How to deal with back door selling

At this year's „Shopping Forum” We had a discussion about the dangers of selling through the back door. The feedback we received strengthened our conviction that this is an interesting topic and so we decided to write a short piece about it.

Implementation and monitoring of the negotiation strategy

For activities such as backdoor selling everyone is exposed. Indeed, it is one of the more effective sales techniques and is therefore often used by experienced suppliers. Fortunately, there are proven ways of dealing with this type of practice.

The first step is to implement an integrated and comprehensive purchasing policy to eliminate backdoor sales attempts. Importantly, this strategy must be supported by high- and middle-level managers and regularly monitored. And any attempts to circumvent it - by both vendors and employees - penalised.

Eveneum at the „XI Shopping Forum” - Backdoor Selling

Back door selling, or business negotiation without negotiation

Awareness negotiation techniques back door selling among employees

The second very important activity is to build awareness of the risks of backdoor sales among all company employees. This awareness allows employees to recognise backdoor selling activities and understand why they are undertaken by vendors. In contrast, properly designed negotiation training and workshops build the competencies to answer the questions asked by suppliers in a way that does not weaken the company's negotiating position. And in many cases, they can make it much better.

The combination of these two measures makes it possible to comprehensively counter backdoor selling activities.

At Eveneum, we know how to effectively build safe and profitable purchasing strategies. We conduct trainings and workshops for managers and negotiators, as well as employees from other departments, where we teach methods for strengthening negotiating positions and dealing with unpredictable and difficult situations like back door selling. You are welcome to contact us.