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Rogue Spending: The Sneaky Nemesis Your Customers Hate

By Lauren Campion McMillen Friday, September 29, 2023

Distribution

Have you ever noticed how, in big corporations, money sometimes seems to take on a life of its own? Do you glance over the books, and suddenly, there are expenses you never even knew about?

Meet corporate rogue spending, the pesky habit of spending that's not in line with company policies. It's not always done with bad intentions. Sometimes, it's just a matter of being disorganized. Other times, it's due to the lack of visibility in spending. Whatever the cause, the solution might just be simpler than you think.

Procurement Software: The unsung hero

Procurement software is like a friendly neighborhood watch for corporate spending. It's all about buying things smarter and more efficiently.

Imagine this: instead of letting every department fend for itself, the buying process is centralized and unified. That way, it is known where every penny is going. Get control, oversight, and a streamlined process!

Here's the magic it brings:

No more sneaky purchases: With automated approvals, no expense sneaks past without the right set of eyes on it. Especially those big-ticket items that, in the past, might've sailed through with just a nod. Now, they need a virtual thumbs-up, ensuring that every penny spent is a penny accounted for.
Spend smarter with real-time insights: Remember those times when you wished you had a crystal ball to foresee spending trends? Procurement software's real-time data is your modern-day oracle. It helps you spot where the money's flowing, highlights potential drainpipes, and empowers you with actionable insights to tweak, adjust, and perfect your spending strategy.
Clear visibility: There's no more guessing game with procurement software. Businesses get a clear view of their spending, including where money is spent, who makes the purchases, and the contract terms. This means no more nasty surprises when looking at the balance sheet.
Auto-pilot compliance: Being constantly tangled in rules, regulations, and paperwork is exhausting. Procurement software cuts through the red tape, ensuring purchases align with company policy. It's like having a rulebook that enforces itself.
No more human errors: Humans make mistakes; it's what we do. But procurement software doesn't. It's like having a robot accountant who never sleeps or makes a mistake with pricing or quantities.
Efficiency at its best: Time is money. Procurement software saves both. It's efficient, quick, and keeps everything in one place.

Corporate rogue spending is a headache we can all do without. It's sneaky, slippery, and can dent the bottom line. The fix can be simple and inexpensive. Businesses leveraging procurement software can stop money from slipping through the cracks.

Why dealers should care about business customers' rogue spending

For dealers, consistent sales and understanding customer behavior form the backbone of success. But what if this behavior, specifically rogue spending, threatens that consistency? While it might seem like a customer's internal issue, rogue spending can ripple into distributors' operations.

Here's why:

Predictable Revenue Streams: Distributors rely on stable purchasing patterns to manage inventory and forecast sales. Rogue spending makes sales erratic, disrupting an efficient supply chain.
Ability to win more bids: Some larger businesses will not consider you as a vendor/supplier if you don't connect to their procurement. If you're bidding on a large account, you'll be out of the running regardless of how good your pricing, products, or customer service may be.
Gets CFO buy-in: LinkedIn did a study and found it takes an average of 6.8 people to make a B2B buying decision. The CFO will generally be one of those people. You can tick them off the box by showing them how your website will eliminate rogue spending.
Building Trust and Value: Distributors offering solutions to address rogue spending aren't just vendors; they're partners. By presenting solutions like punchout eprocurement software, they deepen their relationship with business customers.
Upselling and Cross-Selling: Addressing rogue spending can reveal opportunities for distributors to upsell or cross-sell, leading to increased sales.
Enhancing Customer Retention: Companies grappling with rogue spending might reconsider their supplier relationships to cut costs. By helping curb rogue spending, distributors ensure more robust and sustained relationships.
Boosting Brand Reputation: Distributors integrated with solutions like punchout eprocurement software are perceived as forward-thinking, setting them apart in the market.

The Solution: Punchout Eprocurement

Punchout eprocurement software provides a bridge between a company's procurement system and the distributor's ecommerce platform. This technology streamlines the purchasing process, enforces compliance, and reduces rogue spending.

By centralizing and automating purchasing, punchout systems ensure that businesses stay within their procurement guidelines, curbing unauthorized or non-compliant purchases.

Rogue spending isn't just a business challenge; it's an opportunity for B2B distributors. By proactively addressing it, distributors can solidify their relationships, enhance sales, and position themselves as indispensable to their business customers. In B2B, addressing customer problems head-on is key, and punchout eprocurement software provides the answer to the rogue spending puzzle.

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About the Author

Lauren Campion McMillen is an accomplished Product Marketing Manager with a strong passion for AI and its transformative role in content creation. With in-depth knowledge of ECI products, customers, markets, and competitors, she crafts compelling value propositions and positioning frameworks for effective market communication. Her overarching goal is to optimize product adoption and profitability for ERP SaaS Software solutions and cross/up-sell products, all while leveraging AI to enhance the content creation process. Lauren's dedication to customer-centric strategies ensures ECI's continued success in delivering exceptional solutions to clients worldwide.

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