Table Of ContentAlexander 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
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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
