5 must-haves for successful procurement

Procurement professionals have historically taken on monikers that allude to their many responsibilities, like jack of all trades or Swiss Army knife. This is especially true for those standing up the function from scratch who are wearing a lot of hats, have their hands in many projects, and are quite entrepreneurial.

As someone who’s taken procurement at two companies from nothing to something—zero to one—here are five skills I think are nonnegotiable.

1. Communication

Tip: Don't start without having conversations.

Action: Spend a significant amount of time talking with stakeholders across the organization and try to cover all your bases: C-suite, departmental leaders, partners in the buying process, end users (remember, your colleagues are your customers). The biggest reason to do this is it gives you open lines of communication into every level of the business and across functions so that there are built-in channels to share and receive important information around buying. Maintain these to ensure messaging flows freely.

Lesson learned: I joined a company and never built a relationship with one key leader: our General Counsel. That then backfired when working with the general counsel’s team as a partner in the buying process. The team struggled with taking ownership and became a reflection of their boss, who did not see procurement as strategically important.

2. Data management

Tip: Know where data lives and start collecting and consolidating.

Action: As the saying goes: data, data, data. Three times, because it’s that important—particularly when it comes to company purchases. Think about the importance of having information related to all the vendors the business buys from and each attribute associated with them. It’s a lot—contracts, vendor details, contact information, business credentials, spend amount, risk documentation, SLAs, the list goes on. But for procurement professionals, this data is a gold mine and highly valuable for organizations of any size. Dig in and find out where data is or isn't, what systems it's in or not, and fill the gaps.

Lesson learned: I got burned pretty badly by relying on data sources from other functions. I remember being told that IT and finance had the spend and vendor information I was asking for and would send it over. I didn’t ask any more questions from there, though I should have. First, those teams took forever to send over the data since it was split across disparate systems and took way too long to aggregate. Second, what got sent over was, well, interesting—it was missing so many attributes. What makes good data different from great data is how accurate and comprehensive it is.

3. Tech literacy

Tip: Know your tech stack inside and out, because it’s critical to every company.

Action: If every company is now a technology company, it’s more important than ever to understand how systems will impact and influence your ability to do your job. As soon as you land, start surveying the tech stack for procurement and finance to understand what’s available, what’s missing, and how you can make it more robust. Consider, however, that robust shouldn’t translate to more complex. Technology should be simple to use for not just your function but the entire organization. Think about the entire end-to-end process and ensure you have coverage for the most important areas, especially as it relates to strategic goals for the company.

Lesson learned: I walked into a nonexistent procurement function for a private-equity backed, mid-market company looking to be acquired and didn’t explore the tech stack beyond the procure-to-pay (P2P) process. Big mistake, because what really slowed down our ability to deliver world-class procurement was related but distinct tools like orchestration, contract repository, and cards and expense management. We needed easier, more user-friendly tools that our colleagues were comfortable with and wanted to use. We also needed visibility into our vendors, spend, and partners such as legal and infosec. Thankfully, the company invested in modern tech and it made a world of difference.

4. Vendor management

Tip: Companies are an aggregate of the vendors they partner with.

Action: Just about any company would have a hard time existing if it didn’t partner with other businesses. They need laptops to do work, software to get work done, and services partners that help build or deliver what they’re bringing to market. Building genuine relationships with your vendors that don’t feel purely transactional should be a top priority for every procurement function. Knowing your partners and ensuring alignment on the outcomes of both businesses helps ensure each is invested in making the other successful. You know, win-win.

Lesson learned: I overlooked the importance of vendor relationships early in my career and got bit by it. Too focused on procedural requests and looking at day-to-day activities, I missed that one of our larger vendors had been acquired and had significant layoffs as a result. The service this vendor delivered to our company suffered, which trickled onto our team and then impacted our customers. We had to pivot to another partner, which was costly. Now, I always prioritize proactively maintaining relationships with vendors.

5. Strategic thinking

Tip: The fundamentals are very important, the long term even more.

Action: Strategy has many different definitions, but let’s keep it simple: Procurement strategy should align to larger company goals and ultimately help the business realize its mission and vision. Why? Because procurement is unique in that it works with every department to get the goods and services they need to do their jobs. As a result, your procurement strategy should focus on helping other departments meet their goals. And as part of that, you should be saving the company time and money. Spend under management is the mandate and that can take many forms. Align early and often, and build a world-class procurement function.

Lesson learned: I fell into the trap of relying on historical definitions of procurement strategy. Often that meant cost savings, which led to all kinds of friction like only considering monetary outcomes when working with internal and external stakeholders. It was a recipe for disaster because it didn’t take into consideration the bigger picture and ability for procurement to drive the entire organization forward. I once saw someone pass on a tool because the negotiated savings didn’t hit their goal, yet it would have generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in new business.

Procurement practitioners that deliver in these key areas are so valuable. They attract the attention of business leaders, make a real impact, and help drive innovation.

Find out how you can overcome common procurement challenges and invest in the right systems in our 2025 State of Procurement report. And for more insights on procurement, follow me on LinkedIn.