As TMSA expands its value proposition and service offerings to members, the association's Board of Directors has approved the decision to expand staff resources that will support the growth of the association.

This newly created position, Chief Strategy Officer, will be responsible for assisting TMSA CEO Brian Everett with developing, executing, communicating and sustaining strategic initiatives of the organization. This individual also will work closely with Everett and the Board of Directors to develop the organization’s vision and strategic focus and overseeing implementation of initiatives through committee engagement and staff resources.

By Robert Rose, Chief Strategy Officer of The Content Advisory, the Consulting & Education Group of Content Marketing Institute. For more than 20 years, Rose has been helping marketers to tell their story more effectively and build passionate audiences and powerful customer experiences. Rose will be the opening and closing keynote speaker for the 2019 TMSA Logistics Marketing & Sales Conference. 

When I was visiting a client in Hartford, Connecticut, I needed a taxi from my hotel to the client’s location. Easy enough. The hotel bellman grabs a taxi from the street and I’m on my way. As we drive, the cabbie makes small talk: where are you from, how long are you staying, the weather, all that. Then he asks, “Do you have a ride to the airport tomorrow?”

By Caliper, a human capital analytics company leveraging decades of data and validated assessment results to predict and select high-quality candidates. Caliper is a TMSA Affiliate member.

Everyone has seen the statistics about employee happiness and how it’ll change the way your workplace operates. Companies with happy employees outperform their competitors by 20%. Some companies have even gone as far as hiring an employee experience officer. One of the most notable companies to hire someone dedicated to employee experience was Airbnb back in 2015 when they transitioned their Chief Human Resources Officer to the Head of Employee Experience. The duties of the new role include shared HR functions as well as responsibilities that focus on their new “workplace as an experience” vision. To achieve this vision, most offices included a group of employees called “ground control” that focus on bringing AirBnb’s culture to life.

By Brian Everett, CEO of the Transportation Marketing & Sales Association

Here at TMSA Headquarters near Minneapolis it's uncommon to host visits by TMSA members in the dead of winter, so I was pleased to learn John Golob, Winmore’s Chief Marketing Officer, was stopping by to share the details of its recent software release — the transportation industry’s first RFP and bid management application. 

In the 2017 TMSA Sales & Marketing Metrics Study, outside sales employees with transportation- and logistics-related companies contributed on average about 51% of the revenue for respondent companies that had outside sales teams. 

In contrast, it’s interesting to note that Inside Sales contributed an average of 41% of revenue for those companies that had inside sales, a slight decrease from 2015.

By Chris Peer, Owner & CEO of SyncShow, a TMSA Affiliate member

Studies on buying behaviors for the B2B industry continue to show that for the majority of buyers, their first stop in finding a solution to their pain points is an internet search. This means that your website is most likely the first touchpoint a prospect is having with your company, and like any other salesperson, your website should be properly armed to sell your products and/or services.

By exhibitpro, a TMSA Affiliate member

Exhibit design trends strive to engage people on different levels. The demand for visually stunning, interactive designs are transforming trade shows. There are several elements that exhibitors can take advantage of to ensure that they are being remembered on the show floor. These elements range from architectural to color trends, and use of material and technology.

By Caliper, a TMSA Affiliate Member

With the number of jobs and applicants increasing, many professionals are turning to advanced tools such as personality assessments to aid them in the hiring process to determine if potential candidates are the right fit for their company. But what is a personality assessment?

Transportation and logistics-related companies comprise one of the leading categories among the Most Admired Companies in the World, according to FORTUNE magazine.

FORTUNE collaborates with partner Korn Ferry Hay Group on this corporate reputation survey, which evaluates approximately 1,500 companies, including the 1,000 largest U.S. companies ranked by revenue and non-U.S. companies in the FORTUNE Global 500® database with revenues of $10 billion or more. Korn Ferry Hay Group surveys 680 companies from 29 countries to select the 15 largest for each international industry and the 10 largest for each U.S. industry. Executives, directors and analysts are then asked to rate companies in their own industry on nine criteria, from investment value to social responsibility, and this vote results in the 52 industry lists. A company’s score must rank in the top half of its industry survey to be listed.

