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New enthusiastic players are disrupting the market with innovative solutions. As a forwarder for many years, you may be out of ideas on how you can reposition your company in such a disruptive market. You may be even wondering if you'll need several rounds of funding to go head to head with the freight leaders. We assure you, that if you focus on your strengths and follow the tips below, you're on your way to success.
As freight competition intensifies, forwarders seek ways to differentiate themselves. However strong your position is in the market, staying the preferred freight forwarder for your customers is a constant process. For sustained growth, you must dig deeper to discover untouched areas that could help reposition your brand in the competitive market.
1. Grow your network to offer more choices
Partnerships lead to business opportunities. Being part of wider networks of freight forwarders elevates your company. Get access to global forwarders for business collaboration and increased visibility. With strong relations, you can find partners who could carry out operations where you may have limitations. For instance, say there is an enquiry for a trade lane that you have not serviced. Being part of the network, you could collaborate with other forwarders to service your prospect's request. This enables you to take on more business and even increase your margins.
2. Understand the market and your competitors' strategy
Unless you know what your competitors are offering, you may be clueless if your services are correctly priced. By various means (ethical, mostly), you must gather information about your competitors including their:
unique selling features
pricing strategies
service or product weak points
This analysis will allow you to shape your decisions and marketing and sales strategies.
3. Create your brand to increase your reach of quality services
Digital marketing is taking the whole space of marketing for any sector, and freight forwarding is not an exception. Being digital freight forwarders you should actively initiate online marketing activities and deliver your messages across various social media channels.
Not just social media, in-person events and networking of forwarders are beneficial too to let yourself known among a wider audience and build your brand.
4. Focus on lead generation and sales management
Even if you're the number one freight forwarder (we hope you get there soon), your sales process can't stop. Empower your sales teams with competitors' data for an irresistible pitch. Generating and nurturing leads without an integrated freight CRM leads to distorted efforts that won't yield the intended result. Bring discipline into your sales process by being organized and sharp in knowing what your prospects are looking for. Combine competitor analysis report with marketing for maximum impact.
5. Enhance your customer experience and bring consistency
Delayed or unanswered customer queries are major causes of customer churn or the reason to move away from your company. Bring a unified experience for your shippers using a freight software. Whether they're checking their shipment progress on the portal or the mobile app, they must see real-time updates. Using a CRM system makes it easier for your support team to handle customer queries.
6. Serve your customers with speed and accuracy
For small forwarders, it could be daunting to see customers go away for poor-quality service. Fixing problems once your customers leave could be too late, as the word about a sour customer experience can travel fast. Our earlier point about being part of a global forwarding network comes in handy to avoid customer disappointment. Speak to forwarders in your network about their prior negative customer encounters and how you could tweak your processes for fast and accurate service.
Providing customers with excellent service is not enough if you'd like to increase your market reach. Join leading global forwarder networks and use the top social media channels to spread the word about your quality and offerings to attract more business. In your mission to become the preferred freight forwarder, freight management software provides a laser focus. Be consistent on lead generation and customer satisfaction to reposition your company even in a disruptive market.