3 min

The right mix of advice for a complex industry

Intralogistics has become increasingly complex and good advice more crucial. KION brand STILL has recognized the potential here and has been busy expanding its business activities in areas related to industrial trucks. One example of how the Hamburg-based company has achieved this goal is its new workshop and training center for warehouse equipment including pallet trucks, pallet stackers and the self-driving horizontal order picker, the iGo neo. We talked to Sascha Jordan, who oversees sales training at STILL.

2017-03-01

STILL is expanding its truck-related business activities and is offering more business services. What made this change necessary?

Our customers value us because of our premium products. However, in the future, they will expect even more from us as a business partner. Going forward, it will be necessary to offer a range of services beyond our trucks. We need to offer suitable financing options and provide our customers with rental options as well as the required rental fleet at short notice to cover seasonal peaks on demand, or analyze and optimize the entire material flow.

No one is more involved in customer processes than our customers themselves. We can take a step back and see the bigger picture. We can pass on our expertise and help them to improve their processes. By helping them in advance to make the right decision when it comes to the truck, the service and the process, we are clearly positioning ourselves as a partner and not just as a supplier.

"Our customers value us because of our premium products. However, in the future, they will expect even more from us as a business partner."

Sascha Jordan

Coordinator, Sales Training, STILL

When did STILL begin offering these business services and what does the company want to achieve with this?

Business services have always been important, which is clear from our 'Partnerplan'. It shows the full range of products and services we offer. Customers can use this to learn all about our trucks and also to get more details about our aftersales and other services as well as to discover a wide range of financing options. We now know that our customers are increasingly requesting more information about our business services. Take the classic example of financing: in the past, trucks were generally bought or financed, while today, leasing now plays an essential role.

What other types of consulting do you offer besides financing?

We discuss with our customers what truck should be deployed when, but we also analyze the customer's entire material flow. It requires us to look very closely at fleet capacity utilization. Does the customer actually deploy its entire fleet? Is the fleet used to full capacity? Can we increase capacity utilization by doing without certain trucks, or by using different trucks instead? We evaluate the data and information and can then provide advice on how to optimize the fleet.

Another key issue is lithium-ion batteries. Though it is still a fairly new drive technology in our industry, it is causing customers to change the way they think and, going forward, our sales people will increasingly need to provide advice on energy management. As a partner, we must be able to address our customer's challenges.

It creates the need for additional business services, namely training courses and workshops for customers. We can make our expertise available and help them to understand their processes even better. It might involve training courses on trucks and their general application areas so that the customer understands what options are actually available in our industry. Or it might be specific training topics targeting individual customer challenges.

The workshop and training center for Class 3 trucks and the iGo neo is a new service. Why was it built?

Our warehouse trucks and our self-driving horizontal order picker, the iGo neo CX 20, can be tested at the workshop and training center by customers and by our sales people using the most realistic conditions possible. Since September 2016, we have had a hall space of 1,300 sq meters (nearly 14,000 sq ft) available for this very purpose. We also have seminar rooms next door where we can hold workshops and trainings.

Talking or reading about a new product is one thing, but experiencing it first hand is something else completely and it applies both to our customers as well as our sales people. Having the workshop and training center means that we can offer the perfect combination of theoretical knowledge and practical experience.