2 ms·

Across multiple vendors ( deal value ~2-5 million a year per deal ) the progression of where the sales people wanted to talk to us pretty much always went like

Across multiple vendors ( deal value ~2-5 million a year per deal ) the progression of where the sales people wanted to talk to us pretty much always went like this: massive wine and dine [5-6 people from out side, two to three stops a night] -> dinners in nice restaurants [ 3-4 people on our side] -> lunches in nice restaurants [1-2 people on our side ] -> lunches [ me or me +1 on our side] -> coffee [ just me ] This roughly corresponded to initial price down to "you are killing us" price, the later being additional 35-50% discount off the initial proposal ( which would typically be their published price less 20-30% to begin with )

cutemonster 5y ago
Those progression steps happened with each vendor? A vendor started with massive wine, and ended with coffee in the last meeting? (As you might notice, I don't know that much about sales) (Rather than just one sales meeting with each vendor, and you observed a trend across many vendors) From massive wine and dine, to coffee, made me smile :-) I'm surprised that wine and dine apparently works (with many people but not you). To me it honestly sounds a bit boring and I'd rather go to the gym maybe. And even if the food and company was really nice, it'd be just a one time thing (or a few times) but the contract would be ongoing for years
- notyourday 5y ago
  > Those progression steps happened with each vendor? A vendor started with massive wine, and ended with coffee in the last meeting? Multiple vendors followed the same pattern. In all cases we were already pre-qualified as a potential customer/existing customer expanding the account value and the vendor was pre-qualified as a possible vendor. They knew they were in the running to sell us the gear ( and service contract on a top of it ) and we did not disqualify them outright. > I'm surprised that wine and dine apparently works (with many people but not you). It is so popular that Walmart made accepting it a fireable offense for procurement people as they crunched the numbers and found that suppliers willing to wine and dine were closing deals at the higher prices.

cutemonster 5y ago

Those progression steps happened with each vendor? A vendor started with massive wine, and ended with coffee in the last meeting? (As you might notice, I don't know that much about sales) (Rather than just one sales meeting with each vendor, and you observed a trend across many vendors) From massive wine and dine, to coffee, made me smile :-) I'm surprised that wine and dine apparently works (with many people but not you). To me it honestly sounds a bit boring and I'd rather go to the gym maybe. And even if the food and company was really nice, it'd be just a one time thing (or a few times) but the contract would be ongoing for years

notyourday 5y ago
> Those progression steps happened with each vendor? A vendor started with massive wine, and ended with coffee in the last meeting? Multiple vendors followed the same pattern. In all cases we were already pre-qualified as a potential customer/existing customer expanding the account value and the vendor was pre-qualified as a possible vendor. They knew they were in the running to sell us the gear ( and service contract on a top of it ) and we did not disqualify them outright. > I'm surprised that wine and dine apparently works (with many people but not you). It is so popular that Walmart made accepting it a fireable offense for procurement people as they crunched the numbers and found that suppliers willing to wine and dine were closing deals at the higher prices.