Equipment negotiation with suppliers can be stressful, even in the best of circumstances. Ensuring that all the various needs of your constituents are met isn’t easy on its own, but the task gets exponentially harder when when you’re facing a tight departmental deadline or budgetary restriction. Add to that the challenge of keeping up with the new product names, prices, and features of new technology from one purchase cycle to the next, and the simple act of getting to a contract ready for signature can sometimes feel almost insurmountable. With all these competing factors weighing on you, it’s common for supply chain professionals to just throw up their hands in exasperation with equipment contracts (“fine, I’ll just sign it!”) in order to get them over the finish line. Even if you know there’s more to save on the quote, it can be tempting to let months of fatigue make you just want to get it all over with. But actually, resisting that very natural urge is one of the biggest opportunities for savings you’ll get over the entire negotiation process.
Don’t give in to a less-than-ideal quote just to be done with it. Instead of simply throwing your hands up in equipment negotiation, ready yourself with accurate benchmarking data to provide solid footing for you to dig your heels in. If you know that the quote isn’t the best available price, keep your focus on how great it will feel when you can secure the savings your hospital is counting on you to find (rather than despairing at how far you have left to go). Don’t let the frustrating and slow-moving nature of some negotiations push you into making decisions out of fatigue. Take a breath, gather some data, and keep pushing. Your future self will thank you.
Recently, a regional medical center learned just how valuable having the right information is when negotiating for new automation for their core lab. Despite urgency from the department and pressure from the supplier to place the order quickly to “avoid delays,” the contracting manager had a gut feeling something wasn’t right. Instead of giving into the frustration, she sought out benchmarking data which uncovered that the product was on the verge of being discontinued. Two weeks later, the hospital was able to confirm a replacement configuration that delivered on the clinical requirements on time – and at savings of $213,000. While it would have been easy to just throw up her hands and sign the deal, the contract manager grabbed hold of the right information to help her get the price she knew was possible.