Sales professionals often view procurement as the place where deals go to die. We see them as margin killers. We see them as bureaucratic hurdles.
This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the buying center. We celebrate the "closer," but we fail to prepare them for the chess match that happens after the pitch. When we treat procurement as a roadblock, we lose control of the deal. We lose margin. We lose velocity.
In this podcast, I spoke with Caldwell Hart, Principal at Avetta and a former Chief Procurement Officer, about the reality of the other side of the table. We explored why leading organizations do not buy on price and how the best sellers use "elegant negotiables" to create win-win scenarios. Here is how to stop fearing the gatekeeper and start closing the value gap.
The biggest misconception in sales is that procurement only cares about the bottom line.
This is false.
Leading organizations do not buy on price. They buy on competitive advantage. They buy supply chain resilience. They buy risk mitigation. When sellers enter a negotiation assuming the goal is the lowest price, they have already lost.
If you come in with a generic, "vanilla" pitch, you are a commodity. Commodities get squeezed on price. Solutions get purchased for value. And, if you deliver a standardized talk track to a highly engineered organization, you lose credibility. You do not just lose the deal; you lose the right to compete.
Sales reps often hide the deal from procurement for as long as possible. They fear the "no." They fear the process. This is a tactical error, and until the eleventh hour to involve procurement does not save the deal. It kills the velocity.
Procurement has a process. Legal has a process. If you ignore this, you will miss your forecast. Caldwell shared a stark example from a European multinational where they failed to bring legal into the discussion early.
The result? The deal dragged on for 5 months. Then, the pricing expired. And negotiations have to restart from zero.
Procurement does not want to slow you down. They have internal stakeholders who need your product, but they cannot speed up a process they are not part of.
Price is a blunt instrument. Sophisticated sellers use a scalpel.
“Elegant negotiables" are items of high value to the buyer that do not necessarily erode margin. And, it is about working capital, risk, and access.
You might trade payment terms for price protection. You might offer a sixty-day payment window in exchange for a longer contract commitment. You might offer access to a Customer Advisory Board or a beta program. These trades build partnership.
Relying on discounts and rebates is lazy selling. Caldwell notes that these tactics often drive bad behavior, like over-ordering inventory that eventually becomes obsolete. That hurts both sides. Instead, trade on value.
Transactional deals are moving to automation. Artificial intelligence (AI) is running the request-for-quotation (RFQ). AI is analyzing the spend.
Caldwell predicts that if you are just a vendor selling a part, you will eventually be replaced by an algorithm. The "three bids and a buy" process is becoming autonomous.
But for strategic deals, the human element is the differentiator. Technology cannot build trust. It cannot read the room.
The negotiation is just the wedding. But, the contract is the marriage. You must prove you are a partner for the long haul.
If you rely solely on the tech to manage the deal, you leave value on the table. You miss the nuance that turns a one-time transaction into a ten-year partnership.
The "us vs. them" mentality is obsolete. You cannot win if you treat procurement as the enemy.
To lead in this new reality, you must change the enablement strategy:
Audit your sales process
Check where procurement is introduced. If it is typically at the contract stage, move it up. Force the handoff earlier.
Train financial acumen
Ensure your reps understand how to read an annual report. If they cannot speak the language of "Total Cost of Ownership," they cannot sell value.
Create the “Give/Get” playbook
Do not let reps negotiate on the fly. Give them the approved list of elegant negotiables. Define what you are willing to trade and exactly what you expect in return.
Ray Makela and Caldwell Hart go deep on how to decode procurement, use elegant negotiables, and turn the gatekeeper into a champion.