Blog

From insights come answers.

A series of articles from the Insider Pro team, in which we examine relevant topics and examples of current challenges that we see in our work with a huge range of organisations, across many sectors.

The importance of relationship building

Posted by Ollie Hucks

It’s no secret that speed is a fundamental characteristic of many successful businesses, be that fast food chains delivering food, or a service-based company delivering value and quick results through efficiencies or cost savings.  Speed is ultimately a result of delivering a product or service in an efficient and timely manner. 

Whilst there are almost endless things that can increase the speed of a business, this blog focuses on one of the key aspects that our team at Insider Pro takes time to commit to all of our customers, relationship building. By building strong relationships, we ultimately gain the trust of those individuals and this enables a far more successful and faster-paced working relationship.

A relationship is not formed with a company, but with those individuals who work for that company. All of these individuals have different personalities and ways of going about their work. Taking the time to understand how every individual operates is key to the success of a project. This could be as simple as understanding how best to communicate with an individual. Are they someone who prefers written communication to enable more time to digest the information? Or do they prefer a simple phone call or video call as a means to relay information? Tailoring your ways of working to deliver an optimal strategy for a customer, offers benefits to both parties.

Strong relationships with customers can be developed through the following key themes:

  • Clear Communication - Clear communication is vital for trust because it ensures customers understand what to expect, what our ways of working are, and any potential issues. When expectations are clear and met, trust naturally grows.

  • Shared Values - Having shared values creates a sense of alignment between us and our customers. This creates a foundation of mutual understanding and respect, which enables increased confidence in our decision-making and actions taken on our customers' behalf.

  • Shared Goals and Objectives - Mutual success is a common characteristic that enhances the relationship between Insider Pro and our customers. When both parties are working towards common goals, such as hitting specific milestones, this fosters collaboration and transparency.

  • Confidence to challenge each other constructively - The ability to challenge each other within a customer relationship is something that requires much consideration. Ensuring that the challenge is made in a way that is constructive and makes the customer feel empowered, is critical. Challenging a customer with accompanying data to support your challenge can prove particularly impactful. At Insider Pro we are sometimes met with an initial reluctance to change, but if challenged with data or evidence that clearly supports a change, this helps to empower our customers to act upon our proposals. This is always a two-way relationship, and having a customer that challenges our ways of thinking too, can enable a deeper dive into a specific area.

When the four themes discussed above are implemented within a structured framework, the results will speak for themselves. Great results are a product of great relationships, and our team at Insider Pro has experienced this first-hand!

Download 11 ways to reduce profit by 20%

 

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Topics: Disruptive Procurement, Procurement People, Procurement Consultancy, Our Team

Why (I Don't Hate Sunday Evening Anymore)

Posted by Jeremy Bowley
People change the world when they collaborate. It’s enormously fulfilling work. For most people this is just a pipe dream. They hate Sunday evening because Monday is just hours away, but it doesn’t have to be that way. And it starts with you.
 
 
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Topics: Disruptive Procurement, Procurement People, Procurement Consultancy, Enterprise Value

Hospitality suppliers - work with us to support carers

Posted by Jeremy Bowley

The majority of us are at home with our families, trying to work whilst keeping safe and entertaining the children.  There is rightfully much in the news about the NHS and essential key workers who are doing such important jobs. 

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Topics: Disruptive Procurement, Procurement People, Procurement Consultancy, Supply Chain Management

Top 5 considerations when hiring your next Procurement Consultant

Posted by Jeremy Bowley

Everyone knows that for a business or function to be successful they need to hire great people. Unfortunately, the vast majority of managers and executives will also know the pain and angst created from a bad hire. From having someone in the business who didn’t fit the culture, couldn’t deliver and/or negatively impacted on those around them.

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Topics: Disruptive Procurement, Procurement People

The 7 habits of highly successful procurement teams

Posted by Jeremy Bowley

Over the years, I have observed many different procurement teams across a range of industries.  Whilst most do a good job, only a handful do a GREAT job.  The team at Insider have spent some time researching this and would like to share with you our take on what those top performing procurement teams have in common.

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Topics: Disruptive Procurement, Procurement People

Disruptive procurement in action: manufacturing company

Posted by Jeremy Bowley

If your procurement team took steps to reduce the total cost of ownership for a piece of equipment, they’d probably deserve a pat on the back (at least!).

But what if they took a further step and looked at the function of that piece of equipment and determined a better way?

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Topics: Disruptive Procurement, Procurement People, Case Studies

Procurement team assessment - 7 questions

Posted by Jeremy Bowley

Procurement teams are generally assessed on their ability to meet budgets.  But if they hit their target every time, does that mean they are really good at their job, or that the spend target is too easy to achieve?

Should you be asking your procurement team to cut costs even more, or should their success be more closely aligned with company goals and driving shareholder value?

Clearly, when margins have been cut back several times there comes a point where simple cost cutting cannot be achieved.  As a consequence, the more astute procurement teams focus instead on ways to impact total cost of ownership, overall profitability, business competitiveness, risk reduction and other elements that drive enterprise value.

To test whether your team has made that leap and moved away from the traditional procurement role into the more dynamic, mission-critical role that your business needs, try this simple checklist:

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Topics: Procurement People, Best Practice, Procurement Consultancy

How to run a first class procurement consultancy practice

Posted by Phil Denson

Most consulting firms work like this:

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Topics: Procurement People, Procurement Consultancy

Disruptive procurement: 6 questions to help determine cultural fit with your suppliers

Posted by Jeremy Bowley

 

Cultural fit is something that is talked about and widely understood in the context of human resources.  According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) the impact of a poor cultural fit on turnover can cost an organisation between 50-60% of the person’s annual salary.

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Topics: Disruptive Procurement, Procurement People