Most large organisations that spend in excess of £30 -£100k on office products will generally have dedicated procurement or facilities managers. These personnel are trained not only in negotiating the best possible deals but many are trained in finance too. However, a company that doesn’t spend too much on stationery can often miss out on savings, even if small.
This can be because they’ve passed the job role of purchasing to someone like an office junior because no one else can be bothered to do it! The savings they could be missing out on could be as high as 50% of their annual spend.
Office supplies savings still seem to be unimportant to many small business owners which is odd considering we’re in such a tuff economic climate where every penny saved should count.
This is great news for office supplies companies that want to make high margins from these types of accounts. The sales person can normally offer high discounts on core items then offer very poor discount on non core products. Sometimes they only have to offer a few FREE gifts to win the business!
A Free gifts for junior buyer can be a deal breaker! It could even make them buy supplies they don’t even need just to get the gift. After all, some inexperienced buyers will say it’s not their money they’re spending anyway. This is where the trained and non trained buyer role comes in to play. Also where the sales and sales professional role comes in too!
Office products don’t have a fixed price so it is very difficult for novice buyers to spot if they’re paying over the odds for stationery items or not. This could be why so many salesman target the smaller spend accounts as they can be quick, easy to win and profitable.
If you have a small spend on office supplies and you get free gifts with every order then you could well be paying well over the odds for your supplies.
Read the “How much money can your business save on office supplies?”
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