After twenty years of doing thousands of hours of purchasing training and seminars and consulting in 15 different countries, I think I’ve seen it all. 
There are so many lingering opportunities in our profession to do things better. Purchasing pros are deeply disconnected with what’s not working however.
How do I know? People only want me to come talk to them about “negotiations”. That’s all they want to know about. They don’t want to hear about any other topics.
Maybe because Intel Corporation named me “The Godfather of Negotiation Planning”, I don’t know. I do know that I started out just like you, but Intel allowed me to restructure how their entire purchasing process was done, from top to bottom.
Because of that, I went from being stressed out and miserable with my profession, to quickly rising through the ranks and running Intel’s entire global purchasing operations organization, with $2.2 BILLION in total scope and responsibility. The stress vanished and I now had fun and made truckloads of money in our profession.
Please don’t think that I’m being braggadocios, that’s not why I tell you this. It’s only to let you know that there is so much opportunity for you in this profession that in so many ways, still resides in the olden days of the 1950’s.
You can change it all, so much for the better and that’s why I do my best to help you achieve that paradigm shift from the antiquated, useless industry standard, to the tested, proven, and highly effective strategies that my world-class purchasing students now use and enjoy.
Our profession has been reading too many glossy negotiation seminar advertisements in airline magazines. I have no other way of explaining it.
The ability to negotiate effectively is a gap, no question, but it is not the biggest gap. Not even close.
Half of my job is convincing purchasing pros that they have bigger issues.
The other half is then training with world class principles on these other areas, once they’ve actually understood that they have many other pressing issues.
So what is the #1 mistake that purchasing pros make?
I’m putting all my cards on the table. All in. The #1 mistake is unquestionable.
HERE IT IS: Purchasing professionals, even the best of them, consistently write bad contracts. Really bad contracts. And worse yet, there is very little interest in getting better at writing them well. Worse than that, they don’t even know they are writing bad contracts.
Why should you care about your contract skills? That’s what the lawyers are for, right? They approve the contracts, why do you need to care?
Let me tell you a little secret: lawyers aren’t looking out for your interests. They are focused on legal liabilities. Maybe this pictorial will help out:
Get the picture? And what % of the time are the areas in the overlapping section the ones that are causing your problems after the contract is signed? Something really close to .00000001% of the time.
That’s right. All your purchasing problems with customers and suppliers is coming from the section on the left. Your section.
Now I could have made this section on the left an entire book. I did in fact. But I had to stop here due to real estate constraints in this pictorial. The purchasing professional’s list is actually much longer.
The point is this: almost every problem you waste your day chasing is preventable with a good contract.
Bad contracts ensure you get “stuff”. Suppliers love to sell “stuff”. The reason is, they give them to you, and their job is done. Onto the next customer. Next!
Good contracts ensure you buy PERFORMANCE RESULTS. Do you know how to do that? Do you really? Is your idea of a good contract one that is your standard Ts and Cs with the SOW or Specs attached as an addendum?
If that’s the case, you are in a world of hurt. The standard contract template has no idea what you are buying. It’s just a piece of paper. It wasn’t written to give you very much protection. It’s written to help you buy “stuff”.
And have you been lead to believe that a contract that has legal approval is a good contract? I’m sure the answer is yes. Well, look at what legal is looking for and tell me if that’s where your daily problems are with suppliers.
You are killing yourself by lack of contract knowledge!
It’s causing you to chase unnecessary customer and supplier excursions all day, every day. And is that what you got hired to do? How does that look on your status report? On your annual performance review?
Are you getting promoted year after year because you put out fires better than anyone else? Highly unlikely.
Here’s the Opportunity
- You can be the only one in your department who doesn’t rely on the understaffed and overwhelmed legal department as a crutch.
- You can be the only one in your department who has lots of spare time because you are modifying the standard contract to be a performance agreement that PREVENTS excursions and has pre-determined remedies for breach of performance.
- The contract does it’s work while you focus on other more strategic things that actually build your results, your career, and your income. The contract, written correctly, puts 90%+ of your current unplanned daily activities on auto-pilot.
- You will virtually eliminate supplier redlining.
What’s that worth to you? You know how many flustered and frustrated purchasing professionals I meet? It doesn’t have to be this way.
I’ve got a little surprise for you. I’m going to take you this promised land. I’m making you a totally risk-free, unprecedented offer.
From today through April 1st, you can grab my newest membership training on this very subject for only $97. This is early-bird pricing that is no April Fool’s joke and is $300 off the regular price.
Here’s what you need to do right now:
- Click Here to learn about everything you’re going to get with your membership to have the paradigm shift I’m talking about.
- Grab your early-bird coupon code (68d2ad4ea6) to save $300 and get your instant Membership for only $97.
- Click the Add To Cart button and you’ll go to a page with a button that says, “Have a coupon? Click here”. Click that button and enter the coupon code and you’ll see the price automatically change from $397 to $97 and proceed to check out.
Why am I making such a crazy offer? Simple, since this is a new product I need your testimonials. All I ask is that you take the Membership for a full 30 day test-drive. If you love it and experience the new-found freedom and total control over your contract dealings, please send me your testimonial.
If for any reason whatsoever you don’t like it, just let me know and I’ll refund every penny, no questions asked.
This new membership program really will set you free from the stress and hassles of contract dealings. You’re going to learn some awesome secrets.
Click here to find out exactly what you need to do differently, starting now, to put your career on the fast track. You’ll be glad you did!
I personally guarantee your success, and I can’t wait to hear from you with your success stories.
Talk to you next week!
Omid G
