier\u2019s marketing department do in an effort to persuade you to choose that supplier over a competitor?<\/p>\n

There are definitely some techniques that can be adapted to what I\u2019ll call procurement department marketing.\u00a0 I\u2019ll discuss a few of these principles now\u2026<\/p>\n

One of the things you may have thought of is providing references.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve been in procurement any decent amount of time, I\u2019m sure you asked suppliers to provide references to give you some assurance that their promises are more than mere puffery.<\/p>\n

You can use references to sell the procurement department\u2019s \u201cservices,\u201d too!<\/p>\n

Who in the organization can a reluctant internal customer call to receive assurance that the procurement department can really help them in the manner promised?\u00a0 Those are the people you need to build strong relationships with so that you can have them go to bat for you when another internal customer has an aversion to working with you.<\/p>\n

There are plenty more examples of these type of supplier marketing tactics that you can adapt to marketing your procurement department \u2013 and I encourage you to think of more \u2013 but I\u2019ll leave you with one final aspect of proof that you need to have in your arsenal.<\/p>\n

That aspect of proof is what I call a \u201cportfolio of examples.\u201d<\/p>\n

A portfolio of examples is a collection of documents that demonstrate your success stories with helping internal customers through your procurement work.\u00a0 Sure, it should include information about meeting or exceeding classic procurement goals like cost savings but, ideally, it should provide plenty of examples of how you helped internal customers with the things that are most important to them.<\/p>\n

Testimonials, references, and a portfolio of examples.\u00a0 These things comprise the type of proof that you need to convince internal customers to allow you to get involved.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t have this proof already, don\u2019t worry\u2026you have to start somewhere.\u00a0 So, go delight those internal customers, build great relationships, and document your success.<\/p>\n

Before you know it, internal customers may beat you to the punch and ask you to get involved in their spend even before you identify the opportunity to approach them!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last month, I published Part I of this post.\u00a0 In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":4048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-procurement"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Procurement Professionals Can Win Over Reluctant Internal Customers, Part II - Next Level Purchasing Association (NLPA)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/how-procurement-professionals-can-win\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Procurement Professionals Can Win Over Reluctant Internal Customers, Part II\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last month, I published Part I of this post.\u00a0 In […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/how-procurement-professionals-can-win\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Next Level Purchasing Association (NLPA)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NextLevelPurchasing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-01-24T21:21:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-07-26T17:48:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/11\/nlpa-images-058.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1067\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Galo Matagay\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@nextlevelpurch\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@nextlevelpurch\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Galo Matagay\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/how-procurement-professionals-can-win\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/how-procurement-professionals-can-win\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Galo Matagay\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/#\/schema\/person\/72d094fab77892483dfa6e061cb27eaa\"},\"headline\":\"How Procurement Professionals Can Win Over Reluctant Internal Customers, Part II\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-01-24T21:21:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-07-26T17:48:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/how-procurement-professionals-can-win\/\"},\"wordCount\":910,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Procurement\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/how-procurement-professionals-can-win\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/how-procurement-professionals-can-win\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/how-procurement-professionals-can-win\/\",\"name\":\"How Procurement Professionals Can Win Over Reluctant Internal Customers, Part II - 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