Kevin is now a Partner for This Partners with over 30 years IT & sourcing experience gained across multiple industries for many major blue-chip organisations. This Partners is a boutique consultancy specialising in Sourcing Advisory, focussing on IT. This Partners typically help clients with Market Engagement (supplier selection, negotiation and contracting), Supplier Optimisation & Remediation, Sourcing Strategy (development and implementation) and Transition, Transformation & Benefits Management. Kevin can be contacted at [email protected] or you can reach This Partners via LinkedIn at This Partners: Overview | LinkedIn or via www.thispartners.com

Key points

Kevin described how important research is for procurement professionals. That involves supplier, stakeholders, acquisitions, stock price, products and services.

Planning

Establish your intent, and your desired outcome.

Add a slice of realism to the outcome which is your goal.

Least acceptable - minimum you'd accept before walking away

Understand what your alternatives are

There are no tricks to negotiation, just good intention, preparation and thinking Win/Win.

Importance to work with stakeholders

Sometimes Procurement Teams do get overruled by the Business

Procurement teams should challenge the request

Traits of a good salesperson: energetic, charismatic, honest, trustworthy, tech-savvy, empathy, knowledge of product, knowledge of the client.

Cognitive empathy approach to negotiation - understand their pain thresholds, what their drivers are, what does success look like to them. If both parties adopt the same approach is very useful for the negotiation process.

Look for the Win/Win outcome. Both parties should have some benefits from the negotiation.

Importance of landing on something that's going to have a positive lasting impact.

Define what success looks like from the outset for both supplier and client.

Adopt KPI's, and objectives to measure the success of a partnership, but ultimately it's about having a strong relationship.

Over the last decade the concept has moved from cost to value.

Procurement are reluctant to adopt a revenue share model because of the difficulty in proving the contribution made by the supplier.

Some Procurement Teams are measured on personal goals and objectives, others on savings for the firm.

% of savings of spend

% of savings of addressable spend

Payment terms

e-Auctions:

-Spend through e-Auctions

-e-Auction effectiveness

-Number of lots through e-Auction

e-Auctions usage is increasing

Handling continuous price increases

Ethics during price exploration

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