Open, Honest Communication Wins Business, Experts Say
AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. — Business strategist Marcus Sheridan told transportation industry professionals at a sales and marketing conference here that posting to their websites details about their competition could help drive new business, and he pointed to his history as a self-described “pool guy” to make the case.
It was a message that resonated, as a panel of trucking executives attending the Transportation Marketing & Sales Association’s Logistics Marketing & Sales Conference later discussed the value of maintaining open lines of communications with current and potential customers.
“Businesses willing to meet customers where they are tend to become the most trusted voice,” Sheridan said in his June 11 keynote address, adding that companies willing to share detailed information on issues customers care about — including, for example, pricing — tend to get “the first call” from potential customers. Conversely, businesses that are unwilling to share information typically don’t catch customers’ eyes.
To illustrate the point, Sheridan pointed to a page on the website of the pool-building company he co-founded several years ago that listed the names and histories of some of his top competitors. He presented a ranking of organic web-search results that showed how people searching for information on a particular competitor were finding his company’s page as the top result. This, he said, was fueled by the existence of the page on his site that included that competitor’s name.
Search traffic to the page led to $150,000 in revenue for his company in one year, Sheridan said, an outcome he attributed to his company’s willingness to be forthcoming with answers to questions customers often asked. Including, he said, the names of other companies that could do the job.
“Own the conversation,” Sheridan said. “If you don’t own the conversation, someone will own it for you.”
Jeff Tucker, CEO of freight brokerage firm Tucker Worldwide, said during a panel discussion later in the day that he wants his company to step up the level of targeted content it produces. “We have spent vast amounts of time writing about our industry,” he said, noting that he has handled some of that work himself over the years. Going forward, he said, he wants to ensure that information is “in the right space” so customers can find it, adding that this could mean more pages on his company’s website, and simplifying the site’s design.
This kind of thinking is vital because of how business is done today, said Caroline Lyle, vice president of marketing for TMW Systems. “The way people sell has driven demand for content,” she said, adding that customers are less interested in features and more in how a given product or service meets their needs.
And answering those questions is central to building strong client relationships, said Dino Moier, executive vice president of client solutions for third-party logistics provider LeSaint Logistics. “Value is about how deep can I get into a relationship with you,” he said. “Let’s figure out what you need, not what I want. Because if you get what you need, I get what I want.”
Tucker agreed. “If you are trying to be everything to everyone, you don’t really have a customer.”
Tucker also thinks it is important that salespeople have the requisite training to address clients’ specific needs. “I want to help salespeople speak fluently on the issues that I can speak fluently on,” he said.
A challenge in all of this, however, is getting buy-in within an organization, said Mark Miller, vice president of corporate and marketing communications for Crowley Maritime. “Trying to pull your organization forward and get them to buy what you are selling is not always the easiest thing,” he said. “You must be able to prove to the rest of your organization that, ‘yes, this will really work,’?”
