Importance of Relationship management for buyers
December 2009
According to the new president of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS), buyers of services should focus on the art of persuasion while making relationship building the single most important element of their work.
In an interview for Supply Management Shirley Cooper, procurement and supply chain services director at Computacenter talked about the importance of the relationship management that is at the core of what all buyers should be doing,
“Furnish yourself with the softer skills that will gain you leverage and buy-in, and don’t put things off until tomorrow, take action right now,” she said.
“Leadership is about the three “Rs” - reputation, relationships and right now” says Cooper. “It is core to everything I do and everything that everybody should be doing,” she said. “There’s nothing fluffy about relationship management. It can be the difference between strategic success and failure. The ability to engage and persuade others is vital.”
An accountant by training, Shirley Cooper, said that relationship management is a key element of her year-long presidency which started November 1.
To see why their good ones succeed and where their poor ones can be improved, buyers should do what amounts to an audit of their relationships.
Cooper has also cautioned against damaging relationships through the use of social networking sites by saying, “It takes years to build a good reputation, minutes to ruin it.”
Michelle Williams from Artemis Solutions Group who specialise in recruiting for the Facilities Management sector comments “Relationship management for any organisation is the key factor of their success and it should be a priority from the very beginning of a company’s formation”.
