Alan Buxton’s e-Sourcing Place

Yes that’s right. There I was with the sales director punching in bids.
As a supplier auctions are pretty scary – certainly the first time you are auctioned is pretty scary. You find yourself overcome by two objectives:

1. You want to keep a cool head and only go as far as the walk away price you’ve prepared before the auction.
2. You want to win the game (auction) and want to bid further than you ever would in a sealed bid/RFQ situation. (Keynes’ animal spirits are alive and well). 

We were very tempted to follow the 2nd strategy and put in lower bids. Very tempted. But I am glad to say that we stuck to our guns. Some reasons (and things the buyer could have done to get us to bid lower) in Part 2.