PURCHASING POWER!
Another path to purchasing power is provided by buying groups, principal among them, the IHRSA Group Purchasing program. “Skilled buyers, leveraging the power of a large number
of facilities, can score some very attractive pricing,” observes John Atwood, the founder and managing director of The Atwood Group. “I really believe they’re the next wave of high- impact expense management.” IHRSA’s pioneering program has negotiated discounts with a number of vendors who can
provide savings on a wide range of club needs. Among them are: Philadelphia Insurance Companies and Aon Affinity Insurance Services, Inc. (insurance); Affiliated Power Purchas- ers International (energy consulting); Grainger Industrial Supply (facilities-maintenance products); and Broadcast Music, Inc., or BMI (music licensing). For full information or to join the program, log on to
www.ihrsa.org/grouppurchasing. To give some sense of the incredible number of items that the IHRSA Group Purchasing
program offers: Grainger, just one of the participating vendors, provides more than 900,000 products in some 31 categories—ranging from abrasives, to furniture, to office equipment, to safety systems, to welding supplies. Each year, IHRSA-member clubs buy more than $5 million in goods via Group Purchasing
and enjoy significant savings. For full information or to join the program, log on to
www.ihrsa.org/grouppurchasing. —|
and the prices.” Having this information at hand makes the process more manageable and quickly calls attention to unacceptable variations. “If I see a price increase,” he says, “I ask, ‘What’s going on here?’” Still, knowing is only half the battle. To ensure
that his club stays within budget, Synnott employs a number of strategies. Negotiating is, perhaps, his favorite technique,
but, he concedes, it’s also one of the more difficult management skills to master. “When you’re dealing with a supplier, you can’t automatically roll over, as that’s a quick route to being nickel-and- dimed,” he says. “You have to tell vendors to go back and sharpen their pencils. To do that, you
need to know what to do, and what to say. It requires having a thick skin, but it’s learnable.” Weymouth Club employees improve their
haggling expertise with the help of mentors—mem- bers of upper management who demonstrate the ins-and-outs. Sometimes, however, such in-house tutorials
just aren’t feasible. “In all probability, you’re out on an island, without
an experienced guide,” Marks acknowledges. In such cases, other resources may prove effective. “Formal training courses are available online and in-person,” she points out. “The Institute for Supply Management (ISM), a nonprofit association for procurement pro- fessionals, is one of the better resources.” Synnott has cultivated his abilities by studying
written materials on the subject, and by accumulat- ing lots of firsthand experience. One of the things he’s learned is that bargaining doesn’t necessarily have to be complicated. “Sometimes, if you just ask for a better deal, or indicate that you’re going to check the competition, it can prompt a vendor to say, ‘Never mind—we won’t charge you that higher price.’” Of course, on occasion, somewhat shrewder
methods are required. Blame-shifting is one tactic that Synnott employs.
... And in its food and beverage operation
“You can gain leverage by saying, ‘Geez, it’s not me. My boss is the one putting the pressure on.’ You place the onus on a third party who isn’t at the
> www.
ihrsa.org | SEPTEMBER 2011 | Club Business Internat ional 57
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