Success Stories
7 min read
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John Apfel
Super Content Writer
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DSV, a global provider of transport and logistics solutions, offers services in road, air, sea, and contract logistics. As one of the leading global entities in the freight-forwarding industry, DSV operates in over 80 countries, meticulously managed by a diverse array of teams and departments within the logistics company.
One of these departments, the Export Operation Department, including the Air Export and Ocean Export teams, plays an essential and demanding role in pricing customer inquiries and rate management. They are responsible for the entire pricing and quoting process, a task that requires a substantial amount of resources and data (including spot rates, tariffs, different cost elements, and detailed information for each shipment option) to ensure accuracy and competitiveness for this customer. Those customers include the biggest exporter and importers, manufacturers as well as e-commerce brands.
Shay Daniel, the Team Lead of the Air Export team, and Michelle Dayan, one of the team members, are at the heart of this intricate operation, handling hundreds of customer inquiries each week.
When reflecting on the main challenges their team faced in sales and customer relationship management, Shay and Michelle highlighted three significant issues:
“To produce a single price quote, we had to juggle between dozens of browser tabs and Excel sheets," Michelle explains. "Our pricing and sales process was emotionally draining”, Shay admits, “It was a complex mission that required an exhaustive manual review of countless different parameters.”
“Our existing transport management system was not designed to cater to the specific needs of sales teams, and lacked the necessary tools to assist in pricing management, the quotation process and the visibility over it all. This led to low productivity and high employee burnout.”
Shay points to the dynamic nature of spot prices as another complexity. Given the vast volume of information and the high-pressure work environment:
“It was impossible for us to keep track of the frequent price changes. Each team member developed their own routine for which carriers and rates to check when creating a price quote, which often resulted in overlooked pricing opportunities.”
“Another recurring issue in our team's workflow was the frequent human errors," Michelle highlights. "We often found ourselves engaged in back-and-forth communications with clients and carriers, collecting additional information we initially forgot to ask for or trying to cover for our mistakes”. “And that was the best-case scenario," Shay adds, "In worse scenarios, overlooked or miscalculated cost elements in our quotations led to financial losses for our company”.
Struggling with complex quotations, tenders, and rate management processes, DSV’s Air Export team turned to Monada's CRM for a solution. To ensure the successful adoption of Monada, a tailored rollout plan was devised. Shay led the way as the first user, setting an example for the team. The plan incorporated a comprehensive training kit including two virtual training sessions led by Monada’s team, a dedicated chat group for immediate assistance, and a set of custom price quote templates to streamline the process. Positive reinforcement was provided via weekly performance reports sent to management, which underscored the team's success. This comprehensive approach led to quick adoption and sustained engagement, even amongst those initially less inclined to adopt new technologies. As Shay recalls, "When even the more resistant team members started using Monada, I knew we had nailed it."
Shay reflects on how adopting Monada's platform utterly transformed their way of work. "Monada brought all the rate information we needed into one centralized platform. Our once chaotic sales process is now smooth and streamlined."
Strike while the iron is hot is imperative. If a customer asks for a quote, getting it to them quickly to reinforce their decision can increase win rates and revenues drastically.
"Before Monada, generating a quote was a laborious task that could take hours. Now, it's a swift, straightforward procedure that takes us just 2 minutes per quote on average," Michelle shares. Shay points out that the data regarding team performance, also produced by Monada’s platform, supports this observation: "Each team member now generates an average of 28 quotes per day, compared to the 3-5 before Monada.
The team experienced a standout benefit in the form of access to real-time spot rates. Monada’s rate management platform integrates spot rates from public sources, allows the team to upload tariffs and presents the most up-to-date prices. Shay notes, "Every team member now sees all rates in one place, as part of the quotation process, and in relation to specific shipment details and desired routes. Personal work procedures are a thing of the past."
Michelle explains how Monada’s platform enables the team to experiment with different combinations of carriers and freight management options: “We can now tailor our offerings to best match our clients' priorities, be it route, price, or delivery time." This strategic approach has significantly improved the team’s competitiveness, leading to more successful deals and larger profit margins.
Michelle shares her favorite feature, making the biggest impact on the day-to-day of the team:
“It was incredible to see how implementing the platform allowed our team to elevate some of its features to a whole new level. Shay saw the opportunity to further optimize our team's process by taking advantage of Monada’s custom price quote templates features, clearing a major part of a tiring responsibility of our hands.”
Shay notes: "With these templates, we ensure that no crucial piece of information is overlooked."
Each template was meticulously designed by Shay, encompassing all necessary parameters that must be taken into account during the quoting process. Michelle underscores how these templates guide team members, ensuring they never miss asking a vital question, collecting relevant information, or considering any cost element. "The impact of these templates on our process was transformative," she concludes.
"In our industry, the ability to efficiently and accurately price and generate quotes can make or break a deal," Shay emphasizes. "Monada has helped us transform what used to be a daunting process into an efficient, error-free task that has boosted our team's productivity and profitability." Michelle agrees, "The improvement has been phenomenal. We couldn't imagine going back to our old system."
