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CAUCUS Blog

The Emperor’s New Clothes

The Emperor’s New Clothes
  IT procurement is MOST successful when there is FULL participation by all members of the Customer’s cross-functional team. Frequent use of undefined or unclear jargon and acronyms can significantly impair meaningful participation by necessary members of the Customer’s cross-functional teams. IT procurement professionals should invest the necessary courage, time and effort upfront to define and...
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Winning the Influence Game

Winning the Influence Game
  Sales Reps are often masters at exercising influence over the Customer’s Internal Stakeholders. Our success as IT procurement professionals is absolutely dependent on our ability to influence the minds, hearts, and emotions of our Internal Stakeholders. One very powerful tool for procurement to earn Stakeholder trust is to UNDER PROMISE and OVER DELIVER. Sometime ago my...
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Manage or be managed – your choice!

Manage or be managed – your choice!
Sales Reps are taught “PRICE to WIN but MANAGE to PROFIT.” Customers must MANAGE vendors or be managed by the vendors. Customers can use Payable Milestones to effectively manage vendors. Among the key concepts Account Executives or Sales Reps are taught is this: Price to Win BUT Manage to Profit! If the Sale Rep does not WIN...
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Winners keep score!

Winners keep score!
Whether you are a salesperson or a procurement professional, “keeping score” and documenting your successes are keys to measuring progress and continuous improvement. It increases self-satisfaction, and justifies an employer’s actions in upping your salary and in promoting you. It will have a very positive impact on your career as a procurement professional. To begin with,...
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Connecting the Dots in the Procurement Process

Connecting the Dots in the Procurement Process
Building the selection or scoring tool before the RFx is complete and released will help the Customer avoid some major problems, problems like discovering after issuing the RFx that it leaves out important requirements necessitating the need to amend the RFx. Connecting the Dots in the Procurement Process – How reverse planning can solve the age...
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Is the Best Contract the One that Stays in the Drawer?

Is the Best Contract the One that Stays in the Drawer?
Negotiating great contract terms and conditions is very important. Negotiating in a way that creates and maintains good working relationships may be as or more important. Vendors are often willing to go beyond the requirements of a contract if the Customer has cultivated a good relationship. The best contract is one that stays in the drawer. If...
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Use “Thanks” to Educate!

Use “Thanks” to Educate!
Internal alignment is key for Procurement to negotiate better deals. How to get it? Using “Thanks” properly can be a powerful tool to educate customer Stakeholders. “Thank you” is one of MOST powerful tools Procurement has. Procurement is a team sport – it can’t be done successfully alone. If Procurement succeeds in negotiating great T&Cs and amazing pricing,...
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Are you giving away Customer Data?

Are you giving away Customer Data?


In seminars on Maintenance, Software, and Cloud Services, the following questions are asked of attendees. The answers the attendees give often surprise even themselves. Question 1. When you purchase a license to Software or Cloud Services, do you also buy Maintenance Services? Customer Answer 1. Yes. Question 2. As part...
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Planning for Failure

Planning for Failure
Most IT projects have the potential to be successful. Likewise, they all have the inherent potential to fail. If the possibility of failure is not contemplated and no or few Remedies for failure are provided, then the Customer may suffer devastating loses when failure does occur. Conversely, a Customer can avoid much unnecessary loss, delay,...
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Is IT Sourcing Really Strategic?

Is IT Sourcing Really Strategic?
Vendors and their sales reps are extremely strategic in the use of their time, their expense accounts and other resources, demos, loss leaders, and RFP responses, often gaining the vendors negotiation advantages. By creating or seizing opportunities to be strategic, IT sourcing, too, can increase its negotiation leverage to get better deals for the Customer. Sometime...
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Don’t be a Ploy Pushover!

Don’t be a Ploy Pushover!
Salespeople are taught, practice and become expert at using Ploys to manipulate the Customer. It seems these Ploys are endless in types and amounts. Is there one, simple, best way to address these Vendor Ploys? Yes! Use this simple approach to quickly and painlessly resolve almost every Ploy. Salespeople are taught, practice and are often quite...
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Procurement’s Forgotten R

Procurement’s Forgotten R
The Forgotten R of Procurement is Restraint, meaning ongoing control. While important, it is not enough to address Requirements, Rewards, Risks, and Remedies alone. The Customer will ultimately succeed only if it RESTRAINS the Vendor’s performance to strictly comply with the detailed specifics of the contract. What is the Forgotten R of Procurement? A good procurement...
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4 R’s of Strategic Sourcing

4 R’s of Strategic Sourcing
In every IT deal, the Vendor will attempt to control the 4 R’s if it can. Unless IT procurement intervenes and prevails, it is likely that Requirements will be defined narrowly, Reward (price) will be maximized at the Customer’s expense, Risks will be shifted to the Customer, and the Remedies for Vendor failures will be...
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The Phantom Deadline

The Phantom Deadline
Sales Reps sometimes use the Phantom Deadline Ploy to create a sense of urgency in the Customer. Unchecked, it can adversely affect the Customer’s negotiation leverage. Here’s how to defeat this Ploy and how to get the most mileage out of its demise. “There’s just one thing,” your supplier will say. “If it’s not signed by...
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Learning from vendors – Strategy 8: Review and Recommend

Learning from vendors – Strategy 8: Review and Recommend
Once a contract is signed and implementation is complete, a Vendor will, at the earliest opportunity, review its positive performance and recommend the Customer purchase more of the same products or services for other departments of the Customer AND recommend the Customer buy other products and services from the Vendor. This dangerous phase requires special...
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Learning from Vendors – Strategy 7: Implementation

Learning from Vendors – Strategy 7: Implementation
Of the 8 steps used by vendors for Account Control of the Customer, Step 7: Implementation is the Sales Rep’s best possible situation. Now that a contract is signed and IT procurement has voluntarily turned the project over to others, the Sales Rep, free from the meddling interference of IT procurement, can focus on expanding...
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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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The Partner Ploy

The Partner Ploy
One deadly Vendor Ploy is the Partner Ploy. It lessens Customer negotiation leverage, making a good deal harder to get. Learn a good countermove for the Partner Ploy. One deadly Vendor Ploy is the Partner Ploy. It lessens Customer negotiation leverage, making a good deal harder to get. Learn a good countermove for the Partner Ploy. Vendors...
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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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