What are the basic quality requirements of buyers?

I have seen such a post on the Internet, describing all kinds of "touchstones" used by the general manager when recruiting employees. Its purpose is to test the professional ethics of employees beyond their professional skills, the first of which is the procurement staff.

Purchasing personnel are faced with various suppliers, and some suppliers will always try their best to lure purchasing personnel with money or other means to achieve their own sales goals. If the buyer can't control it, he may unconsciously fall into the trap of the supplier and can't dial it himself. In the face of all kinds of temptations from suppliers, procurement personnel should be honest and upright, so that "a gentleman loves money and has a good way to get it."

Let's remember this sentence: "We can fail in doing things, but we can't fail in being a man."

Among all the necessary qualities of purchasing personnel, moral quality ranks first. When communicating with the purchasing staff of various companies, I found that some purchasing staff who have done well in the industry have high moral quality and serious working attitude. This includes: always maintaining loyalty to the enterprise, purchasing from suppliers who provide the best value, and constantly striving to improve their own methods.

2, the total cost principle

Traditional procurement pays attention to the single lowest purchase price, while strategic procurement pays attention to "the lowest total cost". Strategic procurement fully balances the internal and external advantages of enterprises, aims at reducing the overall cost, covers the whole procurement process, and realizes the whole process management from demand description to payment.

An excellent purchase can't just emphasize the cost of goods. If the pen bought with 6 yuan is broken after two days, it is better to buy a pen that can last for several months with 60 yuan. The most important thing for buyers is to learn to pay attention to the total cost of buying behavior, not the single price of a commodity.

Cost optimization is often misunderstood by many enterprise managers as the lowest price, as long as the purchase price is low, and intangible capital such as use cost and management cost is rarely considered. The purchase decision is based on a single purchase price, such as buying a copier. If purchasing decision-makers ignore consumables such as electricity, transportation, maintenance, toner cartridges and paper, and only consider the price, the overall cost of purchasing is actually uncontrollable. Therefore, we must have the foresight to consider the overall cost, and we must analyze and evaluate the key cost links and other related long-term potential costs involved in the whole procurement process.

3. Negotiation skills

Negotiation is a process in which buyers and sellers reach an agreement for their own goals, which is also the most basic quality requirement that purchasing personnel should have.

Purchasing personnel should have practical observation and judgment ability, adaptability, psychological endurance, eloquence and so on. At the same time, we should also have firm perseverance, indomitable spirit and self-confidence that we will never give up until we reach our goal.

The bottom price of the other party, when to sign the contract and the authority of the negotiators are all very important information. Whoever holds the opponent's card wins the initiative in the negotiation. Any party in the negotiation wants to know the price, time and authority of the other party in advance, even if it is only one of them.

During the negotiation, we should listen to each other's opinions calmly and put forward different opinions diplomatically. If an issue becomes a stumbling block to continue negotiations with the other side, so that the negotiations can no longer be carried out smoothly, the meeting should be adjourned in time before the confrontation between the two sides, so as to avoid further deadlock and controversy.

4. Grasp the changing market.

Purchasing personnel must try their best to understand the market through various channels and ways, and can't sit still and be a frog in the well. After all, there are too many variables in the market. We should try our best to make use of all resources, master these resources and fully understand ourselves, so as to win every battle.

Understanding the market depends on the characteristics of the goods. For seasonal commodities, due to the rapid changes in supply and demand and prices, we should keep abreast of their changes. For goods with strong seasonality, it is necessary to understand the production cycle and master the best purchase period. For large quantities of conventional goods, special investigations should be conducted to select according to the quality, quantity and time of procurement. When purchasing goods from other places, we should also know the freight and transportation costs.

The purchase market is vast, and there are dozens of suppliers to choose from for a commodity. If the buyer lacks an understanding of the market and market conditions, he will be confused in front of thousands of suppliers who produce the same goods, leading to the failure of procurement.

5. Supplier management

Traditional supplier management aims at reducing procurement costs and obtaining economic benefits, so the relationship between enterprises and suppliers is price-driven. Modern supplier management is based on strategic cooperation. It aims at win-win procurement and pays attention to developing long-term strategic cooperation with suppliers. It is a new paradigm of procurement management under the new situation.

An excellent purchaser will take developing new suppliers as his annual routine. New customers will appear before each purchase, and there are at least 3-5 suppliers of main commodities and materials for comparison, and at least several more will be developed every year. This is to form a competitive situation among suppliers, ensure the quality of supply and reduce operating costs.

I have read the materials that most suppliers who deal with Wal-Mart love and hate Horma. What I love is that goods will sell well when they enter Wal-Mart, but what I hate is that Wal-Mart's purchasing staff know the cost of suppliers through advanced information systems, and the profit rate remains at a low level. Therefore, knowing the cost composition of suppliers can benefit from it, which is the main weapon of negotiation.

Establishing a good supply chain system is one of the core competitiveness of the company. The competition of modern enterprises is not a single competition, but a team competition, especially the competition between supply chains. Whoever has a closer and more effective supply chain and more developed production and marketing channels can take the initiative and advantage in the complex and changeable market. Therefore, we should broaden our horizons, not only within the company, but also in the whole society. We should realize that a good supply chain is an important part of our enterprise. Only by being kind to suppliers and cultivating them to grow with us can we better improve the core competitiveness of the company.

6. Centralized procurement management

It is a basic strategic procurement method to improve bargaining power and reduce unit procurement cost through centralized procurement. At present, although some enterprises have set up centralized procurement departments for centralized procurement planning and management, in order to reduce the differences of procurement projects, improve the standardization of procurement services and reduce the workload of later management. However, due to the limitation of purchasing quantity and types, the advantages of strategic purchasing are not obvious at the beginning of many enterprises, but it will become increasingly obvious in the process of the group's development to a higher level and on a larger scale.

On the one hand, centralized procurement can enable enterprises to obtain economies of scale and reduce procurement and logistics costs; On the other hand, open procurement and centralized decision-making can effectively prevent the occurrence of bad procurement behavior. In daily procurement, bulk and batch projects, high-value projects, regular procurement projects, etc. Are suitable for centralized procurement.

Although centralized procurement has many advantages, we can't ignore the advantages of decentralized procurement. Decentralized procurement can effectively improve and supplement the shortcomings of centralized procurement, such as small inventory space, simple procedures and short process, which is conducive to the coordination of procurement and inventory supply.

7. Establish a sense of innovation and progress.

It is impossible for a person without modern purchasing consciousness to undertake the task of purchasing innovation. Procurement innovation is not only to meet the changing market demand, but also an important way to improve the core competitiveness of enterprises.

In today's ever-changing external environment, procurement personnel should combine procurement innovation with the actual needs of enterprise development. On the one hand, we should break the inertia thinking mode and realize self-transcendence. At the same time, we should have innovative thinking, strive to break through the status quo, improve working methods and efficiency with new ideas or ideas at any time, and promote procurement with new systems and thinking.

8, unity and cooperation

A project from purchase, approval, procurement, acceptance, warehousing to payment, it is not a separate operation, but completed with the relevant personnel of the company. Procurement personnel must live in harmony with colleagues, cooperate with each other and support each other in order to better complete the procurement task. When there is a problem, don't blame, dare to take responsibility; When it comes to honor and personal interests, we should try to be humble to each other, help each other in the same boat and work together.