As I get to know my customers better, I’m surprised to find so many boomers in charge of transportation sales and marketing who share my interest in riding motorcycles and playing guitar. Many of us have rekindled these passions later in life, but is it a mid-wife crisis, a way to keep our Mo-jo workin’ or just good old fashion fun?

Regardless of the reason we enjoy the 3M’s, here are a few things to keep straight as we continue these activities into our senior years.

• Music. If your plucking your G string make sure it’s attached to your guitar.
• Motorcycles. Although wearing leather chaps promotes safe cruising on the highway, prepare for different reactions if you mistakenly wear them to the boardroom or the bedroom.
• Marketing. If you don’t understand how you are different from your competition, neither will your customers.

Lee’s Quote for the day. “You need to blend out, not in, to get noticed. This applies equally to your marketing, your music and your motorcycles.”

I’ve called on hundreds of companies over my 22 year marketing career and have discussed strategic concerns with just about every size, mode and geographic focus possible within transportation. Many companies say they do a dozen things well and really do 1 or 2. Others have an extremely diversified menu but customers are unaware of the breadth of service provided. Both are immediate marketing concerns.

#1. You typically have to win customers over one service at a time. Even though an integrated approach is the end goal for the diversified model, if you don’t establish the necessary rapport and trust first… the big sell is a hard sell.

# 2. By casting too wide a net with your marketing you run the risk of not catching anyone’s interest. If you can’t back up a statement with tangible evidence of expertise, your entire message can get grouped together as being unbelievable.

# 3. You don’t want customers confused about what your service offerings are and you also don’t want to hear the words “I didn’t know you did that” by failing to create the awareness of your full service offering. If you can, lead with your best service first and remember “It’s the steady rain that soaks.”

# 4. As a general rule, we find transportation providers have a core strength(s), a secondary focus and what we would typically call a value added or convenience sell. It’s important to weight these accordingly in your marketing so customers understand fully who you are as a company.

# 5. Most successful diversification is through a dedicated model, something that has been developed for a single customer with very specific needs. It won’t typically role out to your general customer demographic…so don’t market it that way.

# 6. Decide who you are. Are you better suited as a handyman that does a host of things pretty well? Or is what you do a craft, with a more select target that’s tough for others to duplicate. Both have value. You need to make sure there is alignment between your skill set and your targeted market.

# 7. Markets change. Regardless of your business model, if what used to be the volume of your activity is shrinking, maybe it’s time to bring one of those secondary services front and center. As an example, what represents 50% of our market strength today (websites and branding) was only 5-10 % of our mix 4 years ago.

# 8. From listening to recent shipper panels, they want stability, service commitments, information exchange and relationships. It won’t be just about price going forward… they know the landscape is changing and that shrinking capacity is on the horizon.

# 9. Reset your thinking soon, as no one can beat you down any further on price. The value, innovation and focus you have going forward will dramatically shape your road to recovery…proceed with caution, and confidence!

Lee’s quote for the day:
“Truckers are like elephants. They work hard and have long memories. The shippers who forced their hand too heavily during the recession may soon be viewed like a male porn star after a very cold shower…small, unimpressive and no longer carrying a big stick!”

On a call the other day I had someone comment they were the “incredible shrinking company”. Although a few industries proved to be recession proof, most of us had to take a hard look at our business and make significant changes to ensure sustainability.

I value old sayings like “When the going gets tough, the tough get going” and “Necessity is the mother of invention”. The immediacy of shrinking business revenues forces us to take the actions necessary to get our business back on track. And for the majority, it’s been a dramatic transition from where we were just a short time ago.

From my experience and listening to the views of other business owners and managers, there are 10 basic fundamentals that most agree on.

1. If you don’t love what you do develop an immediate plan to get out, however painful.
2. If you used to love what you do but are in a “recessional funk”, do a reboot and reenergize with a clear vision and action plan complete with time lines and task champions.
3. Communicate your concise vision to your entire team and for those who don’t get it in a timely manner, politely suggest a new and exciting career path for them …outside your organization.
4. Address every hurdle keeping you from achieving your goals and take action, take action, take action!
5. Treat your people, customers and suppliers like they matter most.
6. Fine tune your menu of services through the “good to great” criteria. What are you passionate about? What are you best at? What gives you the best economic return? You need all three firmly in place for the best results.
7. If you are a generalist, fully understand this “convenience sell” from a customer perspective and make sure you have conquerable levels of quality across your diversified service mix. Good execution of one can win you another. Poor execution of one can cost you everything.
8. If you are a specialist, make sure your niche offering is still relevant. Sometimes a recession causes a slowdown that a recovering economy corrects and sometimes there is a permanent swing that doesn’t swing back.
9. There are many new ways to reach your existing and future customers. Experiment and assess what works best for you.
10. Make sure your product is solid, your message is compelling and you assign the proper resources to deliver it to your market with clarity, consistency and confidence.

Lee’s Quote for the day:
“If you always start with your toughest task first, the rest of your day can’t help but get easier”