Operations consultants · Professional services
Be the consultant an owner calls when the plant, the branch or the team runs late every day.
The call comes on a bad week. A factory owner in Peenya has promised a dispatch for Friday and the line is waiting on a part that has not been ordered. A clinic chain owner has opened a third branch and finds each branch runs differently. They ask a friend who they should call, and the friend names one person.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
Operations consultants are hired to fix how a business runs day to day: throughput, wastage, delays, handovers and cost per unit. Marketing makes you the name an owner thinks of when orders slip and costs creep. Sales turns a worried phone call into a scoped diagnostic. GullySales starts from the one problem you are known for fixing.
Your name is known to the people who have already worked with you. The owner who needs you next month has never heard it, and the website they find says "end-to-end operational excellence". It does not say that you cut changeover time on a packing line or that you rebuilt a service centre's job-card flow.
Last updated 18 Oct 2026.
How buyers decide
How operations consultants are chosen.
An owner does not type "operations consultant". The search is for the symptom: "how to reduce rejection in production", "why are deliveries late", "staff do not follow SOP". Those who ask a person ask the CA, the banker, a fellow member of the local industry association or the vendor whose invoices keep being paid late.
Before the first meeting the owner looks you up on LinkedIn and Google, then asks whether you have worked in a business like theirs. A consultant from a large plant background is doubted by a trading firm. A consultant who has only worked in services is doubted by a foundry. Your page has to say which floors you have actually stood on.
The decision rests on trust and on scope. The owner wants to know what you will look at first, who on their team you will need, and whether you will leave behind something their people can run without you.
The problem
What usually goes wrong for operations consultants.
What owners tell us on the first call, in their words.
“Referrals dry up between projects”
Each engagement ends with a handshake and the next one depends on who happens to ring. The months in between are spent chasing old contacts.
“The website describes a method, not a problem”
Pages about lean, Kaizen and process mapping read like every other consultant's. An owner with late deliveries does not see their own situation.
“Enquiries arrive as vague worries”
"Our costs are going up" is not a brief. Without a first conversation that asks the right questions, the call ends with "send me a proposal" and silence.
“Proposals go out and nothing comes back”
The owner reads the scope, shows it to a partner or a son, and the matter drifts. Nobody on your side has a reason to call that is not "just checking".
“Case work is confidential”
You cannot name the plant or show the numbers. So the best work is invisible and the thin work looks the same as the strong work.
“Fees are compared with a retired plant manager”
The owner knows someone's uncle who will do it for a fraction. Without a clear account of what you do differently, the discussion is only about price.
What we do
What we do for operations consultants.
Everything included for operations consultants.
A page for each symptom
Separate pages for late deliveries, rejection and rework, idle machines, stock mismatches and staff not following SOPs, each written as the owner would describe it.
Sector pages from the floor
A page each for the sectors you know, listing the stages, the leakage points you look for and the questions you ask on a first visit.
A diagnostic offer page
One page that sets out what a first diagnostic covers, what you need from the owner, what they get at the end and that the fee is quoted in writing before it starts.
Anonymised case notes
Three or four write-ups with the client unnamed: the starting problem, what was changed on the floor and what the owner measured afterwards, in the owner's own figures where permitted.
An enquiry and proposal tracker
Every call, referral and proposal recorded with the symptom, the sector, the next call and the reason for it.
A pre-visit brief
A short form the owner completes before you visit: headcount, shifts, products, the delay they care about, who will meet you.
How the result is measured
- Enquiries by source and by symptom
- Diagnostics booked from enquiries
- Proposals sent and proposals signed
- Days a proposal waits before a reply
- Enquiries from referrers such as CAs and bankers
- Past clients who came back for a second engagement
Recorded as a baseline before work starts, so every later report has an honest comparison.
Every service, written for operations consultants
Each has its own page: what it involves for operations consultants, what you get, and what it is measured on.
- Lead generationBring in owners who have a named delay, not browsers who want free advice.
- SEOAppear when an owner types the delay they are tired of, not the name of your method.
- Local SEOShow up when an owner in your industrial belt looks for a consultant nearby.
- Social media marketingPost what you saw on a floor, so an owner reading it thinks of their own.
- Content marketingWrite the notes an owner saves, forwards and remembers when the delay comes back.
- Buyer personaKnow who signs, who worries and who blocks before you write a single page.
- CRMKeep every enquiry, referrer and proposal in one place, each with a next call.
- Follow-up systemsGive every proposal a reason to call, so silence stops meaning the matter is closed.
- WhatsApp marketingUse the app the owner already checks, to carry a conversation from enquiry to diagnostic.
- Digital marketingPut search, LinkedIn, referrers and follow-up to work on the same owners.
