Successful Supply Chain Consulting: Best Practices

At GMDH Streamline we are happy to provide supply chain consultants with the tools to accelerate their business growth. The webinar “Successful Supply Consulting: Best Practices” was held to uncover the topic of successful consulting business and a personal brand development as a Supply Chain Consultant.

The speaker of the event Natalie Lopadchak-Eksi, PhD(C), CSCP, VP of Partnerships at GMDH Streamline shared her experience and main ideas for the effective strategies and professional recognition of Supply Chain Consultants.

What is a mindset mistake most Supply Chain consultants do why analyzing the situation of their potential clients?

According to our internal research, 87% of Supply Chain Consultants don’t differentiate the concepts of Ideal Customer Profile, Company Profile and Client Persona.

Ideal Customer Profile

An ideal customer profile (ICP) is a detailed description of the type of customer that a company wants to target. The ICP includes characteristics like age, location, job title, industry, income level and buying behaviors. It also considers factors such as customer lifecycle stage and diversity. Companies use their ICP to help define their buyer personas and inform their marketing campaigns. Having an ICP in place allows businesses to focus on targeting qualified leads and potential customers.

The Company Profile uncovers the following aspects:

The Company Persona represents the attributes of the target business that have an impact on their sales process. For example:

The Client Persona represents the attributes of an individual client such as:

Moreover, we also have to dive deeper in such client personas descriptions as a supply chain manager, a supply chain director, an IT Manager/Director and an Operational Director.

Supply chain managers must have a keen understanding of how goods move through the supply chain and how to optimize it for maximum efficiency. They must be able to identify areas of improvement and develop innovative solutions for complex challenges.

Supply Chain Directors have the high skills in supply chain processes, deep understanding of supply chain workflow, understanding of mathematics & statistics calculations, strong vision in demand forecasting and supply chain improvement.

IT Directors typically have a combination of technical expertise and business acumen. They must possess strong knowledge of programming, database management, networking, and other IT-related skills and can work collaboratively with other departments such as finance, marketing, operations, and human resources.

Operational Directors have advanced knowledge of operational procedures and processes, as well as excellent communication and organizational skills; Comfortable working with different members of the team and interacting with external vendors and partners; ability to think strategically and keep up-to-date on the latest industry trends so that they can anticipate future needs for their organization; strong S&OP management vision.

The Bottom Line

Client centricity in digitalised Supply Chain Consulting

“I do believe that client centricity in digital supply chain consulting is of great importance. Business needs digitalization. Of course, the pen and pencil are not enough right now, Excel is not enough. If our clients really want to be competitive they have to use AI-based solution. But if we are talking about consulting, if we are talking about working with people, I will definitely say – People need People”,– says Natalie.

Streamline as a Top Tech Solution

Streamline is an advanced technology solution for supply chain optimization, offering integrated AI, Dynamic Solution, Multi-Echelon Inventory Planning, Interlocation Optimization, ERP integration and digital transformation aspects as Item Tree, KPI Dashboard and Full Visibility. It certainly can be the right tool for supply chain consultants to accelerate their consulting business growth.