Know-How Exchange : Strategy

What country? What sub-segment is your core target?

What makes you different from, and better than, your competition? Why should someone hire your company?

You need to be more specific about who you're targeting and what compelling and unique benefit promise you are going to make and then deliver.

Unless you are in an area where new businesses that need your services pop up on a daily basis, you will be looking to win market share, not to grow the market. People either need your service or they don't, if they need it someone else must be fulfilling that need for them now.

Your primary strategy has to be about building trust.
Customers for your services will switch only when:

1. Their existing forwarder/customs agent drops the ball so badly that they lose the account.

2. The incumbent raises prices to the extent the customer starts looking around.

Unless you are in an area where new businesses that need your services pop up on a daily basis, you will be looking to win market share, not to grow the market. People either need your service or they don't, if they need it someone else must be fulfilling that need for them now.

Why not offer a free service where you look through a sample of a prospective customer's invoices and analyse them to see if they are being overcharged on freight, or paying too much duty or tax, or paying high service fees?

If you can save the customer money, show them how and where.

You can do all this in a 30-45 minute call to their premises. If you don't have the expertise then ask them for copies of freight invoices and clearance documents, and analyse them off site, go back and show them what you would have done better and cheaper, face to face.

In a past life, I have switched agents/forwarders on exactly that basis.

Hope that helps.