Follow us on Twitter!
Blog Header Logo
DG&A's Transportation Consulting Blog
Subscribe to this list via RSS Blog posts tagged in customer engagement

If your trucking company hasn’t been purchased or doesn’t get purchased by TransForce, will it be in business in five years?  That is the question that came up in a recent discussion with a long time industry colleague.  The response I received was that he didn’t think his company would survive.  I was a bit surprised by the response and asked him for an explanation.  This led to an interesting discussion on what it is going to take to make it in the trucking industry in 2014 and beyond.

We both agreed that while the trucking industry has changed in some ways over the past decade (e.g. more use of technology, better cost controls after the Great Recession, LNG vehicles, greater use of 3PLs as customers), the industry is not that much different from ten years ago.  The slow economic turnaround since 2008 has created a challenging environment and there is little reason to expect a major improvement in the short term.  Rate increases are hard to come by, even with a tight driver situation.  Even more of a concern is the lack of innovation in the industry and the threat that such changes could wreak on so many complacent companies.

The warning signs are there.  As a Canadian, you don’t have to look much further than Nortel and Blackberry to see what can happen to industry leaders that were not able to keep up with changing consumer needs and quality competitors.  At the same time, one can observe what companies such as Amazon and Apple have been able to do to change the paradigm of some long established industries. 

Some of the large trucking industry players are making investments in technology and people.  They are integrating back offices and focusing on achieving economies of scale.  They are thoughtfully expanding their service portfolios and geographic footprints. 

Some of the small players are offering solutions that are very tailored to certain industry verticals and geographic areas.  Companies that are focused on same day delivery, refrigerated intermodal service, pooled LTL service, energy distribution and other emerging capabilities are creating a space for themselves in the industry.

...
Hits: 11462
0
Continue reading 0 Comments

For the past week I have been reading with great interest the postings on the LinkedIn Sales Management Group.  As of the date of this blog posting, there have been over 40 responses to the question, “What advice would you give a new salesperson”?  The tips offered were so good that I thought I would share a “reader’s digest” version with the followers of this blog. 

As I read these suggestions on a daily basis, I see two sets of users for these tips.  First, new sales reps should study this list and make sure they take action on every item.  Second, sales managers should take this checklist and cross reference it with their current (and future reps) to ensure they maintain a winning team.  Here are my 21 favourite tips for the new rep.

  1. Achieve mastery of the services that you sell.
  2. Achieve mastery in sales skills.
  3. Seek out the top performers on your sales team and learn from them as to how they dress, their work ethic and their communication skills.
  4. Understand how your services compare with those of your competitors.  
  5. Be a great listener so you understand the needs of your prospects.  There is a good reason why we have two ears and one mouth.  Focus on understanding the needs of your customers so you can solve their problems. 
  6. Get to know your prospects before you turn them into customers.
  7. People buy from people, specifically people they like and trust.
  8. Prospect, prospect, prospect.
  9. Learn as much as possible about your customers.  The more due diligence you do up front, the easier it will be to close the sale at the end.
  10. Be persistent and consistent.  Success comes from a strong work ethic.
  11. Be passionate about your company and its services.
  12. Try to sell solutions rather than products or services.  Learn your company’s value proposition and where it fits best.  Sell the value of your solution, not price.
  13. Learn early on to distinguish buyers from non-buyers (i.e. lack of mutual fit/interest/resources, etc.).  This will go a long way towards increasing your income and your employer’s income while reducing customer acquisition costs.
  14. View yourself as a profit centre.  To be successful, time management is critical.  Spend your time, energy and resources on the most viable opportunities in your sales pipeline.
  15. Be ethical in all of your business.  Remember, you are selling your (and your company’s) credibility and integrity.  If you lose your integrity, you have nothing to sell.
  16. Invest in yourself.  Continually upgrade your product and business knowledge and your sales skills.
  17. At the end of the day, when all of the other sales reps have left the office, make one more call to a new prospect.
  18. Acquire a CRM tool and use it faithfully every day.
  19. If you are having difficulty in one or more areas of your sales pipeline, this is telling you that you have a weakness in specific areas (e.g. prospecting, obtaining appointments, asking for the sale). Take action to turn these weaknesses into strengths.
  20. While the sales job can seem very lonely at times, don’t forget sales is a team sport.  Work closely with your manager and the rest of your team (e.g. drivers, dispatchers) to achieve your goals.
  21. Always ask for the sale.  If you don’t ask, you may not get. 

I am sure there are many more tips that can be added to the list.  What advice would you give to new freight transportation sales rep?  I would love to hear from you.

 

This year’s Surface Transportation Summit will take place on October 16, 2013 at the Mississauga Convention Centre.   Please block out this date in your calendar.  We have some great speakers lined up for this year’s event.

Hits: 60303
0
1 Comment

In reviewing the 11th annual shippers choice awards in the current issue of Canadian Transportation & Logistics, I noted with interest that of the hundreds of carriers rated in the survey, only 57 were able to surpass the Benchmark of Excellence.  The magazine presents a number of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and lists the scores of the top ranked carriers, by sector (e.g. LTL, truckload etc.), along with the Benchmark scores.  Unfortunately, too many trucking companies are viewed as commodities and don’t measure up.  Being less positively viewed by shippers can make it difficult to achieve satisfactory pricing levels and as a by-product, satisfactory operating ratios.  The data highlights the importance of customer engagement, of being superior at meeting shippers’ needs.

