I was joined by living legend, and marketing procurement consultant Tina (not Tuna) Fegent in a discussion about how agencies can work with the enigma that is procurement.
My pricing workshop a few weeks ago brought up a common discussion point – procurement. Namely, how agencies can work with them and if it is indeed possible to resist succumbing to the hourly rate / rate card discussion.
In this valuable chat, Tina talked candidly about procurement, their role, their motivations and how agencies need to learn how to ‘play the game’ when it comes to procurement and getting positive outcomes.
We explored:
- Procurement people are difficult to work with – true or not true?
- All procurement people are interested in driving down the price – true or not true?
- The difference between in house and third party procurement
- What are procurement targeted on?
Her advice and comments included:
- Encouraging agencies to spend more energy understanding procurement and their place in the pitching process
- Ask procurement what they are targeted on
- Play the game – if you know their agenda, you can formulate a response
- The reason rate cards are a go to procurement measure – and why it’s difficult to move away from
Tina also made some potentially surprising comments which might help with future dealings with procurement including that high rates are often regarded as a reflection of skill, experience and calibre.
A really worthwhile watch for any agency who has struggled to work with procurement in the past.
A huge thank you to Tina for taking the time to speak to me. You can find her website here and sign up to my own weekly email, Rambling On, here.
Andy.