An international container shipping company achieved 350% ROI in just 11 months!!

One of the world’s largest (large both by fleet size and cargo capacity) container shipping companies, offers regular services to 374 ports in 116 countries. They realised that their containers started arriving late as often as they were on time. The industry’s 50-year-old protocol of reaching destination ports in time was no longer the same and was letting customers down. The shipping company introduced a solution to resolve this but unfortunately the company’s salespeople were not able to effectively articulate the solution’s value.

The shipping company engaged with Shipleywins’ “Solution Selling” and “Sales Process Optimization” training programs which positively impacted their customer conversations.

Overview

An international container shipping company and the largest operating subsidiary in the shipping business offers regular services globally to 374 ports. The shipping company identified industry issues, introduced scheduled guarantees for products to reach destinations ports and improved commoditised shipping standards.

After training their Salespeople in programs like “Solution Selling” and “Sales Process Optimization” offered by Shipleywins, it helped change their customer conversations and could build customer-relationships needed to move deals forward.

Customer Introduction

The world’s biggest container shipping company and the largest operating subsidiary of the business group. Renowned for its on-time delivery to 374 destination ports across 116 countries worldwide. It is recognised as the world’s largest container shipping company by both fleet size and cargo capacity.   

Problem

The shipping company realised that the industry’s 50-year-old protocol was letting customers down. Containers arrived late as often as they were on time. The market was eroding, and shipping was commoditised to the point where companies were competing at the lowest price without regard for good service. The company introduced a solution where ships would leave the same port at the same time every day, with a 95 percent guarantee that products would arrive on schedule. Unfortunately, the company’s salespeople were not able to effectively articulate the value the company could bring to their customers or build the relationships needed to move deals forward.

Solution by Shipleywins

To achieve a 5% EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) over the competitors and enhance market share, the shipping company line sought to shift 2,000 sales representatives from commodity-based to value-based selling. Shipleywins’ solution helped train them with a curriculum emphasising structured preparation, addressing customer needs, and presenting differentiated value.

Results & Benefits

To improve their sales, the Shipping Line partnered with Shipleywins’ Sales Excellence & Learning and Development teams to create a new sales training curriculum. The training focused on preparation, understanding customer pain points, engaging with senior stakeholders, and presenting differentiated value propositions. The initiative included a built-in approach to measuring impact to identify successful areas and sectors for improvement. By doing so the shipping company’s salespeople were able to effectively articulate the value and learned to build better customer relationships.