According to Supply Chain Quarterly, Quarter 4, 2011 issue:

“Supply chain scorecards typically focus on operational metrics. But if companies want to capture a true picture of supply chain success, they need to measure employees’ interpersonal performance, too.”

Further, according to Fast Company magazine, July 2015:

“While automation can replace many routine tasks and while customers are increasingly willing to buy direct with or without the aid of a salesperson, the human touch is still critical. Consider your own frustration when you call a service provider—hoping to have your unique question or problem addressed—and can’t get through to a live person.

The key point is this: customers—even big business customers—are still people, and people like to do business with other people. This is especially true in B2B sales where products and services can be costly and complex. Often, decision makers need answers to questions that are not always anticipated in datasheets, brochures, and videos—with the level of specificity only a one-to-one interaction can provide.”

One of the areas that the Logistics of Logistics specializes in is people skills development that is designed for the busy logistics professional.  Please join us for a live interactive webinar Keys to Developing High Performing 3PL Sales Teams for a closer look at this topic.

Accept Your Invitation Here:
October 2, 2017 1pm EDT http://www.anymeeting.com/PIID=ED52DB80834F3E
October 4, 2017 1pm EDT  http://www.anymeeting.com/PIID=ED52DB80834E38

About the presenter:

Ann C. Holm MS PCC CPCC is a Professional Certified Coach since 2008, focusing on executive and career development along with personal branding. Ann specializes in helping individuals and teams uncover their potential so they can leverage it. She is an Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Master Practitioner (MBTI Personality Assessment) and has expertise in emotional intelligence, 360 Reach Personal Branding, and the entrepreneurial personality. She has both and Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree from University of Michigan. Prior to her work as a coach, she had a 25 year career working in brain injury rehabilitation. www.Annholm.net is located in Minneapolis/St. Paul Minnesota. Please visit my Linkedin profile at linkedin.com/in/annholmnet

The post Do People Skills Matter in the World of Logistics? appeared first on The Logistics of Logistics.

This image comes to my mind when I am partnering with my colleague, Joe Lynch of The Logistics of Logistics, helping clients stand out in the crowded third-party logistics space (3PL).  Our clients want a marketing plan so that they can generate more leads and make more sales.  Some of the possible strategies include a website, a blog, and social media such as LinkedIn.  You’re on the right track if you sense you need to be visible online. This is what Joe and I call a 21^st century approach to selling.  Cold calling and knocking on doors generally doesn’t work anymore.

Developing 21st Century Sales Skills to Sell More 3PL Services

How do you do it effectively? What information feeds into your strategy?  Without relevant content or a well-defined brand, you may still be a voice whose only strategy is to yell louder than your competitor.   There are two streams of information that can clearly define you.

Personal Branding Helps You Get Found

First, there is your personal brand.   At first glance, this seems like an all about me strategy but it isn’t.  It’s customer centered.  How do you get your message and your products to the right people? Your brand is of little value if you don’t think of it in context of your value proposition.

Moreover, personal brands are not assigned to you.  They are uncovered.  For instance, what is your personality type and how can you leverage your strengths while accounting for you blind spots?  What do others say about you?  Finally, what is your comfort level with taking calculated risks to get your business noticed?   Is your brand best suited to the structures of an existing company or do you seek to be independent?

Define Your Target Market

The other stream of information comes from defining your customer.  What are his greatest needs?  What is your niche?  If you are looking for a scarf at the bizarre, are you better off going to the scarf kiosk or someone who is offering hundreds of different products?  What is your expertise?

Individuals and companies who can answer both sides of the equation (What is your personal brand and who do you serve?) have done the most important work that ultimately leads to an effective marketing strategy.

No matter how you step into the 21^st century, whether it is a website, a social media strategy, a blog or a webinar, it is essential that you lay the important groundwork by discovering who you are and what your business is all about first.

Ann C. Holm, MS, PCC, is a Professional Certified Coach specializing in executive, career, and sales coaching. In addition to being a certified Master practitioner of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, she offers the Type Coach online assessment, with a focus on personality as it relates to the process of generating leads, closing and maintaining sales accounts. Ann owns and operates a successful coaching practice and also lends her talents to the 3PL Sales Success program, which she is co-created with Joe Lynch.

The post 21st Century Sales Skills appeared first on The Logistics of Logistics.

Spencer is a salesman who is particularly skilled at sales openings. He creates relationships easily and immediately generates leads. At the same time, he can struggle with answering the final questions a customer might have so he can ultimately secure the business. Sometimes, a new exciting lead can capture his attention leaving an old lead hanging. He should close the deal. Why doesn’t he just do it?

Each of us has strengths and blind spots in how we approach sales and in fact, how we navigate our life in general. Certain skills come natural to us and certain skills do not. How do we leverage our sales strengths and account for our challenges?

Self-awareness is the key first step to achieving both outcomes. However many of us don’t know our strengths and it is even less likely that we are fully aware of our blind spots.

Fortunately, leveraging strengths and minimizing our challenge areas are highly coachable opportunities. Rather than telling you to just do it, coaches can help you add new skills and strategies to make you effective in your role or, help you identify others within your work sphere that you can rely on for assistance.

Through coaching, Spencer learned that his warm, big-picture perspective was natural for his personality type. He discovered that his personality easily built relationships and generated leads and in fact, this was the most energizing part of his work. Yet he was leaving deals on the table. Why didn’t he just follow through?

Strengths tend to come with a corresponding blind spot. Big picture thinkers can often miss details. Individuals attracted to new possibilities might not follow through on existing opportunities. Once an individual becomes aware of these tendencies, he or she can begin to formulate strategies for success.

Spencer discovered through coaching that he needed to develop a system to track and follow through on his leads. Telling him to just follow through without working on a strategy to achieve that would give unreliable results. Likewise, he partnered with a co-worker who helped him account and prepare for the important details that the customer would want to know at the end of the sales process. This resulted in plenty of leads and plenty of closed sales.

Whenever we have an accurate and in-depth appraisal of our strengths and blind spots, we are far better equipped to leverage our natural tendencies and devise ways to get around our challenges. Telling ourselves to just do it without any new approaches or strategies dooms us to making the same mistakes over and over again.

What would you like to improve on?

Ann C. Holm, MS, PCC, is a Professional Certified Coach specializing in executive, career, and sales coaching. In addition to being a certified Master practitioner of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, she offers the Type Coach online assessment, with a focus on personality as it relates to the process of generating leads, closing and maintaining sales accounts. Ann owns and operates a successful coaching practice and also lends her talents to the 3PL Sales Success program, which she is co-created with Joe Lynch.

The post Just Do It appeared first on The Logistics of Logistics.