The Logistics of Logistics

[00:49] Introduce you and your company. I'm Dan Gilland, and I lead business development for Schwan's Home Service. We are based in Minnesota. I was practically born and raised on Schwan's, so it's fitting that I'm working here. Schwan's has sold high quality, delicious frozen food direct-to-consumer since 1952. We deliver just about everywhere in the lower forty-eight states using our depots and trucks. The actual home deliveries are managed by our partner, UPS. [05:21] Tell us about Schwan's model. Our typical model is delivering our frozen food direct to customers with our own private fleet of delivery trucks. We call our 3PL side Cygnus Frozen 3PL by Schwan's Home Service. We wanted to establish that it is part of Schwan's but differentiate it from our direct-to-consumer business. [07:37] What is frozen eCommerce fulfillment? Shipping online orders of frozen food direct to consumers' homes. Most frozen food brands either don't have the infrastructure or desire to fulfill their own orders. A lot of frozen foods being sold online today include meats, ice cream, smoothies, and frozen meals. eCommerce gives you the space to market your brand and tell your story accordingly. [12:01] What are the problems that companies who are trying to deliver frozen foods to consumers' homes run into? Of all the product categories sold online, the degree of difficulty is probably the highest for shipping frozen food. Your mistakes are really clear and really frustrating to the customer. Food showing up in poor condition can damage the brand even though it may be the 3PL's fault. [16:21] What's the second big problem you see out there? Dealing with a 3PL that doesn't specialize in frozen food and/or doesn't specialize in direct-to-consumer or ecommerce. Frozen food needs to stay frozen throughout the whole process, so the 3PL must have experience in doing this. [19:22] What's another problem you see in the marketplace? Slow shipping. Consumers expect one- to two-day shipping but getting that speed everywhere in the US can be a challenge. [20:51] Tell me a little bit about how Cygnus goes about frozen ecommerce fulfillment. The first thing that you must solve is getting within two-day shipping of all your customers. Another thing to do to reduce melting is to have a really clear packing process. [22:58] Explain the whole process from the time a company makes a frozen food item to when it gets to the consumer. You ship your inventory on pallets to our national distribution center in Minnesota. From there, Schwan's would distribute your inventory to our ten fulfillment centers. Each of our ten centers get a replenishment every two weeks. We'll integrate with your online order management platform so that we can see orders as your customers place them. UPS then comes by every afternoon and picks up all the orders shipping out that day. [26:51] This is a good opportunity for someone who is getting into the frozen ecommerce business to have a fulfillment partner who's been doing it for seventy years. That's why we thought that this segment makes too much sense for us not to engage in. We have the fulfillment network and that intersects with the growth of online grocery. [27:55] If someone wants to continue the conversation, how do they get ahold of you? You can go to our website to see more about how our process works through case studies. There's a form that you can fill out to set up a free consultation. Learn More: Dan Gilland LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-gilland-3835aa58/ Cygnus Frozen 3PL: https://cygnus3pl.com/

[01:10] So many people say coach, consultant, and trainer interchangeably. Talk about the differences between them and a little bit about your background in brain science. The value of working with a coach is not for that individual to be an advisor, but to help you get at the root of why you want to do something and how you will accomplish it. There's lots of different roles people can play in your success. You can have consultants advise you about what to do. There are trainers that can train a particular set of behaviors. The difference is when you're coaching, you're trying to tap into your inner wisdom and create self-awareness. It's in that self-awareness that you're able to move forward. I worked for twenty-five years in brain science. It was a therapy role, but coaching was also required. [03:10] Can you talk briefly about Myers–Briggs? I use the Myers–Briggs personality test when I work with someone, along with the TypeCoach assessment. Our personalities are complex, but these tests are a good place to start understanding one's personality. [04:50] What is the number one killer of sales? It's procrastination. Procrastination shows up in a lot of different ways. Essentially, it all boils down to doing things that are either counterproductive or that distract you from the goals and tasks that you need to accomplish. [06:04] Is there usually an emotional component to that? There can be a fear of failure. "What if I put this all together and nobody is interested in purchasing it? What if it's subject