DSV’s goal has always been to grow faster than the market and in doing so to gain market shares. This strategy has been achievable in most cases and should also be possible in the future.
DSV can provide services and solutions that only the biggest players can effectuate. We should be able to take market shares from other, smaller players.
At DSV, we have almost a million customers in our database, but far from all the orders issued by these customers end up with DSV. Some customers do not wish to put all their eggs in one basket. Others do not realise that we are also competitive in airfreight and sea freight, because they have used us only for road transport – or vice versa. We must become better at cross-selling, i.e. conducting sales across divisions, because there is enormous potential in increasing our business with customers who already know us and who know we can “deliver the goods”.
Not just the biggest fish…
Our focus on the needs of both existing and prospective global customers with our new, bolstered global and regional sales efforts should not be misinterpreted to mean that we are only interested in the biggest fish in the sea. Although this specific effort targets our global customers, we also have a wide range of initiatives aimed at small and medium-sized customers who have always and will always account for a large share of DSV’s business. Consolidating our global commercial activities will generally boost DSV and our way of interacting with customers, new products, etc., and it will benefit all types of customer. At the same time, we give high priority to continuing to strengthen the indispensable local sales work that must go hand-in-hand with global initiatives.
Boosting the skills
We have more than 1,500 sales reps in the individual countries. In addition, many other employees (forwarding agents, middle managers and supervisors) are indirectly involved in sales. We will boost the skills of these employees so they can match our customers’ requirements at any time and offer logistics solutions which involve all the intelligent new tools and possibilities brought about by development. We will challenge our customers’ supply chain and be their consultants and team players – not just passive suppliers.
New website – an important tool
At the same time, we are intensively working to incorporate the latest technology so our sales reps and forwarding agents actually have time to be involved in sales, service and customer relationship management – instead being burdened with routine tasks and canvassing. Our new website www.dsv.com plays a key part in achieving this purpose. It not only gives us a new facelift, but is also an important tool for serving our customers even more efficiently and getting to know them even better.
Best regards,
Jens Bjorn Andersen
Excerpts from the editorial of Moves 04/2013.