With technology changing ever so rapidly and clients becoming more demanding each day, it has become increasingly crucial for the successful equipment dealer to learn, understand and fulfill the needs and desires of their prospects and customers.

In this article, we will touch on several areas of consideration to help dealers offer more value-added solutions, and help clients purchase systems which are more suited to their needs.

As more intelligent companies realize the benefits and yearn to take advantage of automated systems, the manifest/shipping systems industry as we know it has been hurled into a never ending whirlwind of opportunity and constant improvement.

Early into the process, prospective clients often face a split in the road where they must make a basic decision. They must decide between using a generic, out-of-the-box system as may be supplied and owned by one of the larger overnight carriers or couriers (such as Fed-Ex, UPS, Etc.), or they may prefer to have a customized system built, installed and maintained by an independent distributor or mailing equipment supplier.

For several clients faced with such decisions, their options may quickly be limited. Failure to fulfill minimum volume or shipment frequency requirements may deny them the option of obtaining any of the independent systems loaned out by the larger carriers.

On the other hand, many of todays' more savvy businesses want the valuable flexibility, security, peace of mind and other benefits which naturally come with long-term ownership of a customized system. Even if they do qualify for a loaner.

One of the first items for the client to decide is whether they only want to utilize one carrier (the one who provides the loaner system if they choose to go that route). Many of the large carriers who loan these systems out either try to lock the user out of the system for other uses or strongly dissuade users from doing so.

Clients may not want their relationship with their carrier to have such strong control over whether they maintain possession and the ability to use the shipping system which they need and rely on each and every day.

Liability questions and concerns equally come into play. If other programs are installed in a loaner system's computer and then software conflicts, data loss or other problems are encountered, who is responsible for fixing the problem(s) and at what cost ?

The client may prefer being able to use the computer for other programs or to compare shipping options, pricing and delivery standards from several different carriers all on the same system (without having to take up a lot of wasted space with several different carriers' systems and computers). Many large carriers could discourage or prevent this type of use on their computer.

The client may also want to unconditionally utilize the manifest/shipping system computer for many other things and for security reasons, prevent others (including their carrier) from attaining access to them. The client should first decide whether they want to own a system, or just borrow one. Do they want the type of full administrative control over the system which they may not get as long as it belongs to someone else ? How much information about their company do they really want stored in someone else's computer ? While many clients do in fact tap into the "borrowed" systems, and use them for other purposes, ownership unequivocally provides unsurpassed feelings of security, sanctuary and control.

To get another experts' opinion, I called Mr. Jerry Raymond, CMDSM, President of Datamation Systems, a NJ based company and one of the first proactive integrators of customized shipping systems. In full agreement, Jerry reported that "The biggest complaint we hear from customers is that they are concerned about arrogant, inflexible carriers who provide a "free" system, but who will not work with them when they need to do something special." Jerry continued, "Many times, these customers cannot get internal computer resources to solve the problems themselves. A third party system protects them against carrier arrogance because they can use it for other carriers; it also gives them the independence and resources to address their own needs."

In order to intelligently design, choose or suggest the best automated system for any particular situation, you must first begin by gathering the necessary information from all of the parties which will be affected or served by the system installed. Both ends of the spectrum, as well as those in the middle should be considered when gathering your data and making your decisions.

It is wise to create a system which can be smoothly implemented as a valuable addition and improvement to the clients' existing processes, without their having to reinvent the wheel. While utilizing an appropriate manifesting and shipping system may in fact be very important to a business, remember that the clients primary objective is to promote and perform their core business function.

For instance, if the client is an Insurance Company, their main concern (and core business) is to sell insurance, not primarily to ship packages. While shipping out and tracking those big five-pound corporate/group policies may in fact be very important, the actual shipping portion of the process is not their main concern. The fact that they sold the big corporate account the policy refers to is!

With this in mind, the clients' overall operational processes as well as their corporate, long-term goals should be equally considered in order to design the best system for any particular situation.

