Buyer - Mobile

Our client, established for over 30 years, is one of the leading IT/Mobile trade distributors in the UK with revenues of over £600m in 2010.

Job Purpose

The Buyer’s role is responsible for the product planning and execution throughout the product lifecycle, including:

• gathering and prioritising product and customer requirements
• contributing to the product vision
• working closely with sales, marketing and support to ensure profitability and customer satisfaction goals are met.

The Buyer’s job also includes ensuring that the product supports the company's overall strategy and goals.

Key Responsibilities

• Define the required product depth and range by vendor.
• Help introduce new products and samples to the sales team
• Work with marketing to help build promotional activity, and messaging, to ensure correct product focus within sales.
• Be an expert with respect to the competition and market pricing.
• Liaise with Marketing about the core positioning and messaging for products.
• Facilitate monthly sales forecasts to key vendors.
• Help develop and maintain sales tools and collateral and assisting the sales force as required.
• Raise, get approved and send purchase orders to suppliers.
• Maintain and update accurate due dates for delivery of products, so that warehouse and sales teams can plan their workload and manage customers’ expectations.
• Resolve queries or discrepancies on deliveries that arrive at the warehouse. This will involve telephone conversations between all relevant parties, raising a new part numbers on the system, raising a new/amending purchase order etc.
• Resolve all supplier invoice queries.
• Create and maintain internal part numbers for new products / product / price changes as required.
• Amend product prices using all Price Protection Rules (PPR)/procedures.
• Raise second tier PP claims for our customers.
• Update the vendor price lists accessed by Sales each month on the relevant system whilst ensuring updated information is obtained from suppliers.
• Negotiate deals with suppliers for add back, and maintain records of all add back deals which are consolidated weekly and sent to Finance.
• Complete weekly stock reports for suppliers using relevant formats and procedures.
• Produce weekly report on aged stock for Product Specialists and Managers.
• Produce weekly/monthly reports on rebate targets/actuals for Product Specialists and Managers.
• Complete ad-hoc job related tasks as directed by a member of the management team.
• Supplier relationships

Performance Measures

• Profitability.
• Aged stock.
• Stock holding.
• Stock turns.
• Daily fill rate.
• Add back.
• Rebates.

Key Interfaces

• Our people.
• Our customers.
• All internal departments.
• Nominated business partners/suppliers.

Person Specification (skills, knowledge and experience required)

Experience

• Minimum of one years experience of working in a purchasing department or an administrative role involving high levels of numeracy.
• Three years experience of working within distribution or vendor responsible for channel preferred

Skills & Aptitude

• Excellent communication skills.
• Sales and marketing skills with an understanding of call centre management, policies and procedures.
• Excellent customer service and handling skills.
• Commercial awareness.
• Product knowledge.
• Planning and organisation.
• Flexibility, adaptability and initiative.
• Confidence and determination.
• Performance maximisation.
• Presentation skills both internally and to our customers.
• Good administrative skills.

Education

• Highly numerate / literate.
• IT Skills consisting of Microsoft Word, Excel.
• General secondary education.
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