Modern Air Freight Sales - Implement a  B2B digital sales strategy

In the digital age, companies frequently encounter challenges such as a more fragmented market, reduced direct customer engagement, and heightened competition. Additionally, quantifying the ROI of sales and marketing initiatives becomes increasingly complex. The traditional model of hiring commission-based salespeople and merely monitoring their performance metrics is no longer sufficient.

As the air freight industry digitizes, in many cases, sales and marketing become more challenging rather than easier and more streamlined. Digital sales is difficult, requiring an entirely different approach and playbook. A few strategies are paramount to implementing an effective digital sales and marketing strategy in air freight.

Customer Centricity / Know your customers

At the center of every action must be your customer.  Digitalization can often result in less interactions with customers so when implementing a digital strategy it is fundamental to consider how you will understand your customers' needs, listen to their feedback, and ensure their interactions with your business are value-accretive. 

Digitalization allows you to micro-segment your services to each customer in a way that traditional businesses can never achieve but this must be done from the ground up.  A customer-centric approach tracks at scale how each customer interacts with your business and their individual account profitability, and offers personalized products and services for each customer.  Think of how Netflix offers different move suggestions to each customer; this is a personalized user experience at scale.  

In an industry like air freight customer centricity can manifest itself in many areas from the largest areas like pricing to smaller features, for example, default unit systems through your digital ads and onboarding.  The key is to use digitalization to build richer pictures of your customers rather than losing touch with your key users.

Omnichannel Distribution / Be where your customers are

As an industry digitizes the number of places where a customer can purchase your service increases dramatically - fragmentation grows.  A simple example of this is retail: 50 years ago to buy a new appliance somebody went to their local appliance store whereas today they have thousands of options to find the same item at local stores, national chains, online retails, etc.

The same phenomenon is already happening in air freight.  No longer does a freight forwarder simply call their local sales rep but now they're offered numerous channels to secure their air freight space (phone, email, text, carrier websites, marketplaces, TMS systems, etc).

From an airline perspective, the key to handling increased fragmentation is to always be present wherever your customer may make a buying decision.  In other words, to implement an omnichannel strategy.  There are numerous tools to efficiently scale to all channels but building and documenting APIs is certainly paramount as these facilitate your services to be rapidly incorporated into other channels in a cost-effective manner. 

Marketplace & Affiliate Distribution  / Find your force multipliers

One subset of an omnichannel strategy is that as an industry digitizes it becomes easier and more cost-efficient to utilize marketplaces and affiliates to help multiply the force of your sales and marketing.  These companies provide a valuable service to consumers who seek streamlined ways to compare their options yet also provide value to suppliers as they can augment sales and marketing efforts.  

In air freight, the traditional approach has been to contract with General Sales Agents (GSAs) or General Sales & Service Agents (GSSAs).  Digitalization serves to bolster the GSA industry as airlines can maintain control over key processes through APIs yet openly utilize numerous agents to expand their sales force without upfront investment.  The various GSAs or sales affiliates can then use their own networks, investments, and strategies to sell for the airline thereby expanding an airlines footprint and strategies.  

Furthermore, marketplaces represent a type of non-exclusive sales affiliate program where a carrier can obtain the added benefit of having other companies sell for them and they can benefit from the increased development and innovation that comes from a marketplace having so much diverse volume and insight into the marketplace.  

Optimize your funnel / Make buying easier for your customers

As the buying process digitizes, it can grow more complicated and fragment, so it is critical to map out your customers journey and work to optimize your funnel.  As your customers can access your service through so many different channels this will sometimes require multiple scenarios and customer journey maps. 

Overall, the key insight, is it’s critical to remove as much friction from your customer acquisition and buying processes as possible.  Think Amazon's one-click buying versus the typical experience in a logistics TMS.  That’s just one part of the journey though.  A modern digital company should consider how consumers identify their service, sign up with an account, search their offerings, make their buying decision, book their service, pay for their service, and rebook their service.  All of this should be optimized such that the funnel converts as much freight as possible. 

As B2C products blend into B2B industries, the actual users of software expect better experiences similar to what they’re used to at home.  A modern UI/UX designer is essential to ensure your funnel runs smoothly.

Integrate / Embed yourself in your customers

The future of industry, sometimes referred to as Industry 4.0, promises an environment with seamless vertical and horizontal integration driven by smart machines and intelligent systems. 

As air freight moves into the digital age, all companies will start moving towards this paradigm.  In our industry, horizontal integration often results in interline partnerships, wholesale agreements, and mergers & acquisitions.  Airlines building the integration layers to interact with other carriers and extend their services beyond their physical networks will continue to grow as carriers compete to expand their footprint. 

Vertical integration however is critical, as the value chain of air freight is complex and includes so many different participants from the shipper, freight forwarder, trucking companies, warehouses, airlines, customs, etc, etc.  As any member of the value chain, offering and leveraging system integrations is essential to embed yourself in your customers, suppliers, and partners.  Only through integration can the user experience start to become seamless and the efficiencies through operating at scale be realized. 

Conclusion

Overall, air freight is undergoing a period of rapid chain and innovation.  As the industry digitizes, the playbook changes, and all participants must learn and adopt the new paradigms.  Those who leverage the new tools will rapidly outperform at scale so it’s important to start early and be ready to continuously learn, develop, and deploy.

Ready to embark on an efficient air freight journey with rates that defy industry norms? Connect with us for competitive rates and witness the future of air freight.