The Quest To Become A Strategic Supplier
How You Can Become More Strategically Important To Your Customers
Why Do You Matter?
The words ‘strategy’ and ‘strategic supplier’ can get a little confusing. So let’s strip them back to the core. Being strategic is simply a question of how important you are to the customer. More specifically it is about how and why you matter in terms of their performance.
Being a strategic supplier means that you support their strategy and contribute to their success (either directly or indirectly). Indeed, there is nothing more strategic than success. So how much you contribute to your customer’s success is the ultimate measure of just how strategic you are. Measuring and communicating your contribution to the customer’s success is key.
At the highest level the supplier’s importance derives from its impact on the overall performance of the customer’s business and its key business metrics. That is the zenith in terms of strategic importance and it measures success in a way that ultimately impacts on the top line and the bottom line.
However, it is not just about the top, or bottom line, there are any number of levels at which a supplier can have an important impact on customer’s performance and success. The strategic supplier can have an important role to play at any point of the customer’s supply or value chain.
A supplier’s importance can be measured, for example, in terms of its contribution to the success of; a particular department, function, project, facility, manager, team, or user. That is why it is important to answer the question ‘who do you matter to?’
Peter Viljoen: 
StartupSandy: 
the Senator: 
Martin Lindeskog: 
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