Supplier relationship: Worse excuses

There are several myths about Purchasing that we sometimes repeat until we are convinced of them. Here is a non-exhaustive list of statements that, while not completely false, should still be handled with care.

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Do these conversations sound familiar to you?

Conversation #1

Your boss: Have you completed this report?
You: No, I've been too busy.

Conversation #2

Your internal customer: Do you have found a supplier components for my project?
You : No, I didn't have time.

Talk #3

Your colleague in the Purchasing Department: Did you take this negotiation course?
You: No, I am too busy.

If these conversations sound familiar, it's because you've used the buyer's worst excuse: “I'm too busy” or their close cousin “I don't have time.” You may say to yourself that these are valid excuses, but the problem is that it's more than your words that are communicated in these conversations.

How are they perceived

When you say “I'm too busy,” you may feel justified. But how does your interlocutor perceive it? If you think he's accepting these excuses, you're wrong. Instead, here is what he thinks:

Talk #1: “This employee is not as talented as I thought.”

Talk #2: “This buyer doesn't care about my work.”

Talk #3: “I thought he cared about his career, actually he didn't.”

Is that really the message you want to get across? Certainly not.

Let's face it: your workload is not going to ease. In fact, the opposite is true. In five years, you will look back and regret not having all the free time you had at the time to deal with your current problems.

So the solution is not to wait for the pace to slow down. The solution is to learn how to better handle today's demands: changing your mindset is really all you need to do.

Olivier Audino, CEO
Graduated from Grenoble School of Management.

Before founding Buy Made Easy, Olivier worked for 7 years in the Purchasing Department of General Electric, United Technologies and the SEB Group.

It is by sharing with operational staff and business leaders in France and Europe that the idea of offering a marketplace that is easy to use and exclusively dedicated to the expectations of professionals was born.