Using Zepol's TradeIQ™, a transportation company increased sales leads and revenues by researching import and export data for qualified new prospects.

Challenge

A large freight forwarder that helps importers effectively manage their supply chains needed a new system to find qualified leads for its sales force. Its staff was dispersed throughout the world with each office responsible for clients in its respective region.

The company had struggled to find a system that provided targeted leads by shipping volume and commodity type instead of relying on a prospect's general size. It also could not bear the cost of access for the multiple offices because most data vendors added extra fees for complete access to all trade routes and historical information.

Solution

Zepol presented a solution that was both cost effective and comprehensive. With Zepol's TradeIQ™ Enterprise Solution, the company received user licenses for every office, both foreign and domestic, for one low rate. Each office now had access to a vast amount of information. Because TradeIQ™ is based on U.S. Customs records and not static reports derived from surveys or delayed Bill of Lading records like other AMS data providers, the company received almost real time access to the latest shipment information.

Results

The client was pleased that it did not have to pay extra to see shipments arriving in the U.S. from anywhere in the world. With data from January 1, 2003 through the present, the company was able to fully assess its prospects' global supply chains. This allowed Account Executives to research companies before they made sales calls and be armed with information on their prospects' current service providers, trading partners, and import volumes. In turn, the subscription has provided a great return on investment by accelerating the sales process, improving closure rates, and increasing revenue.

Account Executives used the View By feature in TradeIQ™ to understand different dimensions of a company's trade activity including suppliers, ports, trade lanes, and (shown below) current carriers and NVOCCs

How To Understand a Prospect's Trade Activity

Local offices were able to discover new companies by region that imported at levels that met their requirements.

With the data in the hands of individual Account Executives and Sales Managers, the company quickly identified qualified prospects and even found up-to-date contact names.