The relationship between sales and procurement has always been a contentious one, and the idea of a friendship evolving between the two functions is laughable in the minds of many managers I've met with. The issue at the core of this tension is the concept of value recognition. Sales account managers accuse procurement of being purely price focused, and not recognizing the components of value. Procurement executives on the other hand complain that sales account managers are always trying to 'work around them', and to make the commercial sale to engineering, operations, clinicians, or other business stakeholders. 'Sales people are always trying to raise prices and 'design themselves in' to our organization, without being competitively tendered.' But sales people complain that procurement 'does not recognize the value we bring to the business, in terms of quality, service, and reducing the total cost of ownership!'
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