A Cheat Sheet for Your Stakeholders

Archive | Upgrade to Premium | Sponsor

Hi readers,

2 new features for you before getting into the thick of it this week:

1. 📱 You can now read this newsletter on The Pure Procurement Newsletter mobile app 

   Just click “Read Online” at the top of this email. You should get a prompt to install the app. Supported on both Android and Apple.

2. 🎧 You can now listen to this newsletter instead of reading it! (Yes, you read that right…).

   
   Just click “Listen Online” at the top of this email. There will be a media player at the top of the post.

Just a few more ways to make consuming your favorite newsletter easier 😉

Let me know what you think.

Onwards!

📰 In this week’s edition:

• 5 procurement jobs that caught my eye

• A Procurement “Cheat Sheet” for your stakeholders

After reading, please rate today’s newsletter at the bottom of this email.

Reading your feedback is the highlight of my week.

ICYMI 👀: My best Linkedin post of the week:
If you work in Procurement, IT should be one of your biggest allies.

First time reading? Sign up here.

Note: Some of the content above is only available in the email version of this newsletter. Don’t miss out! Sign up for free to get the next edition.

🌙 Sunday Night Note

A Procurement “Cheat Sheet” for Your Stakeholders

Procurement is a fairly simple concept that’s easy to grasp but hard to master.

It’s easy to grasp because everyone makes purchases in their day-to-day life (“Procurement is just buying goods and services professionally…”).

BUT it’s also very hard to master because doing it well, at the organizational level, is extremely difficult (“Procurement is just buying goods and services professionally…”).

Buying goods and services for the business needs of 100, 1000 or 10,000 people is just a completely different ball game than you buying goods online from your home computer. It requires a very specific set of skills and activities.

As a procurement professional, you know this all too well… However, when you have the same “procurement 101” discussion with the same stakeholders over and over again… Things start to seem hopeless.

But how can you get stakeholders outside procurement to understand this? How can you get them to invest in your joint relationship (whether with time, effort or budget) to maximize business results? How can you develop their “procurement reflexes”?

There are certainly many answers to this question…

However, there is one foundational thing you can do that helps all other efforts: Define a common language around procurement with your stakeholders.

• A common language enables a shared understanding.

• A shared understanding enables constructive dialogue.

• Constructive dialogue leads to better outcomes.

A common language means shared terms, expressions and definitions.

A shared understanding means a framework that leverages these shared terms, expressions and definitions.

When you have this in place with stakeholders, your conversations get to the next level since you’ve given them a conceptual model to deal with you. You’ve given them explicit, clear and easy rules to get the most out of a relationship with you.

So how can you do this with your own stakeholders?

To get this in place, here’s a simple yet effective exercise:

1. Create a One-Pager that details all the key activities and terms in your procurement department. Model the relationships between the elements as best as possible without going into too much detail.

2. Define all the terms on a second page. Ideally, stick to industry standards as much as possible (don’t reinvent the wheel).

3. When an opportunity presents itself to onboard a new stakeholder (new project, frustrating situation, etc.), book a meeting with the objective of giving them the “cheat sheet” for interacting with procurement (What’s in if for them?!).

4. Depending on their learning style, you can either:

   • Start with a blank page / whiteboard and walk through the framework element by element with them in logical sequence

   • Talk through the full One-Pager, element by element.

5. Relate the definitions/framework to their situation/project. Where are they in the process? What are the next steps? Why do these steps exist? How will it generate more value for them than simply buying whatever they need right now?

6. Ask for a “playback” from the stakeholder. “Just to ensure I was clear, do you mind reiterating what you understood from our discussion?”

   • Confirm or correct as needed.

7. Send them on their way with the framework in their back pocket. You may need to reinforce the framework once or twice in the future but you’ve given them a tool to understand and effectively communicate with you (and you with them).

Pro tip: This will be even more powerful if your whole procurement team adopts the same model for their own discussions with stakeholders. Very quickly, procurement knowledge will disseminate through your business via different stakeholders.

Bonus: If you do this well, you can also start using this One-Pager with stakeholders external to your company. Whether it’s for software, outsourcing, staff augmentation or even just plain old hiring, a “one pager” of your function can be used to quickly bring someone up to speed on your reality.

You’re probably already educating stakeholders to some extent when working with them on projects. However, you’re probably only doing it verbally and not getting the most “bang for buck” from your interactions.

Having a visual artefact to support your conversations, and bringing it back out every single time you chat with them), completely changes the dynamic. Procurement maturity evolves much faster in businesses that use this approach.

So let’s jump start the process for you. 🦘

Get my draft One-Pager in PowerPoint. Make it your own according to your context. Define the terms according to your reality and your off to the races. 🏁

Use code 100OFFPOP at checkout to get 100% off the template.

Is this useful? Would you add or change anything?

Leave a comment with your thoughts below 👇

💭 Quote of the Week

1. Pure Procurement Premium — Get access to Deep Dive guides and templates to get your digital procurement initiatives right.

2. Apply to work with me — I’ve been helping global procurement teams digitalize their processes and practices for 12+ years.

3. Reach 9000+ Pure Procurement readers — You have something to share with digitally-minded procurement professionals?