to a great deal of criticism from my coworkers or customers?" It can also be a fear of success. Sometimes you will be concerned about if you can complete the deal that you landed. There are also people who get a thrill from doing things at the last minute. [09:08] Let's talk about what procrastination looks like in sales. Procrastination can be obstructive in many ways when trying to do lead gen. It's a task that can be unpleasant to do because you have to put yourself out there, so you might feel a fear of rejection. You might experiment with too many ways of getting leads, and before you know it, you've tried all the ways but haven't made a decision about what you will do. [13:17] What if we have important things that need to get done besides our top priority? Distraction is related to procrastination, which is finding things that will take our attention away from what we need to do. Another aspect is rationalization, which can be the strongest of all. When you're looking at your tasks, it's important to watch out for the rationalization component. [15:34] Let's talk about strategies for getting around these horrible monsters. The first one is called "worst first." This is the commitment that the very first thing you're going to address is your priority. In the morning, your brain energy is at a very high level, so you can address something that is the worst. If you put it off until the end of the day, you may not have the energy to do it. Start to develop an awareness of if you are procrastinating and not addressing your top priority. [20:15] What's another strategy we can use to kill these triplets? The next one is "mini milestones." Some projects are huge, so setting a mini milestone can really be helpful. They help you focus on a small part of the big picture. [21:59] What's another strategy for beating procrastination, distraction, and rationalization? I call it "the cone of silence." This is the idea of creating a space where you have no other place to go. It's about finding a way to eliminate as many distractions as possible. [24:27] What's the next strategy? The next one is called "time boxing." Time boxing is a pure output commitment. "I'm going to work for thirty minutes, and I'm going to do X, Y, and Z." [26:30] Do you have any more strategies? One of them is just a reminder that it's okay to do some daydreaming and things like that. Procrastination is not inherently bad all the time. People become more creative when they get up and take a walk, for instance. This is, again, where the self-awareness piece comes in. [28:50] What's the last strategy? It's the idea of partnering with somebody; having an accountability partner. Often that's a role of the coach, but it could be someone you work with, a friend, or anyone that's going to help you stay on task. If you want to have a little fun with it, you can throw in a vile disincentive to loosen the energy up. [33:15] Will you summarize this for us? The most important takeaway is to really pay attention. Develop self-awareness of what you're doing and pay attention to those three brothers waiting to derail you. Learn More: Ann Holm's website: https://www.annholm.net/

[01:01] Tell us a little bit about you and your company. My company is Logistics Marketing Advisors. I started it in 2004 and we're located in Connecticut. We help logistics businesses improve their marketing to drive revenue and profits. I'm born and raised in New York and got my master's degree at Fordham University. In the late 80s and early 90s, I worked for a large advertising and public relations agency. One of our clients was a logistics company, and they hired me away to run their marketing. [03:59] Let's talk a little bit about the problems we see in this space when it comes to sales. What's the first problem you want to talk about? I think the way companies buy today is very different from how they bought twenty years ago, and I really don't think the logistics industry has evolved with that. There's so much information out there that wasn't available before about how to solve certain problems and what providers can help. Buyers are probably 70% or more through the sales process before they talk to a salesperson. The solution is getting found by prospects you don't know. If somebody does a Google search, perhaps you want them to be directed to a relevant article on your website. Marketing is a game of hide-and-seek in reverse, but some executives think about it the wrong way. [08:27] Tell us another problem that's out there. Companies are asking salespeople to fill their own pipeline, as well as to work and close deals. If lead generation today is more about getting found, it requires more of a marketing skill set. A lot of logistics companies confuse what you have to do to get people to find you versus what you have to do to get people to buy from you. Once you get found, it's up to the salesperson. When you ask a salesperson to generate their own leads in this day and age, that means being marketing savvy. To them, that's foreign. They just know to pick up the phone and make calls. [14:40] Tell us about another