Lightning Round: 10 Ways to Connect with Prospects
Question: Charles from Southern California asks, “Today on my first outbound sales call a manager picked up the phone. After our conversation he said he’d speak with his purchasing manager. My question is, would you continue to call into this company to find a person of interest or wait to hear what my contact has found out from his purchasing manager?”
Book: Smart Calling by Art Sobzcak
❖ Send your questions to Meridith and Mark at hello@saleslogicpodcast.com
Episode Summary:
Transform the often tense dynamic between sales professionals and purchasing departments into a harmonious and productive partnership. Through this episode, we guarantee you’ll gain invaluable insights into aligning sales strategies with the broader objectives of purchasing departments, such as cost control, risk mitigation, and value creation. By reframing your perspective, you’ll learn how to make your products stand out as strategic investments rather than mere expenses, ultimately benefiting both parties involved. Our exploration includes strategies for engaging in meaningful discussions about inventory management and vendor consolidation, which can provide crucial insights into the priorities of purchasing departments.
The follow transcript of this episode was generated by AI. Semantic errors may occur.
[00:00] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Hey, this is Meredith Elliott Powell and you know what time it is. Well, it is actually 8.03 Saturday morning. My fault, I was having a computer malfunction this morning, but nevertheless it is time for Sales Logic, the show where we dive into the strategies, discuss the steps, everything that you need to know to sell more effectively in today’s marketplace. Mark what do?
[00:20] – Mark Hunter (Host)
we have on tap for today. We’re going to be dealing with purchasing departments. How do you deal with purchasing departments? We’ve got a great question that came in with it, and the lightning round top 10 ways to connect with prospects. How’s that sound? We got a good show. Got a good show. Prospect with integrity, we will get customers who have integrity. Integrity is the foundation from which everything is built on.
[00:44] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Is the foundation from which everything is built on, you better understand value. But at the end of the day, sales is a relationship business, it is a people business, it is an emotional business. This is SalesLogic. All right, welcome back to SalesLogic, mark. We sit here just on the edge of the holidays, but we are still talking sales. So what’s up for today?
[01:26] – Mark Hunter (Host)
Well, we’re going to talk about purchasing departments and if you stop and think about this, are purchasing departments the bane of salespeople or do they help salespeople? I mean, that’s the real challenge. I’ll tell you what I can’t stand purchasing departments. I don’t want to spend any more minutes, any more moments dealing with a purchasing agent than I have to. But okay, get me off my soapbox here. What are your thoughts?
[01:52] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Well, here’s the thing about you know what it reminds me of. Purchasing departments are, for lack of a better way to put it, they’re kind of a necessary evil, right? It reminds me back when I was a banker. We would have underwriting, and underwriting made me crazy because I felt like underwriting’s goal was to prevent me from making a loan, which you know what Sometimes is a good thing. So I think when, as sales professionals, we deal with purchasing departments, I think we need to have a mindset shift, because probably the biggest thing and most important thing you need to know, understand and relate to is the goal of the purchasing department is very different than the goal of your prospect and the person that you’re selling to.
[02:34] – Mark Hunter (Host)
Yeah, because at the end of the day, they are just doing their job. Now here’s something that I want to throw out the window right now. You know salespeople say well, the most difficult part of their job is telling us salespeople, they need a lower price. No, that’s not the most difficult part of the job. The most difficult part of their job is going to their customers, in other words, the people inside the company that they buy for, and they say sorry, you can’t have what you want because I’ve got to get a lower price. Those are their most difficult conversations. So, salespeople, we’ve got to take a step back and realize purchasing agents are just doing what they are paid to do, and that is procure the cheapest stuff. Now here’s the whole thing their goal, their eyes, their vision everything’s a commodity. It’s our objective. It’s our goal to get them to see it’s not a commodity as to what we’re providing them.
[03:26] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Yeah, I love Thomas. You are up bright and early, still working hard as you head into the holidays. Merry Christmas to you as well and the rest of our audience here. So here’s a couple of things.
