I have had multiple sales careers during my many years in the business world. As a teenager, I sold men’s clothing for a high-end retail chain in Montreal. For many years I sold or managed sales teams that offered freight transportation services to shippers across North America. My most challenging sales assignment has taken place over the past 18 years as I developed my consulting practice. When I started, I had a to build a business from scratch. We had no customers, just some ideas on the services we wished to market. During this same period, I also helped successfully grow an annual freight transportation conference and sustained this business over an 11-year period.
I learned many valuable sales lessons from these various sales assignments. I will share a few tips in this blog, and the subsequent blogs in this series.
Value Proposition
One of the starting points for success in sales comes from an understanding of customers’ needs. What is motivating the potential purchaser of a suit or sport coat and slacks? What type of freight transportation service does the customer need to satisfy the requirements of their end users? Why is a prospective attendee contemplating going to a business conference? When I received a call from a President or VP, Finance of a company seeking consulting services, what is the primary problem that they were seeking to address?
This leads to an understanding of how to match the value proposition of the product or service you are selling to the requirements of each market. When you sell men’s clothing, you quickly realize that you are not selling shirts, ties, and suits, you are selling an image; you are selling someone a vision of how they wish to present themselves in an office, at a wedding, on a golf course, or at a meeting with family and/or friends. In freight transportation, you are selling reliability, consistency, efficiency, service performance, and visibility. When you sell a consulting service, you are selling an improvement in performance, a more efficient process and/or increased profitability. When you are marketing a conference, you are selling the opportunity to network with peers and to gain some industry insights, that are not available elsewhere, from other events.
Product Differentiation
There are thousands of companies selling men’s clothing, freight transportation and consulting services. There are numerous industry conferences in Canada, the United States and overseas. Why should a customer choose your company’s product or service as compared to the competition? A good salesperson knows the competition, and the strengths and weaknesses of his/her product as compared its competitors.
When I sold men’s clothing, the company I worked for catered to a high-end clientele. Many clients were knowledgeable, sophisticated shoppers. I had to focus on the knowledge and requirements of the purchaser. I had to highlight the benefits of the superior tailoring, the quality and durability of the fabrics, the unique benefits of wearing a silk tie imported from France or Italy that would allow the buyer to stand out. Many of the styles and brands were not available from other retailers at that time.
In freight transportation, there can be challenges in differentiating your service when many competitors are using the same railways, with the same schedules, to perform the linehaul for their shipments. In these cases, the differentiation must come from the first and last mile service, from the level of customer service provided , and from the timeliness and quality of information supplied.
Our consulting business serves both shippers and carriers. We have a virtual business model that allows us to assemble a unique and a high-quality team of experts for each assignment. We pride ourselves on developing a customized solution for each customer.
Our freight conference was unique in that we brought shippers and carriers together, sometimes on the same panels, to discuss issues of mutual concern. Carriers could meet potential clients; shippers could meet potential carriers. Vendor booths were established so vendors could meet and sell their services directly to carriers attending the conference. We tried to create tracks that would provide unique insights, from a top economist, from industry experts in the U.S. and Canada, as to where the major segments of the freight industry were going and to what leading companies were doing to differentiate themselves in the market.
In other words, in each business we focused on opportunities to differentiate ourselves, even in market segments that were and still are highly commoditized. Some of these companies have been in business for over 50 years. Clearly their value propositions and sales models, that evolve over time, have successfully stood the test of time.
To stay up to date on Best Practices in Freight Management, follow me on Twitter @DanGoodwill and join the Freight Management Best Practices group on LinkedIn. If you need help in crafting a successful Sales or Busoness Development Strategy for your business, contact me at dan@dantranscon.com.