Many companies bring their leadership and management teams together on a quarterly or annual basis to craft/update their budgets, strategies and business plans for the coming year.  In a recent McKinsey Quarterly report, prepared by consultants Tom French, Laura LaBerge and Paul Magill of McKinsey & Company, the writers suggest that many companies are fragmented in their approach to customer interaction and engagement.  The consultants offer a six step plan for superior customer engagement.

  1. Hold a Customer Engagement Summit

They suggest that the leadership teams in companies should hold a “customer engagement summit”.  They argue that senior managers, from all departments of the company, should look beyond the basic interactions that customers have with various departments.  The meeting should focus on developing strategies to motivate customers to invest in a continuing relationship with the company and its services.  In other words, companies should implement strategies that move shippers along the customer loyalty continuum.

      2. Focus on Three Factors

The writers outline three factors that should be addressed in formulating a customer engagement strategy.  First the company should construct a vision for how it wishes to build relationships with its customers.  Second, the company should craft an integrated and consistent strategy for interacting with customers across its various departments.  For a trucking company, the customer interactions with Sales, Customer Service, Dispatch and Claims should be in harmony.  Third there should be agreement on the components of the company’s customer engagement system that will be undertaken in-house or via its partners (e.g. beyond carriers, carrier partners, pick-up and delivery agents etc.).

...
Tagged in: customer engagement
Hits: 18765
0
Continue reading 1 Comment

Most Recent Posts

Search


Tag Cloud

digital freight matching dynamic pricing CN driver Freight Carriers Association of Canada capacity shortage asset management broker security pipelines Canada U.S. trade transportation newspaper Toronto Canadian freight market freight transportation in 2011 CN Rail 2014 freight forecast LTL Freight contracts Canadian Transportation & Logistics driver shortages Government marketing Leadership drones hiring process Canada's global strategy Amazon Broker Entrepreneur Infrastructure Toronto Maple Leafs home delivery Business skills dark stores Business Development USMCA Leafs freight payment Blockchain NMFC 3PL Grocery YRCW freight payment freight audit 3PLTL Sales Management MBA JB Hunt customer engagement ProMiles Wal-Mart Reshoring Right Shoring tanker cars Digitization Canada Colilers International shipping wine Career Advice Shipper Trump LCV's Hockey FCPC Otto Freight Capacity risk management transportation audit BNSF Job satisfaction CSA President Obama Microsoft Sales Strategy transportation news shipper-carrier contracts Fire Phone US Election ShipMax NCC small business Canadian economy Success failure entrepreneur Anti-Vax laptop Impeachment Schneider Logistics Doug Davis e-commerce 2014 freight volumes future of freight industry Freight General Motors Tracy Matura freight costs mentoring Inbound Transportation FMCSA Digital Freight Networks Transportation Buying Trends Survey KCS Doug Nix cyber security Swift USA Truck Horizontal Supply Chain Collaboration freight marketplace Ferromex small parcel Werner Business Strategy Business Transformation Strategy Conway Truckload Freight Shuttle System Software Advice Transport Capital Partners (TCP) Masters in Logistics CSX Montreal Canadiens carrier conference economy Yield Improvement Harper Davos speech Hudsons Bay Company last mile delivery Online grocery shopping Social Media in Transportation Comey TMS Loblaw Uber Freight coaching driver pay Climate Change rail safety 2013 Economic Forecast Scott Monty Trucker Protest freight cost savings automation Covid-19 Keystone Pipeline business security Warehousing Whole Foods freight audit freight transportation conference Deferred Packaging trucking company acquisitions 360ideaspace Railway Association of Canada truck capacity Twitter David Tuttle computer broker bonds Education Celadon Driving for Profit NAFTA bulk shipping shipping Sales Training intermodal fuel surcharge buying trucking companies IANA freight forwarders US Economy cars Freight Rates Driver Shortage online shopping freight rate increases Muhammad Ali computer security Adrian Gonzalez trade truck driver freight broker Canada-U.S. trade agreement YRC Consulting the future of transportation home delibery Carriers FMS Canadian truckers FCA business start-up APL consumer centric Rail truck drivers recession Transloading peak season New York Times LinkedIn Global Transportation Hub 2012 Transportation Business Strategies. Jugaad Training New Hires University of Tennessee Accessorial Charges UP Crisis management Failure supply chain management Training Canadian Protests ELD Electric Vehicles Transportation service Facebook Crude Oil by Rail Retail transportation Donald Trump Dan Goodwill RFP TransForce Justice freight RFP Stephen Harper Trade Vision BlueGrace Logistics Geopolitics Rotman School of Business Transportation computer protection solutions provider autonomous vehicles freight agreements CITA Shipper Pulse Survey technology Load broker Tariffs Packaging financial management Transplace network optimization Dedicated Contract Carriage MPG Transcom Fleet Leasing robotics Map-21 Freight Management China Habs autos Surety bond Coronavirus Search engine optimization Spanx FuelQuest derailments shipper-carrier collaboration Freight Recession dimensional pricing Management routing guide energy efficiency NS CP Rail Outsourcing Sales Omni Channel Sales US Auto Sales $75000 bond Politics employee termination 2015 Economic Forecast US Manufacturing Retail Associates Global experience Distribution cheap oil CSA scores Freight Matching freight bid selling trucking companies Social Media US Housing Market Trucking Rate per Mile Derek Singleton Bobby Harris economic outlook 2014 economic forecast Life Lessons Dedicated Trucking Load Boards CRM Emergent Strategy TMP Worldwide driverless EBOR freight transportation Regina Blogging capacity shortages shipper-carrier roundtable economic forecasts for 2012 Value Proposition professional drivers Finance and Transportation Success Cleveland Cavaliers natural disasters

Blog Archives

March
February
December
October
September
August
June
May
April
March
January