For small or developing businesses that rely on long-term, account-based, business-to-business income streams, logistics business sales might be difficult to scale. However, enterprise-level market penetration or globally renowned brands aren’t required to enhance logistics business service revenues and spark true growth.
Many of the obstacles that the growing logistics businesses confront are within your power to overcome. Things like marketing/sales misalignment, a poorly defined value offer, a lack of sales resources, or inefficient internal sales procedures can all be addressed.
We’ll go through seven practical tactics for increasing sales in the logistics business in this blog.
How to Increase Logistics Business Sales in 7 Easy Steps?
1. Establish a Formal Sales Procedure
The first barrier to success in logistics business sales is a loosely defined — or unknown — sales procedure. According to research, firms that have a properly defined sales process grow revenue 18% faster than those that don’t.
To begin, break down your sales pipeline into its component sections (stages):
- Lead generation, qualification, and scoring
- Proposal / RFP for Needs Assessment
- Delivery & Closing
Then, within each step, create a cohesive set of strategies and processes that your organization will employ.
- Lead Generation– An effective marketing machine is essential, but so are outbound sales methods like cold phoning (of qualified leads) and attending industry events or trade exhibitions where potential clients would be present. Determine what information you’ll need to collect and record for effective scoring, evaluation, and touchpoint targeting across all lead profiles. Name and contact information (email, phone, etc.) are important to most logistics businesses, but other factors to consider include the lead’s job in their organization and how/where they learned about your company. Automation tools can help you save time and money by eliminating data entry and allowing you to make use of big data.
- Lead Qualification & Scoring– Not every lead you collect will turn out to be worthwhile. This stage is critical for distinguishing between the strong/hot chances and those that are either unlikely to convert or are a bad fit for your firm. Make a list of qualities that your logistics business values in a lead, then go over your collected leads to see how they compare to your ideal customer profile. After scoring them, go after the highest-rated leads first. BANT should be considered in the basic framework (budget, authority, needs, and timeline). Does the lead have the financial means to purchase, the power to decide, a need for your product, and the desire to buy soon? That’s a hot lead if you can check all four boxes.
- Assessment of Needs– Have your agents talk to customers to figure out what they need and which logistics business service (or service package) will be the greatest fit. This is also the time to provide the leads with sales collateral tailored to those services to educate them on your offerings and answer any queries they may have about their possibilities.
- RFP / Proposal– It’s not enough to send an email and wait for a response. Make sure you have a formal presentation prepared where you can explain your idea, answer questions, and (if necessary) negotiate terms for a revised final version.
- Closing and Handover– Once the contract has been signed and the deal has been closed, it’s time to pass the contract over to the customer service and go to work honouring the contract’s requirements. Make sure you can offer your logistics business services exactly as agreed, and that everyone, including the sales team, understands what it entails.
This is only a high-level summary of the principles of the sales process; yours will most likely differ, include intermediate processes, and include a lot more information (a technology utilized, where to keep data, who’s responsible for what, and so on). You’ll be able to hold your salespeople accountable and optimize every opportunity if your sales process is repeatable, measurable, and scalable.
2. Begin Using Inbound Marketing
Many smaller logistics businesses will either delegate brand recognition and outreach to senior management (who are preoccupied with other matters) or maintain a marketing skeleton workforce (often a single employee). The problem is that leads don’t just arrive, and marketing is the most effective approach to get prospects into your logistics business sales funnel. Once you have all the inbound marketing equipment in place, a consistent flow of inbound leads is a self-sustaining resource. When logistics business leads come to you, it requires less effort.
Inbound marketing is mostly (but not exclusively) concerned with attracting potential clients to your business via the internet by creating and sharing messaging and online content that will pique their interest. To succeed, you’ll need a few things:
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization)- In the twenty-first century, your website is your most effective salesperson. Buyer-controlled internet research, typically utilizing search engines like Google, now accounts for 67% (or more!) of the buyer’s trip. You want to show up near the top of the search results. Make sure your website is organized to convert visitors and optimized with appropriate keywords for logistics business and freight sales possibilities (such as cargo hauling, freight businesses, or logistics business transportation services) (with contact forms and calls to action). SEO is a low-cost investment that pays out handsomely in terms of logistics business sales.
- Marketing Using Content- Use a logistics business blog, detailed service subpages, and a FAQ area to host high-quality web content on your website. Try putting high-value downloadable items behind a contact form, such as eBooks, case studies, ebooks, webinars, and white papers. For this type of content, leads are most eager to provide personal information.
