None of what follows is a trick. It’s just leverage, applied in a fairly predictable order, by people who do this all day while you do it between six other deals. That asymmetry is the whole game. I run these four plays because they work, and they work mostly because the person across from me has never seen them written down as a sequence.

So here’s the sequence. Written down. From the seat that runs it.

I’d also say this, because I think it gets lost: I’m not trying to hurt you. A supplier who caves instantly to all four of these is a supplier I quietly stop trusting, because it tells me the first number was fiction and I have no idea what else is. The reps I respect most are the ones who hold a line and give me a reason I can repeat to my boss. Those deals close faster and they renew. Holding your price well is not adversarial. It’s the thing that makes me comfortable.

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Play 1: The comparison anchor

This is almost always my opener, and it sounds like this:

“We’ve got another quote coming in meaningfully below yours.”

Notice what I didn’t say. I didn’t say who. I didn’t say what’s in it. I didn’t say whether it’s a real, signed, comparable quote or a ballpark someone gave me on a call in March. I’m not lying, exactly. I’m just letting you fill in the blanks, and I know from experience that you will fill them in worse than reality.

Roughly half the time when I run this, there is no serious competing quote on the table. There’s an old number, or a rough figure, or a competitor I don’t actually want to work with but whose price is useful to me right now.

What most reps do here is discount immediately, or defend their price with a wall of value arguments. Both hand me the win. The discount tells me the anchor worked and that there’s more where that came from. The value wall tells me you heard “too expensive” when I actually said “cheaper,” which are different problems.

What actually costs me leverage:

“Happy to look at that. Can you tell me what’s included in their scope so I’m comparing the same thing? If theirs covers less, I’d rather show you where the difference sits than just drop my number.”

That’s it. Calm, cooperative, and completely deflating. Because now I have two options and I dislike both. I either produce specifics, which usually reveals the comparison isn’t apples to apples, or I decline to produce them, which tells us both the anchor was soft. Either way the play is dead and we’ve spent about fifteen seconds on it.

The reason this works is not cleverness. It’s that you responded to the comparison, which is the actual claim, instead of to the price, which was only ever the bait.

The other three plays are the ones that cost sellers the most money, and they’re the ones nobody writes down. Play 2 is the one I use when I know your quarter is ending. Play 3 is how I take back everything I just conceded without touching the price at all. Play 4 is the one that has a name in sales training and is still almost never handled correctly.

Full breakdown, with the exact counter-line for each, below for paid subscribers. It’s less than two coffees a month, and it’s written by the person on the other side of your next negotiation.

Read more

Nobody on my side ever says this part out loud, because “safe” sounds like a weak reason to spend real budget. So we dress it up. We say the other vendor had “better fit” or “cleaner integration” or “the team just felt more aligned.” All of that can be true and still be beside the point. What we actually mean is: if this goes wrong, I won’t be the one explaining it.

Once you see buying through that lens, a lot of stalled deals stop being mysterious.

Safe isn’t the absence of risk. It’s risk with someone else’s name already on it.

Every vendor carries risk. The incumbent you’re trying to replace, the flashy new tool you’re pitching, the boring enterprise option three times your price, all of them can fail. Buyers know this. What we’re actually scoring is: whose failure is forgivable?

The incumbent’s failure is forgivable, because somebody else approved it originally and switching away from it now would be the risky move, not staying. The category leader’s failure is forgivable, because “we went with the market leader” is a sentence that survives a post-mortem. Your failure, the smaller, newer, less-proven option, is not automatically forgivable. If you break, I own that decision alone. That’s the real gap you’re closing, not a feature gap.

Three things that actually move you from “risky” to “safe” — none of them are your product.

1. A paper trail of people like me who didn’t get burned. Not logos on a slide. Specific, checkable proof that someone in a role like mine made this exact call and it held up. A case study that names the actual problem, the actual rollout friction, and the actual result reads as evidence. A case study that’s three adjectives and a headshot reads as marketing, and marketing doesn’t reduce risk, it just spends my attention.

2. A visibly boring rollout plan. Ironically, boring is the entire sales pitch here. The vendors I’ve trusted fastest were the ones who handed me a rollout plan before I asked for one, with a realistic timeline, a named point of contact, and an honest list of what could go wrong and what happens if it does. A polished demo tells me you’re good at demos. A boring, specific plan tells me you’ve done this enough times to know where it usually breaks, and that you’re not afraid to say so. That’s what “safe” is built out of.

3. An exit that doesn’t require a lawyer. Every buyer runs a silent worst-case calculation: if this fails in eight months, how expensive is it to leave? Vendors who make that answer boring, reasonable contract terms, data that’s actually portable, no cliff-edge lock-in, remove the single biggest reason I hesitate. You’re not selling confidence that you’ll succeed. You’re selling insurance in case you don’t. Counterintuitively, that’s what makes people comfortable saying yes.

The trap most reps fall into: they try to out-argue “safe” instead of out-supplying it.

I’ve sat through pitches where the rep, sensing hesitation, pushed harder on differentiation. More features, faster ROI math, a sharper competitive slide. None of it addresses the actual objection, because the actual objection was never “is this the best product.” It was “if I’m wrong about you, how bad does my Tuesday get.” Answer that question directly, with specifics, before I have to ask it, and you’ve done something almost nobody in your position bothers to do.

That’s also why smaller, newer companies can absolutely win this. Being newer isn’t the disqualifier people assume. Being vague about your own risk is. The vendor who says “here’s exactly what breaks in month one for teams our size, and here’s what we do about it” reads as safer than a huge incumbent who’s never had to say that sentence out loud in a decade.

What I’d do differently if I were on your side of the table

Before your next pitch to someone in a buying seat, write down the honest answer to this: if this fails in six months, what does that actually look like for the person approving it, and what have I given them to survive that conversation? If you don’t have a good answer, that’s the gap. Not your roadmap. Not your pricing. That gap, right there, is usually the entire reason a “great meeting” turns into silence.

I wrote the buyer’s-side version of this, the exact checklist we run before we’ll put our name behind you, into the Procurement Firewall Playbook. If today’s angle was useful, that’s the fuller version, with the scripts and the templates that make “safe” easy to prove instead of just easy to claim.

→ Click here to get the exclusive Procurement Firewall Playbook ($59)

Next Tuesday: the four price-pressure plays I run on you, in the order I usually run them, with the exact line that stops each one. That one’s for paid subscribers.

— Steve

A couple of weeks ago I put everything I know about getting past procurement into one place: The Procurement Firewall Playbook. The templates, the five standard blocks — “send it to purchasing,” “we’re happy with our supplier,” “just send your best price,” “no budget,” and post-demo silence — with the exact counter-line for each. Plus the scorecard we quietly run on you before price ever comes up.

It’s written from my side of the table. The side you’re trying to reach.

The launch price is $59, and it holds until Saturday — or the first 25 readers, whichever comes first. We’re already a few in. After that it’s $89.

Here’s the honest math: if one forwarded email a quarter that wouldn’t have happened otherwise is worth $59 to you, this pays for itself the first time you use it.

👉 Get the Playbook — $59

If now’s not the time, no stress. The free posts keep coming either way.

— Steve

That someone is me. And here’s the part that costs you deals without you ever seeing it: when it lands on my desk, I don’t evaluate your product first. I evaluate whether championing you is worth my time. Pushing a new vendor through means spending effort and a little of my own credibility on something that, if it flops in six months, lands on me. So my honest default is slow. Slow is safe for me. “Still reviewing” costs me nothing.

Most reps respond to that silence by doing the wrong thing harder: another follow-up, a better demo, a small discount. None of that moves me, because none of it changes my risk. What actually flips me from slow to fast is when you’ve made my job stupidly easy. Not flashier. Easier.

Concretely, that’s three things:

A line I can paste upward without rewriting it. When I forward you internally, I’m attaching my judgment to you. If I have to translate your pitch into something my skeptical boss will respect, that’s friction, and friction is where you die. Give me one sentence, in the language my leadership already uses, that I can send up untouched.

The boring documents before I ask. Security pack, basic compliance answers, a pricing summary I can explain in one sentence. Every doc I have to chase you for is a reason to deprioritize you. Every doc that’s already there makes me look organized to the people above me.

A purchase that won’t eat my month. The slightly-worse product that’s dramatically easier to buy wins, every time. If your contract is a 40-page fight for my legal team, I will quietly route around you. Not a no. Just slow forever. That’s the “purchasing is taking a while” you’ve been blaming on process. It’s usually not process.

Do those three and something flips: you stop being a vendor I have to process and become someone who makes me look good to my own boss. I’ll move fast for that. Honestly, I’ll fight for it, because it’s now in my interest too.

