New ESR Report and Upcoming Webinar: The State of Sales and Purchasing

This Thursday, November 29, ESR will publish a report which provides an enlightening look at the state of sales and purchasing. Our sponsor for this report is BayGroup International, a leading sales performance improvement provider with deep experience in improving effectiveness on both sides of the negotiation table.

We went to BayGroup earlier in the year proposing they provide guidance and assistance in a study on negotiation from both the sell- and buy-sides. I expect there are few of you on the sell-side who haven’t felt the surge of power and strategy on the part of corporate sourcing, procurement, purchasing, and buying organizations during the past five years. We wanted to measure that and provide some context for what you need to think about, plan for, and do during 2013 and 2014.

Paul Hennessey, Executive Vice President of Marketing at BGI, had a terrific idea. He proposed to ask the same questions of both the sell-side and the buy-side negotiators in a survey that would get to the bottom of not only what the current state of the relationships are, but how each side feels about the other. We wanted our researchers to compare both sides’ perspectives about challenges, pressures, and strategies that do and don’t work in negotiations. Paul proposed we look at:

• Current pressures that are having the most impact negotiation results…for both buyers and sellers
• Negotiating strategies: which ones are used most…and which ones work best from the point of view of both sales and purchasing professionals
• Negotiation training: how much is being delivered, and how effective is it in the eyes of those who take it

We opened the survey in October and ran it through mid-November. There were 650 respondents on the sell- and buy-sides.

On Thursday, ESR will publish the report and deliver a webinar with Paul Hennessey and Ron D’Andrea, president of BGI.

Here are some of the questions we answer:

• In what direction is the balance of power among purchasing and sales professionals headed?
• What trends are having a positive impact on negotiations?
• Do sales and procurement professionals see their relationship as collaborative or competitive?
• What do buyers and sellers predict will happen during the next three years?
• What trends have had an adverse impact on negotiations?
• How is the level of complexity trending?
• What strategies and tactics have had a positive implact on negotiation results?
• What do buyers and sellers think of each other with respect to their effectiveness as negotiators?
• Do they agree on who is better trained?
• What negotiation support systems work?
• What are the biggest challenges buyers and sellers have negotiating agreements?
• What do they believe are the most important factors that separate the top 20% of people they negotiate with?
• What are the four areas of greatest divergence among buyers and sellers?

Here is the link for the webinar: The State of Sales and Purchasing. This is one you certainly don’t want to miss.

ESR’s report will be available for sale on Thursday for $99. Register for the webinar even if you won’t be attending. We’ll send you a link to the report and the archive of the webinar.