If you are a person who works in a shipper supply chain/logistics/transportation department of your company, almost assuredly receive a lot of cold calls and emails from trucking companies and 3rd party providers seeking part of your company’s shipping business.
I do marvel how so many of these trucking and 3PL organizations, the sales personnel have no idea why there company is successful and in business. Many times they say to you they can meet your every need. I always tempted to say (but don’t) hey I need 37 truckloads from Minot, North Dakota to Boise, Idaho (not true), can you have them there by 5 pm today. North Dakota is not the center of truck supply. The temptation is there because clearly no organization can do everything and do it well.
So ask the sales person what is the strength of their organization and they can’t tell me. They truly don’t know what niche of the business their company fits into.
I would tell those clueless sales personnel: Be curious about your organization. Figure why the firm has stayed in business and what are they good at. It is fairly easy to find the faults and inefficiencies in your organization. It is much harder to find the positives and things going right that allow the business to succeed.
When I get a rare phone call from a truckload or 3pl sales person who starts the conversation that says are organization is particularly strong doing so and so, I can figure if that service would be of value to my firm. I, then, have something specific to go on, if I don’t need that service today and maybe I will need it 6 months, I will probably remember that firm because so very rare that I get useful information on a cold sales call.