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About: Elgin Ward

Recent Posts by Elgin Ward

Learning from Vendors – Strategy 6: Contract Timing

Learning from Vendors – Strategy 6: Contract Timing
Learning from Vendors. Sales Reps are often masters at controlling when a deal is brought to Procurement, thus limiting the Customer’s preparation time and negotiation leverage. To counter this Sales Strategy, Customers must understand it and take necessary counter measures. This is one of the most successful strategies used by Sales people on Customers to control...
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Learning from vendors – Strategy 5: CONSENSUS

Learning from vendors – Strategy 5: CONSENSUS
Sales Reps are constantly seeking to exercise more influence over Customer decision makers than does IT Procurement. How can Procurement recognize and counter these ongoing Vendor efforts? This tip of the week deals with the 5th of 8 strategies used by vendors to sell to Customer organizations. We previously discussed how vendors use CONTACTS, TRUST, defining...
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Learning from vendors – Strategy 4: The SOLUTION

Learning from vendors – Strategy 4: The SOLUTION
A Salesperson often tries to guide the Customer stakeholders to focus on a solution from just one vendor. How can Customer stakeholders protect themselves from this danger? This tip deals with the 4TH of 8 strategies used by vendors to sell to customer organizations. We previously discussed how vendors use CONTACTS, TRUST, and defining the PROBLEM...
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Learning from Vendors – Strategy 3: The PROBLEM

Learning from Vendors – Strategy 3: The PROBLEM
Learning from Vendors.  This tip is about number 3 of 8 strategies used by vendors to sell to customer organizations. Previously discussed were Strategy 1: CONTACTS; and, Strategy 2: TRUST. While the Salesperson is making one or more CONTACTS inside the Customer organization and working to build relationships of TRUST, he or she is also looking...
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Learning from vendors – Strategy 2: TRUST

Learning from vendors – Strategy 2: TRUST
How do vendors use the Strategy of TRUST in selling to Customers? What can we learn from this? Salespeople know that making a CONTACT within a prospective Customer company is not enough. Customer Decision Makers buy from those they TRUST. Never or rarely will a Customer decide to purchase from a salesperson that is NOT trusted...
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Learning from Vendors – Strategy 1: CONTACTS

Learning from Vendors – Strategy 1: CONTACTS
  In selling to your organization, well-trained salespeople are extremely strategic. They may be working over 10 opportunities or potential Customers like your company at the same time. They may be spending 6 to 18 months on each such “opportunity” knowing all the while that it is likely no more than 2 or 3 of those...
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Room for Improvement!

Room for Improvement!
    With the New Year comes an opportunity to improve. Maybe last year you were involved in a number of RFPs (or Request for Proposals). Were they each as successful as you hoped? The RFP instructions required that, during the RFP process, the Bidders communicate only through the Single Point of Contact or the SPOC. Reflecting, we may realize...
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Don’t Burn your Bridges

Don’t Burn your Bridges
   
  • Your IT Procurement policy mandates at least 3 Bids for a critical procurement. Your team sent out 4 RFPs to ensure compliance with the policy. Three (3) Vendors responded. Your team commenced contracts negotiations with the Bidder initially evaluated as best fit. The other 2 were informed they did not make the cut. Potentially, a...
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Prepare for SW MADness!

Prepare for SW MADness!
   
  1. One of the greatest frustrations in the procurement of Software Licenses comes from the efforts of Software Vendors to charge multiple times for the same license. For example, Company A purchases a license to use the XYZ Suite. Company A and all of its assets are purchased by Company B. It is not uncommon for...
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Don’t overlook the EXCEPTIONS!

Don’t overlook the EXCEPTIONS!
    Sometimes negotiations with Vendors don’t go quite the way the Customer wants. For a variety of reasons, the Customer may be required to use the Vendor contract template. Even if the Customer template is used, certain undesirable Vendor provisions may be added. Like what? For example, how about a provision mandating significant Fees for Early Termination? Or, a Limitation...
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Who is our AUDIENCE?

Who is our AUDIENCE?
    Some IT procurement professionals might think they have done their job if they negotiate a deal that saves the Customer a lot of money and includes terms and conditions that protect against most major risks. These things are important. But, here’s an important question: What duty, if any, does the IT procurement professional have to negotiate...
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Kaizen is our duty!

Kaizen is our duty!
    You might be wondering, “What is Kaizen?” Or, maybe you have heard that it is a Japanese term that means “Continuous small Improvement”. According to a Japanese dictionary, “Kai” means “revision” or change. And, “Zen” means “good”. Literally, “Kaizen” means a change for the good. While the word itself does not include the concepts of...
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How important is Alignment?

How important is Alignment?
    From the beginning, each IT procurement is a battle to see who will win the influence game. From the moment Sally, the Sales Rep, first makes contact with anyone in your Company, she is on the hunt to identify and influence each member of the Customer’s Decision Making Team. Sally knows perfectly well that her...
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2 Pitfalls of Software Training

2 Pitfalls of Software Training
    Budgets are tight everywhere. Still, there are many IT projects queued up, including a lot of Software Acquisitions. Now, add to that requests for the procurement of Cloud services. As the saying goes, “We are expected to do more with less”! Oh, and by the way, there is also a demand that we get it done FASTER! We do our...
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SOWs must mind their parents!

SOWs must mind their parents!
    Before there is an SOW, a Master Agreement is created. Whether it is a Master Services Agreement, Master Purchase Agreement, or some other Master Agreement, it is the Master Agreement that provides for the creation of SOWs, SOWs that are to be consistent with the Master Agreement. In negotiating a Master Agreement, all of the most experienced...
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Use VRM to get more from Vendors!

Use VRM to get more from Vendors!
We’ve all heard about CRM, or Customer Relationship Management. It usually refers, among other things, to software used by a Vendor to accumulate, document, and share among its Sales Reps specific data on individual customer personnel. Its purpose is to help Sales Reps be more successful in selling to the Customer....
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