How to win jobs AND earn your customers trust.

Posted on December 11, 2020

Winning projects isn’t always easy – every good sales person knows this. Sometimes it is about price, availability, timeframe, but often it’s not. It could be down to the relationship between the business and client or even solely reputation. Either way, the process isn’t a tick box exercise.

However, our recent win with a huge cheese manufacturer solidified to us exactly what it is that makes Storepro stand out as the preferred supplier in the racking industry. After looking back at the reasons we won this job we wanted to share this with our customers, so that in the future there won’t be any doubt in your mind as to who will be raising the level of your business!

UNDERSTANDING THE BUSINESS

The client came to us with a design in mind, however was unsure of what they were really looking for. They gave us a certain amount of pallet spaces that fitted in with their brief and we worked towards this, but also gave another option for them to consider. Once presenting this to the client, our sales manager, Gerard, could see that the client wasn’t quite sure of the information he had, nor what he was asking for from us. After many detailed, in-depth conversations around the business and what the client really wanted to get out of this racking design, Gerard could offer something much more catered to the clients business needs.

COLLABORATION

After discussion around the business, Gerard asked our client what he would want if he could ‘wave a magic wand.’ This gave us the opportunity to really understand what the client was looking for as opposed to what he had come up with himself design-wise, especially as he wasn’t experienced with racking layouts or systems. The client had been discussing the project with some of our competitors, however felt that they were unwilling to provide as much detail or as many options as Gerard did. Instead of basing the design on which type of forkhoist they would be using, Gerard discussed several factors that would play a part in the success of the warehouse: flow, forkhoists, operational efficiencies, warehouse management systems and ROI.

TRUSTED ADVISOR

Looking at the space the client had and the amount of pallet spaces they required, Gerard brought a complete other option to the table; automated shuttle racking. Himself and our shuttle specialist, Marc attended meetings with the clients team and presented the benefits of shuttle and how it would provide for more efficiency to their warehouse operations. At this point, Storepro had still not presented a price for the new, proposed design, yet the client was now looking at a completely different project compared with the design initially brought to us.

GOING THE EXTRA MILE

Still without confirmation that the job would be ours, Gerard received calls from the clients contracted builder. They had been given Gerard’s contact details and instructed to talk to him about the pallet loadings and engineering specifics that would need to be consider for the building process. Gerard kept the customer at the heart of all his decisions throughout the process, and was pleased to be able to provide the necessary details and for Storepro to be known as the team that they would be working with; another identifier as to why our client did choose us for this job.

Now having been given the green light for this large project, we are really happy with how our knowledge and experience played a part in securing our client. Bringing the design to us, we could have easily offered a price and left it at that. However, Gerard took the time to build a relationship with the client, understand his needs along with what he truly wanted out of his investment, and after careful consideration, presented the best option specifically for him. We want to be our customers number 1 choice every time they have a racking project proving we are small enough to care, yet big enough to deliver.