How VSA Moves Sales in Manufacturing and Logistics

There are two keys to profitability in manufacturing and logistics: speed and scale. That’s why, from factories to warehouses to distribution centers, many facilities in this market are huge, constantly busy, or, in many cases, both.

As productive as such bustling work environments are, they’re not without their limitations. Most shop floors are loud, hands-on environments where even director-level staff may work odd hours or split their time between several affiliated institutions. With so much going on, there’s rarely much time to check emails, make phone calls, or research products online. Thus, they miss out on the newsletters, emails, and online sources that most business leaders use to keep up to date on products that could enhance efficiency and production.

As a result, many manufacturers tend to stay locked into the same contracts, both with vendors and their own clients. This works well for as long as existing contracts are both value-adds and ROI-positive. But of course, such complacency represents a huge liability when markets change.

That’s why savvy companies — whether manufacturers, logistics suppliers, or those trying to reach them — often turn to outside lead generation and appointment setting firms to cut through the clutter. It may sound surprising, but telephone calls are still a key source of information about new products, and using an outside service helps these companies reach new markets and increase their share of their existing ones.

Still, such projects are often too detailed, complex, or sophisticated to be handled effectively by just any call center. Both manufacturers and their vendors need a specialized partner: a firm that offers a level of flexibility, expertise, and customization capable of rising to the challenge.

Since partnering with our first manufacturing and logistics client over a decade ago, VSA has provided exactly this. We’ve since helped dozens of manufacturing and logistics clients achieve ROI-positive results across a staggering breadth of campaigns—each one different from the next.

Here are just a few examples:

• Since 2008, VSA has been the prospecting arm for a leading provider of weighing systems solutions, targeting large manufacturers as well as pharmaceutical manufacturers to generate new sales.
• In 2012, we helped a material handling firm build market share among Chicago’s manufacturing plants, warehouses and distribution sites.
• In 2013, VSA helped an engineering and manufacturing firm enter the municipal market for RFID traffic signs.
• From 2015 to 2017, VSA supported an international provider of intralogistics systems in further penetrating the US Market of large warehouses and manufacturers for the firm’s conveying, palletizing, packaging, sortation and distribution technology.
• In 2017, we helped a large manufacturer of vehicular oil tanks break into new markets.
• Since 2018, we have been delivering qualified leads for a break-through warehouse management product, essentially eliminating their outside sales force.
• In 2018, we helped a faucet manufacturer that typically supplies through a distributor generate interest and name recognition amongst the actual end users of their product.
• In 2018 we enabled a scale calibration company to follow up on pricing quotes they’d sent out to hundreds of prospective clients—roughly half of whom had never responded—and recoup about 40% of these into new sales.
• In 2019 we helped a company that sells real time location services and wifi tags respond quickly to new legislation that created more demand for their services.
• Since early 2019, we have been helping a foreign automation and distribution fulfillment company break in to the US market.

How can VSA provide such a huge variety of specialized services? It all comes down to a broad-based expertise that we’ve cultivated over the years by utilizing a detailed onboarding process, a unique, team-based calling model, and a singular focus on results. Because our BDRs stick around for so long (5 years on average), they accumulate a tremendous amount of background knowledge over time.

As a result, when clients working in the manufacturing and logistics space approach us, we’re ready with a team of experts—and that makes a huge difference. Rather than just performing busywork for our clients, we become their front line: simultaneously setting sales appointments, capturing market information, enriching their lead list, and taking meticulous notes. In fact, it’s not uncommon for us to know more about the market a client is targeting than they do!

VSA has grown so much over the past 18 years, and today we’re thrilled to be recognized as lead gen specialists for manufacturing and logistics. It’s an ever-changing market that requires the right combination of savvy, skill and persistence to navigate well. But over time, dozens have discovered that it’s a perfect fit for VSA’s background, experience, and unique program model.

Want to learn more about how we do it? Check out some of our results in manufacturing and logistics. Or better yet, give us a call!