By Dan North, North America Chief Economist via TMSA Affiliate Member Euler Hermes North America 

The economy performed very well in 2018.

GDP growth, expected to be 2.9% for the year, tied 2015 for the strongest of the nine year recovery. Recent growth was particularly impressive in Q2 at 4.2% q/q annualized and 3.5% in Q3. The all-important consumer sector flexed its muscles at 3.8% and 3.6% in Q2 and Q3. Manufacturing was strong. Wages grew at the fastest in nine years. Job creation was vigorous. Inflation and interest rates remained low, and corporate profits set records. It was as good as it’s going to get.

The use of video is gaining significant traction in generating marketing, sales and business results in transportation and logistics. TMSA member companies like Averitt Express which uses video to recruit team drivers who are married, or Bison Transport to talk about the economy and the Trump Effect, or Crowley Maritime to gain credibility on heavy haul expertise.

A Closer Look: FreightWaves Produces Daily Video Insights, News Analysis
Another fine example is TMSA Affiliate member FreightWaves, which provides real-time market insights through their new daily video, NOW. It’s a daily market update that comes from the floor of FreightWaves headquarters in Chattanooga every business day at 4pm Eastern. Throughout NOW, FreightWaves market experts and team deliver content and expertise highlighting key things to watch in the market for that day.

If classic movies like Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), Tin Men (1987), Used Cars (1980)—or more recent hits like Wolf of Wall Street (2013)—have taught us anything, it’s that sales is not for those of a weak disposition.

And whether the character portrayal is ruthless and intimidating like Alec Baldwin’s Blake, broadly comedic like Danny DeVito’s Ernest Tilley, or charmingly sneaky like Kurt Russell’s Rudy Russo, movies have also suggested that salespeople need to be either pushy or conniving to achieve success.

By Ariel Frias Ducoudray, who works to enable SME's to trade throughout the Americas through electronic tools. He is the Head of Online Sales at Sealand - a Maersk Company, a TMSA Corporate member.

It all started with a phone call.

About the Author: Brian Everett is the CEO of the Transportation Marketing & Sales Association, and Senior Partner with MindShare Strategies. He has 25+ years marketing, sales and association management experience in transportation and logistics.

Much of my time spent is learning what’s top-of-mind with sales, marketing and business leaders in transportation and logistics. In the last 18 months, three things have constantly remained on the top of the list: lead generation and business growth, retaining and growing customers, and talent acquisition and management. These priorities take center stage with a backdrop of challenges, ranging from freight capacity issues to the driver shortage.

It’s now 2019 – and we’re now back from holiday breaks and assessing where to prioritize our time and resources. For many, budgets have now green lights and it’s “all hands on deck” to plan and implement the strategies that have been approved. However, it can be overwhelming to figure out where to start.

TMSA offers you an effective business tool we call the “ROI Estimator” to best assess the return on your investment – factoring in the ease and cost of implementation as well as the productivity return you’ll experience. If you routinely use this tool, you’re guaranteed to be able to make quicker decisions on which priorities to focus on based upon your budget, time and resources available, deadlines, and other important factors.

The 2019 Third-Party Logistics Study that recently was published shows that shippers and their 3PLs continue to increase more meaningful partnerships and are collaborating more closely to accomplish their supply chain goals. Both parties seem to have a much greater awareness of what they’re trying to accomplish as well as the ways in which the availability of data and the use of technology can help them progress.

Learning from other marketing, sales, and business leaders is one of the most valuable ways to move your own business forward. The Transportation Marketing & Sales Association brings together market intelligence and thought leadership that's specific and unique to transportation and logistics through our TMSA Blog.

By Adam Robinson, Marketing Manager at Cerasis, a third-party logistics company with a focus on technology and managed transportation services since 1997.