This document provides guidance on using storytelling as a procurement leader to better connect with stakeholders and inspire cooperation. It emphasizes that stories are more memorable than facts and help people feel invested in an idea. The document then provides tips for crafting effective stories, including identifying a hero, their problem, a guide to offer a plan, stakes to motivate action. It highlights real examples of procurement teams that improved outcomes by shifting to storytelling. Overall, the document promotes storytelling as a tool for procurement leaders to build relationships and drive results.

1. Tell a better story
and increase your
impact.

2. A note from the author
Stories sell. You need to give people a practical way to connect to
your ideas, and that’s why storytelling is such a great technique.
As procurement practitioners, we can use stories to persuade
others and inspire people to partner with us. But storytelling is an
age-old skill that we often overlook in our daily interactions.
Through stories, you have the opportunity to make your audience
care by seeing themselves as the hero of their own story. You can
capture the attention of your busy executive team by crafting brief,
yet impactful stories that strike a meaningful chord.
For most of us, storytelling is an art that takes practice and
diligence. That’s why we’ve developed this guidebook with
Lantern. Print a copy, use the worksheet, and you’ll never enter
another meeting without a story or two in your back pocket.
Like Maya Angelou said,
“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you
did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
The same is true with storytelling – people won’t always
remember the precise facts you shared, but they will remember
how your story made them feel.”
Greg Anderson
Senior Vice President
WNS Denali

3. As procurement leaders, we can make a
difference with the stories we tell and the
words we use.
In procurement, storytelling can be a powerful tool to win over key stakeholders, unite teams and
improve negotiations. We tell visionary stories to our executive sponsors and boards to see the
business case for deepening the role of procurement.
We tell persuasive stories to inspire our co-workers and staff to buy-in to desired change and
evolve traditional ways of working. And sometimes, we tell practical stories to our supply chain
and category partners about improving efficiencies, encouraging them to share timely data and
information that will help improve our business decisions.
Telling a story will help you:
• Capture more attention about the impact of procurement.
• Bring your audience along on a journey with you to build support for procurement investments.
• Make their experience memorable so they seek procurement’s support on future initiatives.

4. The three biggest communication mistakes
we make as procurement leaders:
We fail to recognize what our audience wants or needs to hear.
We think everyone in the organization thinks the same way Procurement does.
We don’t fully realize or accept what motivates our audiences.
Storytelling is an art that can transform challenging situations.
Do any of these scenarios sound familiar to you?
Stakeholders bring you into a contract
negotiation during the final hours, which
means you don’t have enough time or
leverage to add significant value.
You succeed in drastically cutting costs on
a key initiative, but the project leaders are
reluctant to acknowledge your impact for
fear of admitting to overspending.
Your value-capturing updates to the
corporate travel policy and buying process
are met with pushback, and the end-users
find ways to work around Procurement.
You struggle to strike a balance between
building relationships and managing critical
negotiations.

5. A storytelling hack to shift the narrative and
win over your most important stakeholders.
Storytelling is a fundamental part of the human experience, but the power of storytelling is often
overlooked in the business world. Outside of marketing, we tend to forget how the stories we are
telling affect the people around us. We forget that emotions and personal connections inspire
people to take action, regardless of their role or background.
Too often, executives attempt to draw others to their cause by reciting dry facts or spouting
industry buzzwords. To truly motivate people, we must use engaging, relatable stories that
encourage our audience to visualize what is possible in the future.
All great stories contain six key elements:
Spoiler alert: We might ruin Hollywood movies for you, because this story formula is
the basis of almost every box office hit.
They meet a GUIDE who
understands their challenge
and can help.
has a PROBLEM.
A HERO
This guide offers them a
simple PLAN
As they face obstacles, the
guide reminds them WHAT IS
AT STAKE.
and calls them to
ACTION