None of this is about being liked. It’s about understanding that the person you got handed to is running a quiet cost-benefit on you, not your features. Win that, and “send it to purchasing” stops being where your deals go to die.

I sat down and wrote the full version of this for sellers — the exact forward-ready lines, the five standard procurement blocks (”send it to purchasing,” “we’re happy with our supplier,” “just send your best price,” and the rest) with the counter-line for each, plus the templates. It’s the Procurement Firewall Playbook, written from this side of the table. If this is useful, you find the full thing and everything I know about procurement on 25 pages → here.

Update 18th June: Launch price for 72h is $59 (after it will be $89)

— Steve

It doesn’t. It happens weeks earlier, in a thirty-second moment you never see: when someone like me decides whether to forward your email — and your name — to the person who actually controls the budget.

That forward is the whole game. It’s me spending a sliver of my internal credibility to say this one is worth your time. I don’t do it often. And when I don’t, you get the polite silence you’ve been blaming on “timing.”

So here’s what I want to give you today: the actual checklist that runs in my head before I hit forward. Five boxes. I’ve never seen it written down anywhere, because the people who run it don’t think of it as a checklist — it’s just instinct by the time you’ve sat on this side of the table long enough.

The first two boxes are free, below. They’re the ones most sellers already half-sense. The last three — the ones that quietly kill more deals than price ever will — are for paid subscribers, because that’s where the specific, do-this-not-that moves live.

Box 1 — Risk: “Will this make me look stupid in six months?”

Before anything else, I’m not asking is this good. I’m asking what’s the worst version of this going wrong, and whose name is on it. Mine.

Every buyer has a private graveyard of vendors who looked great in the demo and became a support nightmare, a renewal ambush, or a security review that blew up in front of the CISO. You are guilty until proven safe. The seller who understands this — who brings up risk before I do, who names the failure mode and tells me how they handle it — disarms the single biggest reason I don’t forward.

The seller who pretends there is no risk just confirms I’ll be the one carrying it.

Box 2 — Fit: “Is this actually for us, or is it for your quota?”

I can smell a spray-and-pray pitch in one line. So can my boss, which is exactly why I won’t forward one — it makes melook like I didn’t filter.

Fit isn’t “we work with companies like yours.” Fit is one specific, recognizable detail that proves you understand my world: the constraint I’m actually under this quarter, the regulation that just changed, the integration that’s a dealbreaker. One true detail beats ten benefit bullets. It tells me you did the work — and that forwarding you won’t embarrass me.

The first two boxes are the ones you can guess. The next three are where deals quietly die — and where almost nobody is selling on purpose. This is the part I’d want if I were on your side of the table.

If you want even more: I put the full system — the templates, the exact counter-lines, the one-page forwardable summary that ticks Box 3 and 4 at once — into the Procurement Firewall Playbook. It’s written from this side of the table, the cheat sheet for the other team’s scorecard. If today was useful, that’s the deep version.

→ Get it here for $59

Read more

I’ll give you the three cheapest tells. Not subject-line spam words — your sequence tools already caught those. These are three words that survive the spam filter and then get you archived by the human, because of what they signal about who has the power in the conversation.

I see all three a dozen times a day. Each one tells me the same thing before I’ve read your pitch: this person is selling to me, not solving for me. Here they are, in the order they cost you deals.

Word 1: “Just”

“I just wanted to reach out.” “Just following up.” “Just 15 minutes of your time.”

“Just” is the sound of a seller apologizing for existing. You’re shrinking the ask because some part of you knows it’s an imposition — and I hear that. The word is meant to feel light and low-pressure. On my side of the table it reads as: I don’t think what I have is worth your full attention, so I’m pre-discounting it.

Here’s the buyer logic. If you don’t believe your thing deserves a real slot in my week, why would I? Vendors I take seriously don’t ask for “just” a few minutes. They give me a reason the few minutes pay for themselves, and they say it plainly. The hedge does the opposite of what you want: it makes a small ask feel like a small payoff.

Cut “just” everywhere. Not “just wanted to share” — share. Not “just 15 minutes” — name what those 15 minutes get me. The word adds nothing and quietly marks you as someone negotiating from a weak position before the negotiation even starts.

Word 2: “Quick”

“Quick call?” “Quick question.” “Just a quick one” — the deadly combo.

“Quick” assumes my time is cheaper than yours. That’s the whole problem with it. You’re framing the interaction around minimizing your effort to get my attention, which is exactly backwards from how you want a buyer to feel.

And there’s a tell underneath it. Nothing a seller calls “quick” is ever quick. A “quick call” is a discovery call with a deck. A “quick question” is the top of a funnel. I’ve been on enough of them to pattern-match instantly: the word “quick” is a foot in the door, and I treat it like one — by not opening the door.

The fix isn’t to promise it’ll be long and important. It’s to remove the time-framing entirely and lead with the thing itself. Don’t sell me the meeting. Hand me the takeaway the meeting was supposed to deliver, and let me decide the meeting is worth it. “Quick” is you optimizing for your calendar. Forward-worthy emails optimize for my problem.

Word 3: “Free”

This is the counterintuitive one, so stay with me.

“Free trial.” “Free audit.” “Happy to offer you a free…” Sellers reach for “free” to lower the barrier. Inside a buying org, “free” near the start of a relationship does something you don’t intend: it makes me question your price.

The logic is simple and a little brutal. If you’re giving it away before I’ve shown a flicker of buying intent, one of two things is true — either it isn’t worth much, or your real price has enough margin baked in that giving a chunk away costs you nothing. Neither helps you. A discount or a freebie before I’ve signaled interest tells me your number was soft to begin with. Now every price you quote later gets mentally marked down, because you taught me on email one that your pricing has give in it.

Value you hand over should look like generosity with a number attached somewhere nearby — “here’s the one-page version of the $4k audit, no call required.” That frames the gift against a real price and protects the price. “Free,” naked and early, frames you as the cheap option before I even know what you cost.

The one move this week

You don’t need to rewrite anything. You need a find-and-replace pass.

Open the cold-email template you actually use — the live one, not the one in the playbook you never send. Search it for three strings: just, quick, free. Every hit, do one of two things:

1. Delete it and read the sentence again. Nine times out of ten it’s stronger without the hedge. “I just wanted to share a benchmark” becomes “Here’s a benchmark.” Cleaner, more confident, more forward-worthy.

2. Replace the frame. If “quick call” was carrying your only call-to-action, you’ve found the real problem: your email’s value lives inside a meeting you haven’t earned yet. Move a piece of that value into the email itself.

That’s the whole assignment. One template, three words, ten minutes. It won’t fix a bad offer — but it will stop a good offer from being read as a weak one, which is the more common way deals quietly die in my inbox.

Why this is worth your ten minutes

None of these words are wrong in English. They’re wrong from the buyer’s chair, because each one shifts power away from you at the exact moment you’re trying to establish that you’re worth a buyer’s time. Filters and humans both reward confidence and forward-worthiness. These three words leak the opposite.

Next week I’ll go up a level — from the words in the email to the structure that gets it forwarded to the person who actually controls the budget. The firewall has a seam. I’ll show you where.

If you want a head start, I wrote up the five opening lines I personally don’t delete — the exact cold-email openers that clear the wall, with the buyer-side reasoning behind each. It’s free to read and yours to steal.

Read: 5 Cold-Email Lines That Get Past Procurement

See you next week.

— Steve

P.S. Reply with the worst cold-email line you’ve ever received (or sent — no judgment). The best ones are going in a future post, anonymized.

A lot of you replied. The same question kept coming up: “Okay — but what exactly do I send? What do I say when they stall me? How do I hold my price?”

So I wrote it all down. Everything I wish the sellers chasing me understood — not theory, not motivation, the actual mechanics. It’s called The Procurement Firewall Playbook, and it’s 25 pages of the stuff I normally only know because I sit on the buying side.

What’s in it

• The Firewall (Module 1): the three buckets every cold email lands in, the forward-worthy test, and 9 cold-email templates buyers actually reply to — with why each one works.

• The real decision-maker (Module 2): the four roles behind “procurement,” who actually holds the budget, and the redirect script that gets you routed up instead of out.

• The Invisible Scorecard (Module 3): the 5 boxes we score you on before price — and how to win each one before you’re asked.

• The five standard blocks (Module 4): what “send it to purchasing,” “we’re happy with our supplier,” “just send your best price,” “no budget,” and post-demo silence really mean — with the exact counter-line for each.

• Negotiation from my side (Module 5): the six price-pressure tactics I use on you, and how to disarm each without shredding your margin.

• A 30-day plan to make it habit, and a swipe file with every template and counter-line in one copy-paste section.

It’s written the way I’d explain it to a friend who sells for a living — specific, current, and from the chair you’re trying to reach.

