Logistics of Logistics – Converting Leads to Loads
With vast competition rising in the logistics industry, your business is now challenged with differentiating yourself in order to turn a lead into an opportunity. Covideo Director of Sales, John Simpson, had the pleasure to be featured on the Logistics of Logisticspodcast, hosted by Joe Lynch.
Joe Lynch offers sales training and coaching for transportation and logistics professionals. He’s worked in this industry throughout his career and is passionate about brainstorming new ideas with other professionals.
Converting Leads to Loads featuring John Simpson
Check out these highlights from Joe and John’s conversation about the potential impact video email can have on the logistics industry.
Joe at Logistics of Logistics: John, welcome. To start, tell us a little about you and your company.
John at Covideo: My name is John Simpson and I’m the Director of Sales at Covideo. We are an email, texting, and video platform for salespeople, based out of Indianapolis, IN.
I’m from Holland, Michigan. I went to a small school in Grand Rapids, Michigan called Aquinas College where I studied political science. After graduating, I worked at a deli for awhile. I decided to go to Grad School, but dropped out shortly after. So I drove to Chicago and found a job with a logistics company. I didn’t know what logistics was at first, but I stayed there for ten years before joining Covideo.
So when did you join Covideo, and why did you join Covideo?
I joined Covideo in January of 2017, and I miss logistics, but a good friend of mine started Covideo years ago and needed some help with the sales team, so here I am.
I always say, if you can get more leads, you’re going to get more sales. But, in this business, good leads are hard to come by.
Leads aren’t really worth anything until you get the opportunity to talk to somebody. That’s when they become precious.
One of the most important thing in sales is that people buy from people that they like. And they like doing business with them. That’s one thing we do at Covideo, we put that face with that name and really help people stand out against competition.
How does Covideo go about converting more leads into loads?
Well Covideo was built for salespeople, and we send personality through email. It’s not going to be the first touch you have in a sequence towards a customer. The logistics provider can call a company and leave a voicemail saying they will send a video of themselves via email. Once you send your video, there’s analytics attached. You can see when they watch it and how many times they watched it.
Why send video on this platform rather than just through your phone?
When sending a video on your phone, you’re going to run into file size and spam issues. Our videos can also appear as an overlay on your website, guiding viewers to the next steps.
You can add clickable links to guide the recipient wherever you want on the internet such as your LinkedIn page or your website. You’ll be able to see what they clicked on and gain some insight as to what they are interested in.
How long are these videos usually?
15 to 45 seconds depending on your message. You don’t want anything longer than that. Typically people only read the first sentence or two of an email, so you want to stick to those same expectations and keep your message quick and attention grabbing.
Are there any logistics companies using this already? How’s it working?
I heard from a sales rep that kept being ignored by a woman he was calling. She was about to shut him off, but she mentioned she was into innovation. Once he sent her a video, she let him quote three lanes that day. To me, that’s a win.
This space is getting very competitive. If you don’t find a way to compete with the established players in the logistics industry, if you can’t be faster, a little more agile, or innovative, you’re not going to succeed. I feel strongly that we all need to up our game when it comes to sales and part of it is using this kind of technology.
For customers who are shipping one to ten loads per week, those are still great customers that you want. However, even they are getting pounded with phone calls. So I think Covideo is a cost-effective way to show people you can be trusted. When you say something out loud and provide visuals, you message is getting across the way you intended.
Tell us a little bit more about Covideo. What are the next steps if somebody is interested?
Visit our website, give us a call, we’ll talk and see if we’re a good fit for you. We want to understand your pain points and needs, to make sure we can help with those.
It does take time to get comfortable using videos, and it has to be part of your routine. If you stop making the phone calls and rely on video email, you’re going to fail too. Relationships are made over the phone, but introductions are made through video.
Ok so is this a big company tool? Is it expensive? Hard to implement? Or is this something anyone can use?
If I can use it, anybody can use it, it’s very simple. We’ve got small and large companies we work with. We can create custom packages to fit whatever your needs are. Our sales team listen to problem and diagnoses how we can help.
Curious to see if Covideo might be a fit for your business? Schedule a call with one of our experts to learn more about your businesses obstacles and goals.
To listen to the full podcast, click here.
