Powering Top-Tier Professionals
since 2001
Frequently Asked Questions
A should-cost model is a tool that helps buyers estimate what a purchased part or material should cost, based on changes to a supplier’s raw materials and other direct inputs. It’s one of the most valuable negotiating tools available to procurement professionals. You can read our full definition in our procurement glossary.
ProPurchaser’s material tracking data is aggregated from hundreds of verified online and offline sources and interpreted by our researchers and industry experts.
Yes. ProPurchaser actually encourages you to send 1st-pass should-cost models to suppliers within the platform. By accepting your supplier’s changes as is, you make them de facto owners of the revised results. These models are now much more valuable because they can no longer be disputed. And ProPurchaser’s modeling methodology ensures that models continue to favor the buyer, even when incorporating suppliers’ changes. We call these 2-pass models negotiator’s should-cost models.
ProPurchaser’s should-cost models are directionally very accurate. And getting the direction right should be the prime purpose of a should-cost model built for buyers. It allows you to negotiate better pricing with irrefutable data-driven authority.
No. ProPurchaser’s first-pass should-cost model templates don’t require supplier input. They use commodity market data and rules of thumb (such as the 50/50 split) to establish a directionally accurate baseline you can start using right away. In practice, however, our members find that suppliers almost always respond and wind up co-owning a revised model.