What it costs

Update 18th June: For the next 48 hours, the Playbook is $59 (it’s $89 after that). First 25 readers get the launch price even if the clock hasn’t run out.

👉 Get the Playbook — $59 launch price

This is the first product I’ve put out here. If it earns its place on your desk, that’s the whole point. If it doesn’t, tell me and I’ll make it right.

— Steve

Every name, number and company in the Playbook is generalized to protect confidentiality. The patterns are real.

Last post was February. It’s now nearly June. No drip campaign, no “we miss you” automation — I just went heads-down on the day job. The irony isn’t lost on me: a newsletter about how procurement really operates went silent because procurement got busy.

But that silence is actually the story. Because what kept me busy is the exact thing now sitting between you and your next deal. So here’s your re-entry, no fluff — one shift, why it matters, and what to do about it this week.

The shift: procurement stopped reading your emails first

For most of my career, a cold email hit a human first — me, or someone on my team. We triaged. We forwarded the good ones. We deleted the rest.

That’s changing fast. Across a lot of larger buying orgs, the first reader of your outreach in 2026 isn’t a person anymore. It’s a filter — an inbox rule, an AI assistant, a “supplier intake” form that routes you before a buyer ever sees your name.

I spent the last quarter helping build exactly this kind of filter for my own team. Not to be cruel. To survive volume. We were getting buried — and a flood of AI-written, hyper-”personalized” outreach made it worse, not better. Every email suddenly knew my company’s “recent initiatives.” None of them were useful.

So we did what any overloaded buyer does: we raised the wall.

What the wall actually screens for

Here’s the part no sales trainer can tell you, because they’ve never built one. When you strip a filter down — human or automated — it sorts inbound into three buckets.

The first bucket is noise: generic pitch, demo request, “quick call?”, a discount in the first line. Auto-archived. You will never know you were screened.

The second bucket is maybe-later: relevant, but asking for my time before giving me anything. Parked. Statistically, never revisited.

The third bucket is forward-worthy: something I can pass to a budget owner that makes me look useful for passing it. This is the only bucket that turns into a deal.

The filter — and the human behind it — is really asking one question: does this reduce my work, or add to it? Almost everything you’ve been taught to send adds to it.

Why this is actually good news for you

A higher wall sounds like bad news. It isn’t — not for you specifically. Because the wall is indiscriminate. It screens out your competitors’ AI-generated sludge at the same rate it screens out yours.

Which means the bar to stand out just dropped. When 95% of inbound is interchangeable noise, the one email that respects the process and hands me something forward-worthy doesn’t just get through — it stands out like a flare.

The sellers winning in my world right now aren’t sending more. They’re sending things that survive a filter built specifically to stop them.

What to do this week

One concrete move. Take your current best cold email — the one you actually use — and run it through the three-bucket test before you send another.

First: does it ask for my time, or offer me something? If the only call-to-action is a meeting, you’re in bucket two. Replace the ask with a takeaway I can use whether or not I ever reply — a benchmark, a one-page comparison, a single sharp question.

Second: could I forward it as-is and look smart? If not, it’s not forward-worthy. Rewrite it so the value is in the first two lines, not buried under your intro.

Third: is there a discount, a “just,” or a “quick”? Cut all three. Each one quietly signals low value to the person screening you.

Do only that, on one email, this week. It’s worth more than any sequence you could buy.

Where I’m taking this

I’m back to weekly. Same thing as before, sharper: every week, one piece of how a real buying org decides, blocks, and negotiates — written from the chair you’re trying to reach.

If you want the fastest possible start, I put together the five cold-email openers that actually clear the wall — the exact lines I don’t delete, with the reasoning behind each. Grab them here:

The wall is higher than it’s ever been. That’s exactly why the right email works better than it ever has.

See you next week.

— Steve

P.S. Reply and tell me the stage where your procurement deals stall most. I read every one, and it decides what I write next.

1. “I’m not sure we’re a fit yet — here’s how to find out in 2 minutes.”

Why it works: it signals you’re qualifying me, not just pitching. Buyers trust sellers who can say “maybe not.”

2. “You’re probably already evaluating [category]. This is the one question most vendors can’t answer.”

Why it works: it assumes my reality instead of selling me. Curiosity plus relevance beats flattery.

3. “No demo ask. Just a 1-page comparison of how teams like yours cut [specific cost].”

Why it works: you removed the friction (the meeting). I forward useful 1-pagers internally. I never forward demo requests.

4. “If procurement isn’t the right first stop, who is? Happy to be redirected.”

Why it works: you respect the org. Buyers route helpful people to the real owner. We bin the ones who fight the process.

5. “Worst case, you get a benchmark you can use in your next negotiation. Even against us.”

Why it works: you give me ammunition. That’s a reason to reply even if I never buy.

This is only the surface.

Every week I break down one more piece of how a real buying org decides, blocks, and negotiates — from the chair you’re trying to reach.

You’re already subscribed, so I’ll see you in your inbox.

Steve

If you’re here for sales insights, skip this one (or bookmark it for a friend stuck in a career they hate). Regular programming resumes next week.

If you’ve ever thought “I want to work in procurement” – whether you’re burned out in sales, stuck in AP/finance, coming from QA or supply chain, or just tired of your current path – keep reading.

This is the guide I wish I’d had 12 years ago.

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Why People Actually Want to Get Into Procurement

Let me tell you what I hear in DMs and discussions, not what people post publicly:

From sales reps:
“I’m tired of chasing quota. I want to be on the other side where I control the process instead of begging for meetings.”

From finance/AP folks:
“I already talk to vendors all day and fix their invoices. I want the job where I actually negotiate the contracts instead of just processing the mess.”

From supply chain/logistics people:
“I’m tired of firefighting shipments. I want to be upstream – picking suppliers and setting terms before things go wrong.”

From people with zero procurement background:
“I want something stable, remote-friendly, recession-resistant, and where ‘strategic’ isn’t bullshit – and procurement seems like that.”

All valid. All achievable. But the path isn’t what you think.

The Single Biggest Misconception About “Breaking In”

Most people think the question is: “Do I need a certification?” or “Will my unrelated degree hurt me?”

Wrong question.

The real question is:

“Which first role gets me closest to real RFx/contract/stakeholder work that will count as ‘procurement experience’ on my next application?”

I’ve hired over 50 people into procurement roles across three companies. The #1 barrier for career switchers isn’t credentials – it’s the “relevant experience” loop.

→ Job postings say “2+ years procurement experience.” You say “I did vendor management in QA” or “I handled supplier communication in AP.” Hiring managers say “That’s adjacent, not procurement.” You stay stuck.

The way out is understanding which entry roles hiring managers secretly accept as “real” procurement – even if the title doesn’t scream “Strategic Sourcing Manager.”

The 4 Entry Doors Into Procurement (Ranked by “Counts as Real Experience”)

Door #1: Buyer / Procurement Coordinator (Operational)

What it is:
Processing POs, managing supplier delivery issues, handling catalog/contract compliance, answering internal “where’s my order?” questions.

Why it counts:
You touch the full P2P cycle. You talk to suppliers daily. You see contracts, pricing, terms. Unglamorous but undeniable procurement experience.

Best for:
People with AP, logistics, or admin backgrounds. Companies with large operational procurement teams (manufacturing, retail, healthcare, government).

The trap:
You can get stuck here if you never move toward sourcing/category work. Set a 12–18 month timer to push for RFx exposure or analytical projects.

Door #2: Contracts Analyst / Administrator

What it is:
Drafting, reviewing, tracking contracts. Supporting legal + procurement on terms, renewals, compliance. Managing contract lifecycle systems.

Why it counts:
You’re in the negotiation artifact layer. You learn terms, risk clauses, supplier obligations. You interface with procurement, legal, and business stakeholders.

Best for:
People from legal admin, finance, compliance, or anyone detail-oriented who hates the “smile and dial” energy of sales but likes structured problem-solving.

The trap:
Contracts can become a silo. Push to sit in on sourcing projects or RFx evaluations so you understand the business context behind the terms you’re drafting.

Door #3: Supplier Quality / Vendor Management (in Ops/SCM)

What it is:
Managing supplier performance scorecards, audits, corrective actions, escalations. Often sits in Quality or Supply Chain, not Procurement.

Why it counts (conditionally):
You manage supplier relationships and performance data – which is half of strategic sourcing. But hiring managers sometimes see this as “quality, not procurement.”

Best for:
People already in manufacturing, logistics, or supply chain who want to pivot without leaving their company.

The key move:
Reframe your experience as “supplier management & performance optimization” and explicitly connect it to sourcing decisions. Example: “Led supplier scorecarding that informed re-bid of €2M spend category.”

Door #4: Procurement Analyst / Category Support

What it is:
Data analysis, spend reporting, market research, RFx support (building comparison models, conducting supplier due diligence).

