You’re an over-worked, under-paid procurement professional unlucky enough to be employed at one of those companies still in the dark ages where ERP is the magic fire that’s going to solve all your problems and you’ve just been charged with reducing spend by 10%. Your company is a contract manufacturer, all your contracts are coming due, and you know that all of your suppliers are about to demand significant price increases due to rising raw material costs above the board. You’d be happy to be stuck between a rock and a hard place because, right now, you feel like your ass is already in the fire … heck, you’d be happy if you were just in the frying pan.
Although you don’t really understand the power that lies within the lightening that modern man has captured in the world that lies beyond your cave, you know you need an eSourcing tool to help you manage more projects, open more contracts up to competition, and be more productive. However, despite your best effort, your technology-inept (or, if you’re really unlikely, just plain inept) CFO won’t even consider allowing you to buy such a tool – because that costs money, and your job is to save it – not spend it. You’re an unrecognized genius and you know that without help you’re doomed to fail. But you’re getting more response from the squirrel outside your window then you are from your superiors. What can you do?
You can deliver The Perfect Pitch. I will not claim to know what this is (if I did, I’d be a sales guy, not a process and technology supply chain [information] technology consultant), but fortunately for you there are those that do (or at least claim to) know what this is, and even a few willing to share their advice. One such individual is David L. Anderson, A VC in Vacationland, and Managing Director of Supply Chain Ventures, LLC.
Last September, he delivered the keynote address at the Procuri‘s User Conference and this led to the Procuri sponsored white-paper The Perfect Pitch: How to Succeed in Selling and Doing Technology Initiatives. In this white paper he not only describes a perfect pitch, but gives you ten simple rules to follow in your quest to create one.
The ten simple rules are:
- Know your friends and enemies.
- Clearly define your value proposition and business plan.
- Credentials – you better have lots of them!
- Why an elevator pitch is critical!
- Prepping the Players.
- Finding the Big “No” early.
- It’s all about the pizza, not the delivery person.
- Socializing your friends and enemies.
- Selling the deal.
- It’s all about the process, not just the presentations.
Simple, right? Wrong! It’s more than just these basic rules of business – it’s understanding how they fit together and evolve into not only a pitch, but a plan of attack that will allow you to sell the project you need to succeed. So check out The Perfect Pitch: How to Succeed in Selling and Doing Technology Initiatives. It will be worth the time it takes to read it.