July is always a turning point in the year for me. Half the year is gone, the rest of the summer goes by in a blink and all of a sudden its Q3. This July feels so different for a myriad of reasons, and the world has changed so much in the last 6 months. We are all feeling the impact personally and professionally, and while you’re probably sick of people talking about the “new normal”, but the brutal truth is the world isn’t, and in many ways shouldn’t, just go back to the way it was. So, if you are hoping you could just wait this out and get back to your status quo, consider this your wakeup call.

If your organizational strategy is the same as it was last year, you might be in a tough spot soon (and we should probably talk) because what worked last year isn’t going to work now, or next. The same can be said for your personal skills, what got you here isn’t necessarily going to cut it going forward. Or to put it bluntly, ala Lou Holtz, “you’re either growing, or you’re dying”. Which side of that equation do you want to be on?

Transport Topics recently announced its annual Top 100 For-Hire Carriers listing, which ranks companies based on annual revenue and includes a listing of operating units and description of services, names of top executives and type of ownership, plus data on the number of employees and equipment.

The Top 100 list also features a listing of carriers by sector, including truckload and dedicated, refrigerated, less-than-truckload, flatbed and heavy specialized, intermodal and drayage, package and courier, household goods and commercial delivery, motor vehicle and driveaway, tank and bulk, air and expedited and mail.

Think about the last time you felt pressure from a salesperson. It could have been when you were shopping for a mattress a month ago or the last time you bought a car. Or maybe it was that random cold call you received from a telemarketer in the middle of the day last week at work. 

How did it make you feel? 

I’m guessing if you felt pressure, it wasn’t a “good” feeling at all. Instead, I expect you wanted to get out of the room (or off the phone) as quickly as possible. 

You’ve got 30 seconds to write down as many words/phrases as possible that come to mind when I say the word: SALESPERSON

Go!

We hear it all the time: “I have my own style of selling.”

Or from sales management: “I let my salespeople do their own thing. As long as they’re bringing in business, I don’t care how they do it.” 

During the COVID crisis, marketing professionals in the transportation and logistics industry have dramatically shifted the focus of their marketing dollars. Before the COVID crisis began having a significant impact on the North American economy in February of this year, a significant portion of marketing budgets in transportation and logistics were focused on customer acquisition and lead generation. In fact, according to the 2020 TMSA Marketing & Sales Metrics Study, approximately 33% of marketing budgets were focused predominantly on customer acquisition and lead gen. Another 24% of marketing budgets were focused on brand awareness, according to the study.

More and more, video is being used strategically by marketing professionals in North American freight transportation to strengthen its brand, emphasize key messages, and engage prospects, customers, and key stakeholders. This is becoming even more commonplace as brands are brought to life in the virtual ecosystem of websites, social media, and now virtual meetings because of COVID-19.

Case in point: Purolator Inc., Canada’s leading integrated freight, parcel and logistics solutions provider. Purolator introduced a powerful video the emphasized key talking points by John Ferguson, the company's President and CEO (A sidenote: Ferguson previously served on the TMSA Board of Directors and also served as President and Chairman from 2005-2008 when he was in sales and marketing leadership roles with PBB Global and Schneider.) 

Why cost shouldn’t be your only consideration.

Everyone loves a good do-it-yourself project. What could be more satisfying than making over a bathroom yourself or installing shelves on your own? The money saved and satisfaction can be immensely rewarding. The same is true for landing pages, email campaigns, white papers and blog posts designed and/or written in-house by you or your team; they can bring cost savings and satisfaction, too. 

For the savings, the satisfaction, the control and more, doing it yourself is the ideal. But the reality is that things have to line up pretty perfectly for a DIY project to make sense in business. That’s because in business, there’s more than a lost weekend at Home Depot. Without freelancers the work is far from free and comes with the cost of internal time spent as well as the cost of potentially doing it wrong and losing leads, sales, revenue and brand standing as a result. 

If you're anything like me, you likely have increased your interaction with customers, staff and partners 10-fold with video conference calls through this COVID situation. We have replaced most of the in-person meetings that have taken place with a virtual version - and I've heard from some TMSA members that this may become more of a general practice as companies consider a virtual workforce as a long-term option. Yes, it seems video conferencing is here to stay in some capacity.

