10 Steps to Win Over Your Client's New Procurement Team

Uh oh. There is a new procurement team in town and with it are new dynamics and new relationships. You might not have worked with this team before, or you might not have dealt with these specific individuals before, and the working relationship is bound to be different than what you're used to from your old procurement team as a supplier. It requires you to adapt quickly, think strategically and operate effectively. So keep on listening to find out how you can deal with your client's new procurement team more successfully. Sit tight. I shall be right back. Hello and welcome to the CamClub podcast, a show that is on a mission to help busy key account managers get results. I'm your host Warwick Brown and together we'll explore tips, tricks and trends to help you grow client revenue, crush customer retention and build a successful career in key account management. Everything linkable is available inside the show notes which you can find@tkcpodcast.com 02 all right, well listen, how do we deal with a new procurement team? This topic of how to respond when the complete procurement team is replaced and a new internal team steps in was submitted by Alexander, a listener of the CamClub podcast. Now he asked what are the best practices to build relationships with a new procurement team and ensure they are not bringing their suppliers in to replace you? Now, by the way, check out the show notes. If you have a topic you would like me to discuss in a future episode, there is a form that you can fill in and I would be happy to consider it for a future show. So this is a big challenge and it's not an uncommon one. You know, your procurement contact is replaced and it goes back to square one and it's nerve wracking, especially if you didn't see it coming. You know, if it just came completely out of the blue, you're literally on the back foot and suddenly everything feels like it's in jeopardy and at risk. And you know you're not wrong. It's a great it's how you should be thinking about things because one procurement contract that's new can unravel a lot of hard work that's been done you. There are potential opportunities for them to exploit the relationship. They might force you into a price reduction if you want to keep this business. I'm evaluating things. New sheriff in town I think we need to really look at our prices if we're going to continue to work together. They may expose new quality or delivery problems. I've had this so often before where everything was fine and then suddenly a new person arrives and now things are A problem wasn't a problem for the previous contact. But now suddenly they're pointing fingers and picking over every little detail. They might undermine you professionally or even personally. Those power plays, those bullying tactics, calling your bluffs. They might increase pressure on you because suddenly they're changing expectations. They've woken up, there's all this new stuff they want you to do that's suddenly blurring the lines or crossing the boundaries of what you're supposed to be doing. And it can be difficult to rein that in. They may have pre existing relationships with competitors that are a big problem for you. They might want to bring in a supplier or at least be continuing to talk to a previous supplier with the long term objective of getting them in. And then they're going to have all these biases based on assumptions, not facts. They're arriving in this procurement team at this point in time. They don't know everything that went into how you got to this place. They don't know the rocky, bumpy road that got you there. They're just making assumptions around what they are expecting based on their previous experience. So somewhere else, not the actual experience of the current organization and the previous procurement team. And on top of that, they've probably got something to prove. You know, they want to get some quick wins. They want to show the organization that they've made a good decision in appointing them to this procurement role and this procurement team and you are squarely in their sights. So what do you do? Well, here's some ideas. First you need to find out what their primary motivations are. Are they driven by relationship? Are they driven by price? Are they, are they driven by value? What's important to them? Then you want to find out their focus. Are they more functional, you're just a cog in the wheel, or are they more strategic thinking long term and they value your role in their business success? Then you want to think about the relationship type they're looking for. Are they more personable? Are they interested in building a strong relationship? Are they going to be demanding and difficult? Are they more partnership orientated? These are all factors that can influence how you approach this new procurement team. Do they consider your relationship important, unimportant, Critical? Who are their internal stakeholders? How do they want to manage the new supplier? Well, it's not a new supply relationship. How they want to manage the supplier relationship with you. What role do they play in optimizing costs? What are their KPI drivers? Could be things like savings realized, controlling spend within budget, that sort of thing. Cost avoidance, compliance, make sure. That you understand their business, their situation and their needs. Demonstrate the ROI of your partnership and share your expertise and perspective. That's sort of ground zero. This is like the immediate stuff that you need to be doing, you know, when you're dealing with a new procurement team that's replaced the old one. Okay, time to hear from our sponsor, me. Does any of this sound familiar? You know, you're responsible for growing, penetrating and retaining existing clients, but you don't get the support or training that you need. You'd love to be strategic and help your clients achieve a transformation, but you're just so busy fighting fires, you never get time. You know, you're worried you won't meet your targets and quotas. You want to build influential relationships with senior stakeholders, but you don't quite know how or don't have the confidence. You know, you're an expert and you do a great job, but you struggle to get recognition. You know, that old thing, you need to be more visible. I