Managing Common Challenges in Negotiating with Procurement

Whether selling commodity products, new technologies, or highly differentiated professional services, sales professionals consistently report that procurement has an ever-expanding role in the sales process. This is made all the more difficult as end users have been moved further and further away from the sale itself. Below are some of the key challenges sales people report they face most often when working with procurement, followed by some advice based on over 20 years of consulting to both sales and procurement organizations.

Common challenges when negotiating with procurement

1. Procurement the gate-keeper
2. Selling value when procurement seems to only care about price
3. Negotiating when it feels like procurement has all of the leverage
4. Out to bid – managing procurement’s reliance on a RFx process
5. Dealing with threats, stalling, and other tough tactics