Calling procurement consultants, associates & trainers

If you're a business or procurement consultancy or procurement consultant or trainer this LinkedIn group might be for you so please read on......

 

Most consultancies have a database of associates to call upon. Yet I'm sure there are times when you need more people, or need to find someone with specific expertise, category or client experience or even someone who lives locally to your client. This group could be how you find potential new associates.

As an associate how do you find out about opportunities beyond your regular consultancies?

 

The concept behind this group is:

• Procurement associates get their LinkedIn profiles up to date and join the group
• Business and procurement consultancies join the group and when they have a need for a new associate they use advanced search on all members of this group. That should deliver a short list of potential associates.  

The idea formed at the end of a busy year for me travelling from Scotland to the Midlands and London. I wondered how many people were doing the journey in reverse and pondered if my life balance could be improved if I found at least some local work? As trains of thought go I then remembered conversations at conferences when I’ve heard “I didn’t know you specialised in that” “I could have done with your experience with my last client” “my clients don’t really like paying travelling costs so I’m looking for someone local”. And the rest as they say is history.

The success of the group will be determined by great associates joining, and consultancies hearing it's the place to go to have their requirements met. The more potential associates the better. It doesn’t matter whether you’re available now or not for another 6 months, or only have 2 days a week available the aim is to have a strong network of associates that consultancies can search on.

So do please join and then invite others to join and let’s together demonstrate the benefit of collaboration.

Alison Smith
The Purchasing Coach
Inspiring change inside and out

Are your suppliers afraid to say no?

A comment left on yesterday's blog and subsequent tweets lead to one tweet last night that said I 'wish the 'n' word was used more' by suppliers. This morning Christine Tacon was named as supermarket ombudsman and said in an interview on the BBC today that she had been brought in to address the climate of fear where suppliers were afraid to say no. 

There's only one answer to bullies and that's to say enough and no. To hold your ground and know that they only bully because they need a fix of belittling others. To know that their self worth is lower than yours - otherwise why else would they be bullying you.

Yet it's not as simple as that is it?

The fear of the reprisal or the outcome of saying no is often a bigger motivator than the fear of yet more bullying behaviour and the impact that has on the business or individuals health and self esteem. The perceived outcome that suppliers fear can take many forms:

• Losing turnover
• Not being able to pay the bills
• Losing their job or business
• Being responsible for redundancies
• Losing their own home and security 

Christine Tacon has only been brought in to stop the bullying (my term not hers) once a contract has been signed which for many I speak to is far too late. The bullying behaviour can start much much earlier.

Not every purchaser who asks for lower costs, however, is a bully even if the supplier says yes when they mean, and should be shouting a very loud, NO.

The solution as I see it involves:

• Businesses need to consider the metrics they use to determine success because from where I'm sitting they currently drive some very odd and counterproductive behaviours.
• Purchasers can't continue to use the excuse that they are only looking after themselves and therefore so should the supplier. 
• Purchasers need to understand that power brings responsibility and that responsibility doesn't stop at the office door it also includes our suppliers.
• Purchasers need to understand the financials of the businesses they wish to deal with and undertake cost analysis so they understand the impact of the targets they're asking for.
• Suppliers need to understand the same and share it with their customers. 
• Suppliers need to understand their resistance to saying no and deal with them because ultimately if the answer really is no they need to say it.

I would love to hear your examples of saying, or not saying, no to purchasers.

Alison Smith
The Purchasing Coach
Inspiring change inside and out in buyer and supplier relationships

Picture source and interesting blog on the 8 essential strategies for saying no: freelanceswitch.com via Alison on Pinterest

Low cost vs ethical pricing

Much of this week’s media, that I paid attention to anyway, shone the spot light on our own personal buying strategies for food:

• The British Family choosing to buy British all year
• Horse burger gate
• Heavy snow here in the UK forcing many to shop locally
• Statement that 30-50% of all the food produced in the world is wasted

When I shared my admiration for the British family in my blog and encouraged readers to shop local more often than just Christmas and when it snows, I was met with responses about the high cost of doing this.

I wondered about the difference between personal shopping and professional buying. I found it interesting that personally I’m hearing we’re after the lowest cost when within business we’re often berated for doing just that.

As purchasers in organisations our internal stakeholders often accuse us of only concentrating on getting the lowest cost and of not considering:

• what they really want
• the quality
• the service we get
• the additional costs for extras
• whole life costs
• long term sustainability
• and so on.

I’m surprised therefore that all these considerations are seemingly no longer relevant when buying food for ourselves. After all it’s the food that has the capacity to keep us all fit and healthy. With the wrong food having the potential to cause as much havoc personally as extra horse in their burger did for the share price and public perception of Tesco yesterday.

I wonder how much our low cost strategy is driving the likes of Tesco to ignore the list above and drive their suppliers for lower and lower prices.

Personally, since shopping more locally, I know I’ve got better value and my over all shopping bill is cheaper. Yes the mushrooms might be a few pence more expensive but:

• I only buy what I want and make my own (and don’t get enticed to buy those processed foods or bags of lettuce that will go off before I’ve eaten it all)
• I get to choose the quality of all the ingredients that go into what I eat (thus avoiding horse in my burgers unless I want it there)
• I get advice on how to cook certain ingredients or get the recipe for the soup
• I don’t buy all those extras that so often find their way into my trolley
• I don’t have the 40 mins round trip to drive to the supermarket
• I have more billable days available to earn an income due to improved health
• And I have a shop still open, because I frequent it the rest of the year, that I can pop into when it snows.

Having said that - you will still see me in the supermarket – this week’s discussions have simply made me question how often that should be. After all if I’ll say no to work because I don’t agree to the values of an organisation why do I seemingly ignore these same ‘ethics’ when buying my food or other household items! Crikey not buying from Amazon would be very very hard but should I do so and endorse their business practices just because it’s easier!

What’s your buying strategy for food? And would it stand up to the scrutiny of internal stakeholders in the business in which you work?

Alison Smith

The purchasing Coach

Inspiring change inside and out

Trolley picture source: edulang.com via Alison on Pinterest