Putting you in the sales pitcher
Page 47
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SELLING transport is just like selling bananas. Or any other consumer goods. So says Maurice Rounding in his 60page booklet Selling Freight Services (Freight Information Services, £5), and he sets out in the most practical terms to show how it can be done.
He first, though, explains why selling is so vital a function for a freight service and he makes his case persuasively.
One of the reasons, he maintains, why the selling of transport services has been so ineffective in the past has been the failure to, apply modern selling methods.
Another reason, he says, is the blind belief among hauliers that rates and a good service are allimportant and sufficient in themselves.
No so, according to Mr Rounding. Price is never the first or only consideration. Rates, he says, are "the red herring of the transport industry".
He argues that you should strive to make your service as different as possible from those of your competitors so that a direct comparison between rival services becomes impossible when decisions as to which service to use are being made.
His advice is to analyse minutely your company's strengths and weaknesses and then identify the features that can be turned to your advantage when selling your freight service. And he shows how this should be done.
The book is full of sound advice, as well as much practical information, and should be of value to all who play a part in the running of the transport industry.
A.J.P.
Freight Information Services Houghton Street Southport Merseyside P19 ONZ