The Procurement Game Show Series (2): Lingo and the $64000 Question

The game show Lingo asks contestants to guess five letter words when originally only given the first letter. If you begin to calculate all the combinations and permutations, it is sometimes amazing that anyone every gets through the game board, and not surprising when they don't.

We often encounter "Lingo" when dealing with suppliers for product or services that have are more technical in nature and it is inherent on the procurement professional to ensure that the supplier tries to speak in "lay man" terms, so as to provide a complete understanding to the entire team, and not just those technically oriented. Too often the "razzle, dazzle" of the high tech terms can leave many scratching their heads, or sometimes, unfortunately, believing that they have understood what was said, when in effect they truly didn't.

When negotiating a deal for a higher tech product or service, it is not necessary to understand all the widgets and do-hickeys and how they work. But it is important to understand the basic logic flow and not be concerned about asking for further explanation.

The $64,000 question is not necessarily answered by those who are experts in the field, but sometimes by those who are following a thread of conversation and are unable to make sense of the logic flow. It is at those times when a procurement professional can utilize self-deprecating humor such as "I'm not a rocket scientist like the rest of you, so can you please bring it down to my level and explain it in terms I can understand!"

Several times in my career this has resulted in winning not $64000, but much, much more, as it is when these type of explanations occur that the veil is often lifted off the jargon and the true nature of the product or service is revealed. In some instances disputes have been resolved because often when using "Lingo", there is an inherent believe that each side understand each other, but when looking on the board, several of the letters are still missing. It is the individual without the technical knowledge and by asking questions that can cause those missing letters to fall into place, and often the word that is spelled in not the one that everyone thought it was.