The True Cost Advantage.
From Price Taker to Market Maker
The supplier wants
an increase.
The business still wants
savings.
And stakeholders expect you
to find more value.
You’re in the middle. There’s more to work with than the price.
Free to attend · 20-minute presentation + 10 minutes for questions
Sound familiar?
A deal gets done.The pressure comes back.
You negotiate hard. Get the contract signed. Hope it buys some breathing room. Then costs move, expectations rise, and you’re back at the table.
What if the next conversation started somewhere else?
The conversation changes
Not just a better number.A better question.
Cost modelling isn’t only about the analysis. It brings stakeholders and suppliers into conversations that a quoted price alone never opens.
01What is driving the cost?
02What can each business influence?
03Where could we create value together?
Not a way to make inflation disappear. A clearer basis for deciding what to do about it.
SUPPLIER
“We need to increase your price.”
YOU
“Which costs are changing; what can we influence together?”
Now there is a business conversation to have.
Illustrative conversation and cost components; not a promised outcome.
Warwick’s True Cost approach
The model is a starting point.The value is what comes next.
Building on cost modelling, True Cost adds a roadmap for ongoing value creation. Understand the cost drivers, then keep working on them together as both businesses change.
- 01
Understand the business
See the drivers behind the supplier’s price, and what they mean for your own business.
- 02
Shape the conversation
Turn gaps in the model into questions worth exploring with stakeholders and suppliers.
- 03
Keep creating value
Use that shared understanding to guide improvements throughout the relationship.
A bigger role for procurement
Think like aBusiness Manager.
Understand their business. Understand yours.
Bring a view worth hearing.
Picture your next business conversation
Not only: “Can you get the price down?”
Also: “What do you think
we should do?”
Same procurement expertise. A broader contribution.
20 minutes. Something to take back.
A taste of the thinking.A place to start.
A focused introduction to the approach, a real-world application and a question to take into your next supplier conversation.
See what you’re missing
Where benchmarking stops, and a view of underlying cost drivers starts.
See it in practice
An aviation maintenance example: supplier selection, collaboration and ongoing cost-driver management.
Find your first question
Identify a cost driver or information gap to explore in a category you manage.
Then, 10 minutes for your questions. Bring a category or commercial challenge you’re working on.
Who this is for
You’re responsible for value.You want more to work with.
- Category and sourcing professionals facing the next savings target.
- Procurement leaders building their team’s business understanding.
- Finance professionals looking beyond the headline price.
No prior Advantage Series attendance required.
Built on what practitioners told us.
130 plus
procurement professionals contributed to the LinkedIn polls informing this session.
Their responses highlighted a gap in cost-modelling capability. This session is a starting point, not a promise to master it in 20 minutes.
Your host
Warwick Shaw
Principal, Practical Procurement
“That’s what opens the door to relationships worth designing.”
The thinking behind True Cost.
Warwick helps procurement professionals connect business insight, stakeholder relationships and commercial decisions. True Cost is Domain 03 of his Collaborative Procurement Operating Model, alongside Spend Intelligence and Stakeholder Engagement.
More about WarwickThe True Cost Advantage
The pressure will return.Bring a different conversation.
A clearer view of cost. A broader view of your role.
A starting point for ongoing value.
Free · 20-minute presentation + 10 minutes for questions