problem you see out there. Logistics companies that I talk to want to move to lead generation before they nail the strategy. It's really all about the strategy. A lot of logistics companies look and sound the same. That's the kiss of death in an environment where decision makers are bombarded every day. A non-differentiated message just contributes to the noise level. Nailing your position, understanding what your niche is, and trying to speak directly to the people who align best with that niche is what you must do. Even the biggest brands in the world recognize that it's better to have a big chunk of part of the market than to try to get the whole market. [20:42] Talk about another problem that you see out there. Getting budget support for marketing is always really hard. It's viewed as an expense, not an investment. Companies that have marketing are their own worst enemy because they're not measuring the ROI. For a boss wondering if he should spend more money on marketing or hire a salesperson, it's easier for him to see the ROI on the salesperson. If you have the right CRM, you can do a pretty good analysis of what percentage of business is emanating from marketing. There's always a sense that marketing investments will pay off immediately. [25:17] What's another problem you see out there? I do research every couple of years where I go out and ask a whole bunch of buyers of logistics how they buy, where they go to get their information, and what frustrates them the most about the process. The number-one complaint is that people reach out to them and offer a solution with no understanding of their industry or company. "I don't want to feel like I'm the twenty-third person on the call list" perfectly summarizes the attitude. You can make twenty phone calls in half an hour, but if you do the right research, you can probably make two or three that are quite valuable. [31:27] Give us a summary of this topic. Marketing is your best salesperson. That really says it all. It's more about getting found; not the provider finding the shipper. They'll find you, but you have to make it easy. [32:20] What are you doing at Logistics Marketing Advisors? Mid-market companies are our sweet spot. We come in and become their marketing department. We're helping them with strategy and every aspect down to execution. We provide data that they can use to hold us accountable and see what kind of return they are getting over time. Learn More: Jim's email address: jim@logisticsmarketing.com Jim Bierfeldt LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimbierfeldt/ Logistics Marketing Advisors: https://www.logisticsmarketing.com/

Automating Cross-Border Transportation with Matt Silver Matt Silver and Joe Lynch discuss automating cross-border transportation between the USA and Mexico. [00:50] Introduce yourself and your company. I'm Matt Silver, Founder and CEO of Forager. We're based in Chicago, and our primary focus is on building technology to automate cross-border transportation. I grew up in a logistics family and have been around it my entire life. I learned more about the industry by working at Coyote when I was 19, a company which was founded by my parents. We moved our first load at Forager in December 2018. [03:13] Let's talk a little bit about the biggest problems you saw in cross-border before we get into the solutions. It all comes down to service and pricing at the end of the day. Service is anything from "where's my load? What's going on with it?" to "I don't understand what's going on with these emails because they're in Spanish" to "I don't understand the customs process." I hear a lot of complaints about the spending. Bringing transparency to pricing is important to people in this industry. [05:24] You say that even though some companies don't spend the majority of their time on cross-border, they spend a big chunk of their time working on it. If they're grabbing the freight in Laredo after a pickup in Mexico, then sure, that was really easy for them. Still, if they're only controlling the US portion, they still have the problems of not knowing when it will cross into the country. They run into capacity problems. There's seven times more freight going from south to north than north to south. Drivers don't like waiting, and if they get stuck somewhere instead of going home, you're putting them in a really bad spot. [11:06] Are we going to talk about Canada also? When you talk about cross-border, Mexico and Canada kind of get lumped together. The reality of it is that Canada is almost like an extension of the US. There are a few differences, but it's easy to pick up a load in Toronto and deliver it the next day in Chicago. Mexico is definitely more challenging. [13:00] Tell us about your hypothesis when starting your business. The whole reason we started was to service cross-border freight. That's what excites me. There are so many freight brokers who specialize in domestic shipments. We wanted to specialize in cross-border and be different. [18:36] Tell us how you guys go about automating cross-border transportation. We've built a command center