Why it counts:
You’re in the strategic procurement workflow from day one. You don’t own negotiations yet, but you’re building the cases that drive them.

Best for:
People with analyst backgrounds (finance, BI, consulting, tech) who want a “thinking” role in procurement instead of transactional/operational.

The upside:
Fastest path to “Strategic Sourcing” titles if you demonstrate business impact and stakeholder influence. Hiring managers see analyst → sourcing as a clean progression.

Feel free to subscribe if you do not want to miss out on further posts.

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The Biggest Mistake Career Switchers Make (That Kills Their Applications)

They frame their experience in their OLD job’s language instead of procurement language.

Examples I see constantly:

Instead of: “Managed vendor invoices and payment issues”
Write: “Resolved supplier payment disputes; improved on-time payment rate from 70% → 92%, reducing relationship friction”

Instead of: “Coordinated with suppliers on delivery schedules”
Write: “Managed supplier delivery performance; escalated delays proactively to mitigate production impact”

Instead of: “Analyzed cost data for finance team”
Write: “Conducted spend analysis across 12 supplier categories; identified €150K savings opportunity, supported sourcing RFx”

Instead of: “Handled quality complaints from customers”
Write: “Led supplier corrective action process for quality non-conformances; drove root-cause resolution, prevented contract penalties”

The pattern: Procurement hiring managers scan for supplier relationship management, cost impact, risk mitigation, stakeholder coordination, process improvement.

If your CV is full of “supported,” “coordinated,” “handled” – you sound like an admin. If your CV is full of “managed supplier X to achieve Y,” “mitigated risk by Z,” “enabled decision on $X spend” – you sound like a procurement professional.

You’ve got the fundamentals now: the 4 entry doors, the skills that matter, how to translate your experience. That alone puts you ahead of 80% of career switchers who apply with generic CVs.

But here’s the problem: knowing the theory doesn’t get you hired. The execution details do.

Most people fail because they don’t know:

• The 5 interview answers that instantly disqualify you (even if you nail the rest)

• If and which certifications (CIPS / CPSM / ASCM) really matter

• How to negotiate salary when you have “adjacent but not direct” experience

• The first 90 days playbook so you don’t get stuck in operational hell forever

That’s what separates “I’m thinking about procurement” from “I just accepted my first procurement offer.”

Let’s dive into these questions below and get you started.

The Certification Question (The Real Answer)

Do you need CIPS / CPSM / ASCM?

Honest answer from someone who’s hired 50+ people:

Read more

How much work your email creates.

Most vendor emails create tasks:

• schedule a call

• explain what you do

• hunt for specs

• reconcile vague claims

• reply out of politeness

Procurement deletes tasks.

Procurement archives useful info.

Below are 9 copy‑paste templates designed to be archivable (and therefore survivable). Use them as written, swap placeholders, and keep them under ~100 words.

If you don’t want to miss out on future templates and tips, feel free to subscribe. Occasionally there will be free content but the real tweaks will be for paid subscribers only.

Subscribe now

Also I’m opening 3 Cold Email Audit slots for subscribers next week as well

What you get exactly (within 48h):

• Your email marked up line-by-line (where buyers stops reading and why)

• A rewritten, buyer-proof subject line + opener you can send out immediately

• 2–3 specific edits that remove friction (not generic copy tips)

• Simply send me a your templates via Substack Message

Price: $46 (€39) one-time.
Guarantee: If you don’t find it useful, text me and I’ll refund it—no questions.

Book Here

But now, lets dive into the 9 message templates…

Read more

quick note from me.

I’m in Procurement. I read sales emails every day.

Most don’t fail because the product is bad. They fail because the first 2 lines create buyer friction.

Here are 3 instant “delete signals” I see all the time:

• “Just checking in / circling back”

• “Partnership / synergy”

• “Do you have 15 minutes next week?”

So I’m opening 3 Cold Email Audit slots for subscribers this week.

Did you read until here?

Yes? → You see what I mean - and you get.

What you get exactly (within 48h):

• Your email marked up line-by-line (where buyers stops reading and why)

• A rewritten, buyer-proof subject line + opener you can send out immediately

• 2–3 specific edits that remove friction (not generic copy tips)

Price: $46 (€39) one-time.
Guarantee: If you don’t find it useful, text me and I’ll refund it—no questions.

Book Here

After booking, email your copy to: globalsupplierfinder@gmail.com (subject: “Cold Email Audit”)

Best,

Steve
Inside Procurement

That’s comforting because then the loss is simple: “We were too expensive.”

But in most real evaluations, you’re being scored on a hidden scorecard: quantitative KPIs plus qualitative factors, often weighted, and reviewed on a cadence based on supplier criticality.

And here’s the painful part:

You can lose the deal while you still think you’re “in discovery.”

Because internally, you already got tagged as:

• “High effort vendor”

• “Risky”

• “Good product, annoying”

• “Would create internal work”

I highly recommend subscribing to receive more valuable tips like templates or tactics. The ROI will speak for itself.

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The 5 columns you’re graded on

Procurement scorecards typically blend measurable performance (price, on‑time delivery, defect rate) with soft factors like communication, flexibility, and sustainability posture.

Here’s a simplified version of what it looks like in practice:

→ That last column—ease of doing business—is where most deals die, because it’s built from dozens of tiny interactions procurement and stakeholders remember.

The “Ease of Doing Business” trap

Scorecards explicitly include “soft factors” like communication behavior and responsiveness, not just hard KPIs.

Sales often underestimates this, because it’s not listed in your product brochure.

Procurement experiences it as:

• Do you answer questions directly—or talk around them?

• Do you respect process—or constantly push meetings?

• Do you send usable artifacts—or marketing PDFs?

• Do you create clarity—or more follow‑up work?

The buyer-side logic is simple:

If you’re hard to deal with now, you’ll be worse after signature.

What buyers actually write about you

This is the part sales almost never sees.

After a vendor call, the internal note is rarely “good deck.”

It’s more like:

• “Technically fine, but evasive on security.”

• “Salesy, kept pushing for call, didn’t answer in writing.”

• “Good, concise, sent line card; keep for future.”

• “Stakeholder likes them, but onboarding will be painful.”

Those notes map directly to the scorecard’s “soft” dimensions.​

How to influence the scorecard (without sounding like you’re gaming it)

You don’t ask, “What’s your scorecard?”

You behave in ways that force a positive internal note.

1) Create a “forwardable” one-pager

Procurement scorecards and evaluations are easier when info is standardized and scannable.

Send a one-pager that answers:

• Category + scope

• Certifications / compliance

• Lead times / capacity

• Commercial model

• Implementation/onboarding needs

Subject line template:

“[YourCompany] – [Category] overview (certificates, lead times, onboarding)”

If I can forward your email internally without rewriting it, you just gained points in “ease of doing business.”

2) Answer in the buyer’s format, not yours

Scorecard evaluation works best when requirements map cleanly to responses (think “compliance matrix”).​

Before a buyer will ask his 5 typical questions, send him these answers and attachments:

This single table often outperforms a perfect pitch deck.

And there is much more to be added in the next weeks. So don’t miss out and outperform your sales colleagues this year:

Subscribe now

3) Remove “task creation” from your email

When procurement evaluates suppliers, responsiveness and communication quality matter.​

Your email should reduce work, not create it.

Replace:
“Can we schedule 15 minutes?”

With:
“Attached overview for your records—if this category becomes relevant, you’ll have it searchable.”

That wording turns you into an archival candidate instead of a calendar problem.

The “pre-scorecard” move most reps miss

Procurement teams often tier suppliers and set different review cadences based on risk/importance.​

Here’s the hack:

Your first goal isn’t ‘shortlist.’ Your first goal is ‘non-risky tier.’

If you can make me classify you as:

• “Low onboarding effort”

• “Known compliance posture”

• “Clear scope”

• “Not pushy”

…you survive long enough to reach the real evaluation.

Copy/paste: the scorecard-friendly intro email

Subject: [YourCompany] – [Specific Category] (certs, lead times, onboarding)

Hi [Name],

[YourCompany] supplies [specific product/service] for [their industry/use case].

To make evaluation easy if this category ever comes up, here are the basics in one view:

• Certifications/compliance: [ISO / SOC2 / etc.]

• Lead time / delivery model: [X]

• Commercials: [pricing structure / MOQ / terms]

• Onboarding needs: [what you need from them]

Attached overview for your records. No response needed unless useful.

Best,
[Name]
[Title] | [Company]
[Contact]

This is boring on purpose. Procurement loves boring.

More detailed templates (e.g. for different categories) can be found on the blog and will be added for paid subscribers only.

But when you sell into companies with formal procurement, pitching is what gets you blocked.

