You could spend your whole workweek meeting with vendors if you let them in the door! Vendors come at you with email, phone calls, product deliveries, even unannounced in visits … with the majority of offers completely off-base.
Yet there may be one or two great opportunities there among all the losers.
Here are two ways CFOs can get what they need from vendors and not waste time:
1. Ask for the 1-minute summary
A typical sales pitch today sounds like this: “We provide a wide variety of asset management strategies for companies on the cutting edge.”
Great. Now what exactly do you sell or do?!
Busy CFOs like you don’t have time for it. The three things you need to know are:
- what are their services (in English)
- their rates, and
- what they do better than the other guys, backed up by numbers.
You can create an email template that asks all three of these questions and send it to a vendor if it piques your interest in some way.
Beware of a vendor that can’t answer your question succinctly. If it saves you time up front by explaining how exactly it can help your company, great!
If not, then it isn’t worth a reply from your end.
2. Always wait for a better deal
Let’s say you like and need the vendor’s serivces. Their references and track record check out. And their rates are reasonable.
Don’t make the deal right away.
There’s always some wiggle room. Wait for the vendor to get back in touch with you.
Hungry vendors that want to close a deal will come back to gauge your interest. And by waiting, you’re more likely to spur them to:
- adjust rates, contract terms, etc.
- extend a product warranty, or
- extend a service deal.
