Getting into gear
Developing delivered sales, Part 2
By James Holloway, C. H. Robinson – Summer 2010, special to
Harvester Online
In our last article, we discussed taking charge of the
transportation component of your sales process by converting FOB sales
to delivered. In today’s market, providing a full range of
services to your customers has become increasingly important, and
delivered selling is a significant tool that can be utilized to secure
new accounts and expand volume with existing customers. As noted
in the last article, the benefits of delivered sales include improved
customer service through one-stop-shopping, building new sales volume,
managing freight costs, reducing food miles and strengthening shipper
returns. To realize those benefits, your customers have to know
that you will be a competitively priced and reliable full service
provider. In this article, we will talk about identifying
and converting sales to delivered opportunities.
Convert Your Accounts – Perhaps the best
prospects for development of a delivered sales program lie in your
existing business; i.e. converting a current FOB account to delivered
purchasing. Advise the customer that you have made arrangements to
provide competitively priced, reliable transportation and would like to
make those services available by quoting delivered prices. In
order to move the customer from FOB to delivered, you should initially
employ aggressive quotes that include low freight rates. The best
means of obtaining such rates is by partnering with transportation
vendors that can afford to invest in obtaining this business and that
will provide rates that assist in convincing the customer to switch to
delivered purchasing.
Try Experience – Customers who are already
purchasing on a delivered basis from other shippers are often easy to
convert from FOB to delivered sales. Your transportation providers
can often advise you regarding such accounts. These customers do
not require you to explain the benefits of delivered purchasing; aside
from how competitive your delivered price is, they will want assurance
that you can execute the logistics portion of the transaction. In
order to provide that assurance, the choice of transportation partners
is critical. Use service providers that have a prior record of
outstanding performance with your company, since an initial service
failure on new delivered business could mean a quick end to this type of
sale and a return to an FOB relationship.
Communicate, Communicate – Customers often
change produce suppliers and transportation vendors due to a lack of
timely and accurate information regarding the status of shipments.
When booking a delivered order, determine the frequency, content and
preferred means of communicating the in-transit information required by
the customer. Whether by EDI, email, phone or fax, the required
information should be provided without exception. Remember that
communication is a key component of your full service offering.
Be Accountable – An impediment to delivered
sales may be concern over shipment liability. Advise the customer
that you will take responsibility for all transit risk and that in the
event of a problem; you will promptly issue a credit for the loss and
pursue recovery after the fact with the carrier. Resolving this
issue upfront will assure the buyer that delivered purchases will be
trouble free.
Watch The Details – Delivered sales have a
“fallout” benefit. Because you are responsible for
delivered sales arrival condition, greater attention is inevitably paid
to packaging, pallet quality, precooling, stacking and loading
techniques, in-transit refrigeration instructions and loading and
unloading counts. Because the same packaging, pallets, etc. will
be used for both FOB and delivered sales, overall arrival conditions
will improve, with a resulting increase in customer satisfaction and a
decrease in claims and allowances.
Include Your Carriers - An excellent means of
convincing customers that you can provide quality transportation
services is to include a representative from the carrier you will use on
his account on your sales calls. The carrier sales person can be
of enormous assistance in assuring the buyer that you understand his
logistics requirements and are capable of performing to a high
standard.
Getting Into Gear means being in control over the entire sales
process through delivered selling. If properly executed, that control
will translate into increased profitability for your business.
If you still have questions about delivered sales, how to start the
conversation with your customers or what quality transportation services
can do for your company, take advantage of the FFVA/C. H. Robinson
Transportation Program. This innovative service is free of charge
and without volume commitments to FFVA members. For more
information, contact James Holloway of C. H. Robinson at 800-999-3740 or
james.holloway@chrobinson.com
for assistance with developing a full service delivered sales
program.
Coming soon – selecting the right transportation partners.