Stop Selling on Price. Here's What Procurement Actually Wants.

Your team has done everything right. They’ve built the relationship with the end-user, proven the product is a great fit, and their internal champion is on board. Then the deal goes to procurement, and the conversation dies.

Suddenly, all that hard work on partnership and value evaporates, replaced by a spreadsheet and a single, brutal question: "Can you do better on the price?"

Stop Selling on Price. Here's What Procurement Actually Wants.

If this is where your deals go to get squeezed, it’s because your team is speaking the wrong language. You're talking about price. Modern procurement is thinking about risk. For sales and marketing leaders, understanding this difference is the key to cracking the procurement code, protecting your margins, and winning more deals.

Why Your Sales Pitch Fails with Procurement

The role of a procurement professional in 2025 has evolved. They are no longer just cost-cutters. They are strategic guardians of the business, tasked with balancing budgets against huge operational risks, ethical standards, and company-wide goals. Their mindset is shaped by the total cost of a decision, not just the initial price on your quote.

Many sales teams fail to see this bigger picture. They fall into common traps:

• They pitch features, forgetting that procurement’s internal clients care about solutions to their problems.

  
  

• They ignore the internal politics and pressures facing the procurement manager.

  
  

• They treat all buyers the same, failing to understand the organisation’s specific appetite for risk or its strategic priorities.

  
  

This disconnect leads to stalled deals and a relationship built on transactions, not trust.

The New Playbook: 4 Ways to Win Their Trust (and the Deal)

To move from being seen as a simple vendor to a valued strategic partner, your team needs to change its approach. Here are four proven strategies.

1. Talk About Total Cost, Not Just Price.

Procurement professionals are trained to think in Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). This includes not just your upfront price but all the associated costs over the product's life: implementation, training, maintenance, support, and, most importantly, the cost of failure.

I advised a SaaS company here in Singapore that kept losing to a cheaper rival. They were trapped in a price war. We had them stop talking about their license fee. Instead, they built a TCO model for their next big pitch. It showed that while their software was 15% more expensive upfront, the competitor’s solution required twice the training hours and had a history of outages during peak trading hours. They didn't sell a product; they sold operational stability. They won the deal, at full price.

2. Sell Risk Reduction, Not Just a Solution.

Every purchase introduces risk—operational, financial, and reputational. Procurement’s core job is to minimise it. Your sales message must position your company as the safest pair of hands. Provide evidence of your stability and reliability, such as strong service-level agreements (SLAs), security certifications like ISO 27001, and glowing testimonials from similar, well-respected companies.

3. Connect Your Pitch to Their CEO's Agenda.

Procurement teams are increasingly measured on their contribution to larger business objectives, like sustainability (ESG) targets or digital transformation projects. If you can show how your solution helps them advance their company's biggest goals, you provide a powerful reason to choose you that has nothing to do with price.

A great example was a logistics firm bidding for a contract with a major consumer goods company. They knew from the company's annual report that the CEO was pushing a huge sustainability initiative. So, instead of leading with their delivery times, they led with their fleet of electric vehicles and their new carbon-offset reporting dashboard. They aligned their solution with the CEO's biggest priority. They weren't the cheapest, but they were the most strategic choice. They won.

4. Justify Your Price with Data, Never Apologies.

When challenged on price, don't immediately offer a discount. Use it as an opportunity to reinforce your value with hard data. Procurement teams respect evidence. Come to the meeting armed with performance benchmarks, ROI calculations, and client success metrics. Confidently connect your price to tangible outcomes—increased efficiency, lower risk, or higher revenue for their business.

How to Equip Your Team to Win

Understanding these principles is one thing, but equipping your team to apply them consistently is another. It requires a new way of thinking and a new set of skills.

This is precisely why the Procurement Power Play (PPP) - Win More Deals by Mastering the Buyer’s Journey course was developed by ClickAcademy Asia. It’s a hands-on, practitioner-led programme designed to give sales and marketing professionals the tools to master the procurement perspective.

It moves beyond theory and focuses on practical application, providing tangible assets for your business, including:

• A practical pricing strategy report tailored to your offerings.

  
  

• A customer segmentation framework you can use immediately.

  
  

• A communication plan for articulating pricing and value.

  
  

• A dashboard framework to monitor your procurement engagement strategy.

  
  

Ready to transform your sales approach and crack the procurement code? 

If your team is tired of losing deals at the negotiation table, it’s time to shift your messaging from price to strategic value.

The Procurement Power Play (PPP) course by ClickAcademy Asia is designed to equip your sales and marketing teams with the practical tools and insights needed to speak procurement’s language—risk, total cost, and long-term value.

With up to 70% SkillsFuture funding available for professionals in Singapore, now is the perfect moment to invest in mastering the buyer’s journey and turning procurement into your strategic partner.

Don’t leave revenue on the table—enroll today and learn how to win deals on your terms, every time!  https://www.clickacademyasia.com/procurement-power-play