Posted 5th Aug
Is Procurement really about de-programming Kindness? (What
can sales teach procurement?)
On his first day as a procurement team member, a sales professional in a previous life, was heard to say:
“I’m going to have to de programme my kindness”
As someone who has written about kindness
in procurement, and others’ perceptions of procurement
as wolves my interest was piqued.
Not least because, I believe it’s the stereotypical beliefs
and roles we have about what procurement is that gets in the way of us truly
providing value to our organisations.
Sandro Magrini has recently joined the FP team, and was
sharing the positive impact having some sales professionals join his
procurement team had.
After being assured that bringing all their experiences to
their new role was encouraged, and not to leave kindness at the door, here’s the
key insights they reinforced from their time with procurement:
Procurement is about selling
·
Selling the procurement, category management and
supplier management processes to the organisation
·
Selling the procurement team to the organisation
·
Selling ourselves as individuals to our
stakeholders
·
Selling category, sourcing or relationship
strategies to internal stakeholders
·
Selling the organisation to suppliers
Which means selling is a key procurement competency, and
should be developed, and certainly not ignored.
In category management workshops I certainly hear a lot of
‘us/them’ and ‘telling’ going on with very little selling. Sandro also observed
that sometimes it feels like procurement has to go the other way and ask for
permission rather than assume it has a right to be involved. It’s a tight rope
of walking the continuum of assertiveness from competing to collaboration.
Selling involves
·
Linking facts and data to motivations
·
Selling the story – whether of how procurement
can add value, or why the organisation should be the supplier’s preferred
customer.
·
Consistency of message – having one script
writer and ensuring everyone understands the script.
·
Understanding our competition – and what
objections are you trying to address.
Selling Procurement is improved when:
·
We step
into their shoes, and understand our internal stakeholders.
·
We step into the shoes of the end customer – ie
how can procurement sell the needs of end customers to support procurement strategies
(particularly useful for R&D, design/make/buy decisions, and when exploring
where to build up the specification and where it doesn’t matter so much).
·
We conduct and learn from end of project reviews
– it’s no use just having them written into the process if they never get done!
·
We actively learn from each other – monthly
benchmarking and sharing of experiences. (sales teams are often incentivised to
reuse customer proposals, and yet it can seem as if procurement start over and
over time and again)
Selling our organisation is improved when
·
We stop being the ‘grumpy’ stereotypical
tactical buyer.
·
We speak to our sales teams and ask them how
they sell our organisation to customers – not just selling the portfolio of
goods and services, but also the company and its vision.
Category Management , Procurement Leadership , Procurement Transformation
by
Alison Smith