Managing Buying Dynamics at Hughes Aircraft
large manufa control information Screens and filterscturer with multiple government contracts
for supplying helicopters, communications, equipment, and weapons systems to all branches of
the military
Hughes Buying Center on RFQ:
STEP 1:
Meet & build relationship
Understand the buying process
Identify decision maker and influencers
STEP 2:
Meet decision maker
Identify RFQ deciding attribute
STEP 3:
Meet influencers
Identify RFQ deciding attribute
Influence their preferences
STEP 4:
Prepare offer:
decide weights (decision maker first, influencers second)
keep high minimum for each category
modification after formal RFQ
STEP 5:
keep in contact
internal informer
suppliers agreement
Multi-Attribute Matrix Approach:
Decision Matrix Analysis is a useful technique to use for making a decision. It's particularly
powerful where you have a number of good alternatives to choose from, and many different
factors to take into account. This makes it a great technique to use in almost any important
decision where there isn't a clear and obvious preferred option.
this tec:hnique is actually quite easy to use. Here's a step-by-step
Step 1:
List all of your options as the row labels on the table, and list the factors that you need to
consider as the column headings. For example, if you were buying a new laptop, factors to
consider might be cost, dimensions, and hard disk size.
Step 2:
Next, work your way down the columns of your table, scoring each option for each of the factors
in your decision. Score each option from 0 (poor) to 5 (very good). Note that you do not have to
have a different score for each option – if none of them are good for a particular factor in your
decision, then all options should score 0.
Step 3:
The next step is to work out the relative importance of the factors in your decision. Show these
as numbers from, say, 0 to 5, where 0 means that the factor is absolutely unimportant in the final
decision, and 5 means that it is very important. (It's perfectly acceptable to have factors with the
same importance.
Step 4:
Now multiply each of your scores from step 2 by the values for relative importance of the factor
that you calculated in step 3. This will give you weighted scores for each option/factor
combination.
Step 5:
Finally, add up these weighted scores for each of your options. The option that scores the highest
wins!
Factors that he wants to consider are:
Cost.
Quality.
Location.
Reliability.
Payment options.
Next he decides the relative weights for each of the factors. He multiplies these by the scores
already entered, and totals them. This is shown in figure 2:
This makes it clear that Supplier 4 is the best option, despite the lack of flexibility of its payment
options.
After identifying RFQ deciding attributes, there are some roles that are being played, that are
given below,
Initiator:
starts the purchase process by recognizing a need
Decision maker:
person/committee that makes the final decision
Purchaser:
any person who actually buys the product
Controller:
may approve or set budget for purchase
Influencers:
individuals who affect the decision maker’s final choice through recommendations about which
vendors to include or which products will best meet needs
Users:
their jobs require that they implement and evaluate what was purchased
Gatekeepers:
control information (Screens and filters)
Motivation to the employees. There are different motivation steps, that are given below.
Set goals:
This one may be obvious, but it’s important. You need to give your salespeople a goal to reach.
Without a goal, they won’t know what to aspire to or what constitutes success. Choose
something that’s achievable, but not easy. It should still be a reach.
Focus on purpose:
As a manager, it’s your job to keep your salespeople engaged and fully supportive of your
company’s mission. Start by explaining what that mission means to each person on your team
and how they play a part.
Build trust:
To be an effective leader, you need to have your employees’ trust. The best way to build trust is
to be as direct and straightforward as possible. Don’t try to hide things or beat around the bush. If
there is an issue going on, let your team know.
So upon the basis of the roles being played, with the motivation of sales team, Fred can do better
things.
