7 Little Changes That’ll Make a Big Difference With Your Procurements
As a business owner, you need procurements to keep your business running and functioning. To do this, you need to work with different suppliers. In order to make profits, you will need to design a strategy to keep costs low and increase revenue.
Getting an effective procurement procedure is a continuous process. Efficient procurement processes are beneficial to the business’ objectives and marketing goals. In order to improve your procurement process, we have put together these 7 little changes that will make a big difference with your procurements.
Let’s dive in.
1. Invest in the right supply chain team
There are two ways to go about this. The first is hiring and investing in your own supply chain team. This method is expensive because of the time it takes to build the structure, team management and of course pay salary. However, the cheaper alternative to this is to choose a supply chain outsourcing partner. This way is cheaper than having an in-house supply chain team as it saves you the cost of salary, infrastructure and other costs that come with managing a team. The perk of choosing a proficient and effective supply chain partner is that all the workflow of your procurement is optimized and you can focus on important aspects of your business such as customer acquisition and retention, etc.
2. Learn the art of negotiation
Learning to negotiate will improve your procurement process in many ways. Working with different suppliers, you can negotiate and build reliable relationships. The back and forth with signing a contract can be very overwhelming but with proper negotiation skills, you can avoid the stress and have the contract signed as quickly as you need to.
3. Learn effective communication skills
Having clear, concise and listening skills can help you improve your procurement process as much as you need. Procurement process involves two or more parties and with effective communication skills, clear expectations can be set and everyone knows the roles expected of them to play.
4. Design a feedback system
Having a great feedback system is good for all businesses and the important role it plays in the procurement process is that it helps you learn about your mistakes and improve your products. You can establish feedback from your team, your customers and even your suppliers.
5. Create a procurement policy
Having a procurement policy will help you define your expectations and know when things are not going according to plan. These are a set of rules and standards designed to guide the procurement process. This can include clear requirements of the products, procurement monitoring documents etc. Having these tools and rules in place will make your procurement process not only efficient but also effective.
6. Empower your team
Educating your team and empowering them will also have a growth effect on your procurement process. Even if you are working with an outsourced procurement agent like Naiyuan Mart, your inhouse team still needs to be in sync to work with your suppliers and customers. The best way to achieve this result is to empower them with necessary training, with the right information and tools needed to carry out their task effectively.
7. Create a risk management system
Business is all about learning to manage risks. Sometimes, something can go wrong with your procurement process and it is best to prepare for any challenge that may come your way. You supplier may disappoint you for instance and it falls on you to activate plan B. Learning to manage risks effectively will help you identify risks, analyse them and create a plan to curb them in failure.
Conclusion
Now that you have learned how to improve your procurement process, implement what you have learned and continue to iterate for better business growth.
Naiyuan Mart is a first-class Transborder Supply Chain Management company created to bridge the gap between Chinese Suppliers and businesses around the globe.
With a presence in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Nigeria. We are poised to ensure all parts of your supply chain, from sourcing to final doorstep delivery is smooth, stressfree and profitable as possible.
Contact us here