TL;DR
- People are asking Una's chatbot sharp questions, but the bot's sometimes-cautious "I can't verify that" answers leave visitors hanging.
- Una's differentiation is about our scale ($100B+ buying power, 2,500+ contracts, 18 to 22% average savings), and the dedicated advisors and hands-on category support.
- Lost deals usually come down to category pricing fit or change management resistance, not a named competitor beating Una outright.
- Una's roadmap involves continually improving contract terms, and every new member adds to the collective buying power that benefits everyone already on board.
People have been asking Una’s chatbot some impressively sharp questions lately. What makes you different from competitors? Why might people NOT buy from you? What's on your roadmap?
Our chatbot - we affectionately refer to her as "Luna" - is trained via Una's resource center and short answers provided by our internal (and human!) team. She's constantly learning as we publish new content and is cautious with her answers if the information isn't readily available to her. Any time we notice her answers containing various forms of "I can't verify that" or "I don't want to speculate" phrases, that's our cue to for a real human to jump in and take over.
Luna serves as an easy way for procurement professionals to find what they're looking for, assess which sourcing options are best for their organization, and learn how Una can meet their needs - but only if she's successfully able to provide a cohesive answer.
Here are a few recent examples of when she couldn't quite respond in full, and the true answers to all of these burning questions.
What Makes Una Different From Your Main Competitors?
First, our scale. Una's buying power sits above $100 billion, spread across a membership base of more than 90,000 businesses, giving access to more than 2,500 pre-negotiated contracts. Members save an average of 18 to 22 percent across core indirect categories.
Then, our service. Every Una member gets an account representative and a member experience manager. Our sourcing advisors work with you to perform a category-by-category cost analysis, taking on work most internal teams would otherwise have to handle themselves or pay a consultant to do. That combination, real buying power plus a genuinely hands-on advisory relationship, is the clearest distinction. Plenty of GPOs can point to a big number. Fewer back it with a team that actually picks up the phone.
Which Specific Companies Do You Most Often Get Compared To?
Here are some of the GPOs you might come across when looking for a new GPO:
- CoreTrust
- Procure Analytics
- Corcentric
- Foodbuy
- CNECT
- And a long tail of smaller vertical and niche GPOs.
There are roughly 600 GPOs operating in the US, most of them “vertical”, which means they serve a single industry like healthcare or foodservice.
Una is a horizontal GPO, built to serve any industry rather than one vertical, which is usually the first thing that separates it from that list in a side-by-side comparison.
Of Those Alternatives, Which Do You Lose Deals to Most Often, and Why?
It was definitely a procurement pro asking these questions!
But we’re not going to name names on this one, mostly because it wouldn't be a fair or accurate answer. It does happen occasionally, and when it does, it’s almost always for one of two reasons.
- Either the prospect's specific spend categories aren't ones where Una's contracts beat what they already have negotiated, or
- The organization already has a strong existing contract in a category we’d otherwise cover, so there's simply nothing to improve.
A third reason is less about pricing and more about appetite. Some procurement teams aren’t ready for the change management involved in shifting even a portion of their indirect spend to a new model, regardless of the savings on the table.
We'd rather be upfront about all of this than pretend it doesn't happen. If Una isn't the right fit for a particular category or a particular organization's readiness for change, we'll say so, rather than oversell something that won't actually deliver.
What's on Your Upcoming Product Roadmap?
Una isn't selling a product in the traditional sense, so "roadmap" looks a little different here than it would for a software company shipping quarterly releases.
What we can say is that the roadmap is really a value roadmap. We're continually engaging with suppliers to negotiate better terms, expand category coverage, and improve the fine print members operate under, like better service levels and stronger pricing tiers, rather than a new feature drop. In other words, the roadmap involves a constant effort to keep making our supplier contracts better for our members.
Growth is part of that roadmap too, and not just for Una's sake. More members means more buying power, which means room to push for even deeper discounts across existing categories, not just new ones. It's one of the few growth stories where the people already on board benefit directly from everyone who joins after them.
Resources for Procurement Pros
We'll submit this new article to Luna so going forward, she's able to answer questions like these in a clear and straightforward manner. In addition to a full article library, Una has dozens of other resources readily available for procurement professionals that cover topics from category management and indirect procurement to risk management, strategic sourcing, and procurement technology.
One of our newer playbooks helps procurement leaders compare and select the right group purchasing organization. This playbook helps you cut through the noise to evaluate cost structures, category fit, and service quality so you choose a partner that actually delivers on savings and value.
If you've asked Una's chatbot something and gotten a hedge instead of a real answer, that's useful to know, and we'd genuinely like to fix it. Send us the question, and we'll make sure the next answer is a real one.
