The Effective LTL Account Executive
Formerly published on LinkedIn.com in July 2020....
Disclaimer: While I have never been in this role at an LTL carrier myself, I’ve worked hand in hand with national accounts from a pricing/costing angle, and now for the last 4 years have managed relationships with national accounts folks from every LTL carrier in the industry. Also I’m sure other modes of freight have the same hero’s within their company’s.
These are my thoughts….
The US Less than Truckload (LTL) freight industry is very quickly expanding as we find ourselves just past the halfway point of 2020. I’ve thought a bit about what makes some national account reps stand out from their peers - and decided it might be time to share.
Below is a brief overview of how the industry is broken up currently, and 2 reasons why certain NAE’s just are much more effective than others.
First, here is a custom (and accurate) drawing of the current LTL Carrier-Scape using colorful circles:
Pretty impressive, right?
The first 3 circles represent 40% or so of the entire LTL market from an asset based carrier perspective. That’s a lot!
Now, within each of these circles in the approximate $50 billion of LTL freight annually - there is a group at each carrier commonly known as the “National Account Executives” or “VP of Strategic Accounts” or some other fancy name. They are a group of folks that handle larger accounts (usually $1mm/annually), as well as the mid-sized to large 3PL accounts.
Basically, a ton of freight flows through these people - and they (normally) travel a million miles a year, while also receiving millions of emails, jumping on calls, joining meetings, and getting to know their clients on a personal level. Sounds exhausting doesn’t it? It is, and only a special few are cut out for this.
I would safely estimate that 62% (or roughly $32B) of all LTL freight is managed by a national account rep somewhere, somehow. And not all of them do it with the same pizazz that sets the top 20% apart from the pack.
This truly is an 80/20 scenario within a greater 80/20 scenario! The national account reps are the 20% that handle 80% of the LTL business within their companies - and then the top 20% of that 20% are much higher quality than the remaining 80% of national account reps.
One you get your brain untwisted - I’ll tell you the biggest reason why the top 20% are so good.
They see the forest for the trees.
That’s really it...the biggest reason for success. They understand that while they will have to get into the details and reverse-engineer some problems that come their way - they aren’t drawn into the trap of living within policy-land. They see the macro and understand the big picture. They’ll take a short term “loss” if they need to, in order to win in the long game.
This doesn’t mean they always cave to the customer and agree to all requests - but it does mean they look at each situation fairly, and balance the details of that with the larger, overall strategy. Not everyone can do that, and those that can probably take it for granted that it's even a skill they possess.
Secondly -- good national account exec’s are vortex’s. They pull opportunities, people, business, and ideas right into them with an energy that’s hard to miss.
They won’t sit back and wait for the RFP’s to roll in. They won’t react after the billing or operational issue has already happened. They deeply understand the full beginning to end of their customer’s business and will advocate internally when needed, as well as push back externally when required also.
They are folks that are hives of ideas and innovations. Always have a solution to a problem, and isn’t OK replying with a “no, we can’t do that.”
By definition these human vortex’s reside outside of the proverbial box.
Just some thoughts! There is so much more I could have covered here, and may at a later date - but wanted to get this out into the industry in order to crystalize and refine my thinking on this.
PLEASE - comment and let me know your thoughts. Agree, disagree, add, whatever!
-- Curtis Garrett