Marketing Mayhem: Embracing the Unseen Struggles of Procurement Partners

Firstly, let me acknowledge that not all marketers are fortunate to have a dedicated procurement contact. I’ve been in busy marketing teams where my Finance Business Partner doubled-up as my procurement support (shout out to Mike) or I’ve had to go-it-alone in the terrifying world of finding a new supplier, renegotiating a long-term contact – or worse, agency retainer.

So let me tell you that as a difficult stakeholder, despite being difficult, I am (and speaking on behalf of all difficult stakeholders) immensely grateful to have you (our Category Manager) by our side. And, I know it won’t always feel that way.

We’re difficult. Marketing Procurement is difficult. So I’d like to shine some light as to why we can be (unintentionally) a total nightmare to work with, and why sometimes, marketing as a category can be more complex:

We actually do know what we want…

Often, when planning our marketing strategies, writing our campaign plans and formulating our budgets, we do so with lots of expertise, care and attention. We use past experience, data, industry insights, even training. We know exactly what we need and want, I promise. However, we must convince others* in the business. *Others in this context refers to EVERYONE. And EVERYONE thinks they can do marketing. With that, our stakeholders become your stakeholders, and our plans start to lose form. Whilst it might seem like we have no clue what we’re doing, or what we need from you – please know that we did (once upon a time), and now we’re trying to sail that ship along that same course (because we know it’s the right way) against strong currents, high tides, and gale force winds…

My tip - get involved. Ask your Marketing counterpart who their main stakeholders are, and how they might impact the process. Add these people to the Procurement RACI, or at least set a gauge on how influential (or problematic) they might be.

We always need more budget…

Even with the increased adoption of zero-based budgeting, I’ve never found a fellow marketer who has enough budget to support all the activity they need to do, to deliver the business results they need. We’ve had to learn to be really resourceful, and we’re a little sensitive about that. So much so, we can be reluctant to change suppliers. We’re protective of every penny because we’ve been tasked to deliver better business results with less money time and time again. So cheap suppliers, or seemingly trusted suppliers (that might not be delivering great value) stay, because we can properly forecast how much they’ll cost us, with no surprises (and worse, how they can help us cut expensive corners).

My tip - If you can show us the way to a better ROI, explain why a new supplier or agreement could help us with our tight budget, we’ll be best friends for life.

We hate change…

This is not true at all actually. We love change. Most marketers that I’ve met love to try new things, we’re adaptable, dynamic and passionate about continuous improvement. The problem is, most of us work in under-resourced teams. We’re tasked to deliver results that are achieved with just the right amount of resource in a world where you must always do more. More activity, across more channels, more content. We’re tired (so tired). Throw in a lengthy procurement process, and we’re avoiding you like an invitation to yet another round-table event. We won’t think of you as a priority and that’s not personal. We may even ignore you from time to time (on purpose).

Top tip - break it up for us. Make it easy, in small digestible pieces, and we’ll be more engaged, and more likely to make the finish line.

Things will change…

Remember that carefully plotted map sailing through stormy seas? We’ll often be challenged with quick-turnaround, urgent activity, that we couldn’t have possibly foreseen by the C-Suite. We’re brand builders, who carefully study markets, segment our customers, consider our positioning and craft ou rproducts and promotions to perfectly execute good marketing. We’re short and long-termers. But inevitably unexpected trading or changes in the market dictate that we have to implement a rushed, immediate tactical activation, and that means what we agreed (probably with our suppliers) won’t always be what we do. If our suppliers are underperforming, the chances are, as a client, we’re not easy to work with. We miss deadlines, rush jobs, write vague briefs, and we expect our suppliers to keep up. And for that, we’re sorry.

Top tip – if something with our suppliers hasn’t gone well, don’t assume the supplier is at fault. Chances are, we could have been better.

The good news is that we need you. We want you to be involved in our strategy, so you know the course before the storm sets in. We know you can help us get a better deal, more from our suppliers, and introduce us to new suppliers who can transform the way we work, and the results we can deliver. So be there, we need you there with us – I promise.