“My transportation is out of control. Come fix it!”
A former colleague and boss, and still a close friend of mine, used to use an analogy of going to see a doctor when you are ill or in pain. A good physician does not just look at one area of concern and prescribe a treatment. Rather, she will ask a series of questions; she will examine your body; she will look at your blood pressure, pulse, and other vitals.
Perhaps the remedy is a simple one. Perhaps it is more complex. Perhaps you need to be referred to a specialist.
The goal is to get to the real pain or issue, not just react to pain indicators.
To put it in personal terms, I once had what I thought was an impacted tooth or at least a cavity. Turns out it was a sinus infection treatable with antibiotics, but it was a good thing my dentist didn’t just yank the tooth and send me on my way!
We see similar scenarios with our clients and prospects. They come to us often with ‘symptoms’ such as:
“My freight rates are soaring out of control!”
“I don’t have visibility to my inbound loads from vendors”
“My fleet is terribly expensive, but a necessary cost to our business”
Sounds painful and relatable.
But probing further, we often find that the original statements are simply pain indicators, not true pain.
“Tell me more about your rate structure and your carrier relationships...”
“Visibility to you means?”
“What does terribly expensive mean?”
They are symptoms of a larger problem.
This is where it gets tricky. Some clients are just not able to verbalize true pain. That could be because they don’t know - something is happening upstream beyond their control - or they have never thought beyond the ache of the day.
"Probing further, we often find that the original statements are simply pain indicators, not true pain."
A good advisor digs in with deeper questions, uses relevant examples, role plays, gets multiple perspectives - all with the goal of prescribing the right treatment.
The “right treatment”, for us in our logistics space may not be a technology solution or even related to transportation at all, but it will relieve the pain.
Over the years I have had many clients come to me and say “My transportation is out of control. Come fix it.”
Now that is a broad and simple statement, but I know from experience that the symptoms and cure are far from simple.
First off, what does out of control mean? Is it cost-related? Service-related? Technology?
For example, just because total logistics costs have risen that is not necessarily a bad thing.
Perhaps we took on a large customer with great margins. Maybe a strategic decision was made to offer customers 48 hour service in order to grab market share. Year over year comparisons have to be made in context.
On the other hand, all things being relatively equal, where costs have increased dramatically it could be lack of carrier management, poor dock processes causing detention, or obsolete routing and rating systems.
Again, what is the real pain?
A good advisor digs in with deeper questions, uses relevant examples, role plays, gets multiple perspectives - all with the goal of prescribing the right treatment.
Fact is, often other functions - manufacturing, distribution, inventory management, planning, customer service - cause transportation inefficiencies.
So, before making major decisions on people, processes or technology related to transportation operations, make sure you have gone through an extensive diagnostic to ensure you are addressing the real pain and not simply soothing pain indicators.
Listen to your physician, or advisor partner, to get to the right treatment.
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Dennis Heppner is a Principal at JBF Consulting. Dennis’ expertise in transportation, logistics and supply chain operations, and third-party providers