How to be Successful as a Category Manager

Part 4: Best Practices for Managing a Category 

We’ve been talking about categories all week, if you find yourself in the category manager position or newly appointed, here are the best practices to set you up for success. 

1. Understand Spend & Supplier Landscape
   1. Analyze historical spend data 
   2. Map supplier markets and risk 
2. Build Relationships
   1. Engage internal stakeholders early
   2. Develop strong supplier partnerships
3. Leverage Technology
   1. Use Sourcing tools for visibility and compliance 
   2. Automate reporting and analytics 
4. Continuous Improvement 
   1. Monitor KPIs, cost savings, and supplier performance 
   2. Adapt strategies based on market trends. 

You should always align category goals with overall business objectives and BE VISIBLE. Document your ways of working if you don’t have a system, show what activity you are driving to your direct leaders, and build executive summaries to organization leads for your category every quarter to ensure you are getting visibility for all the great work you are doing! 

If you have not found your sourcing tools and you are still managing contracts, purchases, and activities in excel, try out SourceSight.io today! Showing mature ways of working is only going to give you more security in your position rather than the easily eliminated (and deleted) excel ways of working.