Use the computer and resources available to you with a totally open mind and create solutions and tools for the people who tell you their preferences, desires, annoyances and "good" ideas.

When designing a system it is important to take into consideration how the information going through the system you build can be shared, viewed, accessed and printed by the many individuals and departments within the company who could benefit from taking advantage of such a customized system.

Following are a few brief examples of what I am referring to, in summary fashion. While each and every Consulting or Marketing assignment I perform is somewhat different, I offer some of the most common concerns frequently discovered within a wide cross section of client types. Informally listed are very common industry job titles or responsibilities, followed by samples of what should be considered when designing a custom system.

If an item or function mentioned is not currently part of the systems that first come to mind, they may in fact be excellent areas to consider when designing, customizing or improving a system.

Telemarketers/Salespeople/CSRs; May need fast access to see the differences between carriers, shipping options, timeframes or prices based on the order/weight desired, location of product to be shipped, inventory status, customer location, etc., when initially taking an order or working with a potential prospect.

Should a parcel or package have been delayed or had not yet arrived, the telemarketers/salespeople (remembering that they were the callers' "initial, familiar" contact), are often burdened by phone calls asking "where's the package/product I ordered". For this reason, status of a recently sent package should be made quickly accessible and viewable by this group.

Marketing professionals may benefit from access to shipping and receiving information and costs so that they could check for newly arrived (and possibly not yet stocked) inventory. This could allow them to make more accurate commitments to customers wishing to make a purchase or waiting to receive a shipment. The marketing department may also benefit from easily being able to access and download specific geographic, frequency or other buying-trend criteria or client information.

Finance/Bookeeping/Administrative individuals may require quick, easy viewing access or printed reports regarding information or costs associated with the entire companies activity for a particular timeframe, department, customer account or a specific order/shipment at any given time.

Hopefully these examples will help you to determine the types of considerations which must go into the correct fact-finding process which will enable the design and development of the best system for each unique situation.

The thought process and population interviewing methodology are both crucial elements for determining and designing actionable, accurate solutions.

Before considering specific elements and user capabilities to build into the system, ask each unique set of pertinent individuals within the clients' overall population enough appropriate questions to build a system which will solve their problems and satisfy the needs found within the business.

Scenario #1; Client (purchaser of a shipping system) request their telemarketing/sales reps to be able to quickly compare delivery standards (timeframes) and shipping costs between several different carriers (let's say Fed-Ex, UPS and USPS Express Mail) while the buying prospect is on the phone.

Let us pretend that it was Saturday morning and the caller would purchase a product if they could take delivery on Sunday.

If the telemarketers' custom shipping system was set up and designed with a built multi-vendor comparative analysis program, it could enable that rep to easily suggest USPS Express Mail as a beneficial "Sunday/365 Day a Year" delivery option, making it possible to get the order. Rather than the caller shopping around after being told "NO Sunday delivery possible" from someone who didn't have this feature in their system and didn't know about this handy USPS resource.

Scenario #2; Due to the company changing in size, they have decided to move the warehouse to a new location. Management wants to quickly send a "We're Moving - New Address" postcard to everyone that had shipped a package to the company over the past three years. The management would like to download (export) a file with all of the contact names, titles (in case the contact names and/or job positions have changed), company names and addresses to a disk in dbase or ASCII format to use for addressing the postcards.

If this option were possible from the system, it could conveniently help to facilitate a smoother move and the associated receipt and shipment of future packages, parcels, etc. It would save many people a lot of time and money and would greatly help the company overall. If this type of function was not possible, the postcard addressing process could be incomplete as well as extremely time consuming and tedious.

These are just a couple of small examples of how a custom system directly designed to fulfill the customers' overall current & future needs will by far surpass the less flexible and intelligent generic systems.

The key is to learn as much as you possibly can about the clients' business beforehand and then design a system that is extremely easy to use, handles their needs and makes their jobs easier, more controlled, accountable and profitable.

