Grow your sales with the CPC Contract

“Once the vendor mentioned they were on a CPC contract, I knew they weren’t wasting my time,”

Superintendent at MSBA 2024

The CPC Contract is a powerful tool for securing sales. If you are an awarded vendor under the CPC Contract then schools, cities, counties, nonprofits, and other government agencies can move forward with you as their vendor without securing additional quotes or going out to bid. Because there is less risk of competition, you are able to partner with your customer to engineer a solution that is tailored to their needs without worrying about them then shopping your solution around. And when you and your customer have settled on the right solution, you can immediately move forward on your project.

Put in more technical terms, using the CPC Contract satisfies your customer’s legal or best-practice requirement to shop around before transacting with a vendor because CPC has already engaged in the competitive sealed solicitation process on their behalf. During that public process, CPC convened an evaluation committee to compare the value that you bring to CPC members against that of other competing vendors and that committee recommended to CPC that your company should be awarded a contract. That process is detailed on your company’s CPC vendor profile page as the Audit Packet.

CPC Contract Best Practices

• Add the contract number to any large quotes.
  Many of your customers have internal policies that are more strict than state procurement laws. Associating your large transactions with the contract will keep your customers from shopping around your quote to other vendors.

• Remind customers early and often that you are on the CPC Contract.
  Being on the contract makes it very easy for customers to do business with you. Eventually, customers will begin to call you to ask if you have a solution on contract, leading to more and more sales over time.

• Support public nonprofit service cooperatives.
  Some cooperative procurement contracts support private equity and for-profit organizations. When your customers go with your quote on the CPC Contract they are supporting public nonprofit organizations that were created by the State of Minnesota.

Tools and Resources

Website

PurchasingConnection.org hosts several resources that can help you make sales.

• CPC Member List
  Compare this list of current CPC Members with your customer accounts. Both current and future customers will appreciate knowing that you are on the contract.

• Participation Agreement
  Any school, city, county, nonprofit, or other government agency in the United States can become a CPC Member by signing and returning the CPC Participation Agreement. There is no charge to become a CPC Member.

• Vendor Profile Page
  Every vendor on the CPC Contract has a CPC Vendor Profile Page. Share this page with your customers so that they know exactly what products, services, and solutions are covered by the contract and so that they have access to your company’s actual contract with CPC.

• Sales Sheet
  Every CPC Vendor has a sales sheet that sales representatives can drop off with their customers. Sales sheets are typically found on the CPC Vendor Profile page. If yours is not there or if it is outdated, please email [email protected] and we will provide assistance.

Marketing Opportunities

• Conferences
  Please send us a list of the conferences that you plan on attending and we will advertise your attendance to our members. Email [email protected] and we will provide you with a reusable table stand that you can use at your booth.

• Association Meetings
  CPC attends many professional association meetings across MN, SD, and ND. Please feel free to invite members of the CPC Team to join you for presentations at professional association meetings.

• Success Stories
  Share your successes with the CPC Team and we’ll share them with our members! We regularly issue email blasts, web updates, and social media posts that highlight the successes of CPC Vendors and CPC Members. Just remember that the project has to be run on the CPC Contract in order to be featured.

CPC 101

Pro Tips

• CPC is a program of 8 Minnesota Service Cooperatives: NESC, NWSC, LCSC, RTS, BrightWorks, SSC, SESC, SWWC
  
• Legal Authority: Link
  
• Many of your customers already use a cooperative purchasing contract and don’t know it. If someone is having trouble understanding CPC, just tell them that it is a cooperative purchasing contract that is just like the State contract. That will usually do the trick!

Questions

Please email the CPC Team with any questions that you have about leveraging the CPC Contract. We are always happy to speak with our vendors!