[03:40]
I think that purchasing departments have lots of goals, like we all do, I mean, and probably some of the biggest feel like the antithesis of sales. I mean, their goal is cost control and risk mitigation, and when I sell something to a company, I want them to take a risk and I want them to spend money to do it. So if you get mired in fighting over those two goals, you are going to lose with purchasing department. Because I think probably something else we need to realize as salespeople is purchasing departments are in control. You have to win them over Now. The other great thing is that purchasing departments also have other goals, like value creation, like ensuring quality in a company and ensuring that the company grows. They’re not anti-growth. So you’ve got to get in there and talk about why it is worth it to circumvent those first two goals of cost control and risk mitigation to go with your last few goals, and I’m going to add to that.
[04:46] – Mark Hunter (Host)
It’s asset deployment. One of the things that any purchasing department is very concerned with is how much inventory is tied up in inventory non-working assets. So their whole goal is how do you turn assets as rapidly as possible? You want to get into a great conversation with a purchasing agent. Ask them, talk to them. Hey, what kind of turns are you expecting? What are the strategies that you use? Because all of them have various formulas based on quantity to buy versus dollars it’s going to cost to buy and inventory turn and so forth.
[05:19]
And along with that then it comes how do they minimize the number of vendors? Ooh, vendors I hate to use that term, but you got to use it with procurement departments. How many vendors are they working with? Because if they can consolidate vendors, it does two things. One, it minimizes their back office. Two, it streamlines their warehousing facility and so forth, because there’s fewer loads coming in. But the third thing it does is it gives them more power, because if they can consolidate to a few vendors, guess what They’ve got more business dealing with one person, one company.
[05:55]
What does that do? That allows them to have more leverage. And you got to understand a procurement agent is leveraging both sides. They’re leveraging the side of the sales team and you know salespeople and they’re leveraging inside so they may throw a bone to an inside customer. Okay, you want this particular item, this particular SKU, you really want that? Okay, I’m going to go and give that to them, but I’m going to make sure that they don’t get everything else that they want because I can find it cheaper. Got to understand the role that they put. They are really facing targets on both sides.
[06:34] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Yeah, welcome, jack Hubbard, probably the king of mastering the art of dealing with purchasing departments, because nobody dots their I’s and crosses their T’s more than the financial services industry that you are the expert in. So thanks. It has been a great year and we too are excited about 2025. So you know, here’s the thing too. I mean, mark, what do you think about bringing the purchasing department in early? Just bringing them in. Before anybody suggests you talk to purchasing, I’ll tell you, I really blew this a couple of years ago.
[07:11]
I was doing some work for a pretty prominent insurance company. I’d completely closed the day, the deal, in my opinion, and they sent me over to purchasing and I might as well have just, I mean, it was like quicksand. I was drowning like crazy. It was like completely starting the sales call over. And when I debriefed it afterwards, like Jack Hubbard taught me to do, even whether I have a good sales call or a bad one, to really think about it and talk about it what could I have done differently? I really could have brought that group in earlier.
[07:44] – Mark Hunter (Host)
Well, there’s a way to bring them in and there’s a way not to bring them in. This is what’s key. You know, you go to a lot of the Fortune 500 companies and go out on their website and they’ll have out there hey, here’s the procurement department and you got to go through this. You know, you got to go through this form, this process, because, okay, they’re encouraging every vendor to come through their purchasing department. Why? Because they want to keep all of their employees focused. You know, okay, I get that, but here’s the situation.
[08:12]
I’m going to go ahead and go through and fill out the paperwork, because there are there’s a lot of paperwork anytime you are coming into a new company. There are such things as credit, there are such things as sustainability reports, esl. There’s all kinds of different documents that you may have to provide, depending on the company, and that’s fine. I want to get kind of vendor approved, that’s fine. That is not going to be my entry point. I’m very firm on this. That’s not going to be my entry point. I’m very firm on this. That’s not going to be my entry point, because if that’s my entry point, they’re going to say OK, thank you very much for your price. Thank you very much for your information. We’ll be in touch.
[08:47]
I want to go to the user. I want to go to what is the department? Who are the people who are going to benefit from what it is that I sell? Because I’ve got to create demand. I’ve got to create demand that comes back to purchasing, which really lends itself to the question we got from Charles in Southern California. He wrote hey today on his first outbound sales call. A manager actually picked up the phone. Okay, that’s a shock. After the conversation he said he’d speak with their purchasing manager. My question is would you continue to call on the company to find a person of interest or just wait to hear from the purchasing manager?
