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Meeting with corporate buyers

Adam Vreeke

Adam Vreeke

Knows just enough to get in a lot of trouble..
JBurton said:
A fantastic response is something along the lines of "Well gee, if you have that great of a demand why don't you guys run a roll printer in house..."
Just to point out, making the machines that make paper bags part. F*ck me running, he's not going to give a dime more than he thinks he should, and will drop you like a sack of wisconsin potatoes the instant anybody beats your pricing. Don't invest too much time, and don't be heart broken the day he jumps ship. Sub all day long. Do not reveal your markup, period. "That's just industry standard pricing." is all you should ever say considering it. Do not cut down your markup, in fact, 50% markup sounds more in line for such a customer.
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Stacey K said:
I know it wasn't a criticism - no worries, I just wanted to clarify that during this meeting it was the first time I heard about them needing PO's. I used to be account manager for a 50+ million budget for advertising budget in my past life, I know all too well about people buying things without a PO...and then tracking them down after they spent $17,000 without a PO...bastards.

I'm totally fine upon receiving any requests that I make sure there's a PO. The only problem I have is that I'm not going to explain to them their own process and who their account manager is, etc. The office over there is about 1,000 square feet so there's really no reason she can't walk to their desk or just stand up and make an announcement telling them she is the account manager and to ask her for a PO. Maybe she just had a bad day.
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Well if someone places an order without a PO, you can just say "Great, send me over a PO and I'll get started on it!". Don't say anything about toddler grandma (or as Boudica would say Hitler's angry grandma) at the front, make them find out who to go through and figure out their own process. Always say that, and then I think they will get the picture.
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
I'm fine using their PO's. That way they can track and keep an eye on things in their own way. Make sure at the end, all costs and prices remained the same and most of all be sure they received what they are paying for. However, I still insist on them signing and dating MY quotation sheet which is MY way of tracking things and keeping an eye on it. The other part is, MY signed quote becomes a signed and dated contract, with MY terms..... not theirs. I will not waiver my terms regardless of what their PO says or indicates. Before I start, I will tell them, I will not except 60 day terms or any of the other mumbo-jumbo. My quote..... my rules. Like it or lump it. Believe it or not, if someone wants your services, they have A-L-L the ability in the world to change their process and can have checks signed once or twice a week and put mine in there ahead of the others who abide by their silly terms. It's all a game and a way for them to hold onto their money longer. Well, I want my money when I want it, not when they wanna part with theirs.
 
Notarealsignguy

Notarealsignguy

Arial - it's almost helvetica
Gino said:
I'm fine using their PO's. That way they can track and keep an eye on things in their own way. Make sure at the end, all costs and prices remained the same and most of all be sure they received what they are paying for. However, I still insist on them signing and dating MY quotation sheet which is MY way of tracking things and keeping an eye on it. The other part is, MY signed quote becomes a signed and dated contract, with MY terms..... not theirs. I will not waiver my terms regardless of what their PO says or indicates. Before I start, I will tell them, I will not except 60 day terms or any of the other mumbo-jumbo. My quote..... my rules. Like it or lump it. Believe it or not, if someone wants your services, they have A-L-L the ability in the world to change their process and can have checks signed once or twice a week and put mine in there ahead of the others who abide by their silly terms. It's all a game and a way for them to hold onto their money longer. Well, I want my money when I want it, not when they wanna part with theirs.
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After working with a large slow pay company for about 10 years and being told net 60 (more like net 120) is what it is, a guy that works there found an exception to where they will pay small business vendors net 30. I had to fill out some forms and he got it changed over for me. Nobody else knew it could be done. Another thing is most corporate managers have credit cards but they have a monthly limit so they will avoid using it whenever they can. This way, they always have it available for the people that will not give them terms. Others have big fat limits and will use it every chance they get in order to avoid the hassle of getting POs.
 
N

netsol

Active Member
Stacey K said:
I know it wasn't a criticism - no worries, I just wanted to clarify that during this meeting it was the first time I heard about them needing PO's. I used to be account manager for a 50+ million budget for advertising budget in my past life, I know all too well about people buying things without a PO...and then tracking them down after they spent $17,000 without a PO...bastards.

