Consulting

 Why many business units find procurement bothersome? Have you seen a procurement professional that their internal customers, and all stakeholders, not only enjoy working with, but also enthusiastically participate in any transformation or new strategy building/ implementation that professional suggests, even when they don’t have to; e.g. in non-mandated procurement environments?

Influencing internal customers is considered by many experts the backbone of the procurement function though it remains one of the most, if not the most ever, challenging components of a procurement role. A procurement professional finds him or herself, by the virtue of their job’s nature, required to influence internal customers in order to get things done, from daily operational activities to executing strategies and up to driving major transformations like centralization of the procurement function.

To be able to develop influential relationships with internal customers, a procurement professional should demonstrate empathy and technical competence.

An important quality in any customer service professional is empathy. By the same token, understanding what motivates people, what frustrates them, and what they care most about might be the most single powerful quality in a procurement top performer. Besides the power it gives one in negotiations with internal and external stakeholders, the influence any procurement professional with such a quality has on internal customers will be tremendous.

The below steps may help better understand internal customers, better understand the purpose of the procurement role, and how to act in a way that fulfills that purpose.

1. The procurement team is a customer support group. I, as a procurement professional, should keep in mind all the time that the reason I am there is to help my internal customers and my organization. I help my customers by 1) providing them with the expected services at a level that is satisfactory to my customers and my higher management, 2) making things easier by simplifying them for my internal customers, whether it be procurement policy, process, or terms, and even help them get their part of the work done at the beginning; and 3) helping achieve the organization’s goals that are relevant to my role; e.g. cost savings, process improvement.. etc.

2. Understand their needs. I should always try to understand what really matters to my internal customers, what makes their lives easier, what concerns them most. They have deadlines to meet, projects to complete and obligations to fulfill, and above all, they have careers to protect and grow and families to take care of, so inflexibility, delays, or indifference might have consequences on them professionally and/or personally.

3. Mindset. Changing my mindset is needed from the divisive to the integrative; from the ‘us’ vs ‘them’ to the ‘we’ spirit. Procurement people do not combat or compete with their internal customers; they all complement each other. This is a crucial step in improving the quality of our internal customer service because our beliefs are the key driver of our actions.

4. Credit. Coming across as an authority holder over my internal customers wouldn’t help. Instead, it implies lack of understanding of my role as a procurement professional. I would rather listen to them, ask for their suggestions to solve problems, learn from their expertise in their respective technical fields, and share credit with them for any achievements since I wouldn’t have been able to achieve anything without their collaboration.

5. Be genuine in empathy. Because if I am not, I wouldn’t be able to win people over, wouldn’t be able to build rapport and trust with them, and wouldn’t be able to be naturally caring and elegant with them.

Last but not least, the mindset and behavior go shoulder by shoulder with the technical competence. A procurement professional with a great personality cannot get the job done efficiently without having the technical skills required to do that job. The know-how enables me to add value to my internal customers (business units), gives me the confidence I need when interacting with all stakeholders; be it an internal customer, another type of internal stakeholders like finance or legal, a supplier, or a higher manager.