that allows someone to understand where their freight is at all times on either side of the border. People are very important in our business. To me, automation means not having to spend an hour figuring out how to price a load. About 70% of our freight can move through our system without human interaction. Sometimes, people really want to talk to a human and we provide that. The average transportation management system wasn't built to manage cross-border freight. [23:14] Transportation management systems keep getting better, but a whole bunch of stuff ends up in notes. Things in notes can never be part of the AI learning. We have a notes field for now, but our plan is to eliminate it within the next year. The most important thing in this entire industry is data. The more data you can generate, the more you can make your customers' lives easier. There are some companies trying to integrate emails into the data as well, which is very interesting. [28:01] I like that you're a freight guy first and a technology guy second. So often, I run into people who are just one or the other. You've grown up with both. That definitely weighed into why we were able to raise capital. What's most important is bringing in the right talent. Our team brings unique perspectives. Just building a TMS is not interesting to me. Developing game-changing technology is what I want to do. [32:01] Tell us about what you guys are up to at Forager. We're trying to make it as easy as possible for people to move freight in and out of Mexico and Canada. In the next few weeks, we're launching a portal for customers to log in, plug in an origin and destination, and get a rate back instantly. If customers want to talk to us, we're happy to do that, but as more people from my generation are getting into this industry, they don't want to have to talk to someone else all the time. They would rather log in and get a rate instantly. We are the experts in the technology, but we're making it useful for everybody. [34:44] Any final thoughts? It's been awesome talking to you. It's really refreshing when I don't have to explain logistics to who I'm talking with. Learn More About Automating Cross-Border Transportation: Matt Silver on LinkedIn Profile Forager The Logistics of Logistics Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, please leave a positive review, subscribe, and share it with your friends and colleagues. The Logistics of Logistics Podcast: Google, Apple, Castbox, Spotify, Stitcher, PlayerFM, Tunein, Podbean, Owltail, Libsyn, Overcast

[00:37] Please tell us a little about you and your company. I'm Ron Crabtree, CEO and Founder of MetaOps, Inc. We are located in Metro Detroit. We specialize in providing interim and contract to hire talent at the highest level. I grew up near Kalamazoo and ended up going to night school for over seventeen years. Eventually, I emerged with an undergrad in organizational development. Before starting MetaOps, I had a career of about twenty years in supply chain. [05:18] Talk about the most common supply chain problems you encounter with MetaOps. Everybody's got common challenges at the enterprise level. There's pressure to bring new products and services to market a lot faster. Also, there's unrelenting pressure on price because of globalization. More and more people are grappling about what to do about the carbon footprint, too. There are two major problems that I see at a tactical level day-to-day. The first isn't about making or moving stock, it's about information that has to be handled. The second problem is that you can't solve today's problems using the methods as yesterday. Supply chain is getting more complex every single day, and many companies don't even know where to start. The fourth industrial revolution, Industry 4.0, is happening. [14:23] What is the solution to most of these supply chain problems? Before I get to that, let me provide a few more case study examples. One challenge I'm working on now is with fresh produce. There's an amazing supply chain behind all of that. Forecasting exactly when the produce needs to be packed in the field is a massive problem. Not having packaging at the right place and the right time isn't an option, and having mountains of packaging lying around on the field isn't an option either. 90% of the root cause of failure is not the physical movement, it's having everything in the right place at the right time. There are challenges in military hardware, medical care, etc. as well. [19:33] The three solutions. If it's a severe enterprise challenge, you might need an internally generated top-to-bottom assessment. This would involve leveraging industry best practices. The second big thing companies are doing is re-engineering their business process. If you've got the money for it and don't have the skills internally, there's nothing wrong with this. The third one is infusing the knowledge and expertise at the exact point that things are broken. This is a solution that MetaOps can provide. [24:42] MetaOps' model is to bring in the guy who has experience and has actually done this. You guys aren't coming