A procurement manager is an individual who leads and manages a procurement team that is responsible for procuring goods and services for a company.
With the above description, the question now is: what essential competences do you need as a procurement manager in order to execute successfully?
The answer is the essence of this post. So, read on!
13 Essential Skills of an Effective Procurement Manager
Below are the 13 essential skills of an effective procurement manager:
1. Interpersonal Skills
These are the life skill that is used every day to communicate and interact with other people, both individually and in groups.
As a procurement manager, developing strong interpersonal skills will not only make you more successful in both your professional and personal live, it will also enable you communicate effectively to your team and other stakeholders in the procurement process.
2. Negotiation Skills
As a buyer, you need to interact with suppliers for various deals. The success or failure of the deal depends on how effectively you are able to negotiate with your suppliers. Negotiation is a process in which you and your supplier with conflicting requirements reach an agreement of mutual interest.
The objective of the negotiation process is to ensure the supply of five rights: right product or service at the right price, right time, right location and right quantity. You will have to balance these rights.
3. Result Focus
This is is a term used to describe an individual or organization that focuses on outcome rather than process used to produce a product or deliver a service.
Meaning, as a project procurement manager, being result focused will enable you to see the end in your mind. And seeing the end in mind will also enable you become much more focused on the actions that will yield the desired outcome – a successful procurement.
4. Financial Acumen
As procurement manager, having the ability to make smart decisions with an overall understanding of the financial factors and the outcomes of those decisions is what financial acumen means.
As a project procurement manager, having financial acuity will help you understand and negotiate for the right cost that meets the forecasted budget.
5. Cost Management Skills
As a project procurement manager, developing cost management skills enables you to evaluate, optimize, and control all aspects of cost of the procurement project. That is, it enables you monitor all costs and ensure that they remain aligned with the forecasted budget for the project procurement.
6. Contract Management Skills
Managing contract creation, execution and analysis to maximize operational and financial performance in your organization, while reducing financial risk depend on having sound contract management skills.
Developing contract management skills will enable you to carry out effective project procurement contract that ensures better supplier and vendor relationship but also, effectively, enforces compliance and mitigates risk.
7. Category Management Skills
This is the practice of segmenting the main areas of organisational spend on bought-in goods and services into discrete groups of products and services according to the function of those goods or services and, most importantly, to mirror how individual marketplaces are organised.
Developing this skill as a project procurement manager, will enable you ensure that the proper sourcing strategies are used to identify the suppliers that offer the highest value.
8. Strategic Sourcing Skills
This involves identifying the optimal mix of goods and services that best support the enterprise’s project procurement objectives.
Having this skill as a project procurement manager enables you analyze high-volume purchases and develop long-term partnerships with a selected group of suppliers that are capable of providing quality products and services at low costs.
9. Project Management
As a project procurement manager, developing this skill is mandatory. Why? Because, it enables you to apply the knowledge, skills and techniques to execute projects effectively and efficiently. And as a strategic competency, it will also enable you to tie procurement results to your organization business goals.
10. Technological Skills
To drive value, efficiency and effectiveness of project procurement while making tasks manageable requires technological skills.
Developing technological skills as a project procurement manager enables you to manage, monitor and maintain project procurement tasks using technological devices and procurement software-as-a-service.
11. Analytical Skills
To solve both complex and uncomplicated problems by making decisions that are sensible given the available information is made with the capability of analytical skills.
Having such skill as a project procurement manager, helps you to make the most well-informed and correct decisions by gathering information, articulating and solving complex problems that may hinder a successful procurement.
12. Presentation Skills
Being able to present yourself in a clear, confident, and professional manner to those above, below, and beside you in order to gain influence or buy-in depends on presentation skills.
As a project procurement manager, having presentation skills boil down to credibility, which will allow you to influence and allow you and your team to get buy-in and navigate inter-departmental collaboration that brings about a successful procurement projects.
13. Risk Management Skills
This is the ability to implement strategies that manages both every day and exceptional risks of procurement projects based on continuous risk assessments.
As a project procurement manager, having this capability will enable you implement strategies that manages every day risks with the objective of reducing vulnerability and ensuring a successful procurement project.
Conclusion
Project procurement, like any function, has to run or support many different kinds of projects. To do well, you have to be able to execute well, you have to be able to engage with stakeholders and suppliers, and you have to consistently hit your mark.
Collectively, this means planning and executing project procurements that run on time and budget and deliver results. And these essential qualities of an effective project procurement manager will enable you become capable in executing well in this role.
So, what other essential skills of an effective project procurement manager do you know?
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