For many years, the role of the purchasing department was to buy at the lowest price and reduce costs, and even today the sector is still seen in this way. In fact, the department's goal was never just to cut costs, but to generate value and buy the best input at the lowest price. Although this view is distorted, price has always been the real cutting factor.
However, in many companies, the purchasing department is now viewed differently. It is more strategic and known as a value generator. This transition is due to a change in the way of dealing with suppliers and making acquisitions, helping to make the brand stronger.
To make the task “simpler”, some tips can be followed:
- Positive marketing
As an remember a brand quickly? Basically, the choice will be the one that makes the person feel good. These are brands that value the customer individually, offer value and, therefore, make these customers feel happier. These are brands that deliver greater confidence to the customer, who trusts them implicitly. Reputation is something as important for positive marketing as it is for attracting the buyer's attention. - Relationship
Customers should be able to communicate and interact with your brand easily. If they want to talk but can’t find a place to do so – or if they don’t get a response – this can damage your brand’s value. And there’s no need to reinvent the wheel; just provide channels for them to ask questions and make comments: phone, website, social media, chats, etc. - Quality
Quality is an important factor in customer loyalty. Therefore, it is necessary to identify sectors within the company that are not deliver consistently quality to the customer. Likewise, it is important to check whether the products meet customer requirements, and this can also be done with customer service. - Punctuality
The products or services offered by the company must be delivered within the promised deadlines. A customer who is served quickly is a happier customer. - Incident Handling
Identifying the brand’s strengths and weaknesses is essential to creating a continuous improvement strategy.
But how do you create a brand in shopping?
To have a strong brand you need to support interactions with stakeholders, employees and suppliers. The following steps facilitate this transformation:
- Feedback
Getting feedback on what people think about the brand is an effective way to find inefficient processes. - Define themes
After listening, several themes are proposed to create a problem statement. This statement should serve to let the company know what needs to be done to improve processes - Focus
To be successful, you need to focus on priority areas. Conduct a diagnosis of technology, personnel, culture, etc, helps to define the best path for the actions to be taken sockets - Call to action
By analyzing the feedback, the problem, and the focus, the team now has the information they need to create an action plan. This will be the company slogan, which should be mentioned frequently. It is usually short, memorable, and has an associated action word, something like “Make shopping easier.” Ideally, it should be a word that is already used within the company and that is linked to other words. strategies
At the end of the process, the purchasing brand defines what the company wants to be known for and what value is being added to the company.
The COSTDRIVERS platform offers specialized support to interconnect information between the purchasing, controlling and sales areas. Contact Us and learn how to increase your competitive advantages over your competitors.
