Sales and Business Models in the Logistics Industry: Ensuring Growth with Innovative Strategies PDF
Preview Sales and Business Models in the Logistics Industry: Ensuring Growth with Innovative Strategies
Alexander Nowroth Sales and Business Models in the Logistics Industry Ensuring Growth with Innovative Strategies Sales and Business Models in the Logistics Industry Alexander Nowroth Sales and Business Models in the Logistics Industry Ensuring Growth with Innovative Strategies Alexander Nowroth Lebenswerk Consulting Group Düsseldorf, Germany ISBN 978-3-658-39755-5 ISBN 978-3-658-39756-2 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-39756-2 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Fachme- dien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Responsible Editor: Manuela Eckstein This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature. The registered company address is: Abraham-Lincoln-Str. 46, 65189 Wiesbaden, Germany For Melody and Ella Grace, to whom I owe my personal growth. Foreword This book is a novelty. For the first time, the currently prevailing unhealthy balance of power in shipping is so clearly brought to the fore, namely the one between the shipping companies and the forwarders. The disruption caused by the shipping companies and its consequences for customers, the supply chain and the healthy middle are not only shown in this book, but also questioned, and the effects on the end customer are set out. The current situation affects large and small companies and threatens to destroy the entrepreneurial middle class, an essential part of the economy. And for another reason this book is a novelty: It deals constructively with sales in the logistics industry. Since there is almost no literature on sales in logistics, this area has hardly developed professionally and is often still very traditional. Alexander Nowroth's book finally creates the basis to take the next step—and he takes this step himself in practice. The importance of cooperation between the various stakeholders is empha- sized in the different chapters of the book, because in today's world it is of great importance to create and maintain togetherness in order to be able to move for- ward progressively. The necessary communication and cooperation challenges each individual team member up to the willingness to take on responsibility themselves. Appropriate self-motivation, a concrete goal in mind and the assump- tion of responsibility are an incredibly strong driver for any company. This applies to the operational area as well as to sales. Whether the collaboration takes place in the logistics chain between custom- ers, forwarders and carriers or in sales between the hierarchical levels and teams: It is and remains the basis for good cooperation and communication. This is made clear by Alexander Nowroth and questions old structures in which performance is often not considered objectively or, worse still, only measured in terms of profit- ability. VII VIII Foreword This book calls for questioning what has become established and regularly leads the reader onto the path of “continuous improvement”. This and the various models that Alexander Nowroth shows support the reader in the task of question- ing his strategy and business model and adapting them to the current situation. With this book, Alexander Nowroth also provides suggestions for innovation and progressive progress, which is admittedly a rocky path, but one that must definitely be taken. However, you don't have to go it alone, because the author accompanies you with his knowledge and ideas and gives you various kinds of assistance in your undertaking. I wish all readers a lot of enjoyment and I am sure that you will smile from time to time because you have caught yourself or your organization in the wrong corner for the second, third or even fourth time. Many thanks, Alexander, for the insights, your constructive criticism and above all your ideas that you share with us – and not least for the constructive collaboration. March 2022 Felix Wenzel Hamburg, Germany Managing Partner, a. hartrodt GmbH & Co. KG Preface The year 2021, in which I began writing this book, will go down in history as the most extraordinary since the invention of the container in 1956. So many black swans1were sighted that their number may have exceeded that of the white ones: just to name a few, the blockade of the Suez Canal by a stranded container ship and the outbreak of the Corona virus in various Chinese port cities. Explosive, never considered possible rate increases of up to 1000% led to the fact that the shipping companies worldwide accumulated a profit of more than 100 billion dollars in 2021 and 2022. Never before seen capacity bottlenecks in almost all modalities (in particular containers) and an unending burden on the supply chain led to a massive strain on all stakeholders involved in logistics. Just before com- pletion of the original German version of the book in early 2022, the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine broke out, shaking us all to the core because of the human suffering it caused. The conflict led to unprecedented sanctions, which isolated Russia from most of the world's countries. Shipping companies stopped calling at Russian ports within a very short time, the Trans-Siberian Rail- way was avoided by many companies and leading forwarders, thus pouring more water into an already overflowing barrel. And somewhere in between the front lines of these disruptive developments is sales. I call sales a “temporary” giant because in 2021 and 2022 you didn't have to be particularly good to be incredibly successful. After all, all that mattered was that the logistics companies had freight capacity. If this capacity existed, it was easy for them to bring it to the insatiable market. 1A black swan is an event that is completely unlikely, completely unexpected, and (almost) everyone is amazed. IX X Preface You are probably wondering why I wrote this book at a time when many com- panies were benefitting from the incredible revenue growth and the profits they had made. The reason why I am writing this book now is, on the one hand, to examine how the role of sales has changed so rapidly and deeply in such a short time. Plus, how organisations can safeguard themselves with much more robust volume growth against the inevitable future big rate decreases. On the other hand, it is my goal to support organisations in the transition of sales to a hybrid organi- zational model. Sales is no longer just the front line where solid sales and margin growth should be ensured. Rather, the sales organization today decisively deter- mines how innovative a company is and will be in the next few years, because sales is the first and much earlier than all other departments to notice the game- changing changes – for example, with regard to customer needs. This is partly due to the fact that sales enjoys a high degree of trust with its existing custom- ers. If such a trust relationship exists, we are honest with each other and provide information that can be of considerable importance with regard to innovations, for example, and which must be communicated internally into product development. However, my practice shows that in many cases, due to wrong incentives, out- dated structures as well as excessive bureaucracy, sales often only inadequately or not at all meets this role as an innovation driver. With this book I also hope to close a gap in the professional literature. Although there are hundreds of books that deal with the topic of sales, there is none that primarily deals with strategic, transformative issues in logistics sales. For many years I was successfully employed as a salesperson and sales manager on different continents in the logistics industry. And from day one it was clear to me that anyone who calls himself a salesman in the logistics industry is more of a consultant than just a salesman in the traditional sense. The job of the salesman is not over with the conclusion of a deal: Because of the ever-faster innovation cycles, the rapid market changes and the constantly changing customer needs, sales always has to have its finger on the pulse of the customer. Day in and day out. They have to point their customers to solutions and present them with ideas they have not thought of before. During my active time in sales I went so far as to tell my customers: “My goal is to understand your busi- ness better than my own.” And I meant it. In 2016, I finally found my calling when I co-founded a consultancy to share my expertise and knowledge with other companies, always with the goal of hav- ing a greater, positive impact on the logistics industry, but also other service driven industries. Meanwhile, I look back on dozens of successfully completed projects and countless encounters with wonderful people. Preface XI This book is the distillation of my knowledge, my experience gathered in practice, and my ideas regarding sales in the logistics industry. My intention is to inspire you in your thinking and acting, and to enable you to make even better decisions. Therefore, I will deliberately evolve the know-how to a how-to …, that is, what actually matters in practical implementation. The structure of the book is quickly explained. First, we focus on strategic topics, such as renewing the strategy and business model, and then move on to tactical topics, such as immediately implementable efficiency improvements, recruiting and cross-selling techniques. I am particularly concerned with the top- ics of leadership and talent search and also address the question of how to keep high potentials. You, dear reader, have a really challenging task ahead of you: transforming and shaping a sales organization that has been largely static for decades into a hybrid and perhaps even into a digital organisation one day. I am wishing you that this book will be a valuable companion on this journey! Düsseldorf, Alexander Nowroth December 2022
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