The Logistics of Logistics Podcast: Why Marketing is Your Best Salesperson with Jim Bierfeldt

Why Marketing is Your Best Salesperson with Jim Bierfeldt

Nov 4, 2019

[01:01] Tell us a little bit about you and your company.

My company is Logistics Marketing Advisors. I started it in 2004 and we’re located in Connecticut.
We help logistics businesses improve their marketing to drive revenue and profits.
I’m born and raised in New York and got my master’s degree at Fordham University.
In the late 80s and early 90s, I worked for a large advertising and public relations agency. One of our clients was a logistics company, and they hired me away to run their marketing.

[03:59] Let’s talk a little bit about the problems we see in this space when it comes to sales. What’s the first problem you want to talk about?

I think the way companies buy today is very different from how they bought twenty years ago, and I really don’t think the logistics industry has evolved with that.
There’s so much information out there that wasn’t available before about how to solve certain problems and what providers can help.
Buyers are probably 70% or more through the sales process before they talk to a salesperson.
The solution is getting found by prospects you don’t know.
If somebody does a Google search, perhaps you want them to be directed to a relevant article on your website.
Marketing is a game of hide-and-seek in reverse, but some executives think about it the wrong way.

[08:27] Tell us another problem that’s out there.

Companies are asking salespeople to fill their own pipeline, as well as to work and close deals.
If lead generation today is more about getting found, it requires more of a marketing skill set.
A lot of logistics companies confuse what you have to do to get people to find you versus what you have to do to get people to buy from you.
Once you get found, it’s up to the salesperson.
When you ask a salesperson to generate their own leads in this day and age, that means being marketing savvy. To them, that’s foreign. They just know to pick up the phone and make calls.

[14:40] Tell us about another problem you see out there.

Logistics companies that I talk to want to move to lead generation before they nail the strategy. It’s really all about the strategy.
A lot of logistics companies look and sound the same. That’s the kiss of death in an environment where decision makers are bombarded every day.
A non-differentiated message just contributes to the noise level.
Nailing your position, understanding what your niche is, and trying to speak directly to the people who align best with that niche is what you must do.
Even the biggest brands in the world recognize that it’s better to have a big chunk of part of the market than to try to get the whole market.

[20:42] Talk about another problem that you see out there.

Getting budget support for marketing is always really hard. It’s viewed as an expense, not an investment.
Companies that have marketing are their own worst enemy because they’re not measuring the ROI.
For a boss wondering if he should spend more money on marketing or hire a salesperson, it’s easier for him to see the ROI on the salesperson.
If you have the right CRM, you can do a pretty good analysis of what percentage of business is emanating from marketing.
There’s always a sense that marketing investments will pay off immediately.

[25:17] What’s another problem you see out there?

I do research every couple of years where I go out and ask a whole bunch of buyers of logistics how they buy, where they go to get their information, and what frustrates them the most about the process.
The number-one complaint is that people reach out to them and offer a solution with no understanding of their industry or company.
“I don’t want to feel like I’m the twenty-third person on the call list” perfectly summarizes the attitude.
You can make twenty phone calls in half an hour, but if you do the right research, you can probably make two or three that are quite valuable.

[31:27] Give us a summary of this topic.

Marketing is your best salesperson. That really says it all.
It’s more about getting found; not the provider finding the shipper. They’ll find you, but you have to make it easy.

[32:20] What are you doing at Logistics Marketing Advisors?

Mid-market companies are our sweet spot. We come in and become their marketing department.
We’re helping them with strategy and every aspect down to execution.
We provide data that they can use to hold us accountable and see what kind of return they are getting over time.

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