kitty磁力兔子

228 group delivers seminars to sales groups on best practices for participating in reverse auctions. When we reach the topic of supplier presentations, a lot of individuals are surprised at the importance we place on a well-structured, well executed presentation. Buying teams have taken many well-thought-out steps in getting to this point in the sourcing process, and there are definite criteria for success and failure. Presentation day is indeed one of the "make or break" elements of a buying team's decision process. As both commodity managers and consultants, we've seen potential suppliers move from favored contender to also-ran in the space of a 45-minute powerpoint presentation. So, we thought it might be of value to cull out here just a few of the presentation best practices we review in our training sessions. They are really very simple principles, but can make all the difference on presentation day:

• Be Prepared. This should be just common sense, we realize, but it's astonishing how many suppliers arrive for presentation day with faulty equipment, slide printouts with typos or missing pages, or a rough and unrehearsed delivery. Realize that during this short space of time the clients around the meeting table are not only learning about your products and services, but are also carefully assessing your bedside manner. The way you present yourself to these folks represents to them the way ALL of your colleagues will present themselves throughout the company for the life of the agreement. And if you're flubbing lines or missing pages, it doesn't bode well.
• Don't Run Overtime. This best practice is perfectly described with a brief true story. A large pharmaceutical company held supplier presentations during a complex online sourcing process for specialized labor. Each of approximately 15 vendors had 30 minutes to present a pre-defined list of topics to a multidisciplinary buying team. One of these team members kept time. Presenters were kept abreast of time remaining, and precisely at the 30-minute mark, time was up. Mid-sentence, mid-presentation. Time to leave the room, the next presenter was on the way in. That's it. And thus ended the supplier's only opportunity to present their wares.
• Stick To The Outline. This one falls into the same category as the tip above. Buying teams have just a little bit of time to assess a lot of factors of a bunch of potential suppliers, and often are grading and weighting each item on which they've asked a company to present (we talk about these specific grading and weighting styles in our seminars). And if a presenter varies from the theme and fails to hit a certain element, that element may simply get a score of zero. It's just like Olympic gymnastics--you can't score a 10 if you don't perform all of the required elements.

Keep these tips in mind, and the next time around you may just have a better chance of making it to the final rotation. That, however, is another story.

Someone in the pharmaceutical industry commented in with a question regarding where to find a high-quality, referenceable list of lab balance and industrial scale suppliers (thanks, Pharma Guy). There are two categories of response to that one--the general (and free) and the specific (for a fee). First off, you'd be surprised at how well you can make out with the Thomas Register online. We checked this free-of-charge source, and immediately found a link to a list of companies that specifically provide laboratory balances: http://www.thomasregisterdirectory.com/balancers/laboratory_balances_0023087_1.html. From this starting point, you can easily access many closely-related categories on the site, and bunches of additional vendors. The only catch is that this source doesn't do any vendor ranking. The other obvious free-of-charge sources to hit first are internet search engines. Again, web-wide searching won't cull out the highest-quality vendors for you. You may also want to try online resources of the various science-related publications. They're bound to have some good supplier scoop, and maybe even a ranked list. Here's a journal search page we found for Science Magazine online: http://www.sciencemag.org/search.dtl.

For some additional screening criteria (like company size, revenue, and a risk assessment), Dun & Bradstreet is a good bet for any category. It'll cost you an annual fee, but if your company will be researching other categories, it's a good way to go. Plus, some of the other supplier database tools out there actually pull right from D&B, so why not go right to the source in the first place?

Finally, if you're e-sourcing this category (as well you should!), your e-sourcing software provider may have a nice-sized database of suppliers who have participated in online events in the past. And these suppliers will have the added bonus of education in how to participate in a reverse auction. What more could you ask for?

Please note that our comments are given from the generalist point of view, so if anyone out there has some more specific suggestions for these categories, please comment them in. We're all here to help each other!

We at 228 group have just created this blog as a discussion center for all those wanting to share ideas and get advice from peers on any aspect of e-sourcing (reverse auctions). We're hoping that e-sourcing and procurement professionals across industries will use this board to share best practices and learn from each other.

So welcome, and blog away!