小名片大门道 这些采购头衔的英文名你都掌握了吗？

从事对外贸易，英语已成为必不可少的业务技能。但很多人发现好不容易背下的单词，书面意思却都大差不差，实际还是搞不懂对方的工作内容，交流始终是件难事。今天，圈妹就为各位外贸人带来行业中常接触的职位名称科普，带大家一眼看懂客户名片。

I was confused myself when I first enter this field of professional—there are different job title descripting the same piece of work.

The same question was not even able to be answered when I questioned this to the HR manager during one of the interviews.

The same phenomenon does not seem to appear in another field (except that people usually confused account manager with accounting manager, which is actually a very different job!).

Seem like an unfair game that the one placing PO has the right to enjoy more titles.

当采购的人可能会有同样的问题：不同的职位描述的其实都像在描述同一个工作。当年在我一次面试的时候向人力资源经理提问这个问题时，他甚至没有回答我。

同样的现象在其他工种上似乎并没有出现 (除了人们通常混淆的客户经理account manager和会计经理 accounting manager,这实际上是非常不同的工作!)。

Not true. As a matter of fact, there are sub-groups classifying the buying professionals, all depends on their function. Let’s go through it one by one.

这里我们科普一下他们大致上的分别:

Sourcing

The most common title in the buying camp, especially from US corporate, is sourcing.

Most of the time sourcing do front line jobs like identifying new suppliers, maintain existing supplier relationship.

In smaller businesses, they are also project managers when developing new products with suppliers (not meaning that they all obtain the right skill..).

However, unless real small business, I seldom see them follow up a regular purchase order and delivery.

采购（Sourcing）：

在购买领域最常见的名称,尤其是来自美国的公司。大部分的时间里sourcing做的是前线工作，比如寻找及确认新供应商,维护现有供应商关系。在较小的公司里他们有时也是产品閞发项目经理(这并不代表他们懂. 须知PROJECT MANAGER的工作可大可小)。然而,我很少会看到他们跟进采购订单和交付，除非是在“蚊形”公司才有这种可能。

ProcurementI laughed when I look into the dictionary for this word (and you can try). It is a light joke for this serious career.Nevertheless, logic is the same. Procurement focuses on searching and screen new sources, and should only be that.I got a feeling that this title is more common in European business than American.

采购（ Procurement）：

当我在字典里查到这个单词的时候我笑了(不信你可以试试)，这对于这个严肃的职业来说是一个小小的玩笑。

然而,逻辑是一样的。PROCUREMENT致力于前段的搜索和甄别新的资源,后段的就不一定是他的范围。我感觉这个名称在欧洲企业中比在美国更常见。

Purchasing

Similar to Sourcing, this is a common title.  That is also very much used in HK business (and that why it is the first impression for myself when I think of this kind of job!)  However, purchasing means more on the actual buying activity instead of just looking finding.

采购（Purchasing）：类似于Sourcing,这也是一个常见的名称。非常多用于香港企业(这也是为什么当我想到采购时它是我脑中第一个想到的名称)。然而,实际上Purchasing更多地意味着购买下单活动,而不是只是寻找发现。当我看到这样的名称时,我的感觉是他们要不就是业务非常小，只有几个人处理整个供应链管理过程,要不就是大型企业,PURCHASING的人只需要处理下单(属供应链多于采购)。

Commodity manager

People carrying this title are very likely from bigger companies. The commodity manager usually focuses on a process material or two.A funny story I heard was that the decision from a commodity manager in McDonald's who manages the ketchup category could affect the global commodity price of tomatoes.That might be an extreme case. However in one of my last company which is a major brass door lock manufacturer,the commodity manager needs to follow the global brass market price closely in order to predict and recommend our cost forecast modeling.In some smaller (still big!) businesses, their commodity manager could be the one managing the supply source of one specific product business line. The definition could be different, but the idea. 

商品经理(Commodity Manager)：这个头衔的人很像是来自大公司的。商品经理通常专注于一个或两个过程物料。我听过一个有趣的故事：一个在麦当劳管理西红柿酱种类的商品经理可能影响全球西红柿的价格。这可能有点夸张。然而在我的老东家中有一家主要生产黄铜门锁的公司,商品经理需要密切关注全球黄铜的市场价格，为了做预测和建立成本预测模型。在一些较小的(仍然很大!)公司里，商品经理很可能是只管理特定的产品业务供应。这里的定义可能不同,但是思想是相似的。

Buyer

Your favorite customer. The buyer is the one who actually places an order to you. Junior buyers focus on documentation, while senior buyers could do a lot more than that.In some business, the buyer decides the ratio of purchase between a pre-definite 1st and 2nd source – which make buyer an important role for suppliers.Even the sourcing manager approves you as a valid supplier, you could receive no or very little order if the buyer does not convince. They have the inventory responsibility in higher company.

买家（Buyer）：你的最爱, 给你下订单的人。初级买家关注文件,而资深买家可以做的远不止这些。在一些公司里,买家决定着供货商之间的订单比率——所以供货商应该多多重视!!即使采购经理批准你成为他的供应商, 入了AVL ,BUYER仍有权不给你多发订单。我就亲身经历过：我们在中国找的供货商, 美国的buyer只给了一点点单然后不用，找了白找。

Merchandiser

Some industries like fashion and gift mostly use the term “merchandiser”.Merchandiser requires a combination of skills to make the higher job. They look upmarket trends and make decisions on what is good to put in their basket.In most cases, they also face their customer directly and recommend what they believe good. Experiencemerchandiser is a strong asset to their company.Some businesses rely on their merchandising skill and sense to make their living.

买手（Merchandiser）：一些时尚和礼品行业大多使用“买手”这个头衔。买手需要各种技能组合起来完成他的工作。他们关注市场趋势然后决定为公司采购什么。大多数情况下,他们还会直接面对客户，向客户推荐他们认为好的产品。有经验的买手对他们公司来说是贵重的资产。一些企业依靠他们的市场感觉而生存下来。

In general, how the title named varies from business size, nature, industry and culture of the country. 

        I don’t think there is any strict rule. Knowing the story of the title does not promise you in understanding of your customer’s role.        Instead, it offers you a good starting topic on the dinner table to know more about your customer.    

总结，一般来说,这些名称的差异从业务规模、性质、行业和国家文化这些方面来说各有不同。    我不认为这里有任何严格的规则。知道这个名称的来历并不能保证你可以理解你的客户。    它只是提供了一个话题和机会，让你在餐桌上更多地了解你的客户。 

（来源：阿里巴巴外贸圈）

以上内容属作者个人观点，不代表雨果跨境立场！如有侵权，请联系我们。