Upskilling the Indirect Purchasing Team
Manufacturing purchasing teams need to know a lot. What other business function requires mastery of both commercial aspects like contract management and supplier negotiations, technical aspects like cost engineering and category expertise, and business skills ranging from data analytics to writing? Some people refer to their first procurement assignment as a mini-MBA.
This need for a wide knowledge base extends to the indirect purchasing team – sometimes even more so – as there tends to be less category specialization on the indirect side. An indirect buyer might find themselves researching travel vendors, addressing price increases from their MRO suppliers, and interviewing stakeholders about a new capital equipment project, all in the same week (or even the same day). They need to draw on a wide range of skills while developing market knowledge for a variety of categories.
Here’s what we’ve identified as the key purchasing tools an indirect purchasing team needs to be effective:
- Contract Review & Negotiation Terms
- Understanding Stakeholder Needs
- Conduct Strategic Sourcing Event
- Category Objectives & KPIs
- Influencing Stakeholders
- Statement of Work (SOW)
- Supplier Risk Evaluation
- Cost Management Tools
- Communication Skills
- Supplier Evaluation
- Segmenting Spend
- Prioritize Workload
- Using AI
These make up most of the live sessions in APD’s Indirect Purchasing Certification course.
For example, on the topic of understanding stakeholder needs, an indirect buyer needs the skills to:
- Identify stakeholders for a category
- Create an interview guide
- Conduct stakeholder interviews
- Translate stakeholder needs into a Statement of Work
On the category knowledge side, here’s what we’ve identified as the most important categories for indirect purchasing teams to know. Some are taught in the live sessions, but most are available as on-demand modules for buyers who have responsibility for the specific category:
- Corrugated Packaging
- Corporate Services
- Freight & Logistics
- Capital Equipment
- Capital Projects
- Energy
- MRO
The demands on indirect purchasing teams are as diverse as the categories they manage. From mastering core tools like segmenting spend and conducting a strategic sourcing event to developing expertise across a wide range of categories, the role requires a unique combination of technical, commercial, and interpersonal skills.
By equipping buyers with the right training and resources, organizations can ensure their teams are prepared to deliver value, manage complexity, and drive results in today’s challenging procurement landscape.
Interested in more blogs, on-demand webinars, and more resources on Indirect Purchasing?
We will take our training insights beyond indirect purchasing on the upcoming webinar “Developing the Procurement Team for 2025”