That procurement manager in Chicago who refused to sign off on a 2-page SOW

I mean, we spent 3 weeks on a 40-page contract for a $12k software rollout and she still wanted everything verbal, has anyone else dealt with a buyer who treats paperwork like a trap instead of a safety net?

2 comments

2 Comments

abby_morgan1814d ago

Wow, that really chaps my hide. I read something the other day about how some managers see paperwork as a way for vendors to sneak in extra fees, and honestly, that kind of fear can make them dig their heels in on everything. But 40 pages for a $12k job is overkill on your end too, and her wanting everything verbal is just asking for a mess later. If she won't sign off on a simple summary, she's basically saying she doesn't trust anyone, including her own legal team. I get that people get burned before, but a two-pager with clear scope and payment terms is the bare minimum for any deal. Maybe she needs a one-page bullet list with big fonts and zero legal talk, because some folks just panic the second they see a paragraph.

jessica92114d ago

So what finally got through to someone like that for me was bringing a printed one-pager to the meeting and basically treating it like a menu. I walked her through each line out loud, like "here's what we do, here's what you pay, here's when it happens," and then I just slid it across the table and said "if this looks right, initial here." She actually laughed and signed it on the spot. The trick was making it feel less like a contract and more like a receipt with promises. I think the 40-page thing scared her because it looked like we were hiding things, so I stopped trying to prove we were legit and just showed her the bare bones. Once she saw it was really that simple, the whole "verbal only" thing went away. Honestly, some buyers just need the smallest possible piece of paper to feel safe, not a bigger stack.