[09:27] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
I would never wait to hear from the purchasing manager and I think we all agree from that because the purchasing manager is not going to call you. But I think what I would do right then is really ask. For I mean, what I typically say to clients is look, you’ve got a lot on your plate, you have a lot that you’ve got to handle. I would love to have that connection to the purchasing department and start that relationship right there.
[09:52] – Mark Hunter (Host)
You know I’m going to have that, I’m going to have that conversation, and that is so key. Here’s something of interest, though you got to understand what are the goals and objectives of the purchasing department and, you know, don’t hesitate to ask them hey, what are the goals, what are the objectives you’re striving for? Now they’re going to probably throw you some smoke, but here’s what you’re looking for. I’m listening for what is their system? Do they use SAP? Are they an Oracle house? What type of system are they using to manage all of their logistics?
[10:25]
Two, are there key inventory terms? Are there certain things you know? If they’re publicly traded, you can find out what’s their fiscal year, what’s their fiscal quarters and again, you can begin to determine, begin to see. And the third thing is what’s the role that your product or service plays? Because, again, you know, if it plays a critical role, then you’re probably going to get a more senior purchasing manager. If it’s a very secondary or tertiary, you’re going to get a junior person. Okay, that’s going to impact how you’re going to deal with them.
[10:58] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Yeah, we’ve got a lot of good comments coming in here, dave Sanderson always popping in with great advice. I experienced this during the pandemic when I was working with hospitals that needed N95 masks. The CFO understood the issue but it went to procurement. They had their processes to fulfill which stalled not only sale, but the business challenges CFO was trying to mitigate. When your client has a critical need, you need to be nimble and adapt, which showed the challenges the supply chain was having. You know, the other thing I think where Dave is so critical it’s just such good advice is that if you can get a CFO or a CEO or somebody to advocate for you to procurement or a CEO or somebody to advocate for you to procure to procurement I just had a situation like this last week and trying to trying to close a contract, my contact was not strong enough, didn’t have enough political capital in the company, so I had to jump over and bring in the, the CEO and the CRO to get the job done.
[11:58] – Mark Hunter (Host)
That is so key. I love Natalie’s comment. She says it’s important to understand the role purchasing has in large RFPs. You know RFPs many times start in some department that’s actually going to use it, but then it’s got to go to procurement, to purchasing. They’re the ones who put all the bows and everything around it and wrap it up and send it out and they’re the ones that are in charge of it. Here’s the whole thing that I found regarding RFPs. If you didn’t help influence it, what makes you think you’re going to get it? Because chances are you are not. You’ve got a 1% chance of making it.
[12:33]
But again this is the role that procurement departments play.
[12:36] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Yeah, Such good advice here, Thomas. As sales people, if you’re unsure of why there was a denial, just ask Such good information. I got denied on one probably six months ago I thought it was me and they really have some tough internal problems that they have got to work through and their thought process was we believe you could give us return on investment, but until we fix the foundational issues, we can’t make it happen. And, Bill King, I got to chime in. I love your comment here. It would be great if you could turn purchasing into an internal advocate versus treating them like a gatekeeper, Exactly Like your mindset. If your mindset is that they’re going to prevent the deal, guess what they’re going to prevent the deal. Guess what they’re going to prevent the deal. But if you could find a way to bring them in such good advice. The other thing, one thing I love about procurement, is that they force you to know your ROI, to be really, really clear on the investment your client is making and why it will yield more than you believe they’re investing.
[13:42] – Mark Hunter (Host)
That is so true. I mean, understanding their objectives is so key. I had the unfortunate time of dealing with one of the most brutal purchasing departments in the world Walmart. I would literally spend my days in front of Walmart and one of the times they came out of the consumer packaged goods arena and one of the things that I found is that, with their purchasing department and the company I happen to be with, they would hang me over the edge. I would be hanging by my fingernails, but they never let me fall. They would, at the end, never let me fall because at the end they needed me, they needed what I had to offer. So we would wind up negotiating something. But it was painful, but you had to just understand. They’re going through their process, they’re going through their because that’s what they’re paid to do. Respect them for that.
[14:31] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Yeah, it’s like dealing with the CFO of the company. The CFO of the company. Their job is to protect the company and not make bad investments. Of the company is their job is to protect the company and not make a bad investment. So expect the challenge, respect the challenge and rise to the challenge. Such good advice here. Natalie when you’re presenting to a large group, know who will be in the room and ensure you have a chance to talk with procurement. Figure out what their top concerns are. Right, don’t assume that you know what their top concerns are.
