How to Sell Product Purchases Internally: Page 2

3) Get a quote For a simple product you will likely find pricing on the vendor’s web site or a distributor’s web store. If the product is being sold online there is less chance you can negotiate. But if you can talk to someone in sales at the vendor, reseller or distributor ask them if they have pricing incentives. Most vendors won’t haggle on the annual maintenance and support, but will haggle on the initial licensing.

If you can close the deal before an end of quarter, let them know this and encourage them to offer a price discount good through the end of the time period agreed to. Most vendors have quarterly numbers to make and are more likely to haggle if they know they can close the deal within that quarter. And this may also get your decision makers to move faster if they know a good deal will expire.

If you don’t ask, you’ll never know!

4) Write it up and present Don’t just send an email to your manager with a few details and a web link or product brochure. You need to be more prepared to make your case. Schedule a meeting with all the decision makers, prepare a brief presentation to present your findings. Cover how the product will save money, how it beats the competition, and the great price you received. Use lots of charts and graphs to visually show how the IT department and (hopefully) business units will benefit from this shiny new product.

If you follow these fundamental steps, you can save yourself a lot of wasted time and energy. And even if you don’t get the accolades for this in your next performance review, you may just end up with a product that will give you some well-deserved extra leisure time.