Sales Process Guideline

Nomenclature

Term	Definition
BD	Business Development
BDM	Business Development Manager
CRM	Customer Relationship Management (system)
WMS	Westlink Management System

Purpose

This guideline sets out the process, responsibilities and guidelines for the sale of Westlink Logistics’ services. It is the consolidated sales reference for the Westlink Management System (WMS) and the single source for how Westlink identifies, qualifies, engages, converts and retains clients for its engineered-logistics and engineering-consultancy services.

Scope

This guideline applies to all Westlink personnel, employees and contractors engaged in business development and the sale of Westlink’s services. The sales process and guidelines in this document include, but are not limited to:

• the market offering and the niche Westlink targets — project logistics and engineering services to the defence, mining and energy sectors;

• the definition of a customer and the target project-value range that qualifies an opportunity;

• the workflow stages — prospecting, lead generation, customer engagement, opportunity, close and execution;

• lead qualification, the introduction meeting, relationship development and the opportunity management process; and

• the marketing approach and the customer relationship management (CRM) system used to record and progress prospects and opportunities.

Pricing of a quoted solution, contracting and the operational delivery of a won project are governed by the related commercial and operational procedures and are outside the scope of this guideline.

Market Offering and Customer

Market Offering and Niche

Westlink is an engineered-logistics business — an asset-light multimodal project-logistics integrator and engineering consultancy. It targets a niche of complex, high-value project freight and engineering scopes that generalist freight forwarders are not equipped to deliver, principally across the defence, mining and energy sectors. The sales effort is directed at clients with project cargo and engineering requirements that suit this capability rather than at routine, commoditised freight.

Definition of a Customer

A customer is an organisation with a current or foreseeable project freight or engineering requirement that falls within Westlink’s target project-value range and capability. Total Project Value (TPV) is the total cost of the customer’s project — engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning and management — not just the logistics scope. Successful Westlink sales have typically been for projects with TPVs between AUD$1M and AUD$200M; as a rule of thumb the logistics cost is around 10% of TPV, which also serves as an order-of-magnitude estimate of gross revenue for the sale. Projects above this range are usually dominated by global freight forwarders and carry unacceptable commercial risk (liquidated damages, performance bonds, onerous payment terms); projects below it are generally freight-forwarding jobs rather than engineered logistics. Sales outside the range are still pursued selectively — small breakthrough or test engagements for new accounts, small high-margin logistics scopes, and very large programs where Westlink ingenuity offers a unique value-adding solution. Qualifying an organisation as a customer — rather than a general contact — is the purpose of the lead qualification stage in Section 5.

Stakeholders

Within a target organisation, the relevant stakeholders typically include the project or logistics manager who owns the requirement, the procurement or contracts function that runs the buying process, and the technical or engineering authority that assesses Westlink’s solution. The sales effort identifies and develops relationships with each of these stakeholders, not a single contact.

Responsibilities

Business Development is responsible for the sales process — building and working the target list, qualifying leads, developing client relationships and managing opportunities to close. Winning and delivering profitable work also depends on the Operations, Technical and Chartering teams, who shape and price the solution, and on the Chief Executive Officer, who owns the commercial strategy and approves the pursuit of major opportunities.

Business Development

Business Development owns the client interface and the pipeline. Its responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• building and maintaining the target-client list;

• identifying and contacting the relevant stakeholders in each target;

• recording prospects, contacts, activities and opportunities in the CRM system;

• qualifying or disqualifying leads against the customer definition;

• conducting introduction meetings and developing client relationships;

• managing qualified opportunities through the opportunity management process to close; and

• maintaining the marketing communication plan and the regular-consultation cycle with retained clients.

Operations, Technical and Chartering

Operations, Technical and Chartering support Business Development by assessing the feasibility of a prospective scope, shaping the logistics and engineering solution, and providing the operational and freight inputs needed to price and present a competitive offer. They are engaged once an opportunity is qualified and a solution is required.

Chief Executive Officer

The Chief Executive Officer owns Westlink’s commercial strategy, sets the target markets and approves the pursuit of major opportunities and any non-standard commercial terms. As the executive accountable for business development at Westlink, the CEO is the owner of this guideline.

