We all have an image in our minds of "telemarketing." Whether it’s the irritating calls you receive at home during dinner or the rows of pushy salespeople with headsets, you probably don’t get a warm fuzzy feeling about it.

Well, think again. There is another kind of telemarketing, or "telesales," in which the goal is to sell services by building relationships. The success of building a home based business as an Independent Tele-Logistics Agent is client development in particular is in the building of strong, long-lasting relationships with shippers. Through this method, potential shippers view Independent Tele-Logistics Agents as consultants and friends, and they grow to trust and depend on them and their service. As a result, the relationship-based Independent Tele-Logistics Agent helps establish a solid, loyal shipper base that will continue to grow and flourish over time.

Independent Tele-Logistics Agents in the Transportation & Logistics Market

To be a successful Independent Tele-Logistics Agent, your telesales campaigns must be tailored to meet the very special needs of the transportation and logistics market. These special needs include:

• Understanding shippers shipping cycles and how they impact transportation purchase decisions.
• Knowing who the decision-makers are and what messages will attract them. Understand the challenges that face shippers today and offer them solutions. Knowing how to segment your target audience and tailor your message specifically to the needs of each shipping group and the modes of transportation will greatly increase your chances for success.
• Understanding the current trends, supply and demand in the marketplace and how they impact the success of your service. Analyze trends to understand what the current market is on available equipment in a particular region, state, or lane

Effective Independent Tele-Logistics Agents must have knowledge of all of these issues to be successful. This knowledge allows them to draw shippers into personalized conversations about their shipping situations and gets them to respond positively to sales presentations.

Establishing a Relationship

The hardest part of building a relationship with a shipper is getting that relationship off the ground. Our first inclination when we pick up the phone and realize that there is a telesales person on the other end is to hang up. The key to keeping people on the phone is starting a conversation with them, building a rapport from the first moment, and keeping it going throughout the phone call and into the future.  Getting to the NEX STEP!

This requires bright, enthusiastic Independent Tele-Logistics Agents who are not only knowledgeable about the service they are providing, but who also understand the transportation environment as a whole. The first part of this statement is obvious. Clearly, Independent Tele-Logistics Agents  must have a high level of transportation knowledge in order to provide a consulting service to the shippers they are calling, much as a sales representative visiting in person would. But an Independent Tele-Logistics Agent must also know what questions to ask shippers to draw them into a conversation and make the link between their needs and the services offered.

What characteristics must a good Independent Tele-Logistics Agent have? Among the most important, we have found, are:

• Excellent verbal/written English communication skills;
• The ability to handle rejection well;
• The ability to project their excitement and friendliness over the phone ; and
• The ability to SERVE

With the right training and these personal characteristics, you will have the confidence to be able to depend on your abilities as a professional to get key referrals to other shippers, to respond to e-mail and internet inquiries in a friendly and professional manner, and to be the face and smile behind your customer service. And be sure that your are available throughout the day to answer shipper’s questions and to build your shipper base through the expert consultative support that you can provide. The successful Independent Tele-Logistics Agent is the one who knows what questions to ask to draw a shipper into a conversation and establish a relationship early by making that critical link between a shipper’s needs and the services you provide.

Maintaining the Relationship

Once a relationship has been established, either in the form of a quote or a committed shipment, the goal is to maintain it and use it to generate future shipments. One of the most important aspects of any relationship is continuity. A prospect that has a meaningful exchange with an Independent Tele-Logistics Agent one week, but receives a call from a different person the next week, is likely to feel confused and even betrayed. The sense of familiarity and developing loyalty that the prospect felt toward the initial call (and, by extension, the service) is diminished. Continuity of the Independent Tele-Logistics Agent is essential to cultivate the solid relationships with shippers that will keep them coming back again and again.

A successful relationship also depends on good intelligence. For example, an Independent Tele-Logistics Agent who makes notes after a conversation about the freight and the lanes that a shipper moves knows right where to pick up with the next phone call. The Independent Tele-Logistics Agent can inquire about challenges the shipper may be having moving the freight and give solutions and carrier alternatives that will add value to the conversation by continuing the discussion on how there services can meet the shipper’s specific needs. Picture an Independent Tele-Logistics Agent that makes a second call to a shipper but doesn’t remember what information they discussed after the first call. He is clearly less equipped to ask appropriate follow-up questions. Good information and a record of relationship history allow the Independent Tele-Logistics Agent to create a rapport with the shipper much as two people who work together on a daily basis create a working relationship.

