Understanding the rationale and modus operandi of professional buyers

The job of the key-account seller is presumably well known to the public: If you ask a KAM what his job is, he will probably say unwaveringly«key-account sales» and expect to be readily understood. Even if the person to whom he is speaking does not necessarily grasp what the job entails, it sounds better than «salesperson».

The same cannot be said of the buyer: if you tell people you're a«buyer», most of the time you will have to explain and clarify what this strange activity covers. Doesn't everybody make purchasesroutinely? How can that be a real job? Or else it conjures up the idea of the caricature of a large-scale retail buyer.

Although the job of buyer has always existed in the retailing and manufacturing industries, it is nonetheless a new profession.
Until the beginning of the 90s, no such job was even acknowledged at many business schools. The first specialised training to be provided in France,the MAI in Bordeaux, emerged only at the end of the 80s.

In the 30 years of economic growth after World War II, companies grappled with the issue of determining their requirements properly, of finding local manufacturers, and getting the necessary parts. The selling price of the finished product was mostly determined by adding purchase prices and manufacturing costs. Purchase-cost reductions were not deemed a priority. As the years went by, the mutation of purchasing gathered speed.