According to Globe Newswire, the logistics software market is experiencing a compound annual growth rate of 10.5%, and it will reach a value of $18.31 billion by 2030. Such meteoric growth is being fueled by 3PLs, freight brokers, freight forwarders, and other members of the supply chain, all of which are realizing that there are significant benefits to be found in logistics software.
That said, not all types of logistics software are created equal and have similar benefits. Many businesses rely on purpose-built inventory and warehouse management solutions, but they often pair them with more generalized customer relationship management (CRM) software. Unfortunately, this only diminishes the efficacy of purpose-built software while also creating blind spots in a company’s overall strategy.
To bridge the gap, you need a CRM software that was designed to meet the unique needs of the logistics industry. With that in mind, let’s explore some key CRM logistics software benefits over generic ones.
A CRM software built specifically for logistics businesses will provide a holistic picture of your leads and customers. You can use it to review the status of customer data in real-time, track communications between your team and clients, send and view quotes, and much more.
With a CRM made specifically for logistics, it will serve as your single source of truth for all customer details. Generic CRMs like Hubspot, Pipedrive, and Salesforce will require you to use other applications to keep track of specialized logistics data or customize their CRMs to be logistics business compatible. Both are unadvisable since it requires a significant amount of time and resources to customize while having multiple separate applications brings a lot of inefficiencies.
Logistics CRM software will also benefit you by securing more shipments, bolstering your revenue, and ultimately growing your business. Leading logistics CRM software feature quoting tools that are purpose-built for logistics companies, which you can use to provide leads or clients with accurate cost estimates within 5 minutes or less. The faster you can send a quote and respond to a customer request, the better your chances of winning their business.
When examining a CRM’s quoting features, ensure it can provide real-time market rates, add complete details about every shipment lane, generate professional quotes, and more. To find 6 must-have logistics quoting tool features, read this blog.
In addition to a quoting tool, a logistics CRM software will include a sales pipeline that you can use to track leads as they transition into customers. You can use this tool to determine how long it takes prospects to navigate the sales journey, identify potential points of friction, and optimize your conversion rate.
Proactively managing your leads from brand awareness to conversion is key to growing your business. The right CRM logistics software will provide you with better control over the sales pipeline to give your leads the desired experience.
Traditionally, logistics businesses use a generic CRM solution and a disparate transportation management system to generate quotes and manage data. This is an inefficient approach, given that the data points stored on each system do not converge. As a result, business leaders are left with an incomplete picture of their customers and shipments.
A CRM logistics software like SCRM will benefit you by containing all relevant data about your leads and customers. This helps you generate detailed, in-depth reports that visualize complex business and customer data into digestible, actionable charts and graphs. You can then use these reports to better understand the relationship between your data points and gain a more complete view of business performance.
When your business relies on a disjointed suite of apps, organizational visibility is low. If a team member needs to access a specific report or set of data, they have to hunt through multiple platforms. Not only is this a huge waste of time, but it can also impede decision-making and lead to missed opportunities.
CRM software made for logistics consolidate your data in a single platform, which benefits managers and team members by achieving better visibility into leads and customer accounts. They can use it as an all-in-one solution to collaborate on important tasks, share information with one another, keep stakeholders in the loop, and maximize productivity.
Apart from visibility, logistics CRM software can also promote better teamwork. The team can collaborate better by using a single app to share information, send communications to one another or clients, and manage important documents from a centralized location. If a team member is on leave, other employees can easily cover their responsibilities, as all important lead or customer data is stored in the database.
From a collaboration perspective, marketing and sales teams can seamlessly pass off leads and propel prospects down the conversion pipeline. Perfecting that proverbial handoff will remove friction from the buyer’s journey and help you convert more leads into loyal clients.
Since logistics cover a niche industry, generic CRM systems typically do not integrate with important applications like BlueGrace, TomTom, PCMiler, LoadPlus, or DAT. The lack of such integrations can create data blind spots or inefficiencies due to the use of separate applications.
With a logistics CRM software, you get the benefit of integrating your core platform with a wide range of industry-specific applications. By pooling data from your mission-critical solutions, you can gain more complete business insights and engage in true data-driven decision-making. This helps you better capitalize on emerging, potentially fleeting, growth opportunities.
Relying on generic CRM software that was not specifically built with the logistics industry in mind can leave you contending with data blind spots. This diminishes the ability to make data-driven decisions, and in a fast-paced sector like logistics, there’s often no room for error or inefficiencies.
Conversely, embracing a modern CRM software that was designed for logistics has multiple benefits over generic software. It can help you achieve optimal visibility, promote teamwork, secure more shipments, streamline the customer experience, and more.
If you want to implement a CRM that provides all of these benefits, take a look at this CRM built for logistics.
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