Procurement Career Paths

Job Title: Vendor Manager

Location: [Insert location]

Reports to: [Insert name and title of supervisor]

Vendor managers are in charge of maintaining and managing vendor relationships. They create vendor standards, negotiate contracts, and find the best available vendor for the job.

Key Responsibilities: 

• Developing and sustaining long-term relationships with vendors approved by company standards.
• Meeting with suitable vendors to assess vendor products, inquire about their services, negotiate pricing, and communicate to them about any product-related concern.
• Conducting research on various vendors to determine which one suits the company best in terms of quality and pricing.
• Monitoring sales trends to determine which products are more popular than others.
• Implementing vendor selection programs to have a systemic way of securing the best vendors.
• Interviewing new vendors and continually and consistently monitoring current vendors with regard to their responsibilities and obligations.
• Establishing vendor standards to asses vendor performance and consistency.
• Evaluating current vendor management programs and looking for ways to improve them and make them more efficient.

KPIs for this role

• Compliance Rate: Tracking how often vendors meet contract requirements.
• Pricing and Competitiveness: How much your vendor charges for their products or services against company competitors.
• Vendor Discounts: How many discounts your organization has received from things like early payments, bulk orders, group orders, and goodwill gestures.
• Product/Service Defect Rate: Evaluate the quality of suppliers based on their defect rate.
• Order Accuracy: The accuracy of orders and the frequency of inaccuracies if there are any.
• Order Capacity: Rate at which demands are met against a total number of orders.
• Return on Investment (ROI): The success of vendor investment and its cost-saving effects.
• Customer Service: Evaluation of attitude towards vendors and managing vendor complaints or issues.
• Innovation: Additional vendor value due to additional effort on top of standard service or products.
• Risk Assessment: Seeing potential risks and avoiding or minimizing them.

Key Skills and Qualifications: 

• Bachelor’s degree in supply chain management, marketing, business administration, or a related field.
• Proven experience working in the field for at least a year or more.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office software.
• Strong negotiation, management, and decision-making skills.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and organizational skills.
• Effective written and verbal communication.

• Developing and sustaining long-term relationships with vendors approved by company standards.
• Meeting with suitable vendors to assess vendor products, inquire about their services, negotiate pricing, and communicate to them about any product-related concern.
• Conducting research on various vendors to determine which one suits the company best in terms of quality and pricing.
• Monitoring sales trends to determine which products are more popular than others.
• Implementing vendor selection programs to have a systemic way of securing the best vendors.
• Interviewing new vendors and continually and consistently monitoring current vendors with regard to their responsibilities and obligations.
• Establishing vendor standards to asses vendor performance and consistency.
• Evaluating current vendor management programs and looking for ways to improve them and make them more efficient.

• Excellent communication skills: Excellent written and verbal communication for dealing with workers, suppliers, and customers.
• Industry Awareness: A wide knowledge of the industry and current industry trends.
• People Skills: Emotional Intelligence to build strong relationships and understand and relate well to other people.
• Adaptability and Resourcefulness: Ability to adapt to any challenge and find solutions on the go.
• Efficient Negotiation Skills: Effective bargaining which optimizes long-term cost savings and builds beneficial vendor relationships.
• Networking: The ability to work through social situations by gathering connections that can be used to further advantage your company and keep your vendor options open and varied.
• Project Management: Ability to keep track of several projects and tasks and know how to manage them all efficiently by priority and with proper time management.
• Decisiveness: The ability to make well-thought-out decisions from little details to big decisions and can do so in high-pressure situations.

• Compliance Rate: Tracking how often vendors meet contract requirements.
• Pricing and Competitiveness: How much your vendor charges for their products or services against company competitors.
• Vendor Discounts: How many discounts your organization has received from things like early payments, bulk orders, group orders, and goodwill gestures.
• Product/Service Defect Rate: Evaluate the quality of suppliers based on their defect rate.
• Order Accuracy: The accuracy of orders and the frequency of inaccuracies if there are any.
• Order Capacity: Rate at which demands are met against a total number of orders.
• Return on Investment (ROI): The success of vendor investment and its cost-saving effects.
• Customer Service: Evaluation of attitude towards vendors and managing vendor complaints or issues.
• Innovation: Additional vendor value due to additional effort on top of standard service or products.
• Risk Assessment: Seeing potential risks and avoiding or minimizing them.