The reality of the procurement process in 2020 is that too often agencies and procurement teams work with incomplete information. From the perspective of the procurement team, the agency landscape is changing so quickly that it is practically impossible to keep up with the agency’s skills and focus.
In the meantime, agencies struggle to understand the needs of a procurement team, whether because of a poor communication chain or because they are not familiar with the actual success factors that the procurement team is looking for.
At the first Commercial Group UK meeting of the year, a select group of Drum Network members discussed the realities of managing the relationship with procurement teams in 2020 and the industry-wide changes needed to improve the overall environment.
Based on a meeting at last year’s Pitch Perfect event where procurement experts shared their own experiences, network members were interested in the fact that responsibility for a good relationship is not just about procurement.
Paul Vallois, CEO of Nimbletank, said: “I think it has to be a professional relationship. You don’t spend as much time with procurement staff as you do with customers, so you invariably build a closer relationship with the end customer. “He notes that there are good and bad players in every aspect of an agency’s life. He specifically cited a number of teams that opposed the client and brand teams when they felt the process against the agency was unfair.
Meanwhile, the managing director of the TVC group, Becky McKinley, believes that the responsibility lies with the agencies, given the respective expertise of both sides.
“I can understand [why procurement staff can be defensive] that in a room full of agencies, there are people who have been pretty hostile to them over the years. Many agencies – and I would count mine – are not very good at procurement. They are professional buyers and we are not professional sellers. We think we are, but we are absolutely not. “
Educate the market
Holly Yates, director of the Cubo Group’s partnership department, suggests that the process has an educational aspect that should be universally recognized: “It depends on how big the company is. You may not be dealing with someone who specializes solely in buying marketing services. You may have to go through each category. In this scenario, ISBA did a really good job. You complete a monthly training session on procurement. It’s like lunch and study – they bring in a different person each time. “
The group also noted that there are teams that go well beyond that on behalf of agencies, and there are those that take the time to really learn about the breadth and depth of expertise these organizations offer ,
Hannah Kimuyu, director of payment media at Greenlight Digital, believes that sourcing agents are often the best: “Obviously, these are not internal procurements, but rather companies that were specifically created to work with agencies and customers themselves, to produce these introductions. One of the things we found out is that they go one step further and educate themselves. “
She also notes that they are usually much better at sharing the commercial framework and reducing the time pressure on the process.
Chunking and challenges
However, the group also found that marketing managers are looking for ways to avoid procurement. Procurement for certain companies is only involved if there is actually a budget threshold and practice seems to be increasing.
Too often it is believed that the procurement process is mandatory, even if the customer has a preconceived notion of their preferred partner. As a result, agency input can be wasted. Emma Hunt, commercial operations manager at Croud: “The procurement process just had to take place, and a few months after everything was done and dusted off, it turned out to be a massive waste of time.”
As a result, the group believes that procurement opacity poses problems – both in terms of customer relationships and in terms of investment in parking spaces. Start Design CEO Will Hawkins said, “I think we have to challenge it – to tell people that we all know who the serial killers are.” The problem is that there is no incentive not to do it. Agencies are reluctant to raise awareness because they believe this will damage their reputation in the industry, but why should it be? “
Vallois believes the industry is trying to get the problem under control on a regular basis, but these efforts will inevitably fail. He said, “It’s cyclical. We tried to standardize the RFI process so that you, as an agency, could just dust it off, change a number of numbers, and you’re done. There was a talk about salary agreements. Nothing ever really changed. Nothing has ever really prevailed. “
It is therefore not advisable for individual agencies to make changes to the often opaque procurement practice. The industry will unite and work with procurement teams to ensure that the relationship between the two sides is fair and mutually acceptable.