This blog explains how buying actually works from the procurement side—and how to align your outreach with that process instead of fighting it.

Bookmark this page. It’s the roadmap to everything you need to know.

What You’ll Learn

This is a comprehensive guide to procurement-focused selling, organized into three parts:

Part 1: Understanding the Buying Process

• How procurement decisions really happen (and why vendors get blocked)

• The 4-step decision chain (and where most reps enter too late)

• Common myths about procurement that kill deals

Part 2: Outreach That Gets Forwarded (Not Deleted)

• The difference between “personalization” and relevance

• Email templates that get responses from buyers

• How to get introduced to procurement (instead of cold-pitching them)

Part 3: Assets & Tools

• The Procurement Email Scorecard (test your emails before sending)

• Role-specific contact strategies (by function and category)

• Monthly playbook updates (Paid subscribers only)

Reading time: 12 minutes for the full guide
Best for: SDRs, AEs, Marketers and founders selling B2B with deal sizes >€50k

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Part 1: Understanding the Buying Process

How Procurement Decisions Really Happen

Procurement doesn’t “discover” vendors.

Here’s what actually triggers a procurement process:

1. Someone internal has a problem (downtime, cost overrun, compliance risk, capacity constraint)

2. That person researches solutions (Google, peers, industry groups—not cold outreach)

3. They build a business case internally (ROI, timeline, risk assessment)

4. Budget and stakeholders align (CFO, department head, technical validation)

5. Procurement formalizes the process (RFP, vendor evaluation, contract negotiation)

The mistake most vendors make: They try to start at step 5.

By the time procurement is involved, 70–80% of the decision is already made. The vendor shortlist is often set. Your job isn’t to “pitch procurement”—it’s to get pulled into steps 1–4 by the actual problem owner.

Want the full breakdown of who to contact first (by industry and category)?

Paid subscribers get the complete Decision Chain Map + role-specific templates.

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Deep dive article:

The 4-Step Decision Chain

Every procurement-involved deal follows this chain (whether formal or informal):

Key insight: If you win #1–3 before contacting #4, procurement becomes an accelerator. If you skip to #4 first, procurement becomes a blocker (because no one internal is championing you).​

Common Myths That Kill Deals

Myth 1: “Procurement controls the budget”
→ Reality: Budget owners (CFO, BU heads) control spend. Procurement enforces process and mitigates risk.

Myth 2: “I need to get on the approved vendor list first”
→ Reality: Approved vendor lists exist for repeat/low-risk buys. For strategic purchases, internal champions get you added to the list.

Myth 3: “Procurement wants the cheapest option”
→ Reality: Procurement wants the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO) and the lowest risk. Cheap vendors who create downstream problems get blocked fast.

Deep dive article:

Part 2: Outreach That Gets Forwarded (Not Deleted)

The Relevance Test - Use This on Every Email

Most “personalized” emails fail this test:

“If I replace the company name with a competitor, does this email still make sense?”

If yes → it’s a template with variables, not real personalization.
If no → you’ve referenced something operationally specific.

Bad example:

Hi [Name], I noticed [Company] is growing fast. We help companies like yours optimize procurement. Can we chat?

(This works for any company. Zero signal of real research.)

Good example:

Hi [Name], saw you’re opening a second distribution center in Q2. When companies do this, procurement usually gets involved either (a) early to standardize vendors across sites, or (b) late when costs spiral. Curious which path you’re on?

(This only works if they’re actually opening a DC. Operational signal = real relevance.)​

Email Template Library

Template 1: The “Forwardable” Email

Goal: Get forwarded to the actual problem owner (not stuck in procurement’s inbox).

Subject: Quick question—who owns [problem] on your side?

Hi [Name],

When [signal: new plant/system/expansion] happens, the downstream issue usually shows up as [cost/delay/risk] for the team running [function].

Procurement typically gets looped in once there’s a preferred vendor—so the commercial step is just structure.

Who owns that workflow today—[Role A] or [Role B]?

If you point me there, I’ll send them a 3-line note they can forward back to you when it’s time to formalize.

— [Your Name]

Why it works: Respects the buying chain. Makes procurement’s job easier (pre-aligned deals close faster).​

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Template 2: The “Not Me” Disqualifier

Goal: Stop wasting time on dead accounts (and earn respect through honesty).

Subject: Should I drop this?

Hi [Name],

I might be approaching this wrong.

If your team isn’t actively dealing with [problem] in the next [Q2/H2], there’s no point pushing this forward.

But if it is on the roadmap, I can share:

• How procurement evaluates vendors in this category

• The 3 internal alignment steps that kill deals when skipped

• A simple scorecard to self-audit readiness

Worth continuing, or should I check back later?

— [Your Name]

Why it works: Signals confidence. Earns truthful answers (saves you 40+ hours chasing dead leads).​

Template 3: The “Procurement Handoff” (When You Have Internal Traction)

Goal: Make procurement feel supported, not sold to.

Subject: [Problem Owner] asked me to loop you in—here’s what we’ve aligned

Hi [Procurement Name],

[Problem Owner] asked me to bring you into the conversation. Here’s where we are:

Scope:

• [What problem we’re solving]

• [Success criteria]

• [Timeline]

Risks flagged:

• [Risk 1]

• [Risk 2]

To make your process easy:

1. What vendor documentation do you need upfront?

2. Do you prefer commercial terms first or after technical validation?

Happy to follow your sequence—just point me in the right direction.

— [Your Name]

Why it works: You speak procurement’s language (scope, risk, process). You’re facilitating their job, not pitching.​

These 3 templates are the foundation. Paid subscribers get 12 additional sequences:

• The “Sideways Referral” script (when your contact ghosts you)

• The “Budget Unlocked” follow-up (timing is everything)

• The “Procurement Bypass” strategy (for urgent deals)

Unlock the Full Template Library →

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Deep dive article:

The Procurement Email Scorecard

Before you send any email, score it. Give yourself 1 point for each:

☐ References a specific operational signal (not flattery)
☐ Names a plausible consequence (cost/risk/delay)
☐ Asks a binary question (makes replying easy)
☐ Offers a decision aid (checklist/framework/comparison)
☐ Doesn’t ask for a meeting in the first email
☐ Can’t be copy-pasted to a competitor (true personalization test)

Score interpretation:

• 0–2: Deleted in <10 seconds

• 3–4: Maybe skimmed

• 5–6: Reply territory (top 1%)

Use this before every campaign.​

Part 3: Advanced Playbooks

Role-Specific Contact Strategies

Different categories require different entry points. Here’s the breakdown by spend category:

Direct Materials (Production Inputs)

• Start with: Operations Manager, Plant Manager, Production Planner

• Why: They feel supply interruptions immediately

• Timing: Budget cycles (Q4 for next year) or capacity constraints (real-time)

Indirect Materials (MRO, Facilities, IT)

• Start with: Facilities Manager, IT Director, Maintenance Lead

• Why: They own uptime and operational continuity

• Timing: After equipment failures or during expansions

Services (Consulting, Logistics, Staffing)

• Start with: Department Head (HR, Ops, Finance)

• Why: They own the problem procurement can’t see

• Timing: Headcount planning, project kickoffs, compliance deadlines

The role-specific contact strategies alone are worth 10× the subscription price.

→ One founder used the “MRO Category Map” and closed a €340k deal in 6 weeks.

Get Full Access here:

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Deep dive article 1:

Deep dive article 2:

Monthly Playbook Updates

If you’ve read this far, you’re serious about selling into procurement.

Upgrade now and get:

• 3 new buyer-side email templates (based on what worked that month)

• 1 “Deal Autopsy” (why a vendor won or lost, with real emails)

• 1 industry-specific deep-dive (manufacturing, SaaS, logistics, etc.)

  Subscribe now

How to Use This Guide

1. Bookmark this page – it’s your reference hub for procurement-focused selling

2. Start with Part 1 if you’re new to selling into procurement

3. Jump to Part 2 if you need templates right now

4. Upgrade for Part 3 if you want category-specific strategies + monthly updates

Questions? Suggestions? Message me. I answer every message.

I deleted it in 1.5 seconds.

Three years ago, that email would have earned a reply.
Today? It earned a block.

Why? Because I knew instantly that no human wrote it.

Welcome to the 2026 Trust Crash.

While sales teams are celebrating their “AI Sales Agents” scaling outreach to 5,000 prospects a week, procurement departments have quietly deployed a new defense mechanism:

If it smells like AI, it dies.

In this post, I’ll show you exactly how we spot your AI agents, why “hyper-personalization” has become a red flag, and the counter-intuitive “Un-AI” strategy that is currently the only way to get through to enterprise buyers.

The “Uncanny Valley” of AI Outreach

You think your AI agent is clever because it mentions the university I attended or the award my company won.

