10 Ways an Integrated CRM Tool Can Improve the Freight Forwarding Sales and Operations Process

10 Ways an Integrated CRM Tool Can Improve the Freight Forwarding Sales and Operations Process 

The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and sales process for freight and logistics is considerably more complex in today’s dynamic global business environment than it has been in the past.  For instance, she says, the buying decision has moved from the shipping dock and traffic department to C-level influencers.  The entire CRM process as it relates to freight forwarding has evolved and requires more advanced IT tools to support this new paradigm. 

“There is a number of IT solutions available that can be applied horizontally across a variety of industries to automate the sales process and manage it through CRM,” “Most are adequate solutions.  However, for logistics providers, the optimal solution is an integrated ERP system that applies this discipline vertically.  This is especially important for the freight forwarding industry, where CRM is an integral part of the supply chain solution as it relates to running the entire company – from sales prospecting, to quotes, operations, finance and an optimized logistics process.”

10 areas of supply chain functionality that can ensure an effective CRM process:  

·Identify a Single Solution for Management Visibility

In many cases there are fragmented communications solutions that may serve one business segment more than another, and require multiple data entry.  Supply chain visibility can be better accomplished by a single solution that integrates information from both sales and operations.  With integrated information, sales reps can enter critical data that is used to facilitate increased sales and customer service by monitoring project status and meeting customer deadlines.  Operations management is then able to utilize the same, uniform information for reporting and oversight without requiring additional data entry.  Offering management visibility is a by-product of the sales effort, but invaluable to ongoing operations.

·Establish Effective Freight-specific Marketing Tools

Key to improving CRM and increasing sales is continually building the sales funnel through effective marketing to both existing customers and prospects.  A proper freight CRM process can target marketing efforts based on attributes that only freight-specific CRM can deliver: shipment activity, lane segments, trade profiles, deliverables, etc.  

·Institute Data Efficiencies

Sales and marketing is the first contact with the customer/prospect.  Prospects turn into quoting opportunities, shipments and revenue.  If a customer record is entered into a CRM tool, then into a separate freight system, and then a financial system, there is no integrated efficiency developed beyond the original point of origin.  IT solutions with an integrated CRM process enables sales, operations, and finance to work from the same records, increasing companywide operating efficiencies.

·Ensure Data Quality through a Single System

Data quality is even more of an issue for companies than efficiency.  Changing customer organization details, contacts, and procedures is an administrative nightmare with multiple data systems within a company.  A single data system with a common point of customer input ensures the entire team – from sales through operations to finance – has access to the same updated information to ensure a seamless flow of quality information.

·Improve the Customer Experience

the sales process begins with your company contact sitting down across the desk from a prospect customer asking for business and committing to SOPs.  Communicating these SOPs to operations and adhering to them is difficult.  An integrated CRM solution extends beyond sales, allowing a customer profile to be established that includes operations. A properly integrated CRM solution does not require sales to send memos, but rather enables the system to automatically inform operations of the dos and don’ts of managing that account.  

·Create Sales Management Visibility

Sales and CRM effectiveness is ultimately measured with numbers.  Management needs visibility of sales efforts to evaluate operating performance and strategy.  Asking what issues are affecting sales is an important element in establishing management visibility of the operating process.  Is there a common theme that can lead to opportunities if addressed?  How many calls are being made; what is the call cycle for major accounts; how does the sales funnel look for the next week, month, quarter, and year?  These are all metrics that can be harvested from any good CRM process, but an integrated CRM procedure enables these items to be segmented by quotation, customer, SOP, trade lane, tonnage, destination point and delivery date, creating accurate reporting information throughout the entire sales and marketing system. 

·Establish Quoting and Communications Guidelines

accurate quoting is the second, and often the most important step, in obtaining business for your company.  This can be as simple as a one-time ad hoc shipment or as complex as a request for a detailed proposed rate study.  Everything your sales department has done up until that point must be accessible to sales and operations for quoting.  An integrated IT-based CRM program ensures a more efficient and effective quoting and communications process by permitting real-time cross-functional accessibility to client data by the various business segments involved in the sales and operational processes.

·Ensure Transparent Data Repository

A properly utilized CRM process offers transparency to the customer relationship within a logistics operation.  Ultimately relationships are between the customer and the logistics company, not individuals.  An integrated CRM process provides for a smooth transition in the event of staffing changes or employee turnover.