- WebsiteBuild a site that shows which floors you have stood on and what the first step costs.
Worth a page and a campaign of their own
Pages for the symptom an owner types, such as late dispatch or high rejection · One page per sector you have worked in, written from the floor · A short diagnostic offer with a written scope, so the first step is clear · Case notes that hide the client name and keep the before and after in plain words · A way to log every enquiry with the symptom, sector and who referred it · Introductions to CAs, bankers and industry association secretaries · Follow-up on every proposal with a reason to call, not a reminder · Google Business Profile and LinkedIn that name the sectors, not the method · A requirements brief the owner fills in before you visit the site
Priority campaigns
Campaigns for what operations consultants most want to sell.
Each one planned around when your buyers decide, and measured against the baseline.
Late-delivery campaign for manufacturers
Search ads and a landing page for owners searching for delay and dispatch problems, with a one-page checklist of where a delivery loses days.
Multi-branch consistency campaign
LinkedIn and WhatsApp outreach to owners of clinics, diagnostics chains and service centres that have added a second or third branch.
Association talk follow-up
After you speak at an industry association or a chamber meeting, a short note and a page of the topics you covered go to every attendee who gave a contact.
CA and banker introduction round
A plain introduction for the professionals who see an owner's numbers first and know when margins are falling.
Dormant contact revival
A message to past clients and old enquiries that mentions something that has changed since you last spoke, such as a new sector page or a new case note.
Beyond search
Where we reach buyers of operations consultants, beyond Google.
Search matters, but it is rarely the only way this industry's buyers find a supplier.
Chartered accountants and tax advisers
They see margins and wastage in the books before the owner does. An introduction they can forward, with a note on what you look at first.
Bankers and credit officers
A branch manager reviewing a working-capital limit sees stock and receivable days creeping up. A short note explains how you would look at the cause.
Industry associations and chambers
A talk outline on one floor-level problem, such as why a dispatch slips on Friday, with a note for attendees, offered to local chambers and sector associations.
Equipment vendors and ERP resellers
The people who sell machines or software see which customers cannot get the output they paid for. A referral arrangement spells out who handles what on each side.
LinkedIn for owners and plant heads
Posts about what you saw on a floor, written without naming the client, followed by a direct message to owners who respond.
Who it is for
This is written for these operations consultants.
- Small and mid-sized manufacturers with a shop floor of fifty to a few hundred people
- Auto component and engineering job-work units
- Packaging, plastics and printing units with changeover and wastage problems
- Multi-branch service businesses such as diagnostics, clinics and service centres
- Distributors and trading firms with warehouse and dispatch delays
- Restaurants, cloud kitchens and catering firms with kitchen and delivery flow
- Hospitals and nursing homes with admission, billing and discharge delays
- Family-run businesses where the second generation wants systems in place
Not for
It is not the right fit if.
- You want a guaranteed Google ranking or a guaranteed number of leads. Nobody honest can promise either.
- You need enquiries by next week and have nobody to answer them.
- You want posts and reach reported, not enquiries and orders.
How it works
How the work runs for operations consultants
The work itself, in order. How an engagement starts, from your brief to a written scope, is set out on our method page.
- 1
List the sectors you have stood in and who hires you now
From your requirements brief: the sectors you work in, who hires you today and what a good engagement looks like for you.
- 2
Record the baseline
Where enquiries come from today, how many become diagnostics, how many diagnostics become projects and how long proposals sit.
- 3
Build the pages and the case notes
Symptom pages, sector pages and anonymised cases are written with you, each checked against what you would say to an owner.
- 4
Set up reach and follow-up
Search, LinkedIn and the introductions go live, and the tracker starts recording every enquiry and proposal with a next step.
- 5
Compare with the starting figures
Enquiries, diagnostics and signed work are set against the baseline, and whatever is not producing is changed.
Where this fits
Three pieces of sales work, in this order.
GullySales builds every engagement from three pieces of sales work. This page is not one of them, but the same three steps apply to the business behind it.
Step 1
Sales audit
Find where deals are being lost and what to fix first.
Start here if you cannot say where orders are lost.
Step 2
Sales process design
One written way to sell, from first enquiry to repeat order.
Start here if every salesperson sells differently.
Step 3
Sales management
A target, a review routine and someone who owns the number.
Start here if the team has targets and no routine.
FAQ
Questions operations consultants ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
Can you market operations consulting when I cannot name my clients?
Will marketing bring me owners or only students and job seekers?
I work with manufacturers and hospitals both. Should I show both?
Should my first diagnostic be free?
What does this cost?
How long is the contract?
How soon will we see results?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
What if we are not happy with the work?
Part of Professional services. See the other industries in the sector.
Your next practical step
Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.