Marketers are more likely to engage local suppliers during uncertain economic times, according to procurement consultants Positive Purchasing.
Dealing with an uncertain future, an article by the company’s director Mark Hubbard, predicts that economic uncertainty will continue, with implications for business and procurement professionals.
They will also need to focus on building relationships while making use of increasingly sophisticated IT systems.
Hubbard said, “We are going to have to become very good at managing relationships. In a world of risk and shortage, we need to be the preferred customer for our suppliers. Just as sales organisations spend time and effort managing their relationship base, we will have to do the same.
“With greater volatility in the consumer and producer power bases, we’re going to have to get smart at understanding the impacts of shortage and risk. We will need to tap into the approaches developed by economists to build models of our supply chains that can show us the impact and knock-on effects of changes and substitutions, right through to the profit levels and cost structures.”
Hubbard concludes that customers will increasingly recognise localisation as a real advantage and will expect more local content and choice.
For more demand generation news, take a look at the Demand Generation Knowledge Bank
