In an industry as competitive as logistics, there's always a fight to grow and expand your business - here's two strategies you can use to get a head start on your competition.
It's almost the end of the year, which means it's time to start thinking about how you've performed the past year and how you're going to improve and grow your business in the upcoming one. Here's two strategies you can use to get a head start on your competition.
It's so important for you to build great relationships with the big shippers, manufacturers, and distributors in your region. When you're growing from a small <10 truck operation to a multi-million dollar business, it's crucial to have both transactional and account-based business.
What does this mean? In addition to the loads you probably are already moving - from load boards, website traffic, etc. - you need to build strong professional relationships with major companies who are looking to contract you to move loads on a consistent basis. This can mean talking with a VP of operations or logistics to see how your business - your experience, trustworthiness, and prices - can benefit their businesses and save them money, make their shipping experience better, and guarantee more safe or insured transportation for their goods.
While this is a difficult task, it can be made easier by having tools that help you sell to these larger accounts. This can be as simple as purchasing a professional email, or taking the time to refine your website or your public social media profiles. This plays a huge role in developing the trustworthiness of your brand! If you're looking for help or a place to start, check out our guide to building a great carrier profile!
This goes hand in hand with building trust with the big shippers and distributors - to win against the big guys, you'll have to provide a customer service and delivery experience that's just as good or better than they do.
This doesn't have to be expensive either - a great customer experience can be as simple as responding to emails faster and more often. Think about all the customer service requests from your current customers - how many times a day are you being asked to provide tracking or shipment updates? How about when your drivers are on the road and experience delays? Are you updating your customers immediately?
While this is relatively easy when you're dealing with a few small customers, trying to respond to tens, or even hundreds of customer service requests a day can quickly take a toll on you. This is where technology can help - FreightPath uses a driver mobile app, email integration, and a secure customer portal to give your customers real-time peace of mind without the extra work from you.
At the end of the day, building your business and getting more customers is all about two things - time and and effort. When you put in the time, and invest your effort and sweat equity, you can build a great carrier business. What these strategies can help you do, is jumpstart that process, and help guide you away from potential pitfalls in your path to becoming an industry leader.
Happy growing!
“With FreightPath, the ability to track freight, complete paperwork, and share updates within seconds has become invaluable; not just for my team but for my customers and carriers too.”
