Are You a Shipping Expert
Tom Setka, InXpress Winnipeg, Canada coined the phrase ‘Share and Care’ which we have now adopted as a global initiative. The Winnipeg franchise has always had a caring and sharing philosophy, and this approach has been very successful for them; they have just completed their second year in the network and were number eight for global activations last year, and named as Top Guns.
During the pandemic, they have activated a further 26 customers, and so Melanie Spencer, Global Head of Marketing spoke to Tom to find out how they have found success during this time, by continuing to Share and Care, and what this means in practice.
How have you adapted your sales approach during Covid-19?
We’ve always had a Share and Care philosophy, so the only change is that the challenges businesses are facing now are somewhat unique, so we must listen more intently and be more creative in helping them resolve their concerns.
Share and Care focuses on providing value to customers rather than just a cheap price. Lending an ear and doing what we can to help our customers solve their concerns, shows we care about their business’ success. We believe this sets us apart from other logistics providers.
How do you incorporate this into your day-to-day activities?
Share and Care is a mindset rather than something you incorporate into your day. Making sales calls these days can be very challenging. We’ve found if you call to help instead, people don’t perceive the call as a sales call, and if you uncover a need during the conversation, they are more inclined to buy from you.
The difference now is that we may not even talk shipping during the call because that’s not what their pressing issue is. But one thing we do know is that if we can offer assistance or provide information, they will remember us.
Sounds like a good approach! How do you know they will remember you or call you when things turn around for them?
That’s a great question and the answer is XpressTrack (Soffront CRM system). We’ve always been huge proponents of this and use the email marketing function a ton. Most calls end in an opportunity to send the customer information, and this gets our brand into their Inbox. Even if they don’t read the email, InXpress is in there and making an impression
As a marketing professional, I really like the way you are keeping InXpress front of mind. Can you give us an idea of how you use XpressTrack?
We have over 1500 accounts with email addresses in XpressTrack, that we can communicate with very quickly by email. When the pandemic started, we were able to reach all our customers quickly and let them know we’re still operating and are here to help. We have also created many standard templates we can send out depending on our customer’s needs – for example, if they are looking for a customs broker, box supplier, information on emergency relief programs, price comparisons, or if we simply want to thank them for taking the call. We can send the right communication (or create a new one) in a matter of seconds. And it keeps records that we can refer back to, even when on the road through the XpressTrack app.
It’s great to hear you are using XpressTrack to your advantage. Can you talk to us about any specific successes you’ve had?
There’s been many successes over the last two months, and I think our activations show that. We’ve created a number of automated email campaigns through XpressTrack and regularly get calls and responses from prospects and existing customers. We didn’t stop these emails running when the pandemic started, we just tweaked them a bit, and the response has been good. We send out hundreds of emails a week and let these “Silent Salespeople” (which is what we call our emails) do their job.
This has been great Tom. I really appreciate you taking the time to talk about what you and your team are doing to overcome today’s challenges.
Do you have any last thoughts you’d like to share with your fellow InXpress colleagues?
Slow down and listen. We’re all struggling with this ‘new’ or ‘next’ normal, but the one thing that is a constant for everyone in the world is that we are all facing the same challenge. Asking “How can I help?” is a pretty easy icebreaker to use when making those daily calls.
If you have a success story, please send it to Melanie Spencer so we can feature this in future Global Reach Special Editions, and help to motivate your fellow franchisees and sales reps.