·Improve Financial Visibility 

your sales department needs a single point of access for client intelligence, quoting visibility, and financial visibility.  A single, integrated CRM system will provide this, while ensuring security and giving access only to the information required in order completing specific tasks necessary within the supply chain process.

·Institute an Effective Sales Process 

The obvious and most important value question asked about CRM should be: “Does our CRM process help sales reps work more efficiently and increase customer interface, or does it detract from time spent pursuing prospects to enter additional information needed by sales management and operations?”  An effective CRM effort generates comprehensive, relevant reports and permits the sales process to increase the time spent with customer interaction.  An integrated CRM system seamlessly benefits sales management and operations on the backend without redundant entry by sales.  It enables sales to manage customers, develop call cycles, and become more efficient as a company.  An inadequate CRM tool will be met with resistance.  A good CRM process self-perpetuates with sales and customers.  As the sales department sees their efforts integrating into the calendar, eliminating manual call reporting, and offering their customers better results through customer service, they realize it maximizes their earning potential…just don’t tell them it is a management tool.    

“Following these essential guidelines in establishing the right single-source CRM solution enables the sales team to be more efficient and sell more, while providing the entire sales team with virtually seamless visibility throughout the CRM process.  In doing so, it provides operational management with a clear view of what is happening throughout the entire freight logistics process and helps improve your company’s supply chain efficiency and ROI,” 

Industry Need - Freight Forwarding Sales Process Requires Higher Level of Professionalism

Freight Forwarding Sales Process Requires Higher Level Of Professionalism

In today’s increasingly complex global business environment, the sales management process in the freight forwarding industry requires a vigorous new level of professionalism to be effective.

Unlike days gone past, the sales process within the freight forwarding industry today reflects the fact that purchasing decisions are being made increasingly at the C-level executive or board room echelon, as opposed to the old traffic manager and shipping room floor paradigms. This means that today’s sales and marketing efforts require a greater degree of corporate participation, cross-departmental IT integration and advanced sales tools to support this new business model.

The key to a successful sales process today is the establishment of freight-specific sales and marketing tools within a comprehensive Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application. The forwarding and logistics market is evolving into an increasingly competitive and tight margin industry that warrants a new level of professionalism well beyond that of what a single sales manager can deliver. Today, a robust, integrated CRM tool provides the best opportunity to execute the sales value proposition by communicating significant sales data to all pertinent personnel, including operations, finance and IT departments.

Since stand-alone CRM applications cannot offer the efficiencies and quality of an integrated sales process, the optimal solution is an ERP-like system that automates the sales process and creates management visibility throughout the supply chain, not horizontally, but vertically. This enables the sales process to flow in both directions between sales, operations and management.

Because sales management today cannot deliver in a vacuum, we have identified 10 ways companies can improve sales and operations through an integrated IT-based sales process.

Develop a single point of contact with a customer for enhanced communications between sales and operations. If a single element of information is kept in redundant systems, it opens up quality issues and questions regarding the accuracy of sales information. Utilizing integrated information ensures cross-departmental precision and facilitates increased sales and customer service.

Operations should avoid having a single additional element of work to accommodate just the sales process. Rather, the information from operations should flow seamlessly to the sales department. Management is then able to utilize the same, uniform information for reporting and oversight without requiring additional data entry.

Automate the workflow with a single database. If all the intelligence that sales gather is available to operations, it not only reduces redundancy, but provides management with clear visibility across the sales team’s efforts. Data quality is even more of an issue for companies than efficiency. Changing customer organization details, contacts, and procedures is an administrative nightmare with multiple data systems within a company and should be avoided.

Provide a single CRM system for pipeline visibility. Customers and sales often dictate specialized reporting during the sales process that is required from operations. By automating your sales management system, the sales department can set up automated reporting and pull it seamlessly from operations for quality control and efficiencies. This can be better accomplished by a single solution that integrates information from both sales and operations. This also provides vastly improved customer service.

Set up controls for customer tariffs for freight and handling. By automating this functionality within a single sales platform, the ratings are automatically transmitted to operations and warn them to utilize customer tariffs at invoicing.

Establish a consistent, companywide system. By avoiding cross-departmental confusion, spot quotes can be entered and tracked accurately and systematically throughout the system and warns operations at rating and invoicing. This avoids costly rework, and more importantly, helps create a more positive customer experience.

Maintain customer status awareness throughout the process. Operations should alert sales seamlessly out of the automated single system database. This improves overall communication and documents that each transaction was completed in a timely manner.