But from my inbox, it looks like this:

“Hi Steve,

I saw your insightful comment on [Topic X] and noticed [MyCompany] is a leader in [Industry Y]. Given your background at [PreviousCompany], I thought you’d be interested in how we help procurement leaders streamline...”

Here is exactly why this screams “ROBOT”:

1. The “Insight” is shallow: It references a public fact but connects it to a generic pitch with zero logical bridge.

2. The Tone is too polished: No typos, perfect grammar, slightly overly enthusiastic adjectives (”insightful,” “innovative,” “exciting”).

3. The Pattern: I received 12 other emails with the exact same structure that morning.

The Reality Check:
When humans write to humans, they are messy, direct, and context-aware.
When AI writes to humans, it tries too hard to be “human” – and lands in the “Uncanny Valley” where it feels creepy and fake.

Procurement’s New Defense: The “AI Filter”

We don’t just delete these emails. We are actively actively filtering them out.

Here is what many procurement teams are doing in 2026:

Read more

• Most sales failures aren’t about what you write, but who you write to

• There are 3 layers: Problem Owner (feels the pain), Process Owner (controls buying), Money Owner (controls budget)

• You almost never start with Procurement if your product changes how people work daily

• Map roles by asking: “If this never got solved, who keeps suffering?”

If you missed Part 1, you can read it here – it’s free and sets up everything we’re about to go deep on.

The Biggest Mistake Once You’ve Found the Right Person

You finally identify the exact person:

• Head of Operations for that plant

• Director of Sales Development

• Global Category Manager for your product line

And then you send them…

…the same generic pitch you send everyone else.

From my side of the table, that looks like:

“You went through all that effort to find me… and still have no idea what my world looks like.”

The whole point of finding the right person is this:

You can now speak to their specific job reality, not your feature set.

Let’s make that real with actual templates.

1. Talking to the Problem Owner: The “Day‑in‑the‑Life” Template

Goal

Get them to say: “Yes, that’s actually our life. This might be worth fixing.”

What they care about

Read more

“Hi, I am sale person myself, what I am trying to do now is finding the correct person to send the correct email. So I have been rewriting the email and browsing online how to find the correct person. Maybe you can write on these topic more? Since it is really most people love to learn more about.”

If you’re reading this and thinking, “Yes, that’s exactly my problem”, do the same: hit reply or drop me a short note with your situation. Some of the best articles in Inside Procurement start exactly like this: from one specific problem that thousands of others secretly share.

Let’s talk about the most underestimated sales skill:

Not what to write. Not when to send.
But WHO the hell you’re actually sending to.

This first part is completely free to read and share. Part 2, where we go into concrete

• role‑specific email templates

• internal forwarding chains

• political navigation

, will be for paid subscribers only and will go live right after Christmas, so you can walk into January with an actual, buyer‑tested outreach system instead of another generic cadence. If you want to boost your sales pipeline right from the start of the new year:

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Why “Finding the Right Person” Is Not a LinkedIn Problem

Most salespeople treat “finding the right person” as a research exercise:

• Title filters

• Boolean searches

• Org charts

• Enrichment tools

All of that helps. But here’s the uncomfortable truth:

You can have the perfect email and still lose purely because you picked the wrong role.

From my side of the table (procurement manager), there are three different “right people” in almost every B2B sale:

1. The Problem Owner – Has the pain. Can say “this is worth fixing”.

2. The Process Owner – Controls how buying is done. Can say “here’s the process”.

3. The Money Owner – Controls budget. Can say “we’ll fund or kill this”.

Sales often sends everything to:

• Random “Head of Procurement”

• Or random “Head of Sales / IT / Ops”

And then wonders why:

• Emails get archived but nothing moves

• Calls sound positive but no project appears

• People say “great stuff, but not for us right now”

You’ve talked to someone who can say “interesting”… but not someone who can say “we’re doing this”.

The 3 Layers of “The Right Person”

Stop thinking “I need the decision maker”.

Start thinking in layers:

In many deals:

• The Problem Owner lives in the business (Ops, Plant, Marketing, IT, Sales).

• The Process Owner is Procurement (or sometimes IT, Legal).

• The Money Owner is a director / VP / C‑level.

Trying to start with Procurement is like walking into a hospital and pitching an MRI machine to the billing department first.

Do we touch the process? Yes.
Do we feel your value in our daily work? No.

Rule #1: Start Where the Pain Lives, Not Where the Process Lives

If your product:

• Changes how people work day‑to‑day

• Shows its value in reduced manual work, better quality, fewer errors

• Needs adoption, not just a signature

…then your first email should almost never go to Procurement.

It should go to the person whose team’s life you make less miserable.

Examples:

• You sell QA automation for manufacturing?
  → Start with Head of Quality, Plant Manager, Production Manager – not Procurement.

• You sell a sales engagement tool?
  → Start with VP Sales, Head of SDR, Director of Revenue Ops – not Procurement.

• You sell marketing asset management?
  → Start with Head of Brand, Marketing Ops, Digital Lead – not Procurement.

Why?

Because:

• Problem Owners feel your value.

• Procurement manages your risk and price.

Wrong order:

1. You pitch Procurement.

2. Procurement thinks, “Who will even use this?”

3. We have to sell it internally for you. We won’t.

Right order:

1. You talk to Problem Owner.

2. They say, “This would actually help my team.”

3. They come to Procurement with: “Help me buy this.”

Now you’re no longer a cold caller.
You’re “the vendor my stakeholder wants”.

How to Map the Real Problem Owner in Under 10 Minutes

Let’s say you sell something. Before you open LinkedIn:

Ask yourself:

“If this never got implemented, who would keep suffering?”

Do this in two steps.

Step 1: Understand the workflow, not the org chart

Pick your product and complete the sentence:

“We reduce [concrete pain] in [concrete workflow] for [concrete team].”

Examples:

• “We reduce last‑minute line stops in packaging for plant operations.”

• “We reduce manual data entry in order processing for customer service.”

• “We reduce unqualified demos in the pipeline for SDR/AE teams.”

• “We reduce compliance review delays in contract workflows for legal + sales.”

Now answer:

• Who gets yelled at when this goes wrong?

• Who gets pulled into Friday “crisis calls”?

• Whose KPIs are directly hit by this?

That’s your Problem Owner persona.

Only then go to LinkedIn.

Step 2: Use KPI clues instead of just titles

Search in your target account for:

• Keywords in the “About” or “Experience” sections

• Not just job titles

You’re looking for phrases like:

• “Responsible for uptime of X”

• “Accountable for OEE / scrap rate / yield”

• “P&L owner for region / product line”

• “Owning lead generation and SDR performance”

• “Driving CX metrics like NPS, CES”

• “Responsible for order-to-cash process”

You don’t need the perfect title.
You need someone whose success metric maps to your outcome.

That person is far more likely to feel this:

“If this works, it makes ME look good.”

If this lands with you so far, that’s exactly the kind of nuance paid readers get every second week – the actual order buyers want you to follow, not the one in generic sales playbooks.

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When Procurement Is the Right First Contact

Sometimes, starting with Procurement is correct.

That’s usually when:

• Your product is mostly about cost, terms, or risk reduction.

• Day‑to‑day users are largely indifferent as long as things keep working.

• The company is mature and highly process‑driven.

Examples:

• You’re a second‑source supplier of a commodity part.

• You’re offering lower logistics or warehousing cost with same service level.

• You’re a framework agreement provider (office supplies, fleet, travel, MRO).

• You’re a risk / compliance / supplier‑risk tool Procurement itself uses.

In those cases:

• The Problem Owner is Procurement.

• They own the KPI you improve (savings, risk, payment terms).

• They are the most motivated champion.

Rule of thumb:

• If your main slide is “we automate your work”, don’t start with Procurement.

• If your main slide is “we make your spend safer / cheaper / more compliant”, starting with Procurement is fine.

If you want an upcoming article just on “How to not screw up the first email to Procurement”, drop that line in a reply – if enough people want it, it goes to the top of the queue.

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The 3 Most Common Entry Mistakes (And What to Do Instead)

Mistake 1: Spraying one generic persona

You pick “Head of Sales” or “Head of IT” for every account, every time.

Result:

• You hit people who are too senior to care about details but too busy to delegate the evaluation.

• You get compliments and zero projects.

Do this instead:

Think in two levels:

• Level 1: The hands‑on owner who feels the pain.

• Level 2: The strategic owner who defends budget and priorities.

Example:

• You sell something that affects SDRs:

  • Level 1: Head of SDR / SDR Manager

  • Level 2: VP Sales / CRO

Start with Level 1:

“Hey [Name], not sure if this is on your radar, but we’re seeing [very specific pain] on SDR floors a lot right now…”

Once you’ve had a meaningful conversation there, ask:

“If this was worth exploring, who usually needs to be involved above you to even consider it?”

