Navigating Procurement-Navigating-procurement

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Video Summary

The speaker, Jonas, is a former procurement leader turned consultant who helps sales teams understand how procurement thinks. He surveyed 15 former procurement colleagues across industries and countries to ask how COVID-19 would change priorities, sourcing, and procurement power.<br /><br />His main conclusions: procurement is becoming less focused on price alone and more focused on delivery, supply continuity, and resilience. In many industries, especially those hit by supply disruptions, buyers are more concerned about whether suppliers can actually deliver than whether they are cheapest. Payment terms are also under pressure, with many customers asking for extensions.<br /><br />He says companies are already changing sourcing strategies, moving toward local sourcing, reshoring, and dual sourcing to reduce risk. Procurement also gains influence during crises, but the real decision-making power usually still sits with the line of business, not procurement itself.<br /><br />For salespeople, his advice is to be a trusted advisor: understand each customer’s needs, support them with useful ideas, and be firm when needed rather than endlessly cutting prices. He stresses that quality and delivery come before cost, and that sellers should help customers solve immediate problems, especially by offering ideas that can create quick savings or supply security. He also urges procurement teams to give better feedback to suppliers.

Keywords

procurement

supply continuity

resilience

local sourcing

dual sourcing

payment terms

trusted advisor