Utilize IT-based sales management communications. General sales call notes, proposals, emails and other sales documentation are more accessible to operations with a click of the mouse and provide increased data accuracy and total customer status.

Establish a CRM model that enables the sales team to see a dashboard synopsis of operational activity via automated document modules for real-time activity status without requiring operation resources to compile it for them.

Maintain transparency to the customer relationship. Operational quote activity should be transparent and visible to the sales department personnel who can properly follow up on a timely basis. The result will help identify shipment activity, lane segments, trade profiles, deliverables, financial data and call cycles, creating more efficiency and the ability to win more business.

The development of a more professional, robust IT-based sales management process is dependent upon building an integrated sales funnel through effective CRM tools to both existing customers and prospects via accurate data and effectual communications among trading partners. A properly automated and integrated freight sales process can greatly enhance target marketing efforts in today’s global economy. This, in turn, optimizes management viability across a variety of industries, and manages it throughout the entire sales process.

Top 10 Reasons for CRM

Identify a Single Solution for Management Visibility In many cases there are fragmented communications solutions that may serve one business segment more than another, and require multiple data entry. Supply chain visibility can be better accomplished by a single solution that integrates information from both sales and operations. With integrated information, sales reps can enter critical data that is used to facilitate increased sales and customer service by monitoring project status and meeting customer deadlines. Operations management is then able to utilize the same, uniform information for reporting and oversight without requiring additional data entry. Offering management visibility is a by-product of the sales effort, but invaluable to ongoing operations.

Establish Effective Freight-specific Marketing Tools Key to improving CRM and increasing sales is continually building the sales funnel through effective marketing to both existing customers and prospects. A proper freight CRM process can target marketing efforts based on attributes that only freight-specific CRM can deliver: shipment activity, lane segments, trade profiles, deliverables, etc. 

Institute Data Efficiencies Sales and marketing is the first contact with the customer/prospect. Prospects turn into quoting opportunities, shipments and revenue. If a customer record is entered into a CRM tool, then into a separate freight system, and then a financial system, there is no integrated efficiency developed beyond the original point of origin. IT solutions with an integrated CRM process enables sales, operations, and finance to work from the same records, increasing companywide operating efficiencies.

Ensure Data Quality through a Single System Data quality is even more of an issue for companies than efficiency. Changing customer organization details, contacts, and procedures is an administrative nightmare with multiple data systems within a company. A single data system with a common point of customer input ensures the entire team – from sales through operations to finance – has access to the same updated information to ensure a seamless flow of quality information.

Improve the Customer Experience the sales process begins with your company contact sitting down across the desk from a prospect customer asking for business and committing to SOPs. Communicating these SOPs to operations and adhering to them is difficult. An integrated CRM solution extends beyond sales, allowing a customer profile to be established that includes operations. A properly integrated CRM solution does not require sales to send memos, but rather enables the system to automatically inform operations of the dos and don’ts of managing that account. 

Create Sales Management Visibility Sales and CRM effectiveness are ultimately measured with numbers. Management needs visibility of sales efforts to evaluate operating performance and strategy. Asking what issues are affecting sales is an important element in establishing management visibility of the operating process. Is there a common theme that can lead to opportunities if addressed? How many calls are being made; what is the call cycle for major accounts; how does the sales funnel look for the next week, month, quarter, and year? These are all metrics that can be harvested from any good CRM process, but an integrated CRM procedure enables these items to be segmented by quotation, customer, SOP, trade lane, tonnage, destination point and delivery date, creating accurate reporting information throughout the entire sales and marketing system.

Establish Quoting and Communications Guidelines Accurate quoting is the second, and often the most important step, in obtaining business for your company. This can be as simple as a one-time ad hoc shipment or as complex as a request for a detailed proposed rate study. Everything your sales department has done up until that point must be accessible to sales and operations for quoting. An integrated IT-based CRM program ensures a more efficient and effective quoting and communications process by permitting real-time cross-functional accessibility to client data by the various business segments involved in the sales and operational processes.
Ensure Transparent Data Repository A properly utilized CRM process offers transparency to the customer relationship within a logistics operation. Ultimately relationships are between the customer and the logistics company, not individuals. An integrated CRM process provides for a smooth transition in the event of staffing changes or employee turnover.

Improve Financial Visibility Your sales department needs a single point of access for client intelligence, quoting visibility, and financial visibility. A single, integrated CRM system will provide this, while ensuring security and giving access only to the information required in order completing specific tasks necessary within the supply chain process.