Database Tracking

Key to the maintenance of customer relationships, of course, is the ability to keep track of information about shippers and the transportation environment on their specific lanes. Tracking this information in addition to the content of each contact allows Independent Tele-Logistics Agents to maintain knowledge of their shippers and gives them the ability to tailor their service to best meet each one’s particular needs.. In addition, the database should be used to rank prospects by how likely they are to ship, to track past orders, and to record how and if each responds to various marketing devices and forms of contact. All of this information can help Independent Tele-Logistics Agents use their time in the most efficient way possible and maximize their chances of a sale.

While keeping track of each customer relationship is important to any telesales effort, the data should also be used in the aggregate to develop targeted marketing and telesales campaigns that build the customer base effectively and efficiently. By analyzing the information in the database, you will better understand who your shippers are and what your shipper profile looks like. You will also learn the regions, and states in which you have strong penetration, so that you can target the prospects that are most likely to turn into new shippers - - starting with shippers that "look" like your customers. In short, data analysis will help you spend your valuable time in the most effective way.

Growing Your Shipper Base

The development of a base of satisfied shippers is critical to building the positive reputation necessary for the growth of every Independent Tele-Logistics Agents home based business. Strong relationships with your shippers require that you can meet all the needs of your shippers, and these may come in the form of customer service after the sale or even as ongoing shipping options. Without this after-sales support, shippers will look for other ways of solving their problems, and you will end up losing the business. You will create long-term friends who will look to you for help in their current needs as well as their future ones.

For example, let’s assume that your home based business provides an online freight tool among other services. Independent Tele-Logistics Agent can establish a good relationship through an initial demo and training of this tool. The Independent Tele-Logistics Agent solidifies that relationship with strong follow-up to make sure the online tool was to the shipper’s satisfaction and to find out what other freight its shipper may have. Perhaps the shipper isn’t in need of other modes of transportation at the moment, but he/she may well call the Independent Tele-Logistics Agent who was so helpful and knowledgeable the next time she is dealing with a different mode of transportation.

Whether the next call is initiated by the shipper or by the Independent Tele-Logistics Agent, the agent can offer other services or supplementary training materials that the principal can use to support the online freight tool. The bond that was created through the offering of the online freight tool leads to repeat shipments down the line. That is why as an Independent Tele-Logistics Agents you can be so effective in increasing the average number of shipments and the frequency of the quotes you get from your shippers.

In addition, happy shippers like to share their positive experiences with friends and colleagues. Networking is one of the most effective ways to grow market share, and it relies heavily on the relationships that you have developed with existing shippers. Referrals provide Independent Tele-Logistics Agents and prospects with an automatic bond (the referrer) and are an excellent strategy because the likelihood of a shipment is much higher than a cold call.

For example, an Independent Tele-Logistics Agent may have an unsuccessful direct email campaign because the Independent Tele-Logistics Agent is new and relatively unknown among shippers. A targeted telesales campaign can create a small but satisfied base of shippers, and the program will succeed as these happy shippers start telling their friends and colleagues about this great new service provider. The Independent Tele-Logistics Agent obtains names of prospective shippers from existing ones, or shippers may even call on their own. Shippers who refer colleagues may be rewarded with a free gift, and the network continues to grow.

Lastly, it is important to recognize that while a strong direct email campaign may be critical to a successful online marketing effort, email without telephone follow-up is likely to be far less effective than it could be. An email piece (assuming it reaches and is opened by its addressee) provides an entrance into a relationship with a potential customer, but it rarely establishes that relationship. Typical email response rates in the transportation market are below two percent, but when complimented with targeted telephone follow-up can be as high as five or even ten percent. Again, the personal contact and resulting relationship makes a difference. A friendly and informed voice on the phone can bring attention to the email, confirm its message, and offer more information, essentially bringing the emailing to life.

Always, remember, the folks on the phones cannot be traditional telemarketers, who are in constant danger of insulting their audience the minute there’s a deviation from a prepared script. Rather, Independent Tele-Logistics Agents understand and speak the language of the shipper and address their needs. You must become the "face" of the company, and your interactions with your shippers and prospects have both immediate and long-term consequences for your home based business. The results of relationship-based telesales done in the right way are satisfied shippers who are likely to continue shipping with you year after year and refer them to others to whom you can also ship.

Affording the Home Based Business as a Independent Tele-Logistics Agent

When comparing the Independent Tele-Logistics Agents Home Based Business Opportunity with other home based businesses, the proven business model, relatively low cost start up, and the explosive sector growth is clearly favors the Independent Tele-Logistics Agent Home Based Business.

M.J. Israel is the CEO of Global Translogic, Inc, a firm that provides Transportation and Logistics Services and markets the Independent Tele-Logistics Agent Home Based Business Opportunity for call center agents, sales, marketing and business professionals in the Philippines. For more information visit:

www.independenttelelogisticsagent.ph.

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