The Buyer’s Confession Tapes is a series of lighthearted interviews with some of the most interesting and experienced professionals in the world of procurement and supply chain management. The purpose of talking with them in complete anonymity is to turn the conversation to areas that normally do not get discussed in public. The intent is to reveal insights and information normally not disclosed to their stakeholders and business partners. The goal is to create more transparency and understanding of the ways of working, thought and decision-making processes so that more sustainable and successful business relationships can be built with these buyers and supply chain managers. No sugar coating, window dressing, or fake news! Just the naked truth of what is really on your buyer’s mind. We deliberately deviate from our normal conventions in this format and try to make it educational but also fun to read at the same time. Let us know what you think about it and enjoy the read!
The interview is led by Jens Hentschel, the founder of THE FIVIS PARTNERSHIP and himself an experienced senior procurement professional having worked in organizations such as Procter&Gamble, KFC and RWE and who consulted many procurement and sales teams around the world on building profitable business relationships.
For our first confession tape article, I setup a breakfast meeting with a senior procurement leader that has been buying raw materials and services for some of the largest FMCG companies in the world. I would like to explore the topic of sales with him and would like to understand his perspective on the interactions that he had with sales representatives throughout his career. What has been working well and what are the traps that salespeople regularly fall into but actually could easily avoid?
Due to the fact that we want to protect the identity of my interviewee, we will refer to him as Mr.X.
Mr. X. has met, interacted and negotiated with probably 1000s of different suppliers and account managers. I was excited that he agreed to meet me and to talk about his experiences, as well as share some of his thoughts on what to do and what to refrain from as a salesperson when meeting a buyer.
I have known Mr. X for nearly 15 years now. He has been in various senior procurement roles around the world buying chemical ingredients for shampoos, detergents, and other consumer products, as well as marketing services for some of the largest brands in the market. Mr. X has made a stellar career and was elected worldwide procurement guru for negotiation trainings and contractual agreements in one of the larger corporations that he used to work for. He lives on the European mainland now and is visiting London on a business trip.
London is the sixth largest French city
I meet Mr. X in a little café called ‘The Chapter Coffee Roaster’ in Kensington, West London. It is 10:45am and the café is packed with people.
“A lot of French speaking people around here it seems.” Clearly! London is the sixth largest French speaking city after all.
I smile as Mr.X orders his coffee with milk in French instead of English with the waitress who seems to have a French speaking accent.
“Soy, oat, almond, skimmed, full fat?” comes the reply from her. Mr. X looks puzzled.
“Welcome to London my friend, there is no such a thing as a normal coffee with milk any longer.” I say, and we settle on skimmed cow’s milk for him. I order a black Americano and a slice of what looks like a walnut, honey, and carrot cake.
We look for a quiet table, which is more of a challenge than I thought. We sit down next to a large glass window that separates the café from the coffee roasting facility with piles of roasted coffee beans in these gunny sacks, looking as if they were just rolled off a ship from Colombia. I flip open my notebook and press record on my iPhone.
Being a buyer.
Jens: “What is procurement for you?”
Mr. X: “Procurement has always been a passion of mine! I just love to interact with vendors and various internal stakeholders to find common ground and drive value on both sides of the table. I know this sounds quite corporate but that is indeed what always got me out of bed in the morning.”
Jens: “Many of the sales organizations and suppliers that I meet ask me for insights on what makes procurement really tick. Why buyers act in a certain way? What they, as sales teams, can do to build better relationships with their buying counterpart? It is fascinating to see that many sales teams and account managers dread the interaction with us in procurement. There seems to be a fear of opening that black box and releasing the black magic that is inside.”
Mr. X: “There is no rocket science behind our buying job. We are just normal people that defend the interest of our company at the end of the day. At the same time, we rely on the best suppliers out there to be successful. I think this is something that many account managers do indeed underestimate.”
Jens: “I agree. But there must be certain pitfalls for sellers, let’s say before, during or after meeting you. Things they should avoid doing or saying? Things that can wind you up as a buyer?”
Mr. X: “Oh yeah, for sure there are plenty! I always frowned upon certain behaviors, and asked myself: salesperson, why are you doing what you are doing right now? Why are you behaving this way? You are losing all the goodwill that you have built up so far with me. And it can be indeed tiny little things that can harm the relationship. Let’s face it, as professional buyers, we are extremely busy. We can only allocate a tiny fraction of our time to meeting vendors. Most of our days we spend on operational stuff unfortunately. Hence, expectations are high that everything goes indeed smoothly and flawlessly when meeting suppliers.”
There is no such thing as a free lunch.
