SAMA

SAMA

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Mark Shonka

Mark Shonka Mark Shonka

I was at the SAMA (Strategic Account Management Association) conference last week in beautiful San Diego, and it's was a great week. Imagine a setting where several hundred business development professionals come together to hone their craft. I had an opportunity to lead a session entitled, "Strategies for being Customer-Centric with Procurement". An interesting twist for me, as we are sometimes looked at as almost confrontational with procurement (could it have anything to do with the title of our 2nd book?).

In reality, we aren't into confronting procurement as much as we are in confronting commoditization. That's the enemy, and how we overcome it is up to us. Dealing collaboratively with procurement is, in some cases, a terrific option. In other cases avoidance is best, or breaking the rules to circumvent them is an option. That's the job of a sales rep or a Strategic Account Manager whose company is a value leader - to figure out how to sell value without getting commoditized.

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