Value Added Partners.org

Bridging the purchasing gap

Circumventing the purchasing department can cause big headaches for distributor salespeople. Here are several methods for getting along with buyers.

by Paul Markgraff

Some distributor salespeople view the purchasing departments at their end-user customers as an obstacle to be dealt with, a necessary evil, even an afterthought. Buyers are often viewed with a jaundiced eye; they are seen as price buyers who are always looking for the best deal instead of the right product.

Distributor salespeople who sell total cost of ownership sometimes prefer not to deal with purchasing at all. Kevin Fitzpatrick, sales manager for fictitious distributor Primo Industrial Supply, has allowed this stereotypical view of purchasing to pervade his sales staff and now Primo is running into problems.

Recently, Fitzpatrick has received complaints from several of its customers that Primo salespeople are selling directly to plant floor personnel without consulting purchasing. This has caused rifts in the distributor’s relationship with its customer, but Fitzpatrick is not sure how to handle it.

In our last issue of V-Mail, we asked readers how they would handle buyers in Fitzpatrick’s place. Does Fitzpatrick need to update the purchasing manager earlier in the sales process? What advice should Fitzpatrick give his salespeople?

Rob Reed, a salesperson for Mobile, Ala.-based distributor Turner Supply, says it’s as easy as keeping the purchasing department informed by copying them on correspondence he has with the end-user. When quoting the production department, salespeople should copy the buyers on the quote or send a separate message to them updating them on where the sales process stands.

“Buyers will appreciate being included and this may also protect your order from being outsourced to another distributor,” says Reed.

Tom Hyatt, branch manager of Windsor, Ontario-based distributor Windsor Factory Supply, says working with the people on the factory floor is the most effective way to find the right product for their job. But, Hyatt says, it is equally important to show purchasing the effects good products and ideas can have.

“What I would do, and have done, is let purchasing in on things when it is most effective to do so,” says Hyatt. “If there is a huge cost savings to a new process, I want purchasing to bring it to the floor and get the recognition. This makes it easier to get the next product in.”

Hyatt says he would tell his reps to pick the most effective times to involve purchasing, because that strategy will deliver more opportunities down the road.

“Guys on the plant floor won’t be offended if they are the second people to see the new product,” he says.

Distribution industry consultant Malcolm Mills sees this problem from the purchaser’s viewpoint and he sees major problems with distributor salespeople circumventing the purchasing department. This sales strategy can screw up every department from warehousing and receiving to quality assurance and accounting.

“Say you are working for the aircraft industry or any other number of ISO:9000 companies where you have strict quality standards,” says Mills, owner of Tough World Consulting and Training. “All of a sudden, you have a product on the floor or in production, and you either can’t use it or it gets rejected. You’ve created a litany of problems including the paperwork that goes along with the rejection. Then the buyer has to get involved anyway.”

At that point, the buyer doesn’t want that particular salesperson anywhere near the property anymore.

So, how can salespeople get involved with purchasing and still sell value rather than price? Mills says distributor salespeople should stop trying to get around the purchasing department and instead go right to it.

“Make an appointment; talk to them,” he says. “Do your homework. Know what they need. Knock on the door with a solution in hand. All you have to do is prove that you have value – you, yourself, not your product – and then purchasing will talk to you anytime after that.”

There are different kinds of value a distributor salesperson can bring to purchasing, says Mills. But first and foremost, distributor salespeople need to bring technical expertise and detailed knowledge of the account. The need to know how the end-user’s products are engineered and built, and they need to know about any problems the relationship has endured over the life of the account.

“Just be aware of what the customer is trying to accomplish and your service to date,” he says. “What’s your track record? When you know these things, then you are valuable to the customer.”