I'm totally fine upon receiving any requests that I make sure there's a PO. The only problem I have is that I'm not going to explain to them their own process and who their account manager is, etc. The office over there is about 1,000 square feet so there's really no reason she can't walk to their desk or just stand up and make an announcement telling them she is the account manager and to ask her for a PO. Maybe she just had a bad day.
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My point is, if they weren't going to use you again, they couldn't give a damn if you understood the PO requirement. But if they think you could well be a regular vendor, not a one shot, it becomes more important
 
N

netsol

Active Member
JBurton said:
Her words were "scolded me", not welcomed me into their PO ecosystem. All about holding off for PO's here, like you many companies require it, but it's not my responsibility to both confirm with the purchasing rep that we don't need a po, followed by an investigative phone call to the accounting dept to clarify that I don't need a PO. If they sign off on my proposal, either the company or the individual is on the hook to pay me, regardless of their standard procedures.
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"I will defend the company's requirement for a PO, but, i assume the woman in question was born without a f**king personality & that ship has already sailed, so, nothing we can do about it.
 
C

CanuckSigns

Active Member
I'm always amazed by the people who don't know their own company purchasing process. I'm constantly getting "orders" from one of our largest clients who has thousands of employees, I always end up replying back that if I do t get a PO, I dont get paid, and I send them the contact of the person in their own purchasing department to get a po made up, I only hear back from about 50% of them, I assume the found someone else to do the work without getting paid.
 
N

netsol

Active Member
CanuckSigns said:
I'm always amazed by the people who don't know their own company purchasing process. I'm constantly getting "orders" from one of our largest clients who has thousands of employees, I always end up replying back that if I do t get a PO, I dont get paid, and I send them the contact of the person in their own purchasing department to get a po made up, I only hear back from about 50% of them, I assume the found someone else to do the work without getting paid.
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Or, they found out, to their surprise, they DID NOT HAVE PURCHASING AUTHORITY
 
Notarealsignguy

Notarealsignguy

Arial - it's almost helvetica
CanuckSigns said:
I'm always amazed by the people who don't know their own company purchasing process. I'm constantly getting "orders" from one of our largest clients who has thousands of employees, I always end up replying back that if I do t get a PO, I dont get paid, and I send them the contact of the person in their own purchasing department to get a po made up, I only hear back from about 50% of them, I assume the found someone else to do the work without getting paid.
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I don't worry about the PO. That is an internal problem, they can follow their own rules or be chastised for not doing it. I love getting the sigh from the person that issues them after the job is already done.
 
Stacey K

Stacey K

I like making signs
CanuckSigns said:
I'm always amazed by the people who don't know their own company purchasing process. I'm constantly getting "orders" from one of our largest clients who has thousands of employees, I always end up replying back that if I do t get a PO, I dont get paid, and I send them the contact of the person in their own purchasing department to get a po made up, I only hear back from about 50% of them, I assume the found someone else to do the work without getting paid.
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I agree. At my last job, I took over for a lady who retired. I had 40 on-site people and 40 off-site partners to track all the budgets and PO's (80million-ish). She tracked the budgets in massive binders with basic math using a pencil. I had to walk around and get manual signatures from 40 people who travel 2 weeks a month then make a photo copy for the binder, do the manual math with a pencil then walk to accounting and hand her the invoices. Probably half the invoices got lost on desks...what a mess! Once she left I implemented electronic signatures and a spreadsheet - the IT department found out and told me to SHUT IT DOWN! I ignored them and got busted when I got a new laptop. They found Adobe PDF thing on my computer. Luckily he told me he had to delete it but said to just put it back on when I got my new one LOL RIght before I left they FINALLY got some program where we could create requisitions and it all worked electronically. Then they wondered why they went 20million over budget almost every year...

When I went in for my interview the lady GRILLED me if I knew Excel. I was quite concerned I had bitten off more than I could chew. when I started she showed me her phone list in Excel that I had to keep updated and the PO binders...I knew I made a big mistake taking the job LOL
 
C

CanuckSigns

Active Member
Notarealsignguy said:
I don't worry about the PO. That is an internal problem, they can follow their own rules or be chastised for not doing it. I love getting the sigh from the person that issues them after the job is already done.
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Yeah if they are polite about it, I will apologize, say I wasn't aware and will make sure to let their emoyees know I need a po, if they are not polite, I tell them "this sounds like a you problem"

We have 1 construction company who demands 100% of all communications go through their purchaser, so if I have a question about the colour they want a sign to be, rather then email Bob who knows the answer, I need to email her, and she will email Bob, and I will get an answer in a week. Aparently they had an issue where project managers were sending work to companies and getting kickbacks (giftcards, trips etc) and they decided that the only employee who should have contact with the outside world is this lady, I assume she deals with thousands of emails a day, and they have gone through 3 people in that role in the last year, I wonder why.
 
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