TMSA Annual Conference Delivers Industry Insights

06/13/2013 — Scott Frederick

A couple of us that are involved with marketing and sales at PartnerShip had the opportunity to participate in this week's Transportation Marketing & Sales Association (TMSA) Annual Conference and Expo in Ponte Verda Beach, FL. The conference, which was themed Marketing and Sales: Tools, Techniques and Tactics for Revenue Generation, delivered some great insights into trends within the shipping industry, and some of the tools that shipping companies are using to market and grow their businesses.

The conference featured a great lineup of speakers and educational content. Here are a few quick highlights and themes from the conference:

• The Web is a living laboratory. People don't buy from websites, they buy from people. Companies must be prepared to answer the question "If I am your ideal prospect, why should I buy from you rather than your competitor." - Dr. Flint McGlaughlin from MECLABS
• Marketers need to focus more on buying behaviors to find the right customers and less on traditional "demographic" information. - Gary Brooks from Cortera
• Customers buy the person first, the company second, and the product third. Five secrets to building trust with customers are: 1) Do what you say you're going to do; 2) Show up on time; 3) Listen more than you talk; 4) Focus on what they're buying versus what you're selling; 5) Provide professional and timely follow-up and follow-through. - John Boyens from Boyens Group
• New government regulations could cumulatively affect the need to hire 1 million additional drivers into the U.S. trucking industry over the next three years. Trucking capacity will get tighter and shipping rates will increase due to moderate freight demand increases. - Larry Gross from FTR Associates
• Personalized website experiences are driven by this formula: Data (what you know about the customer) + Content (What you have to deliver/show the customer) = Response (Connect the two and figure out quickly what resonates and what doesn't). - Matthew Williams from Adobe
• You can't ignore the social media "revolution" (and if you're not convinced, watch the amazing video below). Make social content "snackable" - easily consumed in a short amount of time and easily shareable. - Brandon Balan from LinkedIn

If you want to learn more about the TMSA, you can visit their overview page (which also features a short promotional video that includes this very same PartnerShip marketing director at the beginning).

Scott G Frederick