Along with the spread of the new COVID-19 pandemic world-wide, the common traditional working methods and sales channels stop functioning. Paper-based personal manual work-flows and sales via show-rooms or shops will be temporarily out of scope, personal meetings with sales reps are not welcome. This situation requires from us a changed mind-set and forces us to re-think our existing business models and take some new actions in order to ensure the vital incomes for the society.
In case the basic functions of a building material trading company are operating (management, warehouse, financing, book-keeping, order management, IT, etc.) – even some parts through out-sourced services or from home office – and both the suppliers, logistics companies and the end-user clients completing the installations at the local sites are able to perform their jobs, there is a way to keep the flow of goods and cash-flow.
Once people are not able to go personally to the points of sales (as most of them must keep closed), more and more people must think about to order the goods on-line with direct shipment to the final destination where these materials are used. As the international transportation (at least inside the EU) must be maintained in order to ensure the needs of the households and keep the economy of the countries functioning, in most cases (where no total quarantines are imposed) it is allowed to ship to goods to their final destinations.
- Through an on-line platform (either through a web-shop or other type of) order management system available for the clients or via phone sales of your staff you are able to collect the orders.
- The proper functioning of the transportation system of the incoming and outgoing products is a key factor in the current situation.
- Next task is to ensure the flow of goods i.e. reception, unloading, storage, commissioning and loading of the products, by setting your own rules to protect your workers from a possible infection. You have to minimize the possible contacts and use prevention healthcare equipment wherever necessary.
- Additional administration work must be carried out to complete the processes and the proper flow of information is a key factor.
- The collection of payments and maintaining the necessary cash flow position of the companies has an increasing importance in daily life.
Normal lead time and transit times are the past, all parties should calculate with longer waiting queues and all the orders must be handled with bigger flexibility. Might happen that temporarily some products will be lacking, therefore alternative substitution products have to be offered or clearly mark if temporarily unavailable. The prices of some products of higher demand may also increase due to the higher related costs and lower availability.
All this information has to be clearly communicated to the end-users to avoid further misunderstandings. Building and maintaining trust has a key psychological impact on our daily operations, it should be promoted wherever possible.
Keep calm and start to re-think your business model today!