PROCURING THE END-USERS DREAM.

What if I told you that the clichéd saying, "The customer is always right," no longer applies in the Nigerian procurement market. Most managers, procurement offices or consultants at this point will be wondering why a trusted saying that has been borrowed from financial and management mammoths they -more than likely, have only heard and read about in text books would be so suddenly wrong. In fact, they would look at this article and wonder how on earth would I dare try to debunk their age tested conformist philosophy!

Well, I will give you more than one reason why sometimes, it shows a certain level of ineptitude to follow a borrowed philosophy without necessarily knowing just how far you should go in making it into your biblical dictum. I'm sure I must have pricked the ears and egos of most Financial and business managers in Nigeria willing to take their purchasing, supplying and pricing prowess to a whole new level entirely. This article is for people who are tired of watching mediocre decisions which have no significant bite -if any at all, in their percentage of productivity. For business men who are no longer convinced that just following the rules and philosophies that they have been taught eons ago is enough. Such men and women are demanding for more in the exponential market of the Nigerian economy. For them, it is not enough to say that the customer is always right and leave it at that.

What is this secret then? Simple! Procuring the end users dream is a technique that has been taught by most business development procurement trainers by rote. Such persons have never really fully understood the meaning of the letters in between the lines. What I have done is to bring interactive answers and a fresh perspective to the whole conundrum.

The concept here is not simply to say the customer is always right and leave it at that. What you need to do -as procurement and pricing officer, supply staff, financial manager, consultant or business individual, corporate or otherwise, is to find out what the end users demands are. Find out what their desires are their aspirations and expectations in the products you supply to them. This will help you focus on what is necessary and to concentrate your resources and energy on what really matters. Gone are the days when a supplier will simply stock his store and shelf with all sorts of products in a random display that simply speaks of indecisiveness and unprofessionalism.

The simple way here is that there is no one more predictable and easily read then the end user! Their single minded purpose is "UTILITY". All they are after is their satisfaction and nothing more. The nature of that satisfaction is what I shall magnify so as to put a corporeal statistics to the dreams of the end user.

What you need to know is, know your end-user(s). I will help you know how.

1. The Undecided end-user: I am starting with this end user because they are one of the most powerful forces in determining who your future purchasers will be. They are like the clean slates that are waiting to be convinced. They are impressionable and mostly keep an open mind.

2. The Price convinced end-user: They are the sort of end-users who base and make their decisions on the prices of products they require. This group is further sub divided into two. (I) the Best High Price convinced end-user and (II) The Best Low Price Convinced end-user.

(I) The Best High Price Convinced end-user or the BHP end-user -as I would like to call them for easy reference is more on the side of the exotic purchaser. This group not only has a high end taste but they also have the deep pockets to bag the size of their taste. To them, the high price of a product simply connotes its grade quality. They pride themselves in the jaw dropping price tags and would rather flex their huge purchasing muscles in a market with a fixed non negotiable price tag.

Those who fall in this group have this mentality either because they were born with affluence and were never really broken in to the negotiation way and hence have no patience or passion for it as it can make them feel cheap -after all they can afford it. Or, they were born in the have-nots side of life and have managed to change their status. They are compulsively conscious of this. It is especially evident in their light handed display of unguarded spending. This is a sort of statement if you may, against a history they despise or never want to be associated with again.

(II) The Low Price Convinced end-user on the other hand bases his choices on the best lowest price concept. I would like to simply call this group the BLP end-user. The BLP end-users are swayed by the lowest prices. They would rather bargain to       get to this point yet this group still has the same sweet tooth for the same quality of     the BHP end-user. This group is skilled negotiators. It will be important to note that this may be as a result of the shallow depth of their pockets or something that             they may have picked up from one of their parents while growing up. The supplier should be aware that this group also makes up a good -if not the highest percentage of end-users in Nigeria as a developing economy.

3. The Time Tested end-user: This group is more patient then other end-users. They, have a practical nature. They are slow to make a final decision on a product and have the tendency to patronise more than a "Single Source supplier" before they eventually settle down to make their choice. They could be more conservative in nature and are more faithful to the product than to the supplier. That is why the idea of procuring their dreams is a very useful strategy when you must have identified these end-users.

4. The Product Name end-users: This group is a little bit indecisive. They sometimes have no clear idea on what it is exactly that they want. They are prone to being influenced by adverts, propaganda, friends, and mentors and especially by the BHP end-user. They associate their patronage of a product to the popularity of the product, the prestige of the name of such a product and pride themselves that they are also patronising not only the same suppliers as the BHP end-user but the same brands as well. They do not necessarily make up a large percentage of end-users and they can be unpredictable as they may look up to several classes of end-users for an informed choice. Pointing out the popularity of a brand and the class of influential persons purchasing the said brand or product is a good way to convince this group.

5. The Satisfaction end-user: Here is a group whose single minded requirement is their satisfaction. These end users are the most confident of the rest. They are also predictable to a professional supply and procument officer. They desire quality, utility and reasonable prices. They are intermediate spenders. While they are not totally desirerous of the BLP or the BHP, they will not compromise either if they can help it. They are after satisfaction and suppliers will easily loose them if they are victims of buyer’s remorse especially as a result of a supplier who wants to sell inferior goods at the pricing standard of quality goods. They are very stable and make faithful end-users as long as their satisfaction is being sustained.

Therefore, knowing what the end users requirements are before they even decide what they require is the key to unlocking your procurement potential and improving not only on the quality of your supply but boosting your sales. In other words, you would have experienced a windfall and will happily begin raking in a higher income than the competition that has simply refused or just doesn't know how to evolve from the prehistoric philosophies spawned from an ice age of the procurement industry. By implementing this technique and perfecting it into a skill, you would have wittingly taken advantage of the idea that though your customer /end user is right, the fact that you have studied his or her needs and what his preferences are will make you right person in their eyes. They would see you as the sort of supplier whose tastes and vision have created a unique bond which they will never be able to get from any other place or person for that matter.

In the end you would have the lee room to determine your pricing strategy and ultimately you then have the potential to determine the prices of the market around you. No longer will your prices be determined by external factors, but you will become the factor by which pricing is determined.