Now you’re introduced UP instead of cold‑emailing down from the top.

If you’re reading this and thinking of an account where you clearly started at the wrong level, write it down – you’ll use it in a minute when we talk about sideways and upward moves in Part 2.

Mistake 2: Going straight for the highest title

You target:

• CEO

• COO

• CIO

• CPO

…for everything.

Will they open an email with a sharp subject line? Sometimes.
Will they themselves evaluate your tool or supplier? Almost never.

What usually happens:

• They forward you down – with zero context.

• The person receiving the forward sees you as a “task from the boss”.

• They are now annoyed before you even talk.

Better approach:

• Start at the smallest level where the pain is clearly felt AND someone can still move.

• Then earn the right to be pulled up.

Rough rule:

• If you sell a tool, start no higher than Director / Head of for the affected team.

• If you sell a strategic managed service, Director/VP is fine – but still identify the operational manager underneath.

Mistake 3: Ignoring “who loses if this works”

Every solution creates winners and losers internally.

• Winners:

  • People whose KPIs get better

  • Teams who can drop annoying manual work

  • Leaders who can claim the improvement

• Losers:

  • Internal tools or teams you partially replace

  • People who lose budget or influence

  • Champions of the incumbent supplier

If you pitch to someone in the “loser” group as your first contact, they will:

• Nod politely

• Ask decent questions

• Then quietly bury you

Before reaching out, ask:

“If this is wildly successful, whose budget or influence shrinks?”

Do NOT start there.

Start where:

“If this is wildly successful, whose life is easier and whose career story gets stronger?”

That’s your first “right person”.

Putting It Together: A Simple Targeting Map Per Account

For each target account, do this on one page:

1. Define the workflow and pain

   • “We reduce [X] in [workflow] for [team].”

2. List potential Problem Owners

   • Titles + responsibilities

   • Who gets blamed today?

3. List likely Process Owners

   • Procurement category owner

   • IT / Legal if it’s a tool

4. List likely Money Owners

   • VP / Director / BU Lead

   • Who has P&L or capex authority?

5. Pick your Entry Sequence

   • 1st: Problem Owner (L1)

   • 2nd: Strategic Owner (L2) – via intro if possible

   • 3rd: Process Owner (Procurement / IT) when momentum exists

You’re no longer “searching for the right person”.
You’re designing an entry strategy that mirrors how buying actually works inside.

What’s Coming in Part 2

This was Part 1:
How to think about “the right person” like an insider – and how to identify the best first contact for your category.

In Part 2, we’ll go one level deeper and make it operational:

• Concrete outreach templates tailored to Problem Owner vs. Process Owner vs. Money Owner

• How to move sideways (“not me, but X”) without sounding desperate

• How to move upwards without throwing your champion under the bus

• How to involve Procurement at the right moment without triggering a process too early

• Real examples of internal mail chains like:
  “Vendor A wrote this → we forwarded like this → outcome”

If you want to make sure you don’t miss Part 2 (and the future articles that came from subscriber requests), hit subscribe now. Most of the playbooks you’ll see there don’t show up on LinkedIn – they live here.

Subscribe now

• “We’re happy with our current supplier.”

• “Send me some information.”

• “We don’t have budget right now.”

• “Can you email me your deck?”

• “Circle back next quarter.”

From your side, these all feel like different flavors of rejection.

From my side (as a procurement manager), they usually mean something very specific and often something completely different than what you think.

In this article, you’ll see:

• What those lines really mean

• What is happening politically and operationally behind them

• What a good response from sales would look like – and what a terrible one looks like

These are not theory scenarios. These are patterns I see every single week in real negotiations and vendor interactions.

If you want to receive those insights weekly, just click the button and there you go.

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1. “We’re Happy With Our Current Supplier”

What you hear

“I have zero interest. Go away.”

What it usually means

One of three things – and only one is truly bad for you:

1. We actually are happy

   • Supplier performs.

   • Internal teams like them.

   • Pricing is acceptable.

   • Switching risk > potential savings.

2. We’re not happy, but we’re tired

   • Lots of small annoyances (slow responses, minor quality issues).

   • No one wants to run a big change project.

   • We say “we’re happy” because we don’t have the energy to open this can of worms yet.

3. We’re politically locked in

   • Key internal stakeholder owes the incumbent (history, favors, career moves).

   • Even if we bring an alternative, they’ll kill it.

   • “We’re happy” = “There’s a political wall you can’t see.”

The worst possible sales response

• Arguing:
  “But we’re better because…”

• Insisting:
  “Can I at least show you a quick demo?”

• Disrespecting the incumbent:
  “I hear they’re losing a lot of customers lately.”

You instantly move from “maybe interesting later” to “never bring this person back”.

A much better response

“Fair enough – if you’re happy, I don’t want to waste your time trying to fix what isn’t broken.

Out of curiosity, when was the last time you did a serious benchmark or alternatives review in this category?”

If they say:

• “Recently, last year.” → This really is a closed door (for now).

• “Honestly, it’s been 5+ years.” → Now you have an opening, because you didn’t attack their supplier; you attacked time.

Follow with:

“Got it. In that case, would it be useful if I sent you a very short benchmark sheet – just price ranges, common service levels, and risks we’ve seen in the last 12–18 months?
No pitch, purely market context. Helps you if anyone upstairs suddenly asks, ‘Are we still in line with market?’”

You just turned from annoying vendor into free market radar.

2. “Send Me Some Information”

What you hear

“At least they didn’t say no.”

What it often really means

“I don’t understand you yet – and I’m not going to sit through a pitch until I know if you belong in one of three buckets:”

1. Garbage – deleted immediately.

2. Interesting later – archived for a trigger moment.

3. Needs internal forward – to IT, engineering, marketing, finance, etc.

“Send me some information” is often a test:

• Can you explain your value asynchronously and clearly?

• Can I forward this to someone without being embarrassed?

If the answer to both is “no”, you’ll never hear from me again.

The worst possible response

Dumping a 30‑slide deck or a generic PDF:

• Company history

• Office locations

• Awards

• Client logos

• “We are a leading provider of…”

This forces me to do your job:

• Figure out what you actually do

• Guess which team might care

• Summarize it in one sentence so I don’t look stupid forwarding it

I won’t. I’ll just delete it.

What good “information” looks like for a buyer

One page. Not more. And built for forwarding.

Structure:

1. First 2–3 lines:

   • Who you are

   • What you do

   • For which type of company/team

   • In terms I can say out loud to my colleagues

2. One clear “this is when we are relevant” trigger:

   • “When you’re rolling out a new plant / market / region”

   • “When your current vendor misses X KPI”

   • “When you’re forced to re‑tender this category”

3. 2–3 facts (not claims):

   • “ISO 27001 certified since 2018”

   • “Average implementation time: 6 weeks”

   • “85% of our clients are tier‑1 automotive”

4. One short example:

   • “Example: [Company] used us when [situation]. Result: [simple result].”

5. Optional: link to a deeper case study for the person who really wants to dig in.

Concrete email you should be sending

Subject: Short overview you can forward internally

Hi [Name],

As requested, here’s a concise overview you can forward internally if useful.

What we do in one sentence
We help [type of company/team] with [very specific problem] by [short how].

We’re relevant when

• [Trigger 1]

• [Trigger 2]

• [Trigger 3]

Facts, not fluff

• [Certifications / volumes / SLAs]

• [Implementation or delivery facts]

• [Industry focus]

Quick example
[Similar company] used us when [situation]. Result: [simple, credible outcome].

If this sounds useful, happy to stay in your “options drawer” for when one of these triggers hits. No need to respond.

Best,
[You]

Now you’ve passed the test:

• I can understand you

• I can forward you

• You didn’t create work for me

You’re now in my “interesting later” bucket, not in trash.

3. “We Don’t Have Budget Right Now”

What you hear

“Try another account.”

What it often means

That sentence is almost never literally true.

• “Your project is not yet important enough to fight for.”

• “No one internally is willing to spend political capital on this.”

• “I don’t want to go to my boss with this based on what I’ve seen so far.”

The worst response

Trying to argue that your tool “actually saves budget”.

Everyone says that.

Or: “Can we at least do a pilot for free?”
Now you’re asking for time instead of money – which is often scarcer.

A better play: switch from budget to budget trigger

Ask:

“Understood. When you say there’s no budget – what typically needs to happen internally for this kind of initiative to get funded?

Is it:

• KPI misses?

• Big customer complaints?

• Audit findings?

• End of a contract cycle?

• New leadership?”

Now I reveal how decisions in my org actually get made.

If I answer:
“Honestly, unless our CEO gets hit with it in quarterly review, nothing moves.”

