Tales from the Trenches: Rejecting a ‘take it or leave it’ Offer
LinkedIn
May 13, 2020
Believe it or not, a ‘take it or leave it’ supplier can help advance your procurement career. Regardless of the outcome, identifying costs and strategic vulnerabilities and elevating them to management will lead them to recognize and appreciate your initiative, analytical approach, and professionalism.
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Tags: Management, Procurement, Supply Chain
Would your hand still be in the air?
LinkedIn
April 15, 2019
We can’t usually affect our suppliers’ costs, but we can absolutely make sure we don’t pay unnecessarily high prices because we don’t have time to regularly track the markets. If we wait for suppliers to tell us when their cost fall, we will likely wait a very long time.
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Tags: Procurement, Supply Chain
Trust Your Suppliers, Not Their Data
LinkedIn
April 07, 2019
Depending on your supplier to provide you with unbiased information is like asking the proverbial fox to guard your henhouse. This is when procurement steps into the critical role of information validator. The company is relying upon us to determine whether the supplier’s cost assertions are true.
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Tags: Procurement, Supply Chain
Negotiate with the Right Data
LinkedIn
April 02, 2019
Researching suppliers' costs before negotiating prices is a standard best practice in our profession. What isn't standard is the data we use to support our research. The best data are reliably sourced cost trends, trends that relate directly to the raw materials our suppliers buy.
In a recent survey, 25% of purchasers told us they rely upon free, open-source cost data accessed through search engines like Google. Some of this data is fine but not all of it is suited to the task at hand.
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Tags: Procurement, Supply Chain
For a Lower-Carbon Future, Start with the Low-Hanging Fruit
LinkedIn
March 28, 2019
Procurement professionals are in a strong position to initiate positive change on a broad scale. With a little extra effort, we can make a surprisingly big difference to our carbon footprint and the air we breathe – and increase the value the supply chain delivers to our company at the same time. Reducing the cost of a product or service while also reducing our impact on the environment is a great place to start, and it gives procurement an opportunity to start having critical conversations at increasingly high levels of the organization – all the way to senior management.
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Tags: Procurement, Supply Chain, Sustainability
Going Fishing with Suppliers
LinkedIn
March 14, 2019
The role of a supply chain professional is to be the catalyst that makes things happen. You're the bridge. You are in a unique position to encourage new ideas and creativity.
The best part of fishing with suppliers is the job satisfaction you get from being an agent of positive change. You also get respect and appreciation from your colleagues and senior management while adding to your company’s bottom line. And -- you'll wind up with a string of trophy fish to show your boss at performance appraisal time (and add to your resume).
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Tags: Procurement, Supply Chain
Converting Sales Reps into Champions for Your Cause
LinkedIn
March 07, 2019
Sales reps want to close - that’s how they get paid.
To do this, they know they need to forge good working relationships with their customers: people rarely buy from sales reps they don’t like or trust. Sales reps’ compensation is usually not tied to price; if price is an obstacle, they will be just as keen as procurement is to remove it.
Procurement's job is to inject Cost Transparency into the negotiation so you can both win: they make a sale and you get the price you want.
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Tags: Procurement, Sales
Using Should-Cost Models – Actionable Transparency
LinkedIn
March 01, 2019
Should-cost modeling creates a negotiating process that leads to lower costs and a stronger, more resilient supply chain. By modeling, we force our suppliers to play fair and we guard against price creep, but we also preserve their margin and respect their overhead.
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Tags: Procurement, Supply Chain
Are you following The Golden Rule?
LinkedIn
February 21, 2019
It’s up to procurement professionals to create transparency by researching supplier costs. Researching supplier costs – following the Golden Rule - should be your go-to best practice when negotiating with suppliers.
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Tags: Procurement, Supply Chain
The Four Cornerstones for Leveraging Cost Transparency
LinkedIn
February 14, 2019
Todays procurement professionals have amazing access to data. We can build a solid foundation of information and tie all of our decisions to it. But we have to make sure were anchoring everything to costs rather than prices. Costs are more precise and make a more compelling argument at the negotiating table. They are more closely tied to the suppliers true profitability than prices are. Cost transparency is the golden arrow in a procurement professionals quiver: the key to building and maintaining a robust, sustainable, low-cost supply chain.
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Tags: Procurement, Supply Chain
ACHIEVE YOUR NEGOTIATION GOALS
linkedin
November 05, 2018
Boost Your Leverage
Drive Down Costs
Free 30 Day Trial
No Credit Card Information Required
https://app.propurchaser.com/Home/trialsignup
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Tags: Supply Chain, Procurement
Direction Counts More than Accuracy
linkedin
November 05, 2018
Years ago, while working for Green Giant, I phoned our steel can sales rep to ask for a 4% reduction. We had information suggesting steel prices had fallen 8%.
He certainly wasnt very happy and, as expected, argued against any decrease.
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Tags: Supply Chain, Procurement
Negotiate With the Right Data
linkedin
November 05, 2018
Researching suppliers' costs before renegotiating prices is standard practice in our profession. What isn't standard, however, are the data we use to support our arguments. The best data are reliably-sourced cost trends: -trends that relate directly to the raw materials suppliers actually buy.