[14:58] – Mark Hunter (Host)
Oh, that’s so key because, again, your user, the person who you really want to sell to, they have a set of priorities, but procurement is going to have a different set. You know, what’s interesting is, at the end of the day, procurement in almost every organization reports to the CFO.
[15:11] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
What does that?
[15:12] – Mark Hunter (Host)
mean it’s a, it’s a number focused business and their whole goal. And I’ll tell you what I found is this Most procurement people, they have an objective. They got to reduce X amount over the course of a quarter. They’ve got to take X amount of inventory out, x amount To them. They don’t care where they get it from. They don’t care where they get it from.
[15:33]
Now, think about this for a moment. So if you have a product, if you have a service, that is absolutely essential and you know what, if they can get their savings elsewhere, you’re okay. So keep in mind that. Remember they’re not just picking on you, they’re looking to make their objectives. You just may be the person I got to tell a quick story, real quick. Procurement guy comes up to me. I’m dealing, I’m doing a program, major company If I said the name, everyone would know, everyone would recognize it. I won’t. Procurement person came up to me. He said what’s very fascinating is I tell all my procurement people if a salesperson can’t deliver a price to them with confidence, with eye contact, with solid body language, there’s a discount to be had. Whoa, you see, you know what’s interesting. We, the sales community, set ourselves up to be cut down by procurement to people, because we roll over and play dead too easy.
[16:29] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Yeah, just gold advice here from Jack Hubbard. Many of us here on this podcast are definitely a small business and you have to decide whether the hours of completing an RFP or working with procurement is worth it. Could not agree with you more. I do not do RFPs in my business. I always say from the stage probably one of the biggest mistakes I see salespeople make is chasing business that isn’t worth chasing. I mean the moment you fill out an RFP you are a number, not a sales professional.
[17:01] – Mark Hunter (Host)
Oh, so many things we could say there. That’s why I say unless you help write the RFP, don’t think you’re going to get it. You are wasting your time, you’re going to be busy but you’re not going to be productive. And this is even in B2G business to government where everything has to go by way of RFP. Again, if you didn’t help influence, why do you think you’re going to get? Because people are going to just simply use you. Here’s what you can do with RFPs. There are two strategies that you can use with RFPs. One you may submit an RFP with the objective to just get a seat at the table, just to get a conversation going not to earn or win that RFP, but to be able to develop relationships that will help you further down the road. Okay, so that’s a good strategy. Two you may enter into an RFP. Why Can I say this? Just to hose your competitor, because you want to ultimately push the price down. Allow your competitor to get the deal at a very low price. That’s going to be hard for them to do, okay.
[17:58] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Wow, that’s harsh, that’s harsh, that’s, that’s hard. I can’t imagine doing that. The only time I ever fill out an RFP is if I already got the deal and it’s it’s required. It just was never successful in my business. But I know other people are Great comment here Bryn Tillman, during conversations emphasize how your solutions aligns with their strategic goals. Such good advice. I mean, what do they want? And I love what Thomas is saying here Don’t let denial get in your head. I mean don’t let it stop you. Rejection is the name of the game and denial just really means it didn’t work out. It just didn’t work out this time and I think when you get denied from procurement, you got denied for the reasons that Bryn just said. Somehow they don’t understand how what you’re doing aligns with not only their strategic goals but the strategic goals of the company. I love here that Kevin thinks you’re very McAvillian. I agree.
[18:58]
Kevin wow.
[19:04] – Mark Hunter (Host)
I mean, I got one more strategy I did when, if you’ve got an RFP that has like 300 SKUs on it 300 SKUs on it you’re supplying you may look to go ahead and compete on it and again get the price down low to where you come in second. So what happens is then the person who gets it, the company who gets it they have a hard time fulfilling it. You get to come along and backfill and guess what? What you backfill, you will backfill at full margin. So it’s great.
[19:29] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Great work on this by Jack. I totally disagree with that. I want to go on record as saying I disagree with the strategy.
[19:38] – Mark Hunter (Host)
Hey, I’m a capitalist, okay, okay.
