Training Tuesday:Consistency

There are a million sales tips and “tricks” out there designed to help you become a better salesperson, but you may find the biggest key to long term success is consistency. You must be consistent – create a routine of practicing your sales presentation, prospecting, maintaining relationships with existing clients, and pitching to potential customers. If you do not do these things regularly, you can’t guarantee that you will have reliable sales numbers.

If you can consistently practice your sales presentation, you can make the presentation itself more consistent based on what works in real sales situations and you can continue to fine tune it. If you don’t practice and instead rely on charisma and “winging it,” you cannot necessarily reproduce an effective sales pitch. Without a dependable sales presentation, the level of success you can expect from a prospect in a sales interaction varies widely.

Having a steady sales pipeline also relies on consistent prospecting and interactions with existing customers. If you don’t spend ample time each day or week prospecting, it doesn’t matter how stellar your sales presentation is, because you won’t have a potential customer to share it with. You must also maintain relationships with your existing customers, both to help prevent them from leaving for the competition and to increase your chances of successful referrals to their contacts who may need your services.

Consistency is key – that may be a cliché, but it certainly applies to sales. It is crucial that you put in reliable work and effort in order to create and maintain a steady rate of sales success.

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LTL 101:Unexpected Charges for LTL Loads

It is important to educate shippers and consignees so they know what to expect at the time of pick-up and delivery, but it is equally as important to remind them of potential unexpected charges and things to watch out for when shipping an LTL load.

Did you know that many customers get invoiced at a much higher rate due to their shipments being “hit” with Cubic Capacity, Exceeds Linear Feet, or Oversize Dims? All three of these things are different and very expensive so pay close attention to what your customer is shipping.

Cubic Capacity
This is when a shipment is greater than 750 cubic feet and an average density of 6 or less (some carriers are 4 or less).

  • Example of a Cubic Capacity load:
    • 6 Pallets at 2600 lbs., each pallet is 48x48x55, cubic feet is 768, and the density is only 5.91
  • This shipment would get “hit” with cubic capacity without a quote.

Linear Foot Rule
Each carrier has their own version of the linear foot rule. If your shipment equals more than the LTL linear foot rule for that carrier then it will get “hit” with the “exceeds linear feet” fee.

  • Example of Linear Foot load:
    • 5 pallets at 5000 lbs., each pallet is 49x49x50, and because the pallets cannot be placed side by side this shipment takes up a little more than 20’ of space

Oversize
Each carrier has an over dimension rule; most LTL carriers are 12′. The oversize accessorial should be applied to any shipment 12’ or more. You can find the “Linear Foot Rule” for most carriers by looking at their carrier tariff on their websites.

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Community Involvement:Proud Sponsor of the 2019 JWLF Forum

SunteckTTS was a proud sponsor of the 2019 Jacksonville Women’s Leadership Forum (JWLF) Forum. JWLF is an organization focused on empowering women in business and encouraging them in their professional lives, through annual forums and educational events.

Additionally, Dave Dallas, CMO and President of Brokerage, participated in a panel at the 2019 Jacksonville Women’s Leadership Forum. 

It was an excellent panel on “Turning Fear Into Fuel: A Conversation with Jacksonville’s Change Makers.” Dave was proud to participate in the panel as a way to introduce SunteckTTS to women business leaders in the Jacksonville community. 

About the Jacksonville Women’s Leadership Forum

The Jacksonville Women’s Leadership Forum is the premiere organization on the First Coast that empowers women to successfully navigate the unique terrain of the corporate workplace and nurture their personal development.  JWLF will help transform the way participants approach leadership, networking, career advancement and life balance.  Through annual Forums and Educational/Networking shops throughout the year, women have the opportunity to gain insights from other smart and successful women all focused on tackling the issues that challenge women working their way to the top.

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Community Involvement:Proud Corporate Partner of Truckers Against Trafficking

SunteckTTS is proud to be a corporate partner of Truckers Against Trafficking (TAT), an organization that proactively trains truck drivers to help spot, stop, and prevent human trafficking.

Human trafficking is defined as recruiting, holding or transporting people into a “situation of exploitation through the use of violence, deception, or coercion and forced to work against their will”. Victims of human trafficking include men, women, and children, who are involuntarily used for labor or sex work.

Those who are victims of trafficking are often drugged, coerced, or physically forced to participate in unsafe and illegal activities, which can create a cycle of fear, dependence, and violence that can be almost impossible to escape from without assistance.

We are proud to be a sponsor for an organization that is working to help reduce human trafficking through a national program for education and empowerment of those in a unique position to help those who have been trafficked. Truckers Against Trafficking works to educate members of a group that is often exposed to victims of sex trafficking, and to empower truckers to recognize and report suspicious activity and suspected cases of human trafficking.

The training provided by TAT covers how to recognize possible instances of human trafficking, what action to take, and to whom and how they should report the situations and people they encounter. This training empowers truck drivers to take immediate and concrete action that has, in many situations, led to investigations and convictions of traffickers and the rescue of their victims or intended victims.

About Truckers Against Trafficking

Truckers Against Trafficking (TAT) is a 501(c)3 non-profit that exists to educate, equip, empower and mobilize members of the trucking and busing industries to combat human trafficking. You can read more about the TAT mission at www.truckersagainsttrafficking.org

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LTL 101:Pick-Up and Delivery Tips

Pick-Ups:

  • Any pick-up (P/U) entered after 2:30 PM local time should be called into the carrier to insure availability, otherwise the request will roll over to the next day
  • Lift Gate P/Us must be called into the carriers because Lift Gates are not readily available at every terminal
  • All Container Freight Stations and Airline P/Us require Delivery Order and Entry paperwork (3416 document), these need to be sent 24 hours in advance because drivers will need these documents in hand prior to P/U
  • P/Us are not Guaranteed
  • All carriers require a 2 hour window for P/Us
  • P/Us are done in the afternoon because drivers have to deliver freight before they can start pickups
    • If your shipper needs an AM P/U it is best practice to call the carrier to set something up which will most likely incur additional charges
  • The shipper must have our system generated BOL to provide to the driver at the time of P/U or our rates will not apply
    • This is not something the carrier will have via our P/U requests in BTMS
  • If an LTL driver needs to reference a P/U number, it is best practice to put that number on the first line of the shipper name. Please see the example below:

           ABC Distribution Co > Ref # 123456

           4567 Main Street

           Anywhere, NY 10014

Deliveries: 

  • Transit times and delivery dates are estimations and can be delayed for many reasons
    • Add an additional day if a shipment is interlined
    • Add 2-3 days if a shipment is traveling by rail
  • Stress to your customers, if the shipment must be delivered by a certain date and time, spend the extra money and have a the shipment guaranteed
    • If “Guaranteed” is not on the BOL at time of P/U no adjustments can be made to the invoice
  • Volume Shipments cannot be Expedited or Guaranteed
  •  Re-delivery Rates are based on weight and can get very pricey

It is imperative to make sure the consignee is ready to accept the freight so that additional charges are not incurred

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