“You have to build those relationships because they can make your life really sweet or really miserable.” – Julie Thomas in today’s Tip 1655
Do you build relationships with procurement?
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Julie Thomas. Julie is an author, speaker and the CEO of ValueSelling Associates. She works with revenue leaders to help them realize sales results they never thought possible and she’s passionate about guiding revenue organizations through uncertainty and helping them build resilient, engaged teams that drive predictable, sustainable results and create customers for life. Here she is:
Julie Thomas: You now have to gain the skill sets to build relationships with the procurement people. You can’t ignore them, and you certainly can’t avoid them. And that was our tactic early on. You might have been trained the same way at some point. We were like, don’t call on them. They will make your life miserable. But they’re beyond a necessary evil now. They hold the keys to the kingdom, and sometimes they can say no early on and eliminate you from the shortlist, regardless of what the business decision-maker wants. So you can’t ignore them. You have to be respectful for them. They care about different things than your business decision-maker, and you have to build those relationships because they can make your life really sweet or really miserable.
So I think that’s one of the biggest changes in sales reps in many cases still don’t understand that. They want to go straight to the top, straight to the C level, and think that he’s going to wave his magic wand or pound his gavel and say, Go do this. Companies don’t behave that way anymore. You’ve got to build consensus. And anybody, oftentimes, can tank a deal regardless of their title.
Scott Ingram: For a link to order your copy of The Power of Value Selling: The Gold Standard to Drive Revenue and Create Customers for Life on Amazon, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1655. Once you’ve clicked over there, be sure to click back here for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!