That’s your signal:

• This is not about your product; it’s about internal political gravity.

• Your content and messaging should help the person who would get heat in that review.

Example follow‑up:

“Thanks, that helps a lot.

In that case, I’ll send you a one‑pager you could plug into a quarterly pack if/when this topic comes up – numbers, risks, and 2–3 options we see other companies using.

No need to champion us – use it however is helpful internally.”

You shift from “vendor asking for money” to “resource for internal argumentation”.

Much harder to delete.

4. “Can You Email Me Your Deck?”

What you hear

“Great, they want more detail.”

What it often means

Any of these:

1. “I need to get you out of this call without saying ‘no’.”

2. “I have no idea how to explain you to my team – I need material.”

3. “I’m curious, but not enough to bring more people into a meeting yet.”

From my point of view, asking for your deck is sometimes purely tactical:
“I’ll look at it… maybe.”

What I absolutely do not want:

• 35 slides

• Starting with your company history

• Ending with generic roadmap

How to turn this into a real opportunity

Ask one short question before you send anything:

“Happy to. Just so I don’t send you noise – when you forward things internally, what do your colleagues actually look at?

Screenshots? Numbers? Case studies? Architecture diagrams?”

Now you’ll hear gold:

• “Our COO only reads the first slide.”

• “Our IT security team jumps straight to data flows and hosting.”

• “Our CFO only cares about TCO over 3 years.”

Then you send a tailored mini‑deck (5–7 slides max):

Slide 1

• One‑sentence problem framing in their language

• One‑sentence what you do

Slide 2–3

• For the economic person: cost, TCO, risk reduction

• For the technical person: architecture, integrations, security

Slide 4

• Concrete example: customer like them, situation, outcome

Slide 5–6

• Implementation timeline (simple visual)

• What you need from them (realistically)

Optional Slide 7

• “When we’re not a fit” – this builds huge trust

You’re making it easy for an internal champion to sell you without you in the room.

That’s the game.

5. “Circle Back Next Quarter”

What you hear

“Generic brush‑off, they’re being polite.”

What it often means

One of these:

1. There really is a timing issue

   • We’re in the middle of a crisis / go‑live / audit.

   • Nobody has brain space for new stuff.

   • Even a perfect solution would die right now.

2. Someone internally said “not now”

   • Your contact got a “pause this” from their boss.

   • They might still like you, but they’re constrained.

3. They’re waiting for a specific milestone

   • End of fiscal year

   • Results of a pilot with another vendor

   • Outcome of a board/strategy meeting

The problem: we rarely tell you which one it is.

How to make “next quarter” actually mean something

Instead of:
“Okay, I’ll follow up in three months.”

Try:

“Sure, I don’t want to be another nagging reminder in your inbox.

Just so I can time this in a way that’s actually useful – what changes next quarter that makes this a better moment?”

If they say:

• “We’ll be through this ERP migration.” → Your outreach should hook into post‑ERP pains.

• “We’ll know our next year’s budget.” → Show up right after that decision, not randomly.

• “My new boss starts then.” → Your real audience is the new boss, not your current contact.

Follow up with:

“Got it. I’ll send you one short note in [month] with a concrete idea for [post‑ERP / new budget / new boss] based on what we’re seeing in similar companies.

If it’s not relevant then, we can park it.”

You’ve:

• Shown respect for their reality

• Made a specific commitment

• Reduced the mental load (“one short note”)

• Increased the chance your follow‑up feels contextual, not random

Now Let’s Go One Level Deeper

Up to here, you’ve seen:

• The real meanings behind 5 everyday buyer phrases

• Better default responses

• A glimpse into what’s happening behind the scenes

Most salespeople never get even this level of transparency.

But the real leverage is here:

What we actually write about you internally – in our notes, tools, and chats – while you think “they ghosted me”.

That’s the part almost nobody sees from the outside.

Below, you’ll see:

• Typical internal comments we log after calls with vendors

• How one sentence you say turns into a tag like “too pushy” or “good, bad timing”

• Why two vendors with the same offer end up in completely different internal buckets

This is the stuff that decides whether we come back to you in six months – or never again.

🔒 Paid Section: Inside the Buyer’s Notebook

In the paid section, you’ll see:

• Realistic internal notes buyers write about vendors after calls

• The 4 internal “buckets” we silently put you into

• Exact phrasing that gets you tagged as “keep warm” vs. “avoid”

• A before/after example of the same call with two different follow‑up emails – and how they change your internal status

If you sell into procurement or B2B buying teams, this is the unfiltered side you never get to see.

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A supplier walked into negotiation with us last month.

They had the best product, best price, best delivery time.

We still got them to drop their price by 14%.

Not because we’re master negotiators. Because they didn’t recognize the seven tactics we use in every single negotiation.

By the end of this post, you’ll know exactly what those tactics are - and how to counter them without pissing us off.

Why Procurement Uses “Tricks”

Before you think we’re scheming villains:

Our job is to save money.

Your manager tracks your closed deals. My manager tracks my cost savings.

If I negotiate €100k off your quote, I get promoted. If I don’t, I get questioned.

So yes, we use tactics. Not to screw you. To do our job.

But here’s what most vendors don’t know:

These tactics only work when you don’t recognize them.

Once you spot them, they lose 80% of their power.

→ Let me show you what we’re actually doing - and how to respond without making us hate you.

TACTIC #1: The Phantom Competitor

What I say:

“We have another quote that’s 15% cheaper. Can you match it?”

What’s really happening:

Sometimes that quote exists. Sometimes it doesn’t.

Sometimes it’s 15% cheaper but missing half your scope.

Your mistake:

Panicking and immediately dropping price 15%.

The counter:

“Happy to review the other proposal. Can you share what’s included in their scope so I can compare apples-to-apples?”

→ Why this works:

Forces me to either:

• Admit there’s no other quote (awkward)

• Show you the quote (reveals what they’re actually offering)

• Back down (”oh, it’s just for comparison”)

Real example:

Vendor asked this last month. I said “it’s confidential.”

They responded: “Understood. Our price of €45k includes X, Y, Z with 2-year warranty. If the competitor offers the same scope at lower price, I’m curious how maybe we can learn something.”

I respected that. Didn’t push further. They held their price. We moved forward.

TACTIC #2: The Budget Ceiling

What I say:

“Our budget is capped at €30k. Your quote is €38k. We can’t proceed unless you’re at €30k.”

What’s really happening:

Sometimes true. Often? There’s €35k available but I’m anchoring you at €30k.

Your mistake:

Believing the budget is fixed and slashing to €30k.

The counter:

“Understood the constraint. At €30k, I’d need to remove [specific items from scope].

Alternatively, here’s what €32k looks like with [adjusted terms].

Which trade-off works better for your team?”

Why this works:

You’re not saying “I don’t believe you.” You’re saying “here are options within different ranges.”

If my budget really is €30k: I’ll tell you which scope reduction works.

If I have €35k: I’ll suddenly “find” €2k more to keep full scope.

Real example:

Last quarter, vendor did this. I “found” €3k in a different budget line. We closed at €33k. They kept their margin. I looked good for “negotiating down from €38k.”

Everyone wins.

TACTIC #3: The Salami Slice

What I do:

First call ”Can you include free shipping?”

→ -2% margin

Second call ”Payment terms - Net 60 instead of Net 30?”

→ -3% margin

Third call”Extend warranty from 1 to 2 years?”

→ -3% margin

Total: 3 “small” requests -8% margin.

What’s happening:

I’m slicing your margin piece by piece. Each request seems small. Together? You just gave up 8% margin.

Your mistake:

Agreeing to each small request individually.

The counter:

“Happy to discuss terms adjustments. Let me see the full picture - are there other items you’re looking to modify beyond shipping, payment terms, and warranty?

I can review everything together and see what’s possible.”

→ Why this works:

Forces me to put all requests on the table at once. Now you can see total impact and negotiate holistically.

Real example:

Vendor said this to me last week. I was planning 6 small requests. When forced to list all at once, I dropped 3 because I realized I was being unreasonable.

TACTIC #4: The Flinch

What I do:

You: “Our price is €50k”

Me: visibly recoils “Wow, that’s way higher than I expected.”

What’s happening:

Pure psychology. I’m making you feel like you quoted too high - even if you didn’t.

Your mistake:

Immediately offering discount: “Well, I could do €45k...”

The counter:

Subscribe to access:

✓ The master counter-tactic that works on all 7 tactics

✓ When to walk away (the 3 red flags that mean deal is dead)

✓ The price-hold framework (defend your price without being defensive)

✓ Real negotiation transcript (word-for-word from €200k deal)

✓ What makes us respect vendors (it’s not what you think)

Receiving much more highly valuable and practical tips on a weekly basis!

…costing you less than two coffee. (Cancel any time!)

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