Can’t I Grow my Wallet Share without Terralanes?

We’ve gotten this question in a few demos, so let’s address it here.

Long story short: Yes you can, but you’ll do it much slower and less efficiently. Here’s our reasoning why.

You need structure

So much of account management comes down to the individual. Whether an account churns, is managed effectively, and grows is largely the responsibility of the AM. Account management is an outlier compared to other brokerage departments in the sense that it lacks a structure and a consistent process.

Sales has structure

Look at the sales process and its structure in any mid size brokerage and up. There is a defined path to success. Every account executive knows that if they execute certain steps, they will win business with prospects. Whether it’s tracking talk time, outbound calls, emails, or sales stage changes, AE’s have a structure built around them to measure success and effort.

Operations has structure

Operations is usually packed to the brim with SOP’s, best practices, and success metrics (some brokerages even track the number of clicks and seconds it takes to book or track a load). There are also a significant amount of checks and balances built into a carrier sales rep’s day. Operations is definitely the area in brokerage driving the most analysis as success in this area is where money is either made or lost.

Why should account management be any different?

We bring up these other aspects of brokerage to prove a point. Sales and operations have a consistent and defined path to success: “follow these steps and you will succeed.” They also have a number of metrics used to keep teammates on track.

Sales and Operations have a game plan. Why should account management be any different? Brokerages currently have a laissez faire approach to growing wallet share: handing an account to an AM, “see what you can do.” Give account managers a consistent process just like your other departments.

Terralanes’ Value

We’re bringing the game plan to account management. Our visibility drives urgency and awareness, and our process creates a consistent strategy for gaining more business from existing customers.

Visibility

Account managers build profiles of customers, locations, and lanes on our map which visualizes the business you have, the business you don’t have, and what your relationship could look like if you owned 100% of a customers business.

This visibility creates a constant cue for AM’s to be asking questions about other business opportunities with customers. It also creates urgency. If an AM can see a lane opportunity worth 30 loads a month, $100k in revenue, on their map, then they need to get that business asap. Managers can see this as well.

Consistent Process

Terralanes creates a process for growing business and maximizing volume with existing customers with our Opportunity workflow. Users are guided through a step by step conversation toolbelt that has them ask their customers about lanes’ volumes, rates, requirements, pain points, and incumbent competitors. AM’s can stack potential carriers, contacts, notes, and SOP’s against these opportunities as well.

Once a page has been filled out, the AM knows that they are in an excellent position to win some business. They just have to ask!

Would you move freight without a TMS? Probably not.

Just like a TMS is built to help brokerages move freight and book trucks, Terralanes is built to help brokerages grow and manage customers. A TMS is an optimized solution, and it is so much better than using an excel spreadsheet (which you could use, if you wanted to operate as lean as possible).

Conclusion

We’re the optimized solution for account management. If you’re looking for a way for your team to grow accounts faster, challenge your competitors, and provide more solutions to your customers, then keep an eye on us.

We’ll be providing a firm launch date as soon as we can.