Until recently, the strategic considerations of rail transport companies and a few inland terminal operators shaped the European intermodal market. This has changed dramatically in recent years, as an SCI study shows. Today, international logistics companies – in particular the large shipping companies – are entering the market in leaps and bounds and changing the intermodal industry at an unprecedented rate.
Serious drop in demand
VTG is also feeling the effects of this change. “Since last year, we have seen an serious drop in demand in the Intermodal asset segment,” says Tobias Rost, Business Development Manager Intermodal, in his assessment of the market development. ‘The capacity utilization of our pocket wagons for trailer transport alone has fallen by around 30 percent from mid-2023 to today,’ he describes. To counteract this development, the first initiatives were defined as early as the beginning of 2024.
In July, the “Intermodal Sales Push” project was launched. Under the project management of Guido Gazzola, future Head of Asset Segment Intermodal, and Tobias Rost, five colleagues developed a focused sales strategy with the support of VTG’s Strategy division and the management consultancy Kearney.
Rethink and adopt new ways of working in the sales organization
Based on the triad of
- a “sales push concept” (including specific campaigns),
- a cross-market sales exchange (including clear meeting and communication structures for the European markets),
- “tools & processes” (CRM-supported, including tracking and Q&A rounds),
the turnaround has been achieved in recent months.
“First of all, it was about understanding where we stand and how we need to realign our sales strategies to a changed market environment. Our markets have undergone a fundamental transformation from seller’s markets to buyer’s markets,” says Tobias. The CRM database was crucial to this. With a great deal of effort on the part of the sales team, the data quality was improved, massively expanded and the data was analyzed in detail. On this basis, a weekly monitoring of the business took place, from which concrete sales measures were derived.
“Thanks to the systematic collection and analysis of information about markets, competitors, customers, distribution channels and trends – in short, market intelligence – we now have a much better understanding of customer needs.”
“The focus was clearly on sales and not – as before – on inventory management,” explains Tobias, who joined VTG on November 1, 2023. The data quality has been improved so fundamentally that it currently also supports the budgeting process.
Keeping sight of our goals
The main goal was to do everything possible to maintain the market share. “To achieve this, we developed new offers such as ‘Pay per Load’, which offer the customer more flexibility, since only the wagons actually loaded in a train are billed.”
Thanks to the development of dynamic pricing, it is now possible to better take into account market fluctuations and developments. OpenAI database analyses have also been used to identify and acquire new customers. “By systematically collecting and analyzing information about markets, competitors, customers, sales channels and trends – in short, market intelligence – we now have a much better understanding of customer needs,” Tobias emphasizes.
Impressive achievements
The measures from the Intermodal Sales Push have significantly increased business potential within just a few months. “We have succeeded in concluding 110 contracts, renting almost 3,700 wagons and thereby winning back around 60 million euros in revenue,” says Tobias, providing an insight into the current success story. He expressed his sincere thanks to everyone involved in sales and the Intermodal Asset Segment, who, in addition to their normal day-to-day business, have shown great commitment to driving the sales push forward, as well as to his colleagues at Kearny.
What exactly is a lead?
Lead generation (prospecting) is a marketing term. A lead is a qualified contact with a prospect who is interested in a company or a product or who provides their address data (lead = data record) for further dialog and is therefore highly likely to become a customer.
Strategy transferred to day-to-day business
In the meantime, the new mindset and focused working methods have been transferred from the project environment to regular business operations. The lessons learned were shared with the other asset segments in parallel. “We are getting a little better every day together,” says Tobias happily.
Successes of the sales push:
100
leads generated
110
contracts concluded
around 3.700
wagons leased
around 60 million
euros in sales recovered
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Tobias Rost
A big thank you goes to everyone who has contributed here. The great commitment of the sales managers, the work in the Intermodal AND Bulk asset segments and the advice from Kearney deserve special mention. We are on a journey and I am looking forward to the next stages.