CILT Endorsed Leading and Managing Vendor Relations

Program Overview

Strong vendor relationships improve cost, quality, innovation and supply security, but they must be managed deliberately. This course covers supplier relationship management from segmentation to strategic partnership: using the Kraljic matrix to prioritise suppliers, setting relationship strategies, onboarding vendors, managing performance with scorecards and business reviews, handling disputes and underperformance, developing suppliers and local content, managing supplier risk and building collaborative partnerships. Gulf in-country value programmes such as IKTVA and ICV are discussed as part of vendor development.

Learning Outcomes

• ✓Segment the supplier base using the Kraljic matrix and spend analysis.
• ✓Define relationship strategies for strategic, leverage, bottleneck and routine suppliers.
• ✓Design a vendor performance scorecard with quality, delivery, cost and responsiveness measures.
• ✓Conduct a quarterly business review that agrees improvement actions with a key supplier.
• ✓Manage vendor underperformance and disputes through structured escalation and corrective action plans.
• ✓Develop a supplier development plan that supports in-country value objectives.

Target Audience

• Procurement and category managers
• Vendor and supplier relationship managers
• Contract managers
• Supply chain managers working with key suppliers

Detailed Program Modules

Training Methodology

Applied Project & Assessment