from an HR or recruiting background, you're coming from an operator background. Only about 5% of the people we look at make it through our vetting process. These are people who can absolutely go do the job, not just talk about it. [26:23] Tell us about what's going on at MetaOps. In 2011, after many years of requests, we crafted the MetaExperts brand to get away from offering traditional consulting and training. That's been continuing to grow and is the vast majority of what we do. A shift we've seen in the last year is that we're getting to work with large and small consulting firms. We get to be a resource in the background that they can tap into for very specific problems. Learn More: MetaOps: http://metaops.com/ Ron Crabtree LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roncrabtree/

[00:43] Please introduce yourself and your company. I am based in Jacksonville, Florida and the owner of Digital Dispatch. We help companies with their web and marketing problems. About ten years ago, I started working with a 3PL in Jacksonville. When my boss found out I was blogging on the side, he asked me to start doing it for the company too. I eventually got my own radio show. A lot of people make that natural evolution from content writing into radio. [07:18] Tell us a little bit about inbound lead generation. They key differentiator of inbound is that you're creating content with your audience in mind first. A lot of what you see on the internet and in this industry is very self-promotional. People aren't searching for that. They're searching for solutions to their problem. Inbound is trying to introduce yourself and establish trust with the customer so that you can be the solution when they're ready to buy. [10:51] Contrast inbound with outbound. Outbound is like interrupting someone's personal space. We have all gotten emails that we know have been sent out to thousands of people. It's not personalized at all. There are ways to make a cold outreach feel more personal, but it takes more time and that's where a lot of companies struggle. [15:34] Tell us about some new ways that we can use to get inbound leads. Video and podcasting, but they are also the most intimidating. Often, people hate seeing themselves on video or hearing their own voice. They let their fear paralyze them when it comes to sharing their expertise. As long as you're sharing valuable content, you're heading in the right direction. [18:43] You have to get past fears if you want to be found as an expert online. Especially people who are first starting out. You're not going to be an expert right away. Your first show will probably suck. You're never going to get better if you don't do it again and again and again. Keep thinking about it as having a conversation, and the intimidation factor will lessen a little bit. [23:07] Tell us about what a podcast should focus on. I think having a good balance of different categories you're going to cover is key to any content plan. There are different ways to approach your planning, and it doesn't have to revolve around one specific type of content. However, I do think it needs to start with SEO. A lot of people get stuck on just one particular type and roll with it. It gets boring after a while, and it shows in your work if you lose that passion. [28:38] Even for business podcasts, the personality needs to come out. There needs to be some context and humanity. Competitors may read a press release, but no one else will go to a website just to read a press release. Video is great, but podcasting is the least intrusive. It doesn't interrupt the audience, because they can go about their day with a podcast on in the background. [30:49] Please summarize this topic for us. At Digital Dispatch, we focus on everything from cost effective solutions to completely custom web and marketing services. I love focusing on logistics because there are variety of different companies at a variety of different levels. It starts with a conversation. If the content is there for your audience, people will consume it. Learn More: Blythe Brumleve LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blythebrum/ Digital Dispatch: https://digitaldispatch.io/

[01:17] What is the number one reason people buy? A study on a huge sample size discovered that 38% of the sale is attributable to the salesperson; their behavior, expertise, and ability to provide a solution. [02:09] Talk a little about buying behavior before going further. The customer controls the sale. They're going to buy or not buy based on a few things. These include the perception of risk to themselves and their organization, and the perception of potential gain to themselves and their organization. [03:29] What is it about a salesperson that makes a buyer want to work with them? The first thing is that they want the salesperson to be personally accountable for the customer's results. If the purchase order is signed and the salesperson is long gone, that doesn't go over well. They want you to understand their business. The salesperson should understand the industry, such as logistics, but also the dynamics