mean, I could go on, right? But you get the idea. If any of that resonated with you, then think about joining the cam club. You're literally seconds away from the essential training, advice and support you need for an exceptional career in care account management. Everything to help you successfully manage your clients, your boss, your team and your career is inside. And it is backed by our famous love it or leave it, 60 day money back guarantee. So what are you waiting for? Come check out the world's most amazing community of key account managers. Visit amtip.co camclub to find out what all the fuss is about. All right, on with the show. Now. There was an interesting study released by Gartner on procurement's response during the pandemic. And they designed this flywheel on how procurement can be a customer of choice. Now I love this flywheel and we can apply this equally to being a supplier of choice. I'll include the slide in the show notes@tkcpodcast.com 025 but here are the strategies you can use to prove yourself a valuable partner to your client's new procurement team. Share strategic information, you know, advice, insights, recommendations, studies, knowledge, research, anything that can help them make a business impact. Be open to your clients ideas, take on board their feedback, close the loop, invite them into discussions in your business around how to best serve them. See what works, what doesn't work, focus groups, surveys, all that kind of stuff. Take the long view, you know, we're not in this for short term gain, we're in this for long term. Value. So think about the decisions you make today and what impact they'll have in the future and there may be choices that you need to make and concessions you need to make along the way in in order to reap that long term gain. Plan ahead and execute well. This is where an account plan is essential if you develop one, even if it's a simple one pager. In fact, I'll include a link to my one page account plan template if you want to grab that. But you should have a blueprint, a roadmap. You should know where you are going with your customers and be able to communicate back to them the objectives that you've agreed, the goals that you've set, the progress you're making and the results you've achieved. Live up to your commitments. You know, you say you're going to do something, do it, do it on time, do it well. Be easy to do business with. Always look at how you can reduce friction. How can you make things simpler, faster, better quality for your customers? Respect your margins now. This is essential for credibility and long term partnership. Do not drop your pants at the first sign of trouble. At the first sign of a new contact in procurement, you're in for these win win mutual value outcomes from this partnership. It's very tempting to just give in to a request for a price reduction to reduce your margins, but honestly, it's not worth it. You'll end up, you know, what do they call it, the tail wagging the dog. Where literally your client is suddenly in control and has all the power in their relationship and you are doing it for nothing. So respect your margins. Spend time with your client's procurement team. I already shared some tips and advice earlier in the show, at the top of the show about how you can get to know them better, understand their drivers, understand how they want to interact with their suppliers and find ways to optimize the partnership and ways that you can help them get better business results. Provide performance feedback. If you don't have them already, you should have KPIs or SLAs in place, which are key performance indicators or service level agreements to demonstrate your commitment to deliver your service to a certain level of quality, standard delivery, all that sort of stuff. Don't wait for them to ask if you have things that you are meant to be monitoring, monitor them. If you regularly report warts and all, you know, transparency is key. I've often had things in my contracts where I just didn't want to report on them because I knew the results were terrible. Now ultimately they are going to ask for that information and if you have not been providing it, if you have not been reporting on it, especially when there's a new procurement team, because they're going to go through the contract and they're going to say, oh, where are these SLA reports you're meant to be providing that you haven't provided for two years? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It looks like you're hiding something. So be meticulous in providing that performance feedback if you haven't been doing it. It is the first thing I would be doing once I've got a new contact on board because I want to be operating to the letter of the contract. I do not want to miss a thing because, you know, they are going to be going over with the fine tooth comb and they could be looking for any triggers, anything that would potentially, you know, suggest a breach of contract where they might be able to have an exit. So I want to make sure I have not overlooked a thing and finally recognize and reward success. You know, celebrate the good times, you know, shout from the rooftops when you've achieved a milestone, when you've, you know, got a result for your client because they have short memories and this is a perfect opportunity when you have a new procurement team on board to remind them of all the good stuff that you've achieved before they got there and all the great stuff, they can look forward to moving forward. And, you know, use these celebration moments when success happens to reinforce that. Now, there's one thing I want you to remember. Whenever you interact with your client's procurement team, especially when they're new, think to yourself this right, how can I help them achieve a gain or remove the pain from some any aspect of their business? If you focus on what better solutions look like and the path to achieving them, you'll create a very strong foundation on which to build your relationship with the new procurement team. All right, that's a wrap, Heroes. On this episode about how to deal with a new procurement team. I've been your host, Warwick Brown. Don't forget to check out the show notes@tkcpodcast.com have a look at the Cam Club too. I'd love to see inside there. And until next time, bye for now.