As supply chains become increasingly complex, the scope and role of the procurement function are growing within businesses. To meet all these challenges, they need more time, resources, and skills. This is why it can be relevant to seek help from a consulting and strategy firm specialising in procurement. However, choosing a procurement consultant suited to your company's context and work philosophy is not straightforward. It's important to ask the right questions to inform your decision before signing any contract with your future procurement consultant.

The right procurement consultant has experience with your challenges

There's no shortage of challenges for the procurement function. Well beyond price negotiation and supplier management, procurement managers and buyers are now expected to perform in multiple areas: cost optimisation, digital transition, value creation, sustainability, reduction of scope 3 emissions...

Generally, a procurement consultant has built their professional legitimacy around experience focused on only part of the procurement function's challenges, such as CSR, financial performance or digital transformation. Obviously, unless you believe that a fresh perspective can bring additional innovation, it's better to choose a senior procurement consultant who has recently faced the challenges that are yours, who has accumulated several years of experience and who has a solid knowledge of your sector of activity. You can ask your procurement consultant about their previous assignments, or even request references. Of course, keep in mind that their salary will depend on their experience and the sector, ranging from €35,000 (around £29,500) gross per year up to €60,000 (around £50,500) gross per year.

The ideal procurement consultant adapts to your specifics

Experience is not the only key to evaluating the opportunity of a partnership with a procurement consultant. The philosophy of the potential partner is at least as important. In particular, the humility that consists, as the procurement specialist, in taking into account what already exists before considering any action is a quality about which you must be vigilant.

The first indication you'll have in this direction during your strategic sourcing is in the engagement letter, in which the procurement consultancy will have transcribed the starting situation and the problem of your company. You'll see what they have really understood from your specifications. Once the firm is selected, it's important to ensure a successful adaptation, thanks to a well-orchestrated immersion of the procurement consultant.

It's crucial that the procurement consultant understands the reality of your company, your vision, your culture, your CSR sensitivity... They should not apply a reference model to your company, but rather adapt their approach according to your specificities, even if it's done informally. For example, a rationalisation project implemented without considering the quality of the relational network that one maintains with one's suppliers can result in failure.

The sustainable procurement consultant engages in a co-construction approach

In a way, a consultant is a service provider like any other. Thus, the strength of your relationship plays a role in the success of your collaboration. Favour a procurement consultant who listens to you and involves you in their thinking. Unless the mission requires a turnkey type of expertise, you hold part of the answer due to your field practice.

This can actually start from the definition of your needs. Christian Eid, procurement performance expert at the ISP&P consultancy, explains: "It's very important to launch a deep reflection on needs and constraints while remaining open: even if we think we know what expertise we need and consequently the solution that needs to be implemented, there are probably other scenarios we haven't thought of. In addition to testing them, this allows us to integrate all contextual elements into our thinking, to open up to different market solutions, to think outside the box."

When the project starts, it's also important to co-construct a personalised support plan with the procurement consultant. Then, you'll need to ensure that the different parties remain aligned in the long term. This is why it's important to promote clear and transparent communication, but also to set up regular exchange and control points. As you've understood, the relationship with the procurement manager as well as each buyer concerned is key in this approach.

The effective procurement consultant speaks simply and clearly

The recruitment of your procurement consultant should also take into account their communication skills. Whatever the mission you plan to outsource to a procurement consultant, it's likely that the project will lead them to meet diverse and varied profiles during its execution. The procurement function has long collaborated with other functions of the company.

This is why a procurement consultant must be sufficiently concrete and accessible to understand all the professions with which you or your team are in relation; and, of course, be understood by them. This is what will allow them to correctly apprehend your company's needs, but also to provide clear and relevant advice and recommendations. This dynamic necessarily involves accessible vocabulary, a pedagogical approach and active listening.

The forward-thinking procurement consultant makes you autonomous

By nature, any procurement consulting mission has an end date. In any case, your procurement consultant cannot leave you helpless when this moment arrives. In other words, you should not be dependent on this collaboration. This implies that the procurement consultant strives to explain, or even transmit, their knowledge throughout their mission.

The ultimate key to choosing your future partner, like those in force in any selection of service providers, is openness and sharing of methodology. It's prudent to retain an approach mastered by a large number of operators, likely to intervene in substitution, rather than letting yourself be locked into an approach of which only a small number of experts hold the know-how.

In conclusion, there are as many potential procurement consultants as there are projects. The whole challenge is to choose the procurement consultant adapted to the contours of the mission you plan to entrust, the one with whom you have the best chances of success, in complete serenity. It's by correctly exploiting this resource that you'll be able to make informed decisions, improve your overall efficiency and thus obtain an undeniable competitive advantage in the market.