Chapter 9
Whiteboard Case Study
Organizations we work with view their whiteboards as competitive assets and consider them to be highly confidential, so it was difficult to get permission to share them in this book. Therefore, we've created a case study of an imaginary company so we can demonstrate the various whiteboard types in a real-world scenario. The case study business is a refrigerated truck company named Cool Road Trucking. Why have we selected such a seemingly obscure example? Whiteboarding can apply to any organization in any industry selling any products, solutions, and services that have complexity, expense, and deliver significant business value. With the Cool Road case study, we can show the important whiteboard ingredients that are core to the whiteboard selling methodology. The case study is as realistic as possible, but we admit we are no refrigerated trucking experts!
Let's look at some of the key facts about Cool Road and their capabilities. We will use these as examples in the whiteboard templates that we cover in this section.
Company Name: Cool Road Trucking
Cool Road Trucking is the number-three US provider of temperature-controlled trucking capacity. They offer the most technologically advanced fleet of refrigerated equipment, plus a broad network of product handling hubs and consolidation points to ensure the highest levels of on-time delivery and customer satisfaction. Cool Road even offers product sourcing to ensure economies of scale and smooth transition from supplier to end customer.
Cool Road offers refrigerated capacity for pharmaceuticals, confectionary products, dietary products, beverages, healthcare bio-products, and of course, food products. For the purposes of the case study, Cool Road's customer will be a chain of food stores called Foody's Fresh Foods that receives supplies of produce.
Cool Road's Unique Capabilities
Cool Road is differentiated from the competition in a number of ways, and the company trains its sales force to clearly demonstrate how its broad solution is unique in the market.
Full Life Cycle Services
Cool Road doesn't only offer access to a huge fleet of refrigerated trucks; it also provides one of the largest networks of shipment collection points and hubs designed specifically for refrigerated payloads. To ensure rapid resolution of equipment problems and road incidents, the company chooses not to outsource customer service, tracking and monitoring, equipment maintenance, or emergency services. Cool Road also provides end-product sourcing services to cut out the middlemen and ensure consistency of product handling and speed of delivery. This approach provides lower cost “from field to store.” Cool Road is differentiated from trucking companies and suppliers that also provide nonrefrigerated cargo, rail capacity, and even shipping containers. A laser focus on refrigerated payloads and surrounding services is what makes Cool Road unique.
One Point of Contact
To support this full life cycle approach, Cool Road provides a single point of contact for all issues related to sourcing, delivery, and monitoring. When any questions arise related to delivery status, product quality, or sourcing terms, customers can contact a dedicated account manager assigned to each customer. The benefit is faster problem resolution and customer satisfaction.
Nationwide Network
Cool Road offers one of the largest networks of temperature-controlled hubs and collection points, with 118 hubs in 36 states. This provides LTL (Less Than Truckload) capability, which enables the collection of smaller refrigerated freight shipments from more suppliers using smaller trucks, and then consolidating those shipments at hubs for transfer to fully loaded semis. Competing carriers offer FTL (Full Truck Load) only, which limits flexibility and leads to delays and increased spoilage, not to mention higher fuel costs.
TempTrust
Most refrigeration control systems are bolted onto existing semis, but Cool Road's temperature control units are built into their equipment to ensure superior temperature control from supplier to destination. These systems are powered by TempTrust technology, which immediately adjusts temperature based on climate changes without driver intervention. Competing solutions simply provide alarm systems that require drivers to manually raise or lower temperature, which leads to delayed and incorrect adjustments.
CleanCool
For customers looking to be “greener,” Cool Road offers CleanCool technology, which not only increases efficiency by reducing the energy needs of the cooling systems (leading to cost savings), it also limits emissions of dangerous chemicals and other toxic compounds typical of competing cooling units. Emission reduction levels are measured and tracked for the purpose of benchmarking against industry averages and to comply with regulations.
The Cool Road Advantage
In summary, Cool Road is a lower risk, proven, and more innovative refrigerated trucking solution than any other on the market. Analysts and press agree, as Cool Road was recently awarded FridgeRoad Magazine's number-one rating, and a RideCold Rating Top Pick.
The majority of the whiteboard templates and examples we share in the following sections are modeled on the Cool Road case study.
Foody's Fresh Food's Current Situation and Challenges
Foody's Fresh Food is Cool Road's prospect in the imaginary sales scenario. A national food store chain undergoing significant growth, Foody's is opening a new store each month across the United States. The chain is seeking to compete with, and steal market share from, premium brands that offer a broader mix and higher quality selection of fresh produce, meat, and seafood. Meanwhile, cost cutting measures are under way to increase profit and shareholder value, requiring competitive pricing and special terms from all suppliers and vendors. To compete, Foody's needs to reduce produce spoilage rates and decrease field-to-store times.
Now let's take a look at the different whiteboard types using the Cool Road case study as an example.