Responsibilities of a Purchasing Agent
There are many important duties and responsibilities that purchasing agents undertake. They coordinate various activities that are linked with the procurement of services and goods like equipment, raw materials, tools, supplies, parts, advertising, etc. A purchasing agent is also required to review all the requirements and act accordingly.
As a purchasing agent, it would be your duty to communicate with all the vendors in order to acquire information related to services, product etc for example availability, delivery and price. Selection of products for purchasing is done by a purchasing agent via observation, examination and testing. Value estimation as per the market price, determination of procurement methods, bidding or purchasing directly, preparation of bid or purchasing orders, reviewing of negotiations, contracts, bid proposals are all done by a purchasing agent. They need to follow the limits of the budget and abide by the company's norms.
Manual maintenance and recording of procured items, services, delivery, cost, quality of products, performance, inventories etc are a part of a purchasing agent's duty. As a purchasing agent, it would be your responsibility to discuss every aspect of products and services, whether they are unacceptable or defective along with the aid of inspection personnel or the quality control inspector, vendors, user and all the other sources and action has to be taken by the purchasing agent only. Expedition of goods delivered to the users is done by a purchasing agent.
Skills Required
Purchasing agents are required to pay attention to all the necessary details and information because product inspection and examinations are to be conducted by them. So, having an analytical mind set and good observation skills is important. Apart from these, he or she must have excellent communications skills because he or she has to communicate with the management, users and vendors from different backgrounds. Work ethics should be within the principles of the organization and the purchasing agent must always be ready to work under any condition and stressful situations. Negotiation skills will help them in settling the deal in accordance to the best purchase price.
To land a job as a purchasing agent, one must possess a degree in economics, business, marketing or any equivalent field. If you are hired in a specialized industry like automobiles, then you must have an engineering degree to know the technicalities of the equipment or parts to be purchased. If you happen to have a master's degree then your chances would be greater and so would the opportunities.
The average salary of a purchasing agent is around $26,000 to $89,000 annually. There are many job advancement opportunities for all purchasing agents to assistant purchasing manager, logistics manager, material management director and all this is possible by proper education, experience and certification.