It is crucial to realize, understand and accept the fact that you will usually design a better, more appropriate manifest/shipping/mailing system after interviewing the right people inside the Sales, Marketing, Finance and Administrative departments of a company. Avoid making the common mistake of only working with the people in the Shipping/Receiving area when designing a system.

Keep in mind that Shipping/Receiving is frequently just a very important link at the end of the chain of the overall process. Shipping may be viewed by the customer simply as a costly chore, hassle or overall inconvenience which they are forced to put up with in order to sell their product or facilitate their employees/customers. It is not usually thought of as a fun, glamorous, money making entity.

By appreciating the shipping task or function accordingly, the goal of developing a system which will be a beneficial, fully integrated addition to the overall process which was developed to conduct the companies core (primary purpose, money making) business will be easier to accomplish. It is also important to remember that the finished system should be extremely user-friendly and easy to operate by a wide range of users. The client should not have to become a programmer or even know lower level DOS, UNIX or HTML commands in order to use it.

Anything that you can do to help make the shipping task easier, faster or less expensive will usually be highly appreciated if done and marketed the right way.

Without doubt, one of the most advantageous benefits of a good manifest/shipping system is the ability to quickly and easily import and export useful data to and from other programs, computers and systems within the organization. High end requirements such as PC to mainframe systems interface and information sharing/networking capabilities right down to some of the more basic functions like "Windows" cutting and pasting capabilities should not be forgotten or overlooked when designing or customizing a system.

One of my personal favorites to consider when designing a system is the implementation of voice recognition technology (whereby loading dock or office workers can actually speak voice instructions to the system with hands-free headsets as they move product, load or unload trucks, etc.). No typing is good typing when you can just talk instead! While these fascinating systems have been readily available and have been used by many for several years now, it still surprises me how relatively few businesses are actually taking advantage of this technology or even know about it.

Barcode & OCR scanning, labeling & marking technology, multi-monitor viewing, internal corporate network connectivity, Internet/Intranet/E-mail integration, security concerns, anti-virus protection, system back-up and restoration capabilities and custom report generation are also potential areas of consideration to design, build and supply a total solution for the long haul. Of course the more the client needs, the more options they should buy and the more the dealer can sell.

When it comes to pricing, sell the client on the real-life benefits and user-friendly aspects of the custom system you suggest. Make sure to justify the price you charge by specifically pointing out all of the ways that the system will save the client time and money and how many problems it will prevent, etc.Relate to actual cases and how YOUR system will make their job easier, and their operation better. Remind them of any disasters they may have encountered in the past (as discovered in your pre-design/pre-quote investigations) and explain how your system will avoid such occurrences.

Don't get too stuck on the technical aspects, quite often the clients don't care about them as much as you think. On the contrary, getting too technical with a client who doesn't understand can ruin deals by their getting embarrassed or confused.

Customization often requires a great deal of tedious and time consuming design planning and programing. In addition, you will need to require additional time to conduct your interviews to gather the information required to design/build the right system. Whether you conduct the initial interview/research project yourself, or hire a professional to do so (such as a Certified Consultant or Market Research Company for those really big accounts you want to land), you should always make sure to charge enough to make the sale desirable.

Don't sell yourself short when quoting. Sell a strong solution at a strong price (key word = sell). If you initially cave in on the price, you may find yourself later regretting having made the sale.

This sales remorse occurs most often when dealers weakly settle for a low price before realizing that they are going to have to spend much more time to build the system then was estimated.

One word of caution; dealers should be careful not to unveil their brainstorms and expensive ideas to a prospect unless they have carefully pre-qualified them first. Time is money and a small sale is usually better than no sale.

Make sure you don't get yourself into a corner by discussing customization with a client until you are somewhat sure they might actually be able to afford it. The last thing you want to do is tease a client who can't afford it (or justify it), and blow the sale of a more basic system from their not wanting to "settle" for the lesser model.

With the virtually unlimited amount of ideas, variations and options currently available to the creative systems designer, the monetary potential and associated work including maintenance, training, etc. makes this industry opportunity extremely lucrative if done right and offered to the appropriate market segments.