The double vision
13 September 2012
Purchasers talking directly to customers may not be conventional in most businesses. But, reports Malcolm Wheatley, it’s a growing trend and one that can produce real benefits
Consider it the natural order of things: in business, salespeople talk to customers, while purchasers talk to suppliers. And in most businesses, the idea of questioning this arrangement probably never occurs. As well as being the normal way business is conducted, it has a certain logic: the function of salespeople is to sell, while the function of purchasers is to buy...