Institute an Effective Sales Process The obvious and most important value question asked about CRM should be: “Does our CRM process help sales reps work more efficiently and increase customer interface, or does it detract from time spent pursuing prospects to enter additional information needed by sales management and operations?” An effective CRM effort generates comprehensive, relevant reports and permits the sales process to increase the time spent with customer interaction. An integrated CRM system seamlessly benefits sales management and operations on the backend without redundant entry by sales. It enables sales to manage customers, develop call cycles, and become more efficient as a company. An inadequate CRM tool will be met with resistance.

 

A good CRM process self-perpetuates with sales and customers. As the sales department sees their efforts integrating into the calendar, eliminating manual call reporting, and offering their customers better results through customer service, they realize it maximizes their earning potential…just don’t tell them it is a management tool. “Following these essential guidelines in establishing the right single-source CRM solution enables the sales team to be more efficient and sell more, while providing the entire sales team with virtually seamless visibility throughout the CRM process. In doing so, it provides operational management with a clear view of what is happening throughout the entire freight logistics process and helps improve your company’s supply chain efficiency and ROI,”

G-ILS has developed an ON demand CRM with an optimization sales management engines catered for the servicing industries, covering Logistics, Transport, Insurance, Finance, Banking and a Generic module that does cover all other verticals;

These industries suffers from a high level number of transactions, with very high level of error rates, which subsequently does cost companies a large amount of money; Our range of products will eliminate in large most of these concerns, and will install very high level of standardization that will let company gain additional revenues, and improve margins;
The Global Servicing industries which does cover Transportation, freight forwarding, Logistics, Insurance, Banking and financial industries with current spending of 7.1 Trillion Dollars an annually and with massive amount of annual transactions has recognized the fact that with this type of transactions and spending they would need to have an integrated CRM and controlling TMSS (Transport Management Sales System) that would be able to perform an ultimate sales management of accounts as well as potential accounts through one system that would be able to provide them all the key fundamentals needed to make real time decisions as well as grow the business in the right directions.


G-ILS on Demand Integrated CRM Solution can provide the servicing industries with a truly unique, robust and flexible CRM on Demand that enables complete and comprehensive management of existing accounts as well as in depth management of potential accounts tunnelled through sophisticated high-level Business Intel licence capabilities.

Through Transportation, freight forwarding, Logistics, Insurance, Banking and financial industries synchronization sales transactions, G-ILS on Demand provides a complete and comprehensive level of sales and customer services platform to plan forecast and execute the sales and customer services transactions throughout all modes of transport.

G-ILS is positioned as a complete solution for the global and local servicing industries organizations throughout the world. With the capabilities of complete integration to all operating systems, G-ILS is able to analyze the comprehensive amount of data tunnelled through the system and would help companies to improve in the most fundamental areas , revenue growth, yields improvements , complete operation efficiencies and tremendous improvements on the service levels.

The servicing industry consist of several segments, all are linked to similar processes, and commonly share the same symptoms as far as customers and data management; as the industry has moved forward in the recent years the industry has recognized the needs of managing data in a professional manner, as well as making sure that the investments in IT equipment will have well controlled ROI (Return on Investment) , as well as represents better value for the company and its customers;


The industry global size represents one of the top global spending industries; this creates a world of opportunities for the G-ILS range of products, based on this we have built a range of products that could provide complete overall solutions based on current well known shortfalls;

The key would be to turn the SERVICE Industry management into a strategic advantage; G-ILS on demand CRM solution for both customer maintenance as well new Sales Process, provides a clear management path to improve all key business fundamentals; G-ILS improves most sales processes through all the modes of transport; The system increases reliability, control, and precision through the full cycle of transportation and Logistics;

G-ILS on demand management fully supports multiple logistical roles, including internal transportation departments, Logistics service providers, and all freight forwarders; the complete suite solution does provide multi-module management solution;

General Company Description

TMSS ( Transportation Management Sales System) is an innovative, first of its kind product dedicated to the transportation, logistics and supply chain management industries and does cover a fully fledged CRM ( Customer Relationship Management) sales force automation, various elements of pricing which includes high level optimizations based on historical and forecasted data. The complete system has high level business rulings which provides detailed elements of service measurements as well as complete measurements of the various parties linked to the system. Optimization tool linked to the service module provides in real time best services utilized.

Potential customers in the following sectors;

Logistics;
Transport;
Freight Forwarding;
Insurance;
Banking;
Financial Industry;
Potential Investors;
Possible equity;
Global presence;