Any large organisation, which spends more than say £30 -£100k annually on stationery and office supplies will most likely have a dedicated facilities or procurement manager. This person will be trained in finding the best deals and probably also have some knowledge of finance too. However, if you are a smaller company then you are most likely paying far too much for your stationery. This is because you’ve probably passed the responsibility of ordering stationery on to a junior staff member because no one else can be bothered to spend time on it! Because of this it’s unlikely you will be getting the best deals. In fact, you’re probably paying twice as much as you should be!
Saving money on office supplies seems to be a pretty low priority for most companies - which is odd considering that you should want to save every penny possible in this currently tough economic climate!
Obviously this is great for the sales people who work for the office supply companies. They know that when they are dealing with inexperienced staff members they can get away with easily overcharging on stationery. Often they only need to offer a few FREE gifts.
These FREE gifts can cost you a lot of money. Your staff could even end up buying supplies that you don’t even need just to get a FREE gift. After all, it’s not their money they’re spending is it!
Office products rarely have a fixed price so it’s often impossible for your staff to know how much they should be paying anyway! Slick sales people take advantage of this and often a FREE gift or two is all that is required to seal the deal.
You can save a lot of money by taking some responsibility yourself. Try to spend a little time to educate your staff. Train them to see beyond the FREE gifts and actually find the best deal. I think that you will find that the money you can save will be significant and much better for your firm than a few tacky FREE gifts!
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