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A should-cost model in your drawer weighs nothing. I see it too often, unfortunately. The analysis is done, the numbers are there. Then the buyer walks into the meeting and opens with: “Can you do something on the price?” In my years in procurement, the negotiations I remember best weren’t the ones where I pushed hardest. They were the ones where I knew the numbers and was really prepared. Look at the picture. Negotiation alone moves the price. Put the should-cost on the table, let your supplier react to it, and the final price lands another 5 to 20% lower. The model only adds weight when the supplier has to respond to it. What works at our clients is simple. They open the meeting with the cost breakdown and ask the supplier to explain the gap, driver by driver. Not just for the big contracts. Every time, until it’s a habit. The usual reason it stays in the drawer is time. With WTP, a breakdown takes minutes, so that excuse is gone. Got a negotiation coming up? Send me a DM with the product or category, and I’ll share a should-cost breakdown you can bring to the table. #procurement #shouldcost

PROCUREMENT INFLATION & NEGOTIATION INDEX Cocoa costs roughly a third of what it did at the start of 2025. If you buy chocolate, you’ve hardly noticed. Selling prices in confectionery rose 42% and have barely moved since. That’s one of the findings of the Procurement Inflation & Negotiation Index we recently published. We put our own cost-structure data next to US producer prices for nine industries, from 2020 to early 2026. A few things stand out. At the 2021 peak, steel mills charged their customers 74% more than their own costs. Today it’s still 12%. Paint manufacturers now sell 16% above their costs. In 2021 they were 12% below. Labor and energy are the two explanations you hear with almost every price increase. Yet in none of the nine industries do they add more than 3.4% to the cost price. Or put simply: costs that rose yesterday don’t automatically justify today’s price. I’ve sat at the procurement table long enough to know how this goes. A price increase always comes with a story about rising costs: raw materials, energy, wages. When it’s told, the story is usually true. But it’s almost always temporary. Data gives you the evidence. That doesn’t work with one inflation figure for all your suppliers. Steel and paint are making extra margin, while drivetrain component manufacturers are pricing 17% below what their cost increases would justify. Use the same argument everywhere and you completely miss the mark. Semiconductors are another one. Prices there lag 12 to 14% behind costs. Pushing for a price reduction now makes no sense. That’s exactly where you want to lock in a longer-term deal at today’s rates. For me, should-cost has always been about finding the right price. Sometimes it’s lower than what you pay, sometimes higher. You want to know both before you look at the next quote. And the impact is often huge. On $50 million of paint spend, a 16% gap is roughly $8 million. Want the full report with all nine industries? Connect with me and type REPORT in the comments. #procurement #negotiation

Everybody loves cost models.🧡. And we make them. At best, according to +100 discussions at DPW Amsterdam 2026. Back next year. Ready to deliver tomorrow. Julia Heisen Robert Driessen #costmodels #cost #procurment #amsterdam

THE COST FATHER 🎥 That is not a film. Yet. I am a member of the selection committee of the largest arthouse film club in the Netherlands. This year that has put me in a cinema seat 63 times, watching and rating films that most people will never hear about. Spend so much hours between cinemas and cost models, the two start bleeding into each other. We at WTP couldnt help creating a list of titles rewritten as procurement films. See the current standings below. We are not at 25 titles yet. That is where you come in. Drop your best one in the comments. 🎞️ Rules: it has to be a real film title, combined with procurement, and it has to hurt a little. #procurement #costmanagement #film #arthouse #costmodeling

MARS SAYS: WE WILL NEVER LEAVE COST MODELING TO AI... ... our primary focus is on stability. Of course, we also use other sources and tools from the market, but WTP is our home. WTP is our home... 🥹🥹 Aileen Sandoval of Mars Petcare said this during the DPW Tech Safari in New York, where she pitched WTP together with us. This is the biggest compliment for us to get, and man it still gives me goosebumps.. In the photo I'm trying to look like I hear this every day. I'm not sure I pulled it off 😉 Right now, almost every procurement tool wants to be AI-first. I understand why, because the speed of development is insane. But a cost model that goes into a negotiation has a very focused job: to make sense, and to be based on consistent data, also in your next quarter. The buyer who brings a cost model into the room has to be able to defend it. And I'm pretty sure 'AI said' so won't get you a very serious reaction from the supplier. Thats why stability matters more to our customers than novelty. They need validated data, assumptions they can trace, and people who know why a cost model shows a certain result. That last part gets underestimated. We call ourselves SaaS, but in practice we are Software and a Service. At Mars Petcare, our key account manager Guido Theunissen brings his expertise and dedication to the table. He challenges the models, helps the team build new ones and makes sure the platform earns its place in their sourcing process. The software gives Mars the data, and the people make sure it gets used. AI makes cost modeling faster, even in our tool. But if the data underneath isn't validated or you can't explain where it came from, faster only gets you to the wrong answer sooner. This week were at DPW Amsterdam. On 30 September, Mars Petcare is back at the Tech Safari in the Strategic Sourcing and Negotiation Excellence track. They'll show how WTP helps them keep their cost models solid and how those models keep producing savings, deal after deal. The Tech Safari is on September 30th from 15:00-15:45. With Maria Heller of Mars Petcare. Thanks to DPW, Catharina Frajtag and Matthias Gutzmann for having us again. So sign up for the Tech Safari in the Brella app to watch me get emotional if Maria says something similar in Amsterdam! #DPWAmsterdam #Procurement #CostModeling #CustomerSuccess

How far up the cost model ladder do you really need to go? I expect to have this conversation more than once at DPW Amsterdam next week. Talk about cost modeling long enough and it always drifts toward detail. More cost drivers. More supplier data. More transparency. All the way up to a fully detailed, supplier-specific open-book model. At WTP, we can build that. All the way up. But do you always need to? Most procurement decisions start at the first or second step of this ladder. An industry cost model. Adjusted for the right country, economic conditions, cost developments. Then comes the question that actually matters: - Do I know enough to act? - Enough to challenge a price increase? - Enough to prepare for a negotiation? - Enough to know whether my supplier's price development makes sense? If yes, stop there. If not, move up. Add process information, supplier specifics, more transparency, until you have what the decision needs. That's the part of this ladder I like most. It was never about reaching the top step. It's about knowing which one you're actually on. And if the answer is all the way up... my hiking boots are already on. I've got a spare pair waiting for you. 😉 If you're at DPW Amsterdam next week, come find me. We'll talk cost models. Happy to show a few use cases like #Mars, #Bunzl, #Dollartree #DPWAmsterdam #RECODE