Sales Process

The sales process runs through six workflow stages — Prospecting, Lead Generation, Customer Engagement, Opportunity, Close and Execution. The decision logic within these stages follows the sales process flow: a prospect is identified and captured, qualified or disqualified, engaged through an introduction meeting and developed into a relationship, then managed as an opportunity to close, with retained clients kept warm through a structured communication cycle. Each stage is described below.

The canonical, interactive version of this sales process is the flowchart published on the Westlink intranet at /wms/process-overview (select ‘Sales Process’). The stages described in this section are the controlled text representation of that flowchart. If this section and the interactive flowchart ever differ, the flowchart prevails and this document must be updated.

Stage 1 — Prospecting

Prospecting builds and maintains the target-client list. Business Development researches the defence, mining and energy markets to identify organisations with project freight or engineering requirements that suit Westlink’s capability, and identifies the relevant stakeholders within each — the requirement owner, the procurement function and the technical authority. Each target and contact is captured in the CRM system so that activity against it can be planned and tracked.

Stage 2 — Lead Generation

Contact and CRM Capture

Business Development makes contact with the identified stakeholders and records the contact, the organisation and the initial activity in the CRM system. The CRM is the single record of the prospect and the basis for all subsequent qualification and opportunity tracking.

Lead Qualification

Each lead is qualified against the definition of a customer — does the organisation have a current or foreseeable requirement within Westlink’s target project-value range and capability? The outcome is a decision:

• Qualify — the lead meets the customer definition and proceeds to customer engagement; or

• Disqualify — the lead does not currently meet the definition. It is recorded in the CRM and, where there is future potential, added to the marketing list for nurture rather than discarded.

Stage 3 — Customer Engagement

Introduction Meeting

A qualified lead is progressed to an introduction meeting, at which Westlink presents its capability and seeks to understand the client’s requirement, buying process and decision criteria in detail. The meeting and its outcomes are recorded in the CRM.

Follow-up and Relationship Development

Following the introduction meeting, Business Development maintains contact and develops the relationship across the relevant stakeholders, building Westlink’s standing as a credible provider ahead of a specific requirement crystallising. Where no immediate opportunity exists, the client is placed on the structured communication cycle so the relationship is sustained.

Stage 4 — Opportunity

When a client has a defined requirement, the qualified lead becomes an opportunity and enters the opportunity management process. Business Development engages Operations, Technical and Chartering to assess feasibility and shape the logistics and engineering solution, and manages the opportunity through the CRM — capturing scope, value, decision date, competitors and the actions required to win. The opportunity is progressed through the buying process to a submitted offer.

Stage 5 — Close

The opportunity is brought to a decision. A won opportunity is handed to Operations for execution and the CRM is updated to reflect the outcome. A lost opportunity is recorded with the reason, and the client is retained on the communication cycle for future requirements. Major opportunities and any non-standard commercial terms are approved by the Chief Executive Officer before commitment.

Stage 6 — Execution

On a won opportunity, the requirement transfers from sales to delivery: the project is mobilised under the relevant operational procedures and Business Development hands over the client knowledge captured during the sale. Business Development remains the relationship owner and re-enters the client into the communication cycle so that performance on the won work feeds the next opportunity.

Communication Plan and Regular Consultations

Retained and nurtured clients are kept warm through a structured communication plan — a regular consultation cycle (for example on a rolling basis of approximately 60 days) supported by inclusion on the marketing list. The cycle keeps Westlink front of mind, surfaces new requirements early, and returns clients to the prospecting and opportunity stages as those requirements arise.

Marketing

Marketing supports the sales process by maintaining Westlink’s visibility with target and retained clients. The marketing list — built from disqualified-but-promising leads and from retained clients — is the basis for periodic communications that nurture relationships between active opportunities. Marketing activity is coordinated with the communication cycle in Stage 6 so that prospects receive consistent, relevant contact.

Applicable Standards and Legislation

The sales process is a controlled, customer-facing operation within the management system. The following standard applies to the sales process and to the determination and review of client requirements it performs.

• ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management Systems — Requirements — cl. 8.2 (requirements for products and services: customer communication, and the determination and review of requirements before commitment) and cl. 9.1.2 (customer satisfaction). Reviewing a client’s requirement before submitting an offer is the cl. 8.2.3 review performed at the opportunity and close stages.