I got into sales when my company started, decided it wasn’t my strength and got out until a few years ago. I read a book called “Truth and Lies in Advertising” and it mentioned the creative director (what I do at my company) needs to be the strongest sales person in the company.

So I made an attempt and had some success. I focus on the business, providing the right solution and that seems to work for the most part. If there’s small talk it tends to be business and industry related, although I do have a growing number of clients that share my interest in music, oddly enough.

So when is a sale a sale? When and how often do you follow up when there are extended periods without communication? When is the horse dead and it’s time to get off? As far as I can tell, these are all gray areas that no one really has the answer to. Trust your instincts and the old sayings “Strike while the fire is hot” and “Patience is a virtue” come to mind as good advice in this regard.

Here are the top 10 sales truths that I rely on:

1. Know and present your value proposition confidently. Be prepared to answer the inevitable question “What makes you better than the other companies providing your service.”
2. Get the customer talking. The more you talk, the less likely you are to find out what the prospective customer really needs.
3. Don’t just take the order. Why? It’s the information age. If you can simply take the order, so can anyone else. By understanding their challenges in greater detail, maybe you can come up with a bigger and better solution.
4. A pro sales coach may teach you to mimic body language and adopt customer speech patterns (talk fast, talk slow etc). I believe today that “Real” wins over this kind of “Slick” every time.
5. The more questions you ask, the smarter you get. If you don’t understand, inquire and find out more. You’ll get the insight needed to be able to accomplish number 2 and 3 above.
6. Follow up when you say you’re going to and after any meeting of significance. Do it while everything is fresh as it is twice as easy to accomplish.
7. Don’t make excuses. Explaining things in detail always weakens your position. Acknowledge and be accountable for any errors and move on.
8. The best way to communicate is still face to face, followed by a phone call and lastly an e-mail or text. It’s harder and harder to get the opportunity for the first two, so be careful with e-mails. Put them through spell check and make sure what you meant to say can’t be misinterpreted.
9. Never try and resolve an issue of any significance by e-mail. I made this mistake just the other day…I don’t think I’ll ever do it again.
10. Referrals are always your best way to increase sales. It’s okay to ask for them from the customers you know best, on occasion.

Lee’s Quote for the Day

If you’re having a hard time selling something, it’s either priced wrong, not a very good product or you’re trying to sell it to the wrong person. Oh yeah, it could be the wrong season, or just a bad day, or lousy timing, or budget cuts, or the price of fuel, or the high Canadian dollar or… 

If you take a survey of top executives in the transportation industry, how many would say that marketing their company is important? I think most would agree that it is required. I would also suggest that most don’t make the budgets or time available to make it happen.

Typically, a sales and marketing VP has their hands full managing reps and their share of major accounts. They may have a flair for marketing but probably very little training on the subject. The biggest synergy between sales and marketing disciplines are they both have to tell a compelling story and communicate the unique reasons why their product or service is the better choice for prospective buyers. Maybe that’s why they have been lumped together in the B2B transport sector, while they are very much separate functions in consumer products.

My experience with the owners and presidents of transportation companies is that very few are marketers. I would say they are typically deal makers, know their numbers, great at attracting the right people to their team, and workaholics by either necessity or nature. In my 23 year career, I would say the original owner of Concord, and the folks heading up Challenger and MSM have been the biggest believers in using marketing to grow their business.

Sometimes it can be a little thing that gets you noticed. A good example is when CN recently adopted the paint scheme from their train engines to their highway tractors… simply brilliant!

We find many companies think about it, want to do it but the reactive nature of the business keeps them from taking the steps necessary to make it happen. Other things take priority and the marketing that’s required is put on hold waiting for a better time to address it.

Here’s the deal. The time to address it is now. We’ve seen a dramatic change in the last year and a half with the ROI on web marketing. The transportation industry is behind. Especially in web marketing. The primary focus is on existing customer shipment visibility. That myopic view is limiting opportunities. It doesn’t cost that much to take greater advantage of the power of the web across these additional 4 areas:

• Cross sell services to existing accounts not using your full menu of services-the easiest way to grow your business
• Utilize search engine optimization techniques to create awareness to those buyers looking for a service that you provide, who are not currently aware of your company
• Advertise your unique message to potential drivers, sales people and other positions within your company-positions that are getting harder and harder to fill with good candidates
• Make a favourable impression with potential partner carriers and companies considering your company as part of a RFP for your services

Lee’s Quote for the Day!

“If you wait for the perfect time to take action, the only action you will take is waiting for the perfect time” 

Well, I for one thought I had heard it all. From “dolly converters” to “body jobs”, where we specialize in the industry, we have a pretty good vocabulary as it relates to the world of trucking. I came across a new one the other day though, “Non-asset freight pimp”.

Let’s face it; freight brokers still have a bad rap. Maybe it’s jealousy because the broker doesn’t have to  make the heavy investment into their business that carriers do. Maybe it’s presumed or documented unethical behaviour. Either way, most freight brokers don’t want to be called freight brokers and many carriers would like to see them wiped off the face of the planet. Why? They have been successful in capturing freight that used to belong directly to carriers at a higher rate. Brokers can provide a lower rate and they are a contributing factor to the erosion of freight rates for the carriers.

We did a website for a small broker a couple of years back. He was happy with the results and referred us to one of his flatbed carriers in the region. When we met with that well established carrier, he was extremely frustrated. “How is it I keep losing out to a freight broker? He gets the freight and then I move it. I don’t understand.” I didn’t understand either, so I spoke to the broker in question. My assessment, after a brief discussion, was that the broker in this case, was a more confident sales person and he offered the customer a choice between several carriers, at several price points. Customers like choice.

It’s a funny world. There are many carriers that fill their trucks with broker freight. Brokers are their sales force and these carriers have very few relationships with customers directly. There are carriers that successfully outsource key lane segments to other carriers, like the corridor between Windsor and Quebec City or Ontario to Atlantic Canada, without a hitch. The message I get from that, is the shipper is mostly concerned about getting the job done, not how it gets done.

Lee’s quote for the day

“In the music business, there is a saying that the side men all want to be front men and the front men all want to go home. In the trucking business, it seems most carriers want to play in the “freight pimp” world and most “freight pimps” have the dream of building up key lanes so they can put on their own equipment. Whoever orders their new Cadillac first, is the winner!”