Freight Vision 2020: Sales is the Key to Unlock Industry Challenges for Customers

This is the second installment of a 4-part series that provides perspectives from TMSA members on predictions for freight transportation in 2020 – and the impact Marketing and Sales can have on overall business success.

Bringing meaningful value to your customer … with the right solution, service or product … at a competitive (but profitable) price. Most sales professionals agree that when you can find this “sweet spot” with a prospect and land a deal, you’ve been successful. And it’s an even bigger win in transportation when you rise above a transactional deal and the business you’ve earned turns into a long-term relationship. 

Several sales and marketing executives who are TMSA members weigh in on the opportunities (and challenges) that the sales profession in transportation and logistics will face in 2020. 

The Role of Sales: Find Solutions to Big Industry Challenges

With Price being one of the important four P’s in the equation, aligning freight rates with the market will be one of the biggest hurdles in any sales relationship. “For shippers, it has been a roller coaster ride for the past two years,” acknowledges Greg Recht, Vice President of Integrated Sales for Kenco Group, a provider of distribution and fulfillment, transportation management, material handling services, warehousing and real estate management. Recht also was named the 2019 TMSA Sales Executive of the Year and currently serves on the TMSA Board of Directors. 

“Trucking capacity was extremely tight in 2018 and carriers invested in equipment and drivers,” he continues. “In 2019, capacity was more readily available and there was an unprecedented number of trucking company bankruptcies, including some large carriers.” As we move into 2020, he suggests, there is uncertainty in the industry. Will capacity again be constrained, impacting carrier rates or will a soft market enable shippers to improve their rate positions?

Another challenge is the regulatory environment. The industry is weighing the impact of administrative regulations (including FMCSA’s Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse, IMO 2020, Carbon Tax, Trade Policies and Tariffs), while struggling to keep ahead of competitors in their space and exit each fiscal year profitably.

“Carriers were originally required to have electronic onboard devices (ELDs) in Dec. 2017,” Recht says. In fact, this last Monday the industry hit a new deadline, when now trucking companies that currently use automatic onboard recording devices (AORDs) must replace these devices with ELDs. 

“Analysts expect this deadline to be less of an issue than the previous one, but it still impacts the cost of doing business for those carriers that have not already made the change,” says Recht. “Another unknown is the types of tariffs and trade regulations that will be implemented in 2020 which could also mean changes in a shipper’s network.”  

Recht reminds sales professionals to be aware of intelligent supply chain strategies that are being used by freight decision-makers to address some of these challenges. Smart shippers continue to seek out ways to optimize their entire transportation network to ensure they’re using the best mode and best carrier for each shipment. They continue to develop relationships with core carriers and focus on being a shipper of choice. And they are leveraging technology for all aspects of the supply chain to drive efficiency by automating some low value processes – like manual freight bill entry or freight payment processing. The more you understand what these players are focused on, the better you’ll be able to meet (and exceed) their needs.

Re-Examine and Change Your Sales Approach in an Ever-Changing Marketplace 

For sales professionals who are trained in strategic selling and able to adopt a strategic mindset when approaching both new prospects and existing clients, the opportunities in this challenging marketplace are solid, says Leah Fenech, CSCP, Vice President of Sales, Intelligent Logistics, a transportation services provider based in Austin, Texas. “Buyers are looking for value-added, consultative representatives from their key suppliers more than ever before,” she says. “Initial contact within each prospect at a high level is key - C-level or senior management at a minimum. Shippers need us, however the correct approach from the very beginning is critical. There is a lot of competition out there.”

“The correct selling approach for the transportation industry will be a complete departure for many reps, and will require a new discipline and change of mindset – even bravery for some,” continues Fenech. “Even in today’s technology-focused times, newly hired industry reps are often trained to knock on doors and start by getting the first shipment on the dock. This old methodology of cold calling the guys on the dock and starting at the shipping manager level in a new prospect just does not produce the short-term results that it once did. Logistics decisions and supply chain decisions are now controlled at the C-Level or just below.”

How can a transportation salesperson grow their customer base? “Embrace the technology,” advises Fenech. “Learn how it can enhance the process. Rework your thought process and your communication style by pausing to research your prospect before diving in with that first phone call or email. Give your prospect a reason to be interested in hearing your message by talking their language rather than yours. This is an age-old concept, but one which gets used all too little. If a salesperson is not willing to change their stale processes, then their results will be transactional at best. Their client base will consist of non-loyal, dollar-focused shippers and their margins will not produce the commissions they need.”

Growing sales through thought leadership is another approach being used by many successful sales and business development professionals in transportation and logistics, according to Lina Acosta, Chief Marketing Officer for GLT, a provider of LTL, truckload, heavy haul and expedited services. 

“There is an opportunity to create audiences through relevant content creation that can lead transportation companies to acquire qualified leads and improve customer retention and expansion,” she says. “There is a huge opportunity to offer relevant content to a specific audience using different channels like events, blogs, social media platforms, and webinars where we can share our expertise, knowledge, and actionable items that can be applied in their own companies as well as nurture a loyal and genuine audience of followers who can eventually become customers. Or if they are already customers, they can fall in love with our brand.”

Recht agrees: “Social media is an excellent tool to engage contacts in an ongoing dialogue. LinkedIn is especially helpful for professional interactions. However, nothing replaces the value of in-person relationship building.

“And regardless of how you communicate with customers and contacts, learn as much as possible about their businesses’ unique needs and pain points,” Recht adds. “Sales professionals should also establish a cadence and leverage every opportunity to help educate prospective customers in a collaborative manner.”

Technology Brings the Biggest Obstacles – and Opportunities
“Technology is our present and future stumbling block,” says Fenech. “For every salesperson trying to get an appointment with a new prospect, there are a dozen ways to block the attempt – voice mail, narrowed e-mail acceptance, the involvement of procurement executives in governing how many vendors a company is allowed to do business with, and migration from direct logistics control to 3PL and 4PL outsourcing are just a few of the obstacles.”

Acosta sees tremendous opportunities generated by technology. “Artificial intelligence and automation are emerging trends and technologies that we must take advantage of if we want to interact effectively with leads, prospects, and customers,” she says. “We have these powerful tools that could help us offer a very efficient buyer journey process. From having a lead sign up for our email list, to nurturing those leads and prospects with specific pieces of content depending on their stage in the buyer journey or depending on their lead score, to creating automated tasks for sales reps based on real time data, there are an infinite number of options and ways that we could benefit from automation and AI. 

“In the transportation industry we have the tools we need to integrate transportation management systems and data from different sources such as ELD, load boards, CRM, and pretty soon blockchain, through AI and automation with the buyer journey,” she continues. “We can't fall behind in implementing these exciting new opportunities.”

Acosta emphasizes an important reminder to the sales professional in transportation: Your current customers are the biggest source of new business. “Customer retention is the number one priority,” she says. “I’m always looking into new strategies and tactics to improve customer retention at GLT Logistics. It is clearly more efficient and less expensive to keep our existing customers than acquiring new ones.

“The one immediate opportunity for marketers in the transportation industry and specifically for medium and large-sized companies with big load volumes or transactions per customer is to use technology as one of the main tools to help maintain close relationships with customers,” Acosta continues. “This includes new technologies that allow us to view real time data about our customers, tools that help us analyze that data and make projections, or platforms that help us see what our customers’ needs are. Tools like AI, marketing automation software, machine learning, sentiment analysis, or RPA help us create automated responses depending on our customers’ behaviors, just to name a few. These are the technological options out there that we should take advantage of to improve our customers’ experience and offer our teams the ability to interact and react with a large customer base when it is the right time to do so.”