Are you struggling to improve the performance of your purchasing department? If you’re like most purchasing leaders, you know that you are capable of achieving remarkable results but there’s something that’s holding you back. Those bigger and better results that you are expected to achieve may never be fully realized. Why? One of the most likely reasons is that the skill levels possessed by your team limit your ability to achieve your goals. And that is not a problem that is going to go away on its own.
Let’s face it, you’re probably realizing that:
- Too much of your time is spent helping your team members with situations you desperately wish they could handle themselves. Are day-to-day tactical issues preventing you from addressing important strategic purchasing initiatives?
- Internal customers and other departments within the organization think that the purchasing department is unprofessional and provides poor service. Maybe you’re hearing your department referred to as “just a bunch of clerks” and that “buying for the company isn’t that hard—anyone could do it.”
- You’re seriously concerned with your team’s ability to handle new challenges in purchasing. There have been many changes in the purchasing field over the last few years and you can be assured there will be more changes in the future. Suppliers are getting smarter and the old-school purchasing tactics employed by most departments are simply no longer effective. Is your team going to be able to evolve with these new challenges?
You are probably feeling overwhelmed and frustrated—but rest assured that you’re not alone. Many purchasing leaders have been in your position. But the truth of the matter is purchasing departments can be successful and centers of excellence. They can be comprised of people who apply their skills to deliver measurable bottom line impact to the organization. They can be departments where the leader actually has the time to do what he or she is paid to do—lead. You, too, can have such a department!
What If Your Purchasing Department Was a Center of Excellence?
If you had a purchasing department capable of achieving world-class results, you’d most likely:
- Be recognized as the top-notch leader that you are
- Be less stressed and enjoy a better work-life balance
- Be rewarded with a pay raise or a promotion
Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Well, you too can achieve all of that and more.
Your Key to Success: The SPSM Certification
Developing a successful purchasing department is not nearly as difficult as you may think—the key is the SPSM Certification. The SPSM Certification is designed to empower purchasing professionals by improving specific skill areas so they can achieve measurable results for their employers. Many purchasing departments are made up of a mix of levels of experience and education. Regardless, every staff member in your purchasing department should and can be skilled enough to make significant contributions to your company’s bottom-line. With the SPSM Certification, everyone will finally be together “on the same page” in terms of both terminology and strategy because they’ve received the same consistent training. You’ll also find that morale improves because everyone feels that they are able to contribute to the success of the department using their new skills.
With the SPSM Certification credentials after their name, your team will experience a new-found respect from their internal customers and their suppliers. Think about how much more confidence, trust and respect is given to accountants who have earned their CPA than those without certification. Likewise, when a purchasing professional earns the SPSM Certification, it is an indication that the individual has met challenging third-party standards for attaining excellent results in the workplace. The SPSM Certification will show internal customers that a purchasing department is serious about improving its service to them. Finally, your team will earn the respect that they deserve.
Your staff will learn real-world skills and strategies that will help them perform better right away. The curriculum of the SPSM Certification doesn’t focus on memorizing theories and definitions—those chores do not translate into applicable skills. Rather, based on purchasing best practices that have been proven to achieve results, the SPSM Certification’s curriculum provides your team with the tools they need to handle the purchasing challenges of today and tomorrow with confidence. As a result, you’ll find that they can do their job more effectively, while achieving greater cost savings, reducing risk exposure and increasing their productivity. Finally, those goals that seemed unattainable will be well within the reach of your team and you will stand out as the top-notch leader that you know you are.
Training support doesn’t stop when certification is achieved. The SPSM Certification is the only purchasing certification available with a Lifetime Skills Retention Package. This package is designed to support a lifetime return of your training investment through skills-sharpening material and services that are provided at no additional charge.
As you can see, the SPSM Certification is a multi-faceted program designed to enable you and your team members to achieve outstanding results throughout your careers.
Gain your ROI
Enrolling your team members in the SPSM Certification program is an investment with measurable returns. Of course, you want to ensure that your staff’s training is beneficial to both the individuals and the organization, right? Well, the SPSM Certification was designed to be results-oriented, meaning your staff will have the ability to make a measureable bottom-line impact for your organization and you’ll be able to report a considerable ROI to upper management.
Consider the success of these organizations with SPSM-certified staff:
- A humanitarian organization that distributes medicines such as anti-malaria drugs to poverty-stricken areas of Africa recently reported that, by applying just one technique they learned while earning the SPSM Certification, they were able to save $200,000 on a $750,000 spend.
- A coal company similarly reported that they reduced a $70 million spend by $2 million after applying just one technique learned in the process of earning the SPSM Certification.
- A one-plus-billion-dollar-a-year furniture manufacturer doubled their annual cost savings from a half-a-million dollars per commodity manager to over a million dollars per commodity manager in the year after their team members earned the SPSM Certification. And they gave Next Level Purchasing credit for contributing to their success. Their sourcing director, who earned his SPSM Certification, was promoted to one of just five positions that report to the president of that company. He turned around and promoted one of his SPSM-certified direct reports to his former position.
Your purchasing department is entirely capable of achieving these kinds of results.
Now that you know what a purchasing department is capable of, can you think of any reasonable excuse why your team should not be certified? Contact Next Level Purchasing by email at [email protected] or by phone at (412) 294-1991 to inquire about a complimentary SPSM Certification Strategy Session that will help your team get started on the path to greater results.
