How to build trust with Procurement, with Jessica Bowler
Welcome to episode 154. This chat will be particularly interesting for you if you’re an agency owner or account manager who has to work with marketing procurement (especially in pharma / biotech industry).
My guest is Marketing Procurement Consultant, Jessica Bowler. Jess has deep expertise in end-to-end pharmaceutical procurement processes, including supplier qualification, contract negotiation, risk management and vendor management. She has worked with large pharma for almost 24 years and spent the majority of that time in commercial/marketing procurement. Jess currently works on consulting roles within pharma and biotech where she can assist organizations with different procurement operations.
Here's what we covered in our chat:
what to do if your experience of procurement has been more transactional than you’d like
a simple 10 minute conversation you can initiate to strengthen the relationship
a check list of what to include in a review meeting with Procurement
how procurement is thinking about AI and pricing transparency right now
Jess shares a lot of valuable insight, tips and steps to set you up for success dealing with procurement, I hope it gives you a few practical ways to work with procurement as they are, whether they’re relationship-led or more transactional.
Here’s a summary of the five things she values most.
1.If you want to secure a meeting share other client examples and/or new tech
Jessica will make time for an agency when there’s something relevant, new and useful to see, especially if it could help her marketers.
For example, one agency invited her to demo their new AI insights tool in person. It wasn’t right for the current brief, but she kept a note.
“It’s not for today. But next year probably.”
2. Understand procurement’s KPIs
Jessica isn't measured only on how much she can save the company, she's also measured on:
Managing risk
Supplier relationship quality
Stakeholder engagement
Transparency
“I want to know what’s coming down the track. I want to know if things are going wrong. And I want to hear it early.”
Agencies that flag resourcing, risk or pricing issues early tend to earn more trust long term.
3. Stay visible after the MSA is signed
Many marketing stakeholders now work remotely so conversations among their peer group about who is their 'favourite' agency now don't happen as frequently when they're passing the proverbial water cooler.
Therefore, Marketing Procurement often can play that role of being the one who is approached for recommendations. So if you keep Marketing Procurement updated on what you're doing and your capabilities, you'll be top of mind.
“I don’t think cold calls to marketers work anymore. But if I know the agency, I’ll say: talk to them.”
She will recommend an agency if she knows what they're doing and if they fit the need that arises.
4. Make QBRs matter
Jessica laid out exactly what she wants from a business review (and it was pretty much a masterclass in writing an agenda!). Here's the summary of what she said :
Co-create the agenda so everyone feels it's worth their time
Include senior leaders - even if it's for 15 mins
Cover delivery, resourcing, risks, budget and savings
Share where you're improving or innovating and bring proof, not just slides (and especially what you're seeing is working for other clients).
And if it's going well, say it. “There isn’t a lot of time in the day-to-day to say: you’re doing a great job.”
5. Some clients are expecting savings now from agencies because of AI
Some clients are already reducing budgets assuming AI means cheaper delivery. Jessica isn’t.
“I don’t think that’s fair, not yet.”
She still expects to see time estimates, day rates and clear rationale.
New pricing models are fine, just make them easy to understand.
Do follow Jess on LinkedIn
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