Stakeholder Spotlight: From Resistant to Rockstar

Want to turn skeptical stakeholders into your biggest fans? Join procurement powerhouse Natasha, innovator Conrad, and expert Zach as they share real stories and strategies for breaking down business barriers and building trust. Learn how to move from being procurement’s opening act to the company’s headliner. Whether you’re struggling with resistant departments or aiming for C-Suite influence, this episode hits all the right notes.

70+ years of procurement wisdom packed into one high-energy session. Rock on!

Watch now or read the transcript below.

Transcript: Proc-N-Roll 08 | Stakeholder Spotlight: From Resistant to Rockstar

Zachary | Hello everyone, welcome to Proc and Roll, your guide to practical procurement, where we make procurement rock and roll. Welcome to episode four. We’ve got Natasha, our pro CPO, Conrad, the innovator, and myself, Zach, your expert on procurement. We join you with almost 70 years of practical procurement experience.

Last episode, we talked about the importance of feedback. Today’s topic is all about stakeholder management. Stakeholders matter – do you have the right stakeholder management talent within your team and the right capabilities?

So if the goal is to enable business success, Natasha, the right stakeholders are key. Do you agree with that?

Natasha | Absolutely. It is key because one of the most visible and measurable procurement metrics is delivered value and spend under management. This means how much spend can procurement influence by bringing subject matter expertise, best practices, and industry-leading trends into the organization by introducing the right service providers and service levels.

If you excite stakeholders, procurement professionals will be allowed to influence that spend. You’ll generate value through savings, transparency, increased speed to market, or reducing risk. The relationships between procurement and stakeholders are critical.

Zach | If you want to get stakeholders excited and working with you, you need to know your stuff – your category, your market, bring real insight and operate at their level. Is that where we start with stakeholder management? Conrad?

Conrad |  I see procurement people often obsessed with their own priorities rather than looking beyond to what the business needs. If the goal is to enable business success, you’ve got to get out of your office and into their business. That’s when you take procurement from being a processing function to being a partnering function.

There are categories where it’s impossible to be at their level, like deep technical engineering. Many organizations struggle to include procurement in HR benefit selection. They have consultants who handle that – usually Marsh or AAM. Procurement gets boxed out because it’s technical and detailed, but we can still bring unique perspectives.

Natasha |  We succeeded with benefits in one company. We had a category lead who was determined to learn it, and we had solid relationships with HR from other projects like recruiting and training. We started by asking to review one provider’s contract. While third parties bring expertise and industry connections, nobody negotiates better for us than ourselves.

We identified gaps in their 12-year-old contract and built a solid proposal. We didn’t replace the third party initially – we split responsibilities. It was a successful partnership.

Conrad | You got into this category that many don’t through small successes, participating, building relationships – not pushing policy but bringing value and suggestions.

Natasha | As a senior director managing billions in spend, I had a responsibility to look at major contracts. That’s hard to argue against. With a 12-year-old agreement, you can be sure the business has changed and the approach should too. Start slow, win big, focus on relationships. Don’t be territorial – find ways to bring value.

Zach |  What are the easiest levers to bring value when approaching stakeholders you don’t have relationships with?

Conrad |  It seems situational. Am I here to help you, or are you here to help me? That’s the key question. Come in asking about their priorities, goals, and where procurement can help.

At Adobe, we had a team member act as an IT project manager for laptop inventory management because they needed that support. That isn’t typical procurement, but it opened up the relationship.

Zach | Other functions aren’t expected to put on different hats, but we’re encouraging procurement to do this. Is that the right approach?

Conrad | It’s not about manipulating stakeholders – it’s about helping them succeed. A byproduct is building great relationships and bringing value to the business. This leads to them wanting procurement involved in other areas.

Natasha | The phrase “that’s not my job” isn’t beneficial. Make it yours, make it fun. Build additional skills, get to know more people, strengthen your resume with stories. Who wins most? The procurement professional who built better relationships and experiences.

Zach | What about resistant stakeholders?

Natasha |  For resistant categories like marketing, start with newsletters sharing market intelligence – acquisitions, trends, transparency. Show you’re analytical and knowledgeable without requiring RFPs for everything. Another approach is showing them data about their supplier base – like having 4,000 suppliers when only 10 generate 80% of work.

Conrad |  If you’re working low enough that stakeholders know all their suppliers, you’re not working high enough. At the C-suite level, they’re shocked by the data you bring.

Zach | For procurement leaders building this capability in teams, does procurement focus enough on stakeholder management skills?

Natasha | Remember procurement is a support function – not the centerpiece. Our goals must align with company objectives. Whether it’s increasing revenue, profitability, or managing acquisitions, we must support those goals.

I don’t think we need special relationship managers. Successful organizations have category leads who liaison between procurement and stakeholders, often sitting with their business partners. They understand budget pressures, leadership expectations, and business aspirations. Then sourcing managers execute the vision.

Conrad | There’s complexity based on organization size. Smaller teams might not have dedicated category managers but still need relationship skills. We hired people with no purchasing background but strong people skills – the kind you’d want to hang around with. It paid off massively.

Zach | As a procurement leader, you’re the uber stakeholder manager working with the C-suite while mapping your team to leaders below them based on resources.

Natasha | Yes, connections should happen at every level – like neurons firing. The procurement leader opens doors for their teams, ideally starting at the C-suite to align priorities.

Zach | Thanks everyone for listening. Hope you learned about stakeholder management. Stay tuned for the next episode.

This transcript has been edited for clarity while maintaining all substantive content