418: A Sales Perspective on Software Pricing and the RFP Process w/ Chris Mele

Art of Procurement

It isn’t often that procurement has the opportunity to hear the sales perspective on our work, but that is precisely what we bring you in this episode of the Art of Procurement podcast.

Chris Mele is the Managing Partner of Software Pricing Partners. In this interview, he provides an outsider’s perspective on two topics that are important to procurement:

1. How pricing works in the software industry: whether suppliers are being fair and how to negotiate when you feel like you’re examining a ‘black box,’ because the pricing is value-based rather than input cost-based
2. What the typical RFP process looks like to sales reps. You won’t just hear Chris’ perspective on RFPs - he solicited input from other sales professionals as well.

Before hitting play, we would like to offer a special listener’s caution on this conversation...

There are two ways to listen to this episode. You can either hear a salesperson advocating for process changes that might make his job easier (not recommended), or you can hear honest input that will help you design your sourcing strategy to better deliver what the business needs from its supply partners. Which way you listen is entirely up to you.