Not mobile in trucking? Get ready for a long 2015.

Whether your target is internal staff, external prospects, carriers or fleets, 2015 will be a landmark year for the increased push toward mobile communications in logistics and trucking in particular.

While connecting ‘traditionally’ over the Internet will continue to have a place and comfort zone for many, branding-related communication needs to be focused on this shift, which is no longer an effort ‘ahead of the curve’ as much as it is a requirement for the here and now.

Looking for a bit more meat? Here are some recent stats from an industry publisher study by Randall Reilly (full article can be found here):

• 54.3% of contractors used internet-enabled phones. Of those 34 years old and under, 100% use internet-enabled phones.
• 52.6% of fleet owners use handheld devices to access the internet, with another 28.3% also using tablets.
• 49.2% of owner-operators use handheld devices to access the internet. Another 22.5% use tablets for the same purpose.
• 55.1% of company drivers use handheld devices to access the internet, with 22.3% using tablets.

3 Questions from Supply Chain Companies about Marketing. 3 Answers.

We’ve received a few questions and comments over the past weeks. Keep them coming to info@mammoth5.com. In no particular order, here they are (paraphrased for brevity’s sake):

Q: How do I get my management team to see that I need to do more marketing to support sales?
A: First, clarify marketing and make sure you have a common definition. To some it may mean pure sales support. To others, it may mean media and advertising. You’ll only make progress if your mental pictures align. From there, the best way to communicate a marketing need is to show it. Go through your sales process, but as a prospect. Document their journey, where and how they see you in the process, in both meetings and in their own independent research. Have management do the same if they can. You’ll see gaps and inconsistencies that may not ‘seem’ that important until you walk a mile in your prospects’ shoes.

Q: Should I do social media?
A: You should participate in social media. ‘Do’ is precisely what you should not do. More to come on this later, but quickly, social media is a commitment. It needs a strategy and vision and a large amount of diligence. More importantly, it needs an understanding that to be successful, you need to give as much as you expect to get. Your goal is generating interest and illustrating expertise. Help people solve their problems, but don’t make them feel it’s a quid pro quo proposition. Like anything, being a resource has value which will ultimately come back around to you. Don’t force it. Don’t just ‘do’ it. Participate in it, for sure.

Q: Where do I start?
A: Question for a question … where are you now? Not every situation is the same, so each company will have a different answer to this question. The best way to understand your needs is to start as your prospect as discussed above. This will help you fill gaps in a much-changing process of sales in business-to-business sector, such as logistics. But be aware that this is gap filling. There is tremendous value in cleaning up the things that are peripheral to the sales process in this first stage, but beyond that there is additional opportunity. For that, you may need to dig a little deeper. Look at your industry, but also look into other B2B verticals or get some help. Phase one is about maintaining competitiveness by not having influencing factors work against you. Phase two is about creating action and defining and differentiating heavily.

Logistics and B2B Sales Support Through Online Marketing: Simple Guidance from Google

The increasing influence of ‘invisible’ online research at the initial stages of B2B sales processes for the transportation and logistics space means that companies will need to be more aware of their brand presence and position throughout the web.

CEB and Google outline a few ways to better organize and create opportunities to build a positive and influential presence online. Critical to logistics companies – typically short on staff and time – their research notes that cohesion and focus of messaging coupled with well-timed ‘helpful’ buyer information are the most critical components of a good strategy, as opposed to undertaking inconsistent, massive efforts to generate enormous volumes of sales-centric material.

Read the full article here: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/articles/b2b-digital-evolution.html

LinkedIn Adds B2B Service Tool Which Can Help Trucking/Transportation/Logistics Companies

LinkedIn introduced new tools this summer that have upside potential for companies looking for lead generation/prospect intelligence opportunities. Indicators show that the business social network is increasingly turning its focus from recruiting to the Business-2-Business space.

More here: http://goo.gl/xrtpMx

The Sales Hurdles You May Not Know Exist

Generating sales in the transportation and logistics community follows many of the same paths that other B2B sales professionals know well. Sales teams pursue leads in an effort to help prospects understand key differentiators of their company relative to the rest of the pack. Phone calls. Presentations. Mailers. Emails. Controlled communication pushes the funnel forward.

But what if the game begins before such sales engagements?

Studies continue to show that B2B sales processes are beginning to look more like those of B2C. Specifically, that business procurement professionals are engaging with your services and offerings before they’ve held meetings or even taken calls from your salespeople.

So what does this mean? For starters, B2B companies in transportation, trucking, and other logistics entities must be more aware of their online presences and how effectively – or not – such a presence builds or depletes the confidence of a potential buyer of your services. Missing the role and importance of these ‘invisible’ stages of the sales processes might leave you out of the game, without so much as an invitation.

“A recent Corporate Executive Board study
of more than 1,400 B2B customers found that those
customers completed, on average, nearly 60% of a
typical purchasing decision—researching solutions,
ranking options, setting requirements, benchmarking pricing, and so on—before even having a conversation with a supplier.” – Corporate Executive Board/Harvard Business Review

Source: Anders Pink

Best practices abound when it comes to building a good online presence, but the starting point for many companies is to better understand the reality of today’s B2B buyer and buying process as exemplified above. Without such a recognition, company websites, social presence, and general online personas will be viewed as second-fiddle sales components as companies evaluate their efforts for 2015.

Honest assessment will help determine whether there is need, and begin to help create shape to the sales conversation that includes all stages of the funnel, visible or not.