[19:43] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Okay, Great. Maybe we should have a debate on that. It just reminds me of I don’t know, never mind Great book on. This is RFP’s Suck. What an eloquent book. Thank you, Jack Hubbard. Mark, we are burning time here. What is up for the book today? Let’s head into the lighting round.
[20:08] – Mark Hunter (Host)
Hey, the book is from Art Subject, our good friend. He’s going to be on a SalesLogic Expert Exchange. He’s written Smart Calling. There are several editions that have come out. I tell you what Art is brilliant when it comes to using the phone. Saleslogic Expert Exchange if you haven’t heard about it, check it out. We do it the fourth Monday of each month. We got one coming up in each month. That’s a new person and we should really say that. Hey, saleslogic Podcast is sponsored by SalesLogic.
[20:38] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Mastermind, If you are just hanging around wrapping a couple of presents on Monday afternoon at four o’clock, tap in, because Art is going to be joining us on the SalesLogic Expert Series and Art is a powerhouse, a wealth of information. You can get that last dose of what you need to stay motivated to sell through the holiday season.
[21:00] – Mark Hunter (Host)
That’s great, hey, and ready for the lightning round.
[21:02] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
I am.
[21:03] – Mark Hunter (Host)
Top 10 ways to connect with prospects Go.
[21:07] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Well, I think you know number one is to get really, really clear on your ICP. Don’t kind of in keeping with Jack Hubbard’s theme. Really get clear on what is worth your time.
[21:18] – Mark Hunter (Host)
Playing with our theme don’t talk to purchasing departments.
[21:24] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Make sure that if you want to connect with prospects, it’s personalized. I just did an outreach this morning, flat cold, and I figured out she’s from. She graduated from the University of South Carolina, as did I, and she was a swim coach. It was her first job out of college, out of school, and I was a swimmer. I swam for Penn State when I was there, so we had some level of connection.
[21:49] – Mark Hunter (Host)
Number four follow up, follow up, follow up. Never think that your first communication is going to hit home. You’ve got to keep coming after them.
[21:57] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Yeah, and number five, I think it is one of the best ways to connect with a prospect is if you know somebody who knows them and can make that introduction for you. Or even, like yesterday, I called a speaker friend of ours and I said I really want to get into this industry, can you help me? And they offered to make some introductions and also said I could use their name. So that’s going to be really, really helpful to me. But I started that conversation.
[22:22] – Mark Hunter (Host)
Right Number six use LinkedIn. That’s one of the great tools of how to find out connections, how to find out people, how to find out information.
[22:30] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Yeah, I would also say you know you want to make sure that you lead. If it’s cold and it’s a prospect, lead with the value you can bring, the problem that you can solve. I find a lot in your industry. These are the challenges. These are the things that we’re doing to help.
[22:48] – Mark Hunter (Host)
Number eight use multiple mediums. Just because you like email doesn’t mean they like email. You gotta use every medium out there because you gotta find their preferred medium.
[22:58] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Yeah, I’m gonna say number nine just be authentic. Like, like I always check to make sure, am I calling on prospects from my heart or my head? If I’m calling from my head because I’m desperate, I’m scared, I really want this, I got to go away and do some work and make sure I’m coming from my heart.
[23:15] – Mark Hunter (Host)
I love that. And number 10, hey, if you have the ability to help someone, you owe it to them to reach out to them. That’s why we prospect, because we know we can help people. Hey, with that, we want to say thank you for listening to SalesLogic this week. If you like what you hear, subscribe, rate and review the show on your favorite podcast app. Something we’ve said has earned you a single dollar. Consider telling a friend about our show, because it’s how we grow, when we help you grow. I’m Mark Hunter and I’m Meredith Elliott Powell. Remember when you sell with confidence and integrity.
[23:44] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
All of this uncertainty suddenly becomes your competitive advantage.
[23:48] – Mark Hunter (Host)
And the sale becomes logical.
[23:50] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
All right, join us at four Monday, because you are not going to want to miss art. It’s going to be a fantastic program. And then, while you’re taking down the Christmas tree or getting ready for the New Year’s holiday, we’re going to be right back here 8 am, eastern Saturday morning, where we are going to cover another hot topic and really position you to sell successfully in 2025. We’ll see you then. Have a great, have a Merry Christmas. If we don’t see you. A happy holiday, whatever it is that you celebrate, and we’ll see you next week.