“We’re Happy With Our Current Supplier”: 5 Everyday Buyer Responses Decoded (And What They Secretly Mean)
Sales hears the same lines from buyers every day:
“We’re happy with our current supplier.”
“Send me some information.”
“We don’t have budget right now.”
“Can you email me your deck?”
“Circle back next quarter.”
From your side, these all feel like different flavors of rejection.
From my side (as a procurement manager), they usually mean something very specific and often something completely different than what you think.
In this article, you’ll see:
What those lines really mean
What is happening politically and operationally behind them
What a good response from sales would look like – and what a terrible one looks like
These are not theory scenarios. These are patterns I see every single week in real negotiations and vendor interactions.
If you want to receive those insights weekly, just click the button and there you go.
1. “We’re Happy With Our Current Supplier”
What you hear
“I have zero interest. Go away.”
What it usually means
One of three things – and only one is truly bad for you:
We actually are happy
Supplier performs.
Internal teams like them.
Pricing is acceptable.
Switching risk > potential savings.
We’re not happy, but we’re tired
Lots of small annoyances (slow responses, minor quality issues).
No one wants to run a big change project.
We say “we’re happy” because we don’t have the energy to open this can of worms yet.
We’re politically locked in
Key internal stakeholder owes the incumbent (history, favors, career moves).
Even if we bring an alternative, they’ll kill it.
“We’re happy” = “There’s a political wall you can’t see.”
The worst possible sales response
Arguing:
“But we’re better because…”Insisting:
“Can I at least show you a quick demo?”Disrespecting the incumbent:
“I hear they’re losing a lot of customers lately.”
You instantly move from “maybe interesting later” to “never bring this person back”.
A much better response
“Fair enough – if you’re happy, I don’t want to waste your time trying to fix what isn’t broken.
Out of curiosity, when was the last time you did a serious benchmark or alternatives review in this category?”
If they say:
“Recently, last year.” → This really is a closed door (for now).
“Honestly, it’s been 5+ years.” → Now you have an opening, because you didn’t attack their supplier; you attacked time.
Follow with:
“Got it. In that case, would it be useful if I sent you a very short benchmark sheet – just price ranges, common service levels, and risks we’ve seen in the last 12–18 months?
No pitch, purely market context. Helps you if anyone upstairs suddenly asks, ‘Are we still in line with market?’”
You just turned from annoying vendor into free market radar.
2. “Send Me Some Information”
What you hear
“At least they didn’t say no.”
What it often really means
“I don’t understand you yet – and I’m not going to sit through a pitch until I know if you belong in one of three buckets:”
Garbage – deleted immediately.
Interesting later – archived for a trigger moment.
Needs internal forward – to IT, engineering, marketing, finance, etc.
“Send me some information” is often a test:
Can you explain your value asynchronously and clearly?
Can I forward this to someone without being embarrassed?
If the answer to both is “no”, you’ll never hear from me again.
The worst possible response
Dumping a 30‑slide deck or a generic PDF:
Company history
Office locations
Awards
Client logos
“We are a leading provider of…”
This forces me to do your job:
Figure out what you actually do
Guess which team might care
Summarize it in one sentence so I don’t look stupid forwarding it
I won’t. I’ll just delete it.
What good “information” looks like for a buyer
One page. Not more. And built for forwarding.
Structure:
First 2–3 lines:
Who you are
What you do
For which type of company/team
In terms I can say out loud to my colleagues
One clear “this is when we are relevant” trigger:
“When you’re rolling out a new plant / market / region”
“When your current vendor misses X KPI”
“When you’re forced to re‑tender this category”
2–3 facts (not claims):
“ISO 27001 certified since 2018”
“Average implementation time: 6 weeks”
“85% of our clients are tier‑1 automotive”
One short example:
“Example: [Company] used us when [situation]. Result: [simple result].”
Optional: link to a deeper case study for the person who really wants to dig in.
Concrete email you should be sending
Subject: Short overview you can forward internally
Hi [Name],
As requested, here’s a concise overview you can forward internally if useful.
What we do in one sentence
We help [type of company/team] with [very specific problem] by [short how].We’re relevant when
[Trigger 1]
[Trigger 2]
[Trigger 3]
Facts, not fluff
[Certifications / volumes / SLAs]
[Implementation or delivery facts]
[Industry focus]
Quick example
[Similar company] used us when [situation]. Result: [simple, credible outcome].If this sounds useful, happy to stay in your “options drawer” for when one of these triggers hits. No need to respond.
Best,
[You]
Now you’ve passed the test:
I can understand you
I can forward you
You didn’t create work for me
You’re now in my “interesting later” bucket, not in trash.
3. “We Don’t Have Budget Right Now”
What you hear
“Try another account.”
What it often means
That sentence is almost never literally true.
“Your project is not yet important enough to fight for.”
“No one internally is willing to spend political capital on this.”
“I don’t want to go to my boss with this based on what I’ve seen so far.”
