Leveraging Purchasing Power throughout Dean Foods

Unique training program helps non-purchasing "buyers" understand the sales process

At Dean Foods, an estimated 10 percent of employees - approximately 2,000 people - make daily buying decisions without going through the company's purchasing department. Although they are considered "buyers," their real jobs range from engineering and maintenance to information technology and administration. That's why this Fortune 500 corporation looked for a way to help non-purchasing employees make more informed buying decisions and increase their bargaining leverage.

"Dean's corporate purchasing department is so small (10 professionals) that it's impossible for us to route every purchase, and even every major purchase, through our department," according to Dave McInerny, senior buyer. "And so there are significant buying decisions being made by these other entities."

How does a non-purchasing person not divulge the wrong information that could destroy Dean Foods' negotiating position? What should people expect during a typical sales call with a supplier? What's really going on when they are sitting across the bargaining table from each other? These are the key questions that Dean's purchasing department wanted its multitude of untrained "buyers" to understand the answers to - and their implications for the company's bottom line.

To provide some basic skills about the sales process, the company discovered a unique training program that went beyond the conceptual courses typically taught by well-known purchasing experts' workshops and continuing education or college courses. Transferring buyer concepts to "real world" sales experiences is the basis of a training workshop developed by Robert Benedict, president of Benedict Negotiating Seminars. Called "Dealing with the Highly Skilled Salesperson," this three hour session helps non-purchasing people to understand a subtle fact-finding process used by sales people called "back door selling." The workshop consists of a fast paced videotape, small group exercises, role playing, and other practical training resources.

"In his 13 years as a purchasing professional, McInerny has seen a number of training courses for buyers, all of which cover core selling concepts while providing anecdotes, entertainment and leave-behind materials. "But then when you sit back behind your desk," he pointed out, "it's hard to transfer what you've learned into that next sales call. That concern is obliterated with Benedict's videotape based training program because the workshop starts with a breakdown of a sales call and the 12 classic questions that sales people typically ask non-purchasing people."

Over the past four years, Dean's purchasing department has trained nearly 1,000 "buyers" using the "Dealing with the Highly Skilled Salesperson" program, primarily through large, internal workshops, that are conducted annually by engineers and other departments. Due to its positive reception, large groups or departments are apt to call the purchasing department in anticipation of an annual meeting for automatically including the program on the agenda.

Another way that this training is integrated into Dean Foods, is when a newly acquired company comes on board. McInerny explained: "Actually, it's a good icebreaker because it allows us to bring all of the new company's purchasing people together and let them know that the things they encounter (with suppliers) are exactly he same things that the new corporate office encounters - and here is how we deal with them."

From a bottom line perspective, the Benedict training program has helped to stop an inappropriate flow of information from Dean's employees to its supplier base.

There's more from Lockheed Martin and Hoffman Engineering about the effectiveness of the "How to Prevent Back Door Selling" program. Many others have comments about this seminar, too.