So how do you present like a pro on these platforms? Here are eight tips:

TMSA held its first inaugural Strategic Interest Group this week, with 13 TMSA members participating in a deep dive conversation and peer networking. The discussion centered on the topic of LinkedIn Digital Strategies. Here are the Top 3 Tips for using LinkedIn that they shared: 

Technology innovation and digitization are disrupting almost every process across transportation and logistics enterprises, ranging from methods of shipment, freight management, and supporting administration activities such as documentation and freight payments.

Market demand shifts such as same-day shipping and last-mile delivery are game-changers, and emerging blockchain technologies are rapidly accelerating the changes and innovation within the industry.

From thinking about our own customers to looking out for our customer’s customers, we constantly obsess over every person’s experience with Rose Rocket. This is because we believe in the importance of customer experience and building genuine relationships within our industry – both digitally, and in-person. We approach our customers with this mentality, we sell with this mentality, and we serve with this mentality in mind. Most of all, we know this happens over a thousand small interactions, rather than a single big one. 

As a technology company, we’ve spent many years developing our digital strategy, and this year, we were focused on honing in on our events and in-person channels. There is power and magic in in-person interactions, which is why we believe that conferences like the TMSA are a great place to meet and connect with industry thought leaders.

By Jennifer Karpus-Romain, Director of Marketing Services and Industry Outreach, FayeBSG

As stay-at-home orders lift around the country, company leaders and employees (as well as their customers) are trying to figure out what a post-COVID workplace looks like for them. 

By Conrad Winter, a freelance copywriter specializing in content and copywriting for transportation and logistics

For a lot of marketing heads, the pandemic has moved their workload from bad to way worse. For years I’ve been seeing the rise of a phenomenon—marketing leads who are expected to execute an increasing number of projects. On top of steering the juggernaut of their brands, they’re also performing an array of design, production, optimization and analytical tasks. But the place I’m seeing it the most is in the amount of writing that falls on their shoulders—everything from social posts, newsletters and blog posts to campaigns, white papers, and web copy.  

“Adaptability is about the powerful difference between adapting to cope and adapting to win.”  - Max McKeown

We’ve seen a lot of commentary in sales professional networking groups these last 6 weeks about how now simply isn’t the time to sell. At Luminaries, we believe that couldn't be farther from the truth! People who need your services are buying and you definitely can, and must, keep selling right now. Some of it involves simple adjustments to our approach: a little more empathy and grace. But we should be doing is what we should have been doing all along --- just with even more focus and discipline. It’s in that spirit that we’re providing these four tips for effective, adaptable sales organizations as they slowly get back on the road in the coming weeks and months:

By Jason Ickert, Senior Director of Business Development, ENERGY Transportation Group

Everything you've planned for in the last six months…all of the painstaking work you've put into mapping campaigns, building content, planting lead magnets, sequencing messaging, building value propositions, planning and budgeting meetings and events…everything came to a screeching halt and we have found ourselves in an unchartered waters. 

By Tony Bodoh, Lead Strategist, The Congruity Group

When customers are feeling overwhelmed, there is a tremendous opportunity to create value. Overwhelm causes people to feel stuck, frustrated, and angry. The most creative people in good times can feel lost and confused when conditions pivot and danger or threats appear around the bend in the road. 

During TMSA’s COVID-19 Town Hall meetings these past three weeks, participants have emphasized that they have seen an influx in user activity over the past two weeks. 

With people around the world staying home to limit the spread of COVID-19, marketing and sales professionals in transportation and logistics have been logging onto LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to stay informed, and to keep updated as to how other businesses are handling the situation, in order to shape their own approach.

By Jim Bierfeldt, President, Logistics Marketing Advisors

Every two years, my firm surveys 100 buyers of logistics products and services to better understand how to get and keep their attention.  Recently, we followed up with some of those surveyed to learn how COVID-19 has impacted the purchasing of logistics solutions.

By Jennifer Karpus-Romain, Director of Marketing Services and Industry Outreach, FayeBSG

It’s challenging for any marketer to get the perfect messaging out to his or her customers, prospects, partners, and team members under normal circumstances. So this task is even more difficult during a time of crisis. It’s a bit chaotic, and no one knows what the right step forward is.