- Thought Leadership– The legitimacy of your brand is critical to sales success. One strategy to develop a brand reputation as a knowledgeable and trusted authority in your field is to submit significant thought leadership content to major industry magazines or websites (in addition to posting it on your own site and social networks). When your brand’s inherent credibility gets them off on the right foot, your sales reps are better positioned to answer inquiries and assist prospects.
- Social Marketing– In the logistics business, freight, and transportation, social media is a vital medium for keeping active in your business as well as creating revenue. Because social media generates 80.33 per cent of B2B leads, you should absolutely consider using LinkedIn to share inbound content. It’s also ideal for connecting with potential customers through industry-specific groups or with effective and powerful tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
3. Keep Your Sales Enablement Resources Up to Date
A B2B salesperson spends an average of 440 hours per year looking for relevant content to share with customers. Why? According to research, many of the sales assets provided to salespeople are difficult to locate, outdated, or irrelevant to the customer’s demands. For these reasons, 90% of B2B sales professionals don’t even use existing sales materials.
All those hours could have been better spent marketing the logistics business. You’ll empower your salespeople to close more transactions, quicker, by providing them with up-to-date sales enablement resources (such as print collateral, shareable internet assets, sales decks, and sell sheets) in an easily accessible location.
You might also want to investigate a secure social networking platform tailored to your sales department’s needs. Reps can use social sales platforms to collect and organize data, exchange assets, talk about prospects, and keep the pipeline on track. These platforms, unlike consumer social networks, frequently have the ability to link with external market research, internal resource systems, and real-time customer analytics. Accenture recommends them for logistics business for a variety of reasons, including removing functional silos and assisting logistics business providers in adapting to a changing digital sales environment.
4. Attend Trade Shows (or Other Events) to Collect Leads
Trade exhibitions have always been important for generating logistics business and freight business. Consider attending events that will be of interest to your preferred suppliers, retailers, or other company sectors. According to data, live events provide 74% of attendees a better positive view of your company, and 87% of event attendees will buy a brand’s goods after attending an event.
This isn’t only a chance to talk to passers-by at your booth and network in the halls; it’s also a time to capture strong logistics business leads, which you’ll nurture with lead nurturing materials and follow-up calls after the event. According to data, events are the greatest technique for generating qualified top-of-funnel leads out of all B2B tactics.
5. Create a Platform for Sales Automation
Sales automation enhances your CRM’s logistical leads database with features that increase your sales team’s capability, save time, and allow for more personalized communication with prospects. According to Aberdeen research, marketing and sales automation improves sales effectiveness in a variety of ways:
The better lead conversion rate of 107%
A 40% increase in average deal size and a 20% increase in team quota achievement
Improved forecast accuracy by 17%
Email is one of the channels that will benefit the most from automation. Automating lead nurturing campaigns, segmented processes, and customized sales sequences greatly contributes to email’s famed ROI.
6. Make Your Logistics Business Niche Unique
When potential consumers can readily discover a specialized company with more concentrated experience in their area at comparable pricing, it’s difficult to compete as a generalist. Establishing a clear differentiation from other logistics businesses operating in your region might help you position yourself more aggressively in the market. Rather than catering to every market group, focus individually that best matches your company or has shown to be more successful in the past. This could imply specialization in a specific region, cargo type, industry, or company size.
Once you’ve determined your greatest feasible specialization based on data and previous possibilities, work to become the top logistics business in that niche and promote your specialized knowledge to inbound logistics business leads and current clients.
7. Provide a Broader Range of Services than the Competition
The client’s life is made easier by a logistics business that oversees the entire procedure (with no third parties involved). In fact, one of the main reasons businesses hire a logistics business service is to avoid having to set up all these phases on their own.
According to the Houston Chronicle, offering complete seller management or bundled services that include things like purchasing, inventory management, or inbound shipping as a comprehensive, one-piece package will relieve a lot of stress from the client’s shoulders, resulting in a positive impact on logistics business sales. When you combine a full-service offering with demonstrable expertise in your specific market area, you have the makings of a true value proposition.
Keep an eye on what’s going on!
In the previous decade, the sales world has grown at a breakneck pace, and this trend will only continue. Keep up with the latest ideas and technology that can help you expedite your sales process, boost your closing approach, and make sense of your sales data. The finest distinguish themselves from the rest by taking aggressive measures!
