The Spend Category Manager Is Personal Friends With The Vendor That Provides Products/Services To Your Organization

This category may or may not be important depending upon the personality of the expense category manager.

It’s long been known within the salesperson community that, all things being equal, people buy from people they know, like, and trust. So it makes sense that your incumbent vendors want to forge as strong a relationship as possible with the person who purchases their product/service for your company.

Friendships with vendors only become a problem when all things are not equal. Is the incumbent vendor taking advantage of the friendship by not providing the value (pricing, product/service quality, and vendor support) that they would to a prospective customer that they’re trying to win over?

The friendship delays or inhibits the expense category manager from thoroughly reviewing the industry represented by their “friend.”

Furthermore, if the expense category manager is lulled by the trust they have in the friendship, at some point they’ll discover that they aren’t receiving the best value that’s possible from the industry supporting that expense category.

Even if the incumbent vendor continues to provide the same value they originally did, there are always changes occurring within the vendor industry that affect competitive offerings in favor of the client.

The only way to ensure that your company is always receiving the best possible value from your indirect spend vendors is to systematically conduct a thorough vendor analysis at least every three years or at the end of the current vendor agreement if it’s longer.

Next week…Reason # 16