In business development today, we are seeing the rise of Procurement and the impact it can have on our sales and account management efforts. In this challenging era, we have a few choices: deal directly with Procurement; avoid Procurement and deal with the line organization directly; or sell to both groups. This Tip pertains to times when you may be dealing directly with Procurement.

One strategy to consider is to "go off the grid", helping the customer to understand what they might be missing in their evaluation criteria. As a simple example, imagine a scenario where your customer is requesting a specific product. You (and several other companies) have what the customer needs. As you review the bid specs, you notice that they are either missing or have underestimated the effort associated with the installation of the product. Doing this requires some research (to understand the bid specs), experience (to uncover what they are missing) and insight (to determine how you create a stronger advantage for yourself).

Once you uncover an omission like this, you have different options:

You can inform them of the omission, helping them to improve their selection efforts. This could be good, as it could endear them to you as they come to appreciate your assistance. If you choose this method, you need to decide if you do this in a public (in front of all of the vendors) or private manner. If you do this privately, make sure to copy the right key players in order to get credit for your value.

You can wait, point out the omission in your response and address it there. This might be an ideal time to submit 2 different responses, 1 directly responding to their RFP, and a 2nd response, "which more completely addresses your situation and assists you in driving a successful outcome". This 2nd response will also force you off the grid, as you are proposing things that don't fit their selection criteria.

Of course, if what you uncover provides you with a competitive advantage, you are in a prime position to set some effective traps. See Tips from April and May, 2012, as well as the IMPAX Blog (LINK) for more on the topic of Setting Traps and going off the grid.