Like all professions, Purchasing is filled with as many personalities as there are people. That being said, there are certain personality traits that will serve Buyers well in a variety of situations that may arise.
I categorized this blog entry strictly in the Opinion & Personal Experiences columns because someone else may make a strong argument for different prevailing traits. In any case, it's the results that count and I have detailed the traits that I think belong to the people who achieve the best results in this business.
Here are the top three traits in no particular order:
Self-confidence: Purchasing is not an occupation for the wishy-washy type of person. For one thing, you spend a lot of time with salespeople, who as a rule, are taught to be aggressive and assertive. Buyers may represent huge corporations and negotiate multi-year and multi-million dollar contracts with representatives of other huge corporations. If Buyers don't believe they can handle this type of responsibility, nobody else will believe that either and they won't last long in the profession.
See Part 2 for more traits.
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