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ou position yourself and how you are perceived in the market. Doing the same or similar activities better than petitors. Management toolssuch as benchmarking, partnering, reengineering and change management, for exampleare means that let panies reduce costs and achieve performance improvements. They are necessary to sustaining petitiveness. But they can also be temporary achievements, as petitors work to mimic programs that work. Strategy is how you differentiate your pany in the marketplace. It is what makes you unique and separates you from the petition. Positioning can reflect the customers you target, the type of service you provide or a blend of customers and service. For example, a strategy can be based on all importers and providing onestop shopping. A strategy can be sliced for importers who bring in less than 500 containers per year。s success and so should the 3PL. These executives can break the pany from its modity service origins into being a value service provider. Research the market. For your marketing plan, you need to understand your market. Depending on your market position you may be looking for general or specific information as to opportunities or issues, with the market or with you. Define the market。 who are they。 what decisions are made。 and how are you perceived as pared to petitors. Learn if you are visible in this market. And remember, customers are both new and existing, with changing needs. Assess your capabilities. This is a moment of truth. You must honestly assess your strengths and weaknesses, your capabilities and limitations. This applies to all parts of your pany, regardless of whether corporate office, division or field locations or partners/alliances and regardless whether domestic or international. The checklist of topics includes: Look at your structure as to vertical, horizontal or matrix. It should reflect the usual anization reporting arrangement. And, more importantly, it should support the means to providing a dynamic, ongoing logistics service with successful results. Skill sets. You want to establish yourself as a supply chain service solution provider, someone who will develop a tailored logistics program to fit the specific needs of each customer. Solution providers see the containerand more. They see pallets of productand more. They know it is about the process, not the container or pallet. 3PLs initially focus on investing in assets, warehouses and technology, without knowing how these fit into 3PL solutions. This approach 3PL primer for business success constructs answers without knowing the questions. Rather, the successful 3PL sells, design and manages customized logistics in an international or domestic venue. The issue then bees whether existing personnel are capable of selling logistics and supply chain solutions. A holistic sales approach is needed for 3PLs than for modity service providers. Commodity sales personnel often deal with the customer perspective of the need to manage costs. Yet the customer has additional accountabilities. 3PL sales personnel need to address the customer39。 they know that preserving petitive advantage is an ongoing challenge. At a pany that does not oper