Conversations and Revelations With Amy

I have two favorite things I really love about being a Buyer.

 The first thing I really dig is solving problems. I like to come through on emergencies, find answers to questions that coworkers or management may have, or simply find better solutions to day to day processes. I guess it is a mild way of getting satisfaction or some kind of glory from providing the answer. I enjoy doing research and being creative with my resources. Any Buyer with experience knows what I am talking about.

The second thing I love is building strong relationships with the people I work with internally and externally. Let me tell you something, if you are a natural at creating rapport with people, this will make you very successful at anything you do. Or at least will give you a running start. You need to think of all the different groups of people in your company as customers and treat them accordingly. This will come back to you over and over. Always remember that you have internal customers and external customers.

If you can consider the other person’s needs or motivations and try to find an answer that wins for both of you, you will always have a person willing to work with you. In dealing with suppliers, I have made many friends who are willing to go the extra mile for me and my company. These kinds of relationships are priceless and rewarding.

I have known many personality types in my career on the supplier side and on the coworker side. I knew one buyer who was well thought of and was a great guy to his coworkers but he would always walk around with his phone headset on screaming at suppliers. In meetings he would tell us all to watch out for this supplier or that supplier because they were incompetent or unhelpful. He always seemed to be complaining about one of them. The funny thing was that these same suppliers would be ones that many of us really liked and many of us would call in a bind. Yes, suppliers want your business but no, they do not want to do anything more for the unreasonable buyer. Just as in any relationship, act with integrity and kindness and you will have people who want to do right by you. These people will also feel bad if they let you down and strive to not let it happen again.

So these two things I have mentioned, problem solving and rapport, go hand in hand in serving your company and customer. Your manager or contact at your customer will trust you. They will know that you have exhausted all efforts before saying something is not possible and also work with you when you need to seek alternate solutions together.