What Procurement Should Learn from M&S

我们很高兴西格·奥萨吉，采购和供应链管理的有效性专家将定期为我们写作。他帮助组织和个人实现了加强的绩效增长，以实现他们的业务和职业目标，是高度广为备受瞩目的书籍的作者采购魔咒——强化职能，提升形象.

I’ve always admired Marks & Spencer’s “Dine in for Two” TV advert. The savvy marketing inherent in the ad is nicely and smoothly underplayed by the benefits offered: a cosy, romantic dinner indoors with your loved one for a very reasonable £10.

Whether your loved one is a husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, cat, dog, or even an orang-utan, it’s an enticing notion to eat in and enjoy a romantic evening so cheaply, at a time when the aftershocks of the recession still reverberate in our wallets.

据我所知，在M&S电视广告首次发布时看到该广告的大多数普通人确实感到兴奋，如果不是因为饭菜的诱惑，那么肯定是因为其他感受到的乐趣。

Despite getting a 'bit of stick' later on over this ad campaign, M&S pulled off a real coup by launching it. They succeeded in exploiting two of the most critical and universal principles in productive human interactions – empathetic listening and persuasive communication.

玛莎百货听了之后明白，他们客户的财务状况在一定程度上已经被经济衰退耗尽。拥有一个精干的钱包几乎不可能在外面享受正常的膳食。玛莎百货利用这种同理心倾听和理解，通过有说服力地调整客户的信息，有效地与客户“联系”——他们成功地将亚里士多德的ethos,令人感伤的特质和标识,which I wrote about in a previous article.

In a nutshell, M&S’s core offering (as regards this ad) is really a ready meal and a bottle of wine. But they packaged the communication of that proposition persuasively, in a way that:

• 提供了良好的价值 - 与餐厅出去相比，10英镑的晚餐廉价，因此对带有精益钱包的人非常相关。
• Offers perceived benefits beyond the core product which appeals to the target audience, i.e., the idea of a romantic evening in with your loved one.

事实上，如果你们的关系已经失去了火花，或者你们都对生活感到厌倦，那么我怀疑玛莎百货可能不会有帮助。

尽管如此，这两点以及M&S方法中固有的基本原则对我们采购行业来说是至关重要的教训。他们复制了一个准则，我们必须将其纳入采购人员反复抱怨的最常见、最棘手的问题之一：利益相关者管理。

采购stakeholders are really ‘internal customers.’ (Everybody in the enterprise who uses externally sourced products or servicesisa customer of Procurement.) Like M&S customers, our stakeholders or internal customers are facing their own challenges in their organisational existence. Before we start trying to push the Procurement agenda or expend energy fighting for our right to a seat at the table, it’d be more effective to understand these folks and their worldviews first.

St. Francis of Assisi indicated the wisdom of this approach eons ago, and Stephen R. Covey reminded us more recently: “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”

如果你首先了解利益相关者的观点、驱动力和动机，你将更有能力制定采购议程以满足他们的需求，从而使采购对他们更有意义和相关性。

You will also be able to connect with individual stakeholders better on a personal level, and use your understanding to tailor the content, language and packaging of your communications.

同理心倾听和说服性沟通是建立融洽关系和赢得他人信任的重要条件。他们以一种最有效的方式培养利益相关者之间的关系。像这样的参与本质上会让你对个人产生积极的看法。当你成功地将这一点与帮助利益相关者应对挑战、实现更广泛的企业目标的采购议程结合起来时，你就会产生积极的职能认知。这在更广泛的组织中培育了“采购品牌”，并有助于在企业结构中定位采购。