that are unique to each individual company. Thirdly, the customer wants the salesperson to be on their side. If there are other needs, the salesperson should be willing to go back to their management and make headway. The fourth thing that customers want in a salesperson is for them to bring new things to the organization. It's about having the mindset of thinking what a good fit for the company could be even if you're not the one selling it. They want a salesperson who is easily accessible. There should not be any hassle when the customer reaches out to who sold them a product or service. [12:57] What are some more traits that buyers want in a salesperson? They want you to solve their problems. There's a certain amount of expertise that goes a long with this, such as knowing how all the pieces fit together internally and externally. Number seven is that they want you to be innovative. It's about being knowledgeable and experienced enough to reach the outcome in a variety of different ways. [17:13] You just gave us seven reasons why buyers want to work with a salesperson. Let's go through the seven roles, and you can give us a bullet point about each one. The agent: makes sure that the customer gets the result they expect when they buy the product. The CEO: understands the customer in particular and in totality. The advocate/expediter: takes action within the selling organization and the broader world to make sure all the things that need to happen do happen. The consultant: looks at the customer's business and says, "if I brought something new to that, how would they benefit?" The traveler: makes sure that they are readily available to the customer. The troubleshooter: a resource that helps customers solve problems. The innovator: understands the customer at a deeper level and looks for new ways to help them reach their goals. [19:33] Please put a bow on this topic for us. I've always said that sales is leadership. What you're trying to do is take a customer to a new and better place. Paying attention to these seven traits fit into the four Cs: demonstrating your character, showing that you're competent, demonstrating that you care, and communicating in a frequent and relevant way.

[00:33] Please introduce you and your company. My name is John Simpson. I'm the director of sales at Covideo. We're an email, texting, video platform for salespeople. The company is based in Indianapolis. [01:14] Tell us a little bit about yourself. I'm from Holland, Michigan and went to Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, studying political science. After graduating, I worked at a deli for a while. Then, I decided to go to grad school but dropped out. I drove to Chicago, lived on my friend's couch for about a month, and then 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. [03:24] When and why did you join Covideo? I joined in January 2017. I miss logistics, but a good friend of mine started Covideo and he needed somebody to help with the sales team. [04:37] In this business, good leads are hard to come by. Leads aren't worth anything until you get the opportunity to talk to somebody. That's when they become precious. The most important thing in sales is that people buy from people they like. It's difficult to stand out, and you don't want to just stand out, you want favorable attention. [11:22] How does Covideo go about converting more leads into loads? Covideo was built for salespeople, not for the marketing department, CEO, etc. We send personality through email. The logistics provider can call a company and leave a voicemail saying that they will send a video of themselves via email. It helps you stand out from the crowd. [14:03] Is there a problem making a video by myself on my phone? You'll run into file size issues or end up in the spam folder. Our videos can also appear as an overlay on your website, guiding viewers to the next steps. You get to see analytics on all of this. [17:48] How long are these videos usually? Normally fifteen to forty-five seconds. The average person only reads the first sentence or two of an email, so we must follow the same rules and keep the video short. [18:06] How are these videos working for people in logistics? I heard from a sales rep that kept being ignored by a woman he was calling. Once he sent her a video, she let him quote three lanes that day. [19:24] 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. Covideo is a cost-effective way to show people you can be trusted. When you say something out loud and provide visuals, your message is getting across the way you intended. [23:48] Tell us a little bit more about Covideo. What are the next steps if somebody is interested? Visit out website or give us a call. We'll talk with you and see if we're a good fit. It takes time to get comfortable using videos, and it has to be part of your routine. Relationships are built over the phone, but introductions are made on video. [25:30] Is this hard to implement and expensive, or is it for everybody? If I can use it, anybody can use it. We've got customized packages for whatever your needs are. Learn More: Covideo: https://www.covideo.com/ John Simpson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-simpson-92727a24

