Cooperative purchasing programs – a quick way to avoid government bureaucracy and lengthy sales cycles!
by Mary Scott Nabers, CEO of Strategic Partnerships, Inc.
Public sector sales cycles are often long and burdensome. Bureaucracy in procurement processes is stressful. Writing proposals and working up unique pricing involves time and resources. That alone stops many companies and sales executives from wanting to sell to government.
There are solutions though and contractors need to know about options that make selling to government much less chaotic. Here’s a tip guaranteed to shorten public sector sales cycles and make frustration a thing of the past.
Find out what cooperative purchasing programs are used by public entities in jurisdictions where you sell your products and services. Then, take whatever time is required and get listed and involved in the appropriate programs. Usually, there will be more than one option so get all the information possible while you are asking questions.
If gathering this data is cumbersome and time consuming, it is nonetheless worth the effort. The information will be valuable and should provide a significant advantage over your competitors. Government purchasing divisions rarely switch programs and they all want their purchasing efforts to be as quick, convenient and easy as possible.
Having a contracting vehicle in place makes any offering more attractive to government decision-makers. The reason is simple, public purchasers usually need to move quickly and they don’t want to commit the resources it takes to go through a lengthy procurement process. They just want to buy what they have been approved to purchase and move on to the next task.
Cooperative purchasing programs screen vendors, products, services and pricing. To put it simply, being listed with a known purchasing program means that your offerings and your prices have been examined and are credible and competitive. There is no need for a formal bid process if a company is participating in a cooperative purchasing program. Public officials may buy directly from this type of contracting vehicle and it makes life for them much less stressful, not to mention the speed and ease of purchase.
The problem, however, is that there are many programs and every government jurisdiction in every state uses different types of cooperative programs and contracting vehicles. Some of the older and more popular programs are used throughout the United States and within many jurisdictions in each state. These programs are the ones that may take more time and prove to be more difficult. That should not stop a company from pursuing them.
Keep in mind that while you are attempting to get listed on the most popular contracting vehicles or programs, you can be using other vehicles as well. Some popular purchasing programs are quick and easy and if you know where these programs are used, it makes sense to get listed with them as soon as possible.
SPI researchers have recently documented the preferred purchasing programs in 30 states at every jurisdictional level of government. The research documents provide names, contact information, program options and preferred programs by state and by jurisdiction. If you want the information immediately, click here and get details. The information is not expensive and it was compiled in the last 30 days. If you need data about a state not listed, that research request will take about two weeks. Good luck…and good selling.
Mary Scott Nabers is president and CEO of Strategic Partnerships, Inc., a 15-year-old procurement consulting and procurement research firm headquartered in Austin, Texas.
