The Cost Position Problem: Why Sales Teams at Plastic Processors Are Quoting on a Fiction - Resin Market Moves April 19, 2026

There's a story Michael Workman lived through that's especially relevant now. It goes back to his time in sales at PolyOne, when a rigorous deal autopsy process surfaced an uncomfortable truth: the number one business reason they were losing deals wasn't service, wasn't competitive pricing, wasn't relationships. It was that their resin input costs were wrong at the time of quoting.In this episode, Michael unpacks that discovery — and what it revealed about the structural information gap that still affects every plastic processor's commercial performance today. When resin is 40–60% of your part cost, wrong cost assumptions don't just affect procurement. They travel all the way into the quote, the margin, and the P&L.Then: the April 17, 2026 market read. A crude pullback on U.S.-Iran ceasefire news has created some noise, but polymer fundamentals are firmly up — PE tracking $0.15/lb, PP heading for its fourth consecutive monthly increase, PVC navigating Formosa force majeure, ABS staring at up to $0.27/lb in proposed increases, and PET dealing with a tight MEG market heading into beverage season.What you'll hear this episode: → The plastic processor deal autopsy story — and what it revealed about information asymmetry → Why "wrong input costs" is a sales problem, not just a procurement problem → Three things companies with strong cost position discipline do differently → The full April 17 market brief across eight commodity grades → How to think about crude volatility when polymer fundamentals don't followResinSmart is the buyer-side resin procurement intelligence platform powered by RTi — built on 5B+ lbs of verified buyer-seller transaction data. To see how your current cost position compares to the real market, visit resinsmart.ai.