6. You can follow this same format in the way
you propose ideas or pitch new solutions.
Make your audience the hero rather than your team or solution.
Instead, you play the guide, the advisor who makes the thoughtful recommendation. You
are a powerful resource with the tools, experience and data to set them up for success.
Your role is to help your stakeholder win the day—which, in turn, builds trust in your team.
Focus on the problems they want to solve.
Take time to understand what matters to your audience and what they are up against—so
you can frame your solution in a way that makes them stop and listen.
Before the conversation takes place, do your homework; but don’t present your solutions
upfront. Your role is to ask questions and operate from a place of empathy to understand
their situation, sensitivities, expectations, objectives, and personal motivations.
Give them a simple plan.
If your solution feels complicated or overwhelming, people will respond with reluctance.
Break it down into easy steps. (For example, replacing your outdated ordering system
might feel like a huge project to your CIO. Try pitching it as three simple steps: outlining
the requirements for the new system, shortlisting suppliers, and selecting the technology).
Call people to action—invite them to take the first step.
Once you have given them a clear plan, encourage your audience to act.
If your audience isn’t ready to commit, start small. Simple action items that allow them to
explore the possibility for change or feel ownership of an idea can make a big difference.
Remind people what is at stake.
If you have pitched your recommendation right, your audience should feel confident
about how they will benefit from partnering with procurement.
Paint a clear picture of how your solution will make their life better, or what consequences
they will face by passing up the opportunity to work with you.

7. As a procurement leader, you have core
objectives that you must meet. Those
objectives require the cooperation of people
of all background levels, job roles, and
personality styles.
See the next few pages for real success stories
The Power of Storytelling in Procurement →
• 63% of high-performing procurement
teams are fully integrated with their
business agenda This means they are
listening to their stakeholders and “get”
what they want to hear.
• 100% of those high-performing teams
engage with stakeholders regularly for
proactive planning. Imagine the impact
that better storytelling can have to drive
more engagement and collaboration in
those planning sessions.
Our survey data and firsthand experiences
suggest that in the long-term, you are more
likely to achieve your objectives by taking
time to listen to your stakeholders and
focus on relationship building, rather than
swooping in with an agenda that only speaks
about the ideal outcomes for procurement.
Source: CIPS and WNS Benchmark Survey,
“Procurement Performance: How Do You Create
More Value?”, 2019.

8. Driving Stakeholder Engagement
Global Industrial Chemical Manufacturer
Escalating financial pressures required the procurement team to quickly expand their reach
through smart category management and better stakeholder engagement.
In turn, the new skills learned by category managers enabled them to increase procurement’s
impact and deliver real results:
The company initiated global workshops and training to deepen category management skill sets,
teach storytelling skills, and develop a new engagement model for internal stakeholders.
→ The company saw a 20% savings increase, and procurement doubled their project pipeline.
→ 100+ team members were trained, and 150+ category strategies were implemented.
Shifting the Narrative
Global Medical Device Manufacturer
Procurement’s internal brand as a “cost cutter” was holding them back from tackling more stra-
tegic initiatives.
By shifting the narrative and selling their story to a broader stakeholder group, procurement
increased their reach and their impact across the company:
The team implemented a global training initiative to redefine procurement’s value for executive
stakeholders. They expanded the concept of procurement to include contributions to growth,
asset optimization, and efficiency—telling the story of procurement wins in contrast with missed
opportunities.
→ Procurement is now involved in each new product launch
→ Procurement is now part of every sales cycle
→ They saw a 4X increase in the procurement ROI

9. Empowering Category Managers
North American Consumer Packaged Goods Company
After shifting from an outsourced to an in-house model for category management, the
procurement team needed a boost to realize their potential.
Procurement appealed to their category managers, sold them on a new way of doing things,
got them excited about a new more strategic role, empowered them to do it—and then said
“GO”. As a result, the core procurement team made a big difference in year 1:
Procurement leadership enrolled category managers in a series of workshops and follow-
up coaching sessions to help them envision a new future of strategic initiatives.
These trainings focused on the capabilities that category managers would need to
succeed—honing strategic skills, segmenting work, developing relationships and building
the savings pipeline.
→ Procurement influenced an additional $18M of spend and implemented eight key
category strategies.
→ The team increased their reach and added negotiated 208 sourcing and contracting
projects in one year.

10. Now it’s your turn
Use this worksheet to prepare for your next meeting with a stakeholder, supplier, or team member.
Your HERO
Has a PROBLEM.
As a GUIDE, you can give them a simple PLAN.
Then call them to ACTION
And remind them of the STAKES.
Success: Failure:

11. This resource was created in partnership by
Outcome-driven companies partner
with WNS Denali to operationalize their
Procurement function and improve
financial performance and efficiency. Our
procurement practitioners provide a range
of advisory and managed services, along
with enabling technology to help our clients
build an integrated Procurement Ecosystem
that empowers them to create more value
and outperform in the market.
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