10/12/2019

If you’re a supplier and you think nobody cares if you’re alive, try missing a couple of delivery dates. In all seriousness, logistics and supply chain departments often have high expectations, as well as tight schedules and budgets. Whether you are a supply chain software company or logistics service provider, you will most likely be facing the same target group of logistics and supply chain professionals. These will either be manifested as specialised departments within large enterprise companies or as other supply chain/logistics companies. So we’ve compiled a general list of how to increase your logistics & supply chain sales.

Excelling at supply chain and logistics sales is not an easy task. Selling to these departments is difficult due to the fact that many of the available solutions might be similar and therefore price is often the primary purchase factor.

Furthermore, supply chain and logistics departments often work closely with purchasing and procurement, which are notoriously difficult to access and convert into customers. When also considering the price focus of these professionals, it means that selling into their departments can be very challenging. So here are some strategies that will enable you to do this more successfully.

Buying Signals

Buying signals can be very reliable when considering logistics and supply chain needs. For example, expansions require a variety of increased logistics to support the new project or facility. New deals and procurement contract will also increase their supply chain needs. Similarly, large investments or the recruitment of key personnel

Emphasise Cost Benefits

As aforementioned, they have strong considerations towards price. Therefore, whatever the software or service you are selling is, it’s important to take pricing factors into account and or focus on the cost reductions that your solution can bring.

Search for Similar Companies

Creating an ideal customer profile through existing customers is an effective way to find other leads and prospects matching this description.

Account-Based Marketing

Due to the fact that these type of accounts may often have a number of different decision makers from different related departments (purchasing, procurement, supply chain, logistics, IT, etc.), competent account mapping is important to ensure that all the relationships of the decision-making unit are considered. ABM is almost an essential tactic to improve your supply chain and logistics sales.

Social Selling

Using social selling can enable you to try and differentiate your solution based on factors other than price, and to enable better account mapping and more personalised outreach. Additionally, it can help with reading buying signals to understand which providers don’t already have a similar solution so that you can compete on something other than price.

Fairs and Exhibitions

The logistics industry has an immense and frequent variety of fairs and exhibitions where a still large part of the deals and connections take place. It’s important to send your salespeople consistently to these fairs, or at the very least contact people attending them (easy to find out through social networks) because attendance is often a buying signal. Even pretending you attended can be a good outreach tactic, as it might make the prospect think that they met you (who really remembers logistics people anyway). anyway).