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Tags: Supply Chain, Procurement
Plant Tours Worth every Minute
linkedin
November 05, 2018
How do you make sure really sure that your supplier is capable of going the distance providing you with the price, quality and service your company needs to compete successfully? Were not talking about attitude here: its your suppliers capability that matters.
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Tags: Supply Chain, Procurement
Trust your suppliers but not their data
linkedin
November 05, 2018
Of course you need to trust your suppliers: their products, delivery, quality and service . Makes sense or why would you want to do business with them?
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Tags: Supply Chain, Procurement
Supply Chain Now Radio, Episode 226: Less Stress & More Success: How to Take Control of Suppliers Negotiations
Supply Chain Now Radio
December 03, 2019
Scott Luton welcomes Rod Sherkin, Founder and President of ProPurchaser.com, as they discuss how to maneuver successful supplier negotiations.
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Tags: Business Strategy, Procurement, Supply Chain
Supply Chain Now Radio Episode 172: 8 Proven Steps for Optimizing Your Manufacturing Plant Tour Approach
Supply Chain Now Radio
October 03, 2019
Simple as it sounds, a physical plant tour is the best way to gather reliable information about your supplier’s capabilities: control over costs, quality commitment and service culture. Listen to my latest podcast conversation with Supply Chain Now Radio host Scott Luton for my advice about making plant tours worth your time.
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Tags: Management, Procurement, Supply Chain
The Procurement Pros Series: A Conversation with Rod Sherkin of ProPurchaser.com
Supply Chain Now Radio
August 27, 2019
Episode 150 is LIVE! In our newest episode, Scott welcomes Rod Sherkin of our sponsor ProPurchaser.com for the new Procurement Pros series.
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Tags: Management, Procurement, Supply Chain
Cost Transparency: Catalyst for AchievingNegotiating Goals
ISM
April 09, 2019
This session is intended for procurement professionals whose job requires negotiating with suppliers for the purchase of raw materials, components or finished goods. This session will show you how to create and then use Cost Transparency to increase your leverage, drive down costs as well as create a robust, sustainable, low-cost supply-chain. The presentation is centered around four cornerstone, best practices, namely: the Golden Rule of Negotiations, should-cost modeling, converting sales reps into champions for your cause and making your supply chain an enduring competitive advantage.
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Tags: Procurement, Supply Chain
A Better Way to Negotiate: How Cost Transparency is Changing How We Negotiate with Suppliers
ProPurchaser
February 14, 2019
This lecture, given at Bryant University by Rod Sherkin, is considered by many to be their best learning experience for preparing for negotiations with suppliers. It has been viewed by over 15,000 procurement professionals (8,000 of whom are ISM members) and teaches best practices in four key areas:
1. The Golden Rule of Negotiations
2. Should-Cost Modeling
3. Converting Sales Reps into Champions for your cause
4. Making Your Supply Chain an Enduring Competitive Advantage
Because it is almost an hour long, this video is often viewed over lunch.
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Tags: Procurement, Supply Chain
COST CONTAINMENT - Even more important in a post COVID-19 world
ProPurchaser
June 22, 2020
On July 7th at 1pm ET, Bill Michels and Rod Sherkin team up to explain the importance of using Cost Transparency to drive down prices, in a post COVID-19 world. The goal of this webinar is to better prepare you for the future. You may be pleasantly surprised at how effective you can become at driving costs lower and career prospects higher.
Attendees will hear about:
- Recent successes and failures of the procurement profession.
- How to prepare for future challenges - cost containment being key (companies will be cash poor and acutely focused on saving money and raising margins)
- Tried-and-true ideas for containing costs while boosting supply chain resilience
- How to make suppliers' costs transparent
- How to negotiate lower pricing while also attracting the best and most reliable suppliers
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Tags: COVID19, Procurement, Supply Chain
COST TRANSPARENCY - Getting Back to Basics
ProPurchaser
April 09, 2020
This 50-minute presentation is for procurement professionals whose job includes negotiating prices for raw materials, components, or finished goods.
Rod Sherkin, a recognized negotiations expert, explains why Cost Transparency is the golden arrow in a purchaser's negotiations quiver. He describes how it lays the foundation for Big Picture Procurement: a data-driven approach to negotiations that favors the buyer but is also beneficial to the seller.
Rod will show you how to make your suppliers' costs transparent. More importantly, you'll learn how to use this knowledge to get back to basics: negotiating better pricing, building a robust supply-chain, and improving your company's bottom line.
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Tags: Procurement, Risk Management, Supply Chain
Less Stress and More Success: Take Control of Supplier Negotiations
ProPurchaser
August 16, 2019
This 45-minute presentation, by Rod Sherkin,shows you how to boost your leverage and confidence at the negotiating table - and achieve lower prices. You will be introduced to four practices that position you to speak with authority, manage the relationship with sales reps, and make your job less stressful.
If you negotiate with suppliers, you should find this event a good use of your time.
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Tags: Procurement, Supply Chain
Cost Transparency: Catalyst for Achieving Negotiating Goals
