Tropic

That 9% Slack uplift at renewal? Here's our team’s playbook to negotiate that and drive hard savings…just in time for budget season and your Q4 Slack renewal. Since Salesforce bought Slack, they're enforcing a 9% YoY uplift unless you hit 15-20% growth. But here's what's working for our customers: ✅ Start growth estimates at 70% of your actual needs ✅ Anchor budget constraints early and often ✅ Time negotiations with their fiscal quarters ✅ Push for multi-year with growth tiers We’re finding companies that use our price benchmarks and negotiation tactics are saving as much as 13%+ with Slack (on top of previously negotiated rates). Grab the full playbook to save on Slack for free here: https://lnkd.in/emfYCTSq As part of our SaaS Savings Series, we’ll be dropping more playbooks like this on other top suppliers over the next several weeks too, so stay tuned!

A major SaaS buying mistake in 2025 that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars? Not understanding what kind of "AI-powered tool" you're buying. A chatbot will do whatever you tell it to do — it needs more hand holding. From Tanya W. - "An agent can analyze large volumes of data, proactively anticipate future scenarios, and then recommend strategic actions…without explicitly having a command…” Tanya’s checklist of questions to ask to determine if you're buying an #AI agent or not:  ✅ Does this initiate tasks independently? ✅ Can it think nearly as well as a trained procurement professional? ✅ Does it continue to adapt and improve from real-world interactions? Bookmark this post so you know for your next purchase. 💰

Over 30% of software renewals happen in Q4. We’re already a month into Q3 and I can’t stress this enough - you need to be preparing and kicking off these renewal conversations with suppliers NOW. Timing affords you the negotiating leverage to save more money off the total cost of your next contract. Tropic has found that companies who kickoff renewals: - Up to 6 months ahead can save up to 39% - Up to 2 months ahead can save up to 22% - Up to 1 month ahead can save up to 14% To help teams stay ahead and informed, we also just released our latest SaaS buying trends report covering $14B in spend data from H1. Includes great stuff to inform your SaaS portfolio and buying strategy going into Q4 and 2026. ➕ Spend benchmarks by company size (and per employee) ➕ Fastest growing and most used suppliers (by adoption rate) ➕ Pricing variability (how much wiggle room do top suppliers have) ➕ Shadow spend culprits (suppliers with freemium offerings that can cause financial leaks)  ➕ Top suppliers that can create unpredictable variances for your budget Grab the free breakdown of stats and trends here: https://lnkd.in/esWvcdgA

$14B worth of supplier pricing data is sure fun to play with, but hunting for custom benchmark requests from our team in your email inbox? Not fun. So we’re changing this for the better – think of a searchable, central hub for ALL your pricing knowledge and requests. Tropic’s NEW unified benchmark experience consolidates all supplier price benchmarks into a single in-app experience. ✅ All benchmarks - manual, proactive, and instant - all live inside Tropic ✅ One dashboard to track every benchmark request, past and present ✅ Benchmarks matched to how contracts are structured (monthly vs. annual) This gives your team more visibility and organization as you keep saving money. 🤌💰

Procurement teams: Let's break some things (responsibly, of course). Challenging assumptions and experimentation is necessary and to build a procurement function that thrives in 2025. IN 2 DAYS on August 6, be a fly on the wall for a chat between 2 #procurement leaders who have broken many things for the better and will teach you how to do the same: ➕ Ruth Hicks - Head of Global Procurement, Sword Health ➕ Michael Shields - VP of Procurement, Tropic Save your seat here 👉👉👉 https://lnkd.in/gJc_vrix

Buyers know that vendor pricing can be all over the place. But the reality can be staggering. We were recently showing a head of procurement our benchmarking data, and he mentioned his recent DocuSign deal. Multiple negotiation rounds, solid discount - he felt good about it. Turns out he was sitting right at median pricing. He thought 25% off was a win. Others were getting 45% off the same package. This isn't an isolated incident, it's the norm. We analyzed $14B in software spend to understand what's really happening in procurement. The results should make every buyer uncomfortable: - DocuSign has 110% pricing variability (some pay more than double others) - Figma has 0% variability (what you see is what you get) - Many successful negotiations are actually mediocre deals in disguise The problem isn't effort. It's intelligence. That procurement head wasn't being aggressive enough because he didn't know what was possible. Without benchmarks, his "great discount" was just vendor theater. The truth, however uncomfortable: you're probably getting fleeced and don't know it. Software vendors bank on information asymmetry. They know you don't have visibility into what others are paying. So you celebrate 20% off while someone else quietly gets 50% off the same deal. Knowledge gaps are not just hurting budgets, they're sucking up time. Not knowing what to shoot for guarantees too much time spent on mediocre outcomes. The procurement game has changed. Intelligence isn't optional anymore. 🔽 Our full H1 2025 Software Buying Trends report dives deep into where the market is headed including which vendors are consolidating, fastest growing suppliers, and negotiation strategies that actually work.

The average mid-market company spends $4.4M on software – where is this money going? Hint: To some usual players like Salesforce, Slack, HubSpot, etc. But also newer AI-native tools like Cursor, Anthropic, Ashby, Nooks, Anrok, and more. Tropic’s latest SaaS buying trends report covering H1 is out. That’s $14B worth of software spend data. Included are: ➕ Benchmarks by company size (and per employee) ➕ Pricing variability (how much wiggle room do top suppliers have) ➕ Shadow spend culprits (suppliers with freemium offerings that can cause financial leaks)  ➕ Top suppliers that can create unpredictable variances for your budget ➕ SaaS negotiation tips to help you save money Over 30% of renewals happen in Q4. NOW is the time to start preparing for them. Get the full breakdown of benchmarks, trends, and insight to inform your buying strategy: https://lnkd.in/gSHyZMEk

If you want to build a good procurement process, you might have to break things first. 🤷♂️ Doing anything next week? Join Ruth Hicks, Head of Global Procurement at Sword Health, as she talks with Michael Shields about procurement experimentation — not just execution. Understand that an impactful #procurement leader in 2025 will challenge assumptions for the better. Save your seat for this convo! 👉👉👉 https://lnkd.in/gJc_vrix

15 vendor deals. 6 weeks. 1 finance leader drowning in administrative drag. Metronome's Head of Finance & Legal Adam J. Klein had 15 vendor deals hit his desk in 6 weeks. Instead of grinding through them manually, he found a smarter way. 8 weeks later with Tropic: - Single source of truth for all software contracts - Automated compliance and routing - Time freed for high-impact infrastructure negotiations - Scalable process that works without manual intervention Most importantly, thousands in savings to deploy elsewhere His take: "Tropic was a quick win. With some light process and guardrails, I was able to start improving Metronome's ability to reinvest dollars into growth." The smartest finance leaders know where to invest their time. They build systems that handle the tactical work so they can focus on strategic initiatives that move the needle. If you're drowning in vendor management, ask yourself: What could you accomplish if you weren't spending hours every week on procurement admin?

Over 30% of all SaaS contract renewals happen in Q4. Which means, if you haven't started working on your renewals yet, take this as your wake-up call. According to our data, engaging with stakeholders at least 6 months before your renewal date can drive a 40% savings. That savings possibility dwindles the longer you wait. Getting ahead of the cycle can really pay off. Just look at some of the notable savings ROI Tropic customers achieved with our team's help last quarter. This is money they have put back towards the P&L, reinvested back into R&D or growth, or simply used to buy better tooling across their portfolio and fund the next strong hire. That’s what Procurement Paradise is all about.