Procurement departments are professionalising and rationalizing fast. Resulting in increasing procurement tactics thatyour sales department has to deal with. One simple and effective strategy is to simply mirror the tactics that procurement is throwing at you.

A few examples:

Are you compared with competition? Compare your customer as well.
It can be extremely refreshing to respond to a customer who bullies you with “you're the most expensive” by pointing out — respectfully — that they’re actually your least profitable customer. Don't let cheap procurement tactics scare you away.
More often than not, procurement is looking more for added value than the lowest price, but they'll always pretend the opposite. It's their job.

Is your customer threatening you with alternatives? Create them yourself.
Always have a BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement). And make sure the BATNA is solid by never becoming too dependent on a single customer. At the same time, always focus on building lock-in and switching barriers during the contract, so the “alternatives” card isn't played so easily against you.

Is your customer behaving transactionally by issuing RFP? Do the same.
Strip away all the added value, services, and goodwill you built in the earlier relationship.
Make it clear: you can’t have it both ways. And if you hold the power, simply don’t participate. The customer will want you in the RFP process, so they'll come back. Simply state you’re open to a normal, value-driven conversation that leads to a win-win outcome.
You'll do the industry a favor.

Is your customer hiring procurement consultants? Do the same.
It’s common for companies to hire external procurement services and expertise to handle high stakes negotiations with suppliers — but still uncommon to bring in pricing and negotiation specialists on the sales side. That should change. Because with key accounts, there’s too much at stake. A few percentage points on price or better terms can easily deliver a 10x ROI on expert support. And if you have the power, tell your customer you won't talk further unless it is directly with them.

You'll do the industry another favor.