[00:52] Tell us a little bit about you and your company. I am a John Golob, Founder and CMO of Winmore. We are based in San Francisco. Winmore is bid and tender collaboration software for freight forwarders and brokers, providing visibility, efficiency, and process automation that helps our LSP customers lower costs and win more of the right bids. [01:26] Tell us a little bit about your background. I grew up in Los Angeles. Briefly, I worked in entertainment, which was my first introduction to supply chain. I quickly found myself working in sales, predominantly selling computers and software. [03:56] When and why did you start Winmore? We started in 2013, largely because of a conversation I had at SalesForce. They were concerned about industries such as logistics having a hard time using out-of-the-box CRMs. Logistics gets new customers through inbound RFPs, so we focused on the different marketing cloud approach it needed compared to other industries. [05:50] Let's describe the problem a little bit. When we talk about the bid and tender process, what do you mean you say bid? A bid is, effectively, a response to an RFP or a tender. RFP is the term used in the US, while tender is used in Europe. About 60% of revenue for logistics companies comes through the RFP process. [07:20] What's wrong with the bid and tender process? It's broken in two areas. The first is the behavior on the shipper's side. They increasingly send out Excel-based RFPs that have thousands of combinations. The second problem is that 3PLs today, in order to prepare an adequate response, must drive an enormous level of collaboration across many team members. They all have different agendas. 3PLs have to respond, and they're doing that at a significant cost. [11:12] Once you've got an RFP in hand, who manages that in an average 3PL? Sometimes it's under finance, sometimes it's under marketing. We have found that there is no best practice for where the RFP process resides. It usually comes down to someone who has the best attention to detail. [13:29] There are usually a lot of emails and Excel spreadsheets around. Tell us about how that information gets managed. The first problem that people usually struggle with is finding what they priced something at in the previous year. This process is very broken and not well designed for a collaborative process. [15:16] What's another reason that you decided to find a solution? There's been a real toughening up on the shipper's side. The mindset of being absolutely relentless with providers is holding true on the RFP side. They literally will not accept a bid if it comes in two minutes past the deadline. Understanding the pricing used to bid on business, even if it wasn't won, didn't reside anywhere in 3PLs. This further made us realize the opportunity at hand. [19:05] Six years ago, you had the idea that you could fix this process. Tell us what your thoughts were and what has changed over that time. Having a backer like SalesForce allowed us to start a lot of conversations. We were able to build some close relationships. We were among the few software companies that were starting to have a discussion around what analytics could do for commercial operations. The CIO role in an average 3PL has gone from a relatively insignificant role to a very important one. [21:53] How did you know what was broken and who were you working with? We quickly realized there were three areas that were broken. The qualification process. About 22% of RFPs are price checks, meaning that they'll have no opportunity to be added to your top line. If you can qualify them right away, you'll be one step ahead. We wanted to give commercial leaders visibility so they could have confidence in knowing that every step of the RFP process was mapped out. Finally, we saw that people were communicating in new ways. We had to build a new way for teams to work together. We tried to get the biggest names we could, so we worked with DHL and C.H. Robinson quite early. Our pricing is based on bid and revenue, which gave even the smallest of companies the chance to use our software. [28:18] You guys are almost like sales automation because you compress the sales cycle time. Is that right to say? Yes, it is. That process involves so many different functions, and we pull them all together. [29:27] Tell us about how you can help us close more deals. The numbers we're hearing are incredible. There's an average of 60% increase in the number of qualified bids that companies can respond to. The win rate is also increased by 12%. Our tool can help reduce employee burnout, too. [34:42] Give us some closing thoughts. We've had a great discussion, and I encourage anyone who's interested to visit our website. Learn More: John Golob LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johngolob/ Winmore: https://winmore.app/

