Top 10 Winning Skills for Procurement Professionals:
Strategic Management
Industrial companies manufacture and deliver products specific to their target markets. Strategic Management postulates in-depth knowledge of such market and offers insights to companies before they undertake production. Procurement professionals with this skill can advise organizations on market size, projected growth, competition, and industry profitability.
Category Management
The purpose of Category Management is to organize categories. As an independent business unit, category management focuses on producing business results in line with customer expectation. When talking about expectation, it is incumbent on procurement professionals to understand what customers want, where they want it, and when they want it.
Project Management
The skill of Project management is invaluable for not only procurement professionals but professionals in any industry. It is basically about initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the assignment of the designated team. This skill focuses on achieving specified goals within a specified time.
Relationship Management
Relationship Management is a strategic skill required in procurement professionals to maintain an ongoing relationship with an organization’s customers. Whether it is B2B or B2C, an expert relationship manager fulfills customer expectation and builds loyalty.
Negotiation Skills
Good negotiation skill is an indispensable trait for a successful professional. It is also integral to relationship management; day-to-day formal and informal interactions, and for deal negotiation with savings and strategic advancement in mind.
Financial Acumen
Businesses thrive on their financial standing. You can have every management skill, but if you are not keen on financial evaluation, you may fail the interview. Financial aptitude is an orientation. Based on that, an interviewer might judge your skills on metrics and reports and how you’ll strategize a fair business road-map.
Analytical Skills
In our everyday life, we are stuck many times in finding solutions to common problems. Life won’t penalize you hard, but failing this skill as a procurement professional, you’ll land up clueless. Do take time to culture this analytical trait in your everyday transactions. A subject matter expert with analytical skills always has the edge over the others.
Technology Aptitude
Talk about technology, and there are a plethora of new-age solutions that are simplifying business, mainly the procurement function. Understanding of digital technology comprising Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Big Data, Cryptocurrency, etc., is essential. Modern procurement involves hands-on-experience of all the above-mentioned technologies.
Result Oriented
We all have our standards of excellence. But for procurement professionals, it is imperative that they benchmark against industry standards. The ability and drive to achieve and surpass targets against the norm, hike your strategic positioning to a captain’s role.
Professionalism
If you lack professionalism, your competency doesn’t matter. To ascertain professionalism at the workplace, you have to build the wall (pun intended). The way every cell in our body has a lining; we need such cell-lining at our workplace to avoid conflict. It is wise to limit oneself to strictly business for more productivity.
Conclusion
We can assure that procurement is expanding. It is the time when professionals enthusiastic to take on complex supply chain disruptions, should wait no more. To make your mark in the industry, start working on the above management competencies.
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