The Logistics of Logistics The Niches Have Riches with Kevin Hill
Kevin Hill and Joe Lynch discuss why the niches have riches, which refers to the advantage of specializing and owning a niche. In the logistics and transportation business, competition is intense and increasingly the best 3PLs are developing market segments, so they can customize their services to a specific niche (market segment).
About Kevin HillKevin Hill is the Director of Editorial and Research at FreightWaves, which publishes proprietary research on all things transport and logistics. Kevin is also the co-host of the popular freight sales podcast, Put That Coffee Down. Additionally, Kevin is the founder of CarrierLists, which is the only carrier database that provides a comprehensive profile of carriers that go beyond what is available in public records. Earlier in his career, Kevin held leadership positions in both the financial and logistics industries. Kevin earned an MBA from the University of Oklahoma.
About FreightWavesFreightWaves is the leading freight intelligence provider, offering current digital intelligence and context to the freight community on a central platform. FreightWaves' SaaS product, SONAR, is the leading freight market analytics tool and dashboard, aggregating billions of data points from hundreds of sources to provide the fastest data in the transportation and logistics sector. FreightWaves.com, the company's news site, is the leading provider of news and commentary for the transportation and logistics space. FreightWaves also hosts conferences under Transparency and MarketWaves branding and is a co-developer of the first futures contracts dedicated to trucking spot rates.
Key Takeaways – The Niches Have Riches The Problem with One Size Fits All- The competition is fierce in the transportation and logistics business and without a niche, you and your company will struggle to stand out from the crowd. The "we are everything to everyone" messaging is a sure loser
- Shippers look to 3PLs for answers to their transportation and logistics problems. Shippers are increasingly looking for industry-specific expertise and if you do not have it, they will work with your competition.
- Content marketing begins with market segmentation (niches). If you want to gain favorable attention with a food shipper, you better be able to create content that appeals to them. Food shippers are obviously different than hazmat shippers, and vice versa.
- With a one size fits all strategy, your marketing and messaging is going to be a "mile wide and an inch deep" which won't for shippers who want to work with experts in their business.
- When logistics providers develop their own niche, they have a better chance of winning business with shippers in that niche.
- To develop the selected niche, learn about the biggest problems facing the niche industry - that your company can solve. Once understood, incorporate the problems along with your solutions into your marketing and sales messaging. With industry knowledge, your chances for a sale increase. Since your company is focused on a niche, the confidence of the sales team will be much higher.
- Logistics market segments include:
- Automotive
- Chemical and Plastics
- Industrial and Manufacturing
- Gov & Defense
- Energy and Petrochemicals
- Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG)
- Furniture
- Food and Beverage
- Appliances
- Electronics
- Health, Pharma, Life Sciences
- Industry leaders like CH Robinson are using market segmentation and thought leadership to grow their business: https://www.chrobinson.com/en-us/industries/