Gary Sostack and Joe Lynch discuss Gary's experience with managing logistics for the world's largest company. [00:38] Please introduce yourself and your company. I'm Gary Sostack, President and Founder of ElementaLogistics LLC. We assist 3PLs with their bid packages to corporations, and we work with corporations who don't see supply chain as their core activity. [01:20] Tell us a little about your background. I grew up in New York and graduated from the New York Institute of Technology. While putting myself through school, I got a part-time job at JFK airport which opened my eyes to logistics. Right out of college, I worked at a logistics company in Atlanta. Then, after a short spell in New Orleans, I moved to Houston to work with supply chain in oil and gas. At one point while working for a 3PL, I did a lot of work in retail. [04:37] Tell us about the world's largest company. If you live in Houston, you know who it is. It's Saudi Aramco. Add Apple, Google, General Motors, and Amazon together. Combined, they're still not as big as Saudi Aramco. [06:32] What were some of the projects you worked on with Saudi Aramco? We found equipment and materials that can't be sourced locally. Then, we buy and ship it to get oil out of the ground. The company searched for smart people who understand what the next new technology will be. We also searched for people with the best ideas and moved them to Saudi Arabia. I was involved with the procurement of equipment and materials. We once had to move a prototype oil rig from Texas to Saudi Arabia. It had 2,500 pieces. Instead of working with a 3PL, we hired everyone that we needed ourselves. [11:47] Up until July of this year, Saudi Aramco was their own 3PL. What happened? The business model changed. For example, all the hospitals that got supported with tens of thousands of purchase orders that Aramco was handling. Aramco went into a joint venture with Johns Hopkins, so all the hospital support disappeared. As globalization has taken place, more things can be sourced locally. The volume of purchase orders declined to where Aramco was no longer the market maker. [13:34] You had to choose a 3PL for the world's largest company. How do you go about doing that? It took fifteen months and was a step-by-step process. I put together a team and we came up with forty-five items that needed to be outsourced. Next, we selected 3PLs that we wanted to consider. We wanted to find a company that could go global if needed. We invited all the 3PLs to come to a meeting, and the bid process was explained to everyone at the same time. Once we decided that we were going to go out to bid, the logistics team no longer contacted the 3PLs. It was done by the contracting department instead to avoid favoritism. Out of the eleven invited companies, eight responded to the bid. Their questions were graded and weighted, and team members then scored these individually. The team members all decided on the same four companies to move on. At this time, we conducted site visits. These were interesting, because anybody can just put something down on paper. One of the bidders had a very unorganized warehouse. We eliminated that one, and another company based on their hazardous material handling. With two left, only then were commercial proposals and pricing looked at. Then, it was clear: the lower bidder wins. [22:07] How close were the bids of the two companies? They were not close, so the winner was obvious. Someone from our finance department came in to run the numbers to make sure they made sense. The five-year contract was going to deliver millions of dollars of cost saving and initiatives, such as no longer needing to pay for one of our warehouses and some employees. [24:44] What happened next? Board approval was sought and obtained. We put together the original bid very carefully so that there weren't any surprises when the time came. It's painful, but a lot of contracts with mom-and-pop companies had to be terminated. [29:06] How did you manage your 3PL week-to-week, month-to-month, etc.? The expected metrics were part of the contract. We also had financial incentives for if they were exceeded. As you have mentioned, sometimes a 3PL in encouraged to skew numbers to get incentives. In our case, our system of tracking cannot be tampered with. After the first month, we had regular reports and meetings to look at performance. [36:17] Was this process your closing act with Saudi Aramco? It was. I retired from the company on July 31. Originally, I had planned to leave a year ago, but this project came up and I wanted to do it. [37:59] Tell us what you're up to these days. For the last four years, I've been teaching at the University of Houston. The company I founded, ElementaLogistics, provides consulting to 3PLs and corporations. [41:11] Any closing remarks? Learn More About Managing Logistics for The World's Largest Company Gary's email address is gsostack@elementalogistics.com CSCMP Houston Gary Sostack The Logistics of Logistics Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, please leave a positive review, subscribe, and share it with your friends and colleagues. The Logistics of Logistics Podcast: Google, Apple, Castbox, Spotify, Stitcher, PlayerFM, Tunein, Podbean, Owltail, Libsyn, Overcast