{"id":849,"date":"2007-04-24T13:18:23","date_gmt":"2007-04-24T18:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/04\/wrong-way-purchasing\/"},"modified":"2007-04-24T13:18:11","modified_gmt":"2007-04-24T18:18:11","slug":"wrong-way-purchasing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/04\/wrong-way-purchasing\/","title":{"rendered":"Wrong Way Purchasing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/04\/wrong-way-prospecting\/\">Hammer&#8217;s recent post<\/a> brought back the memory of a experience I had about 18 months ago. I was with a sales rep at a meeting hastily put together because a vendor&#8217;s VP of Sales was coming to town. Although we had several very good, qualified meetings on the schedule, our local rep wanted to make sure the VP was kept quite busy with appointments.<\/p>\n<p>So we walked into this last minute meeting not really knowing much about why we were there (man, do I hate that!!!). I asked the attendees to tell us what their role was within the organization, why they were attending the meeting and what they hoped to gain by meeting with us. (By the way, I had to interrupt the VP that wanted to start his presentation without asking any questions&#8230;.)<\/p>\n<p>One of the attendees responded by saying &#8220;I&#8217;m the vendor guy.&#8221; I was a bit confused so I asked him to explain. He went on to tell us that his role was to talk with vendors about their offerings. Period. Still confused, I asked him to explain his process and methodology.<\/p>\n<p>This company had decided to have several resources within PURCHASING dedicated to talking with vendors. This plan was put in place to avoid having vendors talk directly to individuals within the company who were too busy to spend time with individual vendors. I was shocked. I simply asked, &#8220;How does that work?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>His reply was even more shocking. The gentleman went on to explain that his department knew what the company needed in virtually every area of the business. If they heard something that would pertain to a need, they would investigate further, then perhaps allow direct dialog with the actual users of products and services.<\/p>\n<p>Needless to say, I was stunned. He went on to &#8220;assure&#8221; me that the individuals in his group specialized in certain areas. He said he was the right internal person for our product and would review it with potential users within the organization.<\/p>\n<p>Wow. Those are some extreme measures to keep truly professional sales people from doing their job. Wrong way prospecting meets wrong way purchasing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hammer&#8217;s recent post brought back the memory of a experience I had about 18 months ago. I was with a sales rep at a meeting hastily put together because a vendor&#8217;s VP of Sales was coming to town. Although we had several very good, qualified meetings on the schedule, our local rep wanted to make sure the VP was kept quite busy with appointments. So we walked into this last minute meeting not really knowing much about why we were there (man, do I hate that!!!). I asked the attendees to tell us what their role was within the organization, why they were attending the meeting and what they hoped&hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/04\/wrong-way-purchasing\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sales-management","category-sales-techniques"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-dH","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1817,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/12\/pre-call-prep\/","url_meta":{"origin":849,"position":0},"title":"Pre-Call Prep","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"December 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I have been in sales since 1992 and have seen the marketplace change in drastic ways.\u00a0 Today, we are in the midst of the information age where knowledge is king.\u00a0 Preparedness is a necessity for successful selling.\u00a0 In all honesty, this trait has never been one of my strengths.\u00a0 However,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sales Techniques&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sales Techniques","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-techniques\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1310,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/11\/know-your-value\/","url_meta":{"origin":849,"position":1},"title":"Know Your Value","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"November 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I was meeting with a VP of Sales yesterday discussing the onramping program for the new salesperson we found for them.\u00a0 He brought up a good point in that his new salesperson was spending time researching their competition.\u00a0 Unfortunately, they are in a commoditized market with many - many -\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sales Management&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sales Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1115,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/08\/more-regarding-proactive-sales-management\/","url_meta":{"origin":849,"position":2},"title":"More Regarding Proactive Sales Management","author":"Mike Cardinal","date":"August 7, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The first two parts of our series on proactive sales management have been focused on foundation and structure. An experience about a year ago, sums up the crux of the problem - and the eventual fallout. Depending on the sales scenario, product knowledge can be a foundational item that should\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sales Management&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sales Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":184,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/07\/when-to-assess-salespeople\/","url_meta":{"origin":849,"position":3},"title":"When to Assess Salespeople","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"July 24, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The first key is to assess candidates before hiring. We encounter many companies that hire based on their gut feeling about a candidate. I met with a customer last week who has a VP who makes up his mind in a matter of the first 10 minutes of an inperson\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Assessing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Assessing","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/assessing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":984,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/06\/accelerate-the-on-ramping-time-frame\/","url_meta":{"origin":849,"position":4},"title":"Accelerate The On-Ramping Time Frame","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"June 7, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"SellingPower.com has released their monthly sales management newsletter which is usually filled with insightful articles. How Long Are Ya\u20ac\u2122 Gonna\u20ac\u2122 Be New Here? is a client study on one company's efforts to shorten their sales ramp time. One of the universal problems all sales managers face is getting new hires\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring Salespeople&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring Salespeople","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/hiring-salespeople\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1164,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/09\/how-many-calls-does-it-take-to-close\/","url_meta":{"origin":849,"position":5},"title":"How Many Calls Does It Take To Close?","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"September 5, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"That is a pertinent question in successful selling and one we always ask when profiling a sale. Many sales managers that we talk to would like to have a one-call close sale no matter what the sales cycle. That misalignment always leads to a unique discussion. Selling Power offers a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sales Management&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sales Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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