A buyer explains the scoring rubric on the other side of the table, line by line.
What you'll take away
- Procurement has a scorecard before they open your proposal.
- The first page of your deck is already scored — make sure it maps to their rubric.
- Legal redlines are not random — they signal where trust has not been established.
Timestamps
- 00:00Cold open
- 04:00How sourcing works at enterprise
- 18:30The scoring rubric
- 32:15What gets marked down first
- 44:00How to build trust before the contract
Episode notes
We have spent a lot of time on this podcast talking to sellers. This episode is the mirror image: what does the other side of the table actually do with your carefully crafted proposal?
Ben walked us through the scoring rubric his team uses, the three things that get immediate markdowns, and the single thing that most sellers get wrong in first meetings.