Value Merchants

"Customer managers, particularly purchasing managers, are under tremendous pressure to reduce the cost of acquired goods and services," Anderson says. "One easy way to do this is to reduce price, but if your company doesn't want to do that, then it becomes more difficult."

Anderson says that to be the winning supplier, proposals must be backed with data that distinguish a company from the competition, numbers that will persuade purchasing managers that this firm is the best choice to help them reduce costs.

By James C. Anderson is the William L. Ford Professor of Marketing and Wholesale Distribution, and Professor of Behavioral Science in Management at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.

View: http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/Faculty/Directory/Anderson_James.aspx