Tom Mills, author of Procure Bites, recently gave us 9 signs you were born to negotiate. Now, since, as we said before, some of you are still in organizations where Purchasing is still treated as an old-school function, and run by old-school die hards who still think it’s the (19)80’s, might be wondering where it came from because that’s not the negotiating behaviour you’re used to seeing in your Procurement team who act like they are wild west gunslingers who win or lose the deal at the poker table. (They are The Good, The Bad, and The Wealthy like their sales peers, after all.)

Tom’s profile might be the profile of a Procurement negotiation professional you want to see, but if your Procurement organization is still the Island of Misfit Toys, that’s not the profile you have. This post is for you, and describes the lead buyer in your Purchasing department that was put there because they didn’t belong (or want to be) anywyere else, and, for one reason or another, the organization can’t (or won’t) get rid of them just yet.

Enjoy!