Virtual Selling

36Selling Invisible Trucks

It was 2008, deep in the middle of the global financial crisis. With the economy crashing, the large transportation and logistics company needed to rapidly reduce the size of its commercial truck fleet. This meant decommissioning trucks and putting them up for sale.

At that time, the organization offloaded its used trucks to wholesalers. The challenge was that wholesale prices for used commercial trucks were plummeting while, the number of trucks that it (and other large fleets) needed to offload was increasing.

It was here, facing the cruel head winds of supply and demand economics, that Jack and Bob found themselves between a rock and a hard place. Jack and Bob were responsible for moving used trucks out of company’s massive fleet, as fast as possible and profitably.

With wholesalers offering pennies on the dollar and the pressure mounting to get the used trucks off of the books, they were running out of time and options. If they let the trucks sit until the market improved, the cash that was sorely needed would be wrapped up in the equipment. If they sold the equipment on the wholesale market, the losses would be massive.

They quickly realized that the only way out of this pickle was to shift their focus away from the wholesale market. Instead, they would sell the trucks directly to retail customers where they'd have more control of prices and profits.

Going direct to retail, though, created a whole new set of problems. Direct selling was a completely ...