Mr. X. continues: “The first big mistake you can make as supplier or account manager is to book in a meeting with me, the buyer, that ends just around lunchtime. This puts pressure on me to either go out for lunch with you or actually take you out for lunch. Not all supplier relationships are important enough and justify a lunch or dinner meeting. Even a face to face meeting is sometime already too much to ask for if you represent only, let’s say 1% of my spend responsibility.”
Jens: “So, you say, you allocate time to suppliers based on their importance to your business and spend can be one criterion?”
Mr. X: “Absolutely. It is not uncommon for professional buyers to overlook 100s of millions of company expenditures spread over 30-60 suppliers. Easily. Even a contractual spend of a couple of millions might then not be enough to qualify as key supplier relationship. As said before, buyers have only a limited amount of time to allocate to supplier meetings, so, you need to choose wisely with whom you spend your time with and how much time you want to invest into the relationship.”
Jens: “But to be honest with you, scheduling a meeting in the right way sounds like the basics to me. A mistake a junior account person could make. Surely a seasoned salesperson would think ahead and avoid this from happening, right?”
Mr. X: “Well, it happens actually more often than you think and everyone, junior and senior account person, is guilty of it. You could argue by looking at it objectively that it is indeed a minor issue. What is the big deal of having lunch together? But actually, it can make the difference. Remember, it is a very competitive environment out there. We see many different suppliers and small things can shift the needle in the relationship, subconsciously at times. Aspects such as: do I feel good about a meeting, has it been efficient and handled professionally, or do I think the supplier has just ‘stolen’ three hours of my day.”
Jens: “Hang on a minute. If I understand you correctly, then you expect the seller to read the situation of how much time is actually appropriate for a meeting instead to leaving it up for destiny to decide if an one-hour meeting drags into a three-hour engagement including lunch?”
Mr. X.: “Yes. I guess you could compare it to these internal meetings that you do not see the point in attending. Anyone that has worked in a large company probably knows what I am talking about. It is the same thing. Everything could be wrapped up in 20 minutes, but you still spend two hours debating.”
Jens: “Would you then recommend avoiding lunches and dinners altogether?”
Mr. X.: “No, that is not my point. Where it makes sense, it is indeed of value. In general though, my clear advice would be, make sure to schedule a meeting with a buyer in a way so that it always ends before 11:30am, latest. Same applies for an afternoon meeting and dinners. In case your meeting falls just before lunch time, approach the topic pro-actively and before the meeting to avoid any awkward situation. Be honest with yourself, yes a lunch meeting is great to bond with your buyer, but the two million contract is not going to justify it and deep down in your heart you know that. Your buyer appreciates your professionalism rather than a warm meal at the local pizza place, believe me.”
As our coffees arrives, I invite Mr. X. to taste a piece of my cake. He politely refuses, which concerns me a little given what he had just said. We get distracted by a small baby that starts crying at the table next to us and we briefly start talking about his family as I know them very well.
Mr. X. continues: “Another point that comes to mind, being late to a meeting is obviously not good, but being too early can be equally as bad. I know that I can always have the supplier wait at our reception until we are supposed to be meeting but, you know, it gives me personally that feeling of uneasiness knowing that someone is physically waiting for me. Some buyers might completely ignore this and have no issue at all. Maybe it is just me, but it feels like starting that meeting on the wrong foot before is has even begun. I feel pressured and stressed. So, be on time rather is the bottom-line message here.”
Jens: “How much time is ok to arrive before the meeting in your view then?”
Mr. X.: “5-10 minutes is the absolute maximum in my eyes.
Talking about scheduling a meeting, something I always appreciate is an email the day before from the salesperson reminding me of the meeting. Most people do not know that, but in large companies everything, including meeting rooms, needs to be booked in advance. And they are traded like gold. Receiving that reminder at around 3pm the day prior helps me to plan the day ahead. I cannot remember the countless times I had to run around begging colleagues to free up space in the morning of the meeting since I plainly forgot to book a room.”
Jens: “But this is totally your mistake and not the fault of the supplier, right?”
Mr. X.: “Of course, it is totally my mistake. But in the end of the day, what we talk about here is to make the meeting as easy as possible for me as a buyer. It is clearly not the seller’s fault that I cannot organize a meeting room, but you know that feeling of getting the reminder the day prior of a salesperson that thinks ahead and has saved me of that potential stress in the morning is worth something and not forgotten, believe me.”
To be continued.
Read the second part of the interview with Mr. X. in ‘The Buyer’s Confession Tapes – Episode 2’ where we talk about topics such as price negotiations, meeting etiquette and brown shoes. I hope you join in for episode 2 which will be released shortly.
