The Quest To Become A Strategic Supplier

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How You Can Become More Strategically Important To Your Customers

How Can You Become More Strategic?

When it comes to being strategic most (if not all) suppliers can work at making themselves more important. There is always scope to become more important to the customer. We call it ‘strategic scope’.

Suppliers have to believe that they can matter to their customer – not in a delusional way, but in a seeking or aspirational way. This is at the core of competitive strategy – it is the drive behind so many initiatives in areas ranging from product innovation to customer service. Here is how one manager put it:

‘Wanting to matter to your customers is a natural desire, indeed it is a competitive necessity. I think of our efforts in this area as our search for meaning. We need to continually shape and redefine what we mean to our key customers.’

So ask the ‘How can you become more strategic?’ question. This will get you thinking about:

– The scope that exists for your company to become more strategic

– The specific things you can do to matter more to the customer.

Even for companies in commodity markets there are always ways to become more important. On the next page we will look at an inspirational example of this.