Procurement Game Show Series (5): Beat the Clock, Dog Eat Dog, and Match Game

Remember the game show Beat the Clock? The whole premise of the game was to be able to complete certain stunts, prior to the allotted time running out.

In the business world we often are asked to play contestant in Beat the Clock. How often have you heard a sales representative say "It is our quarter end, so we can give you really a good deal if you act now!" Reminds me of the hawkers of the Ginsu knives --"But wait! If you act now you also get this special meat cleaver as a special incentive!"

How often do we fall prey to this type of pitch? The intent of this time limited offer is to get you to make decisions prior to being able to determine whether this is the right direction for your company. Hurried decision making is the dream scenario for those vendors who do not necessarily believe that they can win the deal on their own merits. The reality is rarely is there a time limit on any deal. If a vendor is truly interested in your business, that "lowest" price or additional options will be available whenever you are ready to make a decision -- and you can ensure there is a true match between your needs and the offering of the supplier.

Which brings us to Match Game! Gene Rayburn was the master of the six celebrities who were asked to match their answers to completed sentences with contestants. The contestant who had the most "matches" got to choose a celebrity for the "final round" and could win what at that time was a reasonable amount of money. What was interesting is that for the final round, Richard Dawson was most often chosen celebrity for this "match". Why? Well similarly, as we are trying to wend our way through the multiple pitches and responses from sales representatives, we are striving to find those companies, who most often seem to understand how we think and understand our business issues. We are playing an intense Match Game throughout the decision making process -- from choosing who is to be invited to respond to an RFP; through evaluation of responses; negotiation; and finally contract award. If Richard Dawson was in sales, he most assuredly would often be the Last Supplier Standing!

Unless of course another company has learned its strategy from the game show Dog Eat Dog -- wherein the contestants are asked to perform outrageous stunts and dares, but mapped into the process is a significant level of smarts and strategies. Often, when you least expect it, the sidelined contestants actually end up defeating the so-called top "dog." How is this related to the procurement process? Well, unfortunately, too often, when a supplier knows that they have been sidelined, as they did not present the most comprehensive, cost effective proposition, they attempt to come through the back door, use senior level relationships to sway decision making, or attempt to use the reciprocal business card (even though in many award decisions this has already been taken into consideration). Knowing that their value proposition was not compelling to get them to the negotiation table they rework their offering and attempt to get back into the game by finally answering the questions correctly. We would all like to believe that firms immunize themselves against this type of questionable ethical effort, but the reality is these suppliers too often get a second chance. It becomes imperative for corporations to question how this supplier will be as a long term partner, if they opted not to put their best foot forward when it truly counted!

So let's stop playing Beat the Clock, ensure that we chose the right option through Match Game, and let's keep the Dogs in the Pound!