The worst response
Trying to argue that your tool “actually saves budget”.
Everyone says that.
Or: “Can we at least do a pilot for free?”
Now you’re asking for time instead of money – which is often scarcer.
A better play: switch from budget to budget trigger
Ask:
“Understood. When you say there’s no budget – what typically needs to happen internally for this kind of initiative to get funded?
Is it:
KPI misses?
Big customer complaints?
Audit findings?
End of a contract cycle?
New leadership?”
Now I reveal how decisions in my org actually get made.
If I answer:
“Honestly, unless our CEO gets hit with it in quarterly review, nothing moves.”
That’s your signal:
This is not about your product; it’s about internal political gravity.
Your content and messaging should help the person who would get heat in that review.
Example follow‑up:
“Thanks, that helps a lot.
In that case, I’ll send you a one‑pager you could plug into a quarterly pack if/when this topic comes up – numbers, risks, and 2–3 options we see other companies using.
No need to champion us – use it however is helpful internally.”
You shift from “vendor asking for money” to “resource for internal argumentation”.
Much harder to delete.
4. “Can You Email Me Your Deck?”
What you hear
“Great, they want more detail.”
What it often means
Any of these:
“I need to get you out of this call without saying ‘no’.”
“I have no idea how to explain you to my team – I need material.”
“I’m curious, but not enough to bring more people into a meeting yet.”
From my point of view, asking for your deck is sometimes purely tactical:
“I’ll look at it… maybe.”
What I absolutely do not want:
35 slides
Starting with your company history
Ending with generic roadmap
How to turn this into a real opportunity
Ask one short question before you send anything:
“Happy to. Just so I don’t send you noise – when you forward things internally, what do your colleagues actually look at?
Screenshots? Numbers? Case studies? Architecture diagrams?”
Now you’ll hear gold:
“Our COO only reads the first slide.”
“Our IT security team jumps straight to data flows and hosting.”
“Our CFO only cares about TCO over 3 years.”
Then you send a tailored mini‑deck (5–7 slides max):
Slide 1
One‑sentence problem framing in their language
One‑sentence what you do
Slide 2–3
For the economic person: cost, TCO, risk reduction
For the technical person: architecture, integrations, security
Slide 4
Concrete example: customer like them, situation, outcome
Slide 5–6
Implementation timeline (simple visual)
What you need from them (realistically)
Optional Slide 7
“When we’re not a fit” – this builds huge trust
You’re making it easy for an internal champion to sell you without you in the room.
That’s the game.
5. “Circle Back Next Quarter”
What you hear
“Generic brush‑off, they’re being polite.”
What it often means
One of these:
There really is a timing issue
We’re in the middle of a crisis / go‑live / audit.
Nobody has brain space for new stuff.
Even a perfect solution would die right now.
Someone internally said “not now”
Your contact got a “pause this” from their boss.
They might still like you, but they’re constrained.
They’re waiting for a specific milestone
End of fiscal year
Results of a pilot with another vendor
Outcome of a board/strategy meeting
The problem: we rarely tell you which one it is.
How to make “next quarter” actually mean something
Instead of:
“Okay, I’ll follow up in three months.”
Try:
“Sure, I don’t want to be another nagging reminder in your inbox.
Just so I can time this in a way that’s actually useful – what changes next quarter that makes this a better moment?”
If they say:
“We’ll be through this ERP migration.” → Your outreach should hook into post‑ERP pains.
“We’ll know our next year’s budget.” → Show up right after that decision, not randomly.
“My new boss starts then.” → Your real audience is the new boss, not your current contact.
Follow up with:
“Got it. I’ll send you one short note in [month] with a concrete idea for [post‑ERP / new budget / new boss] based on what we’re seeing in similar companies.
If it’s not relevant then, we can park it.”
You’ve:
Shown respect for their reality
Made a specific commitment
Reduced the mental load (“one short note”)
Increased the chance your follow‑up feels contextual, not random
Now Let’s Go One Level Deeper
Up to here, you’ve seen:
The real meanings behind 5 everyday buyer phrases
Better default responses
A glimpse into what’s happening behind the scenes
Most salespeople never get even this level of transparency.
But the real leverage is here:
What we actually write about you internally – in our notes, tools, and chats – while you think “they ghosted me”.
That’s the part almost nobody sees from the outside.
Below, you’ll see:
Typical internal comments we log after calls with vendors
How one sentence you say turns into a tag like “too pushy” or “good, bad timing”
Why two vendors with the same offer end up in completely different internal buckets
This is the stuff that decides whether we come back to you in six months – or never again.
🔒 Paid Section: Inside the Buyer’s Notebook
In the paid section, you’ll see:
Realistic internal notes buyers write about vendors after calls
The 4 internal “buckets” we silently put you into
Exact phrasing that gets you tagged as “keep warm” vs. “avoid”
A before/after example of the same call with two different follow‑up emails – and how they change your internal status
If you sell into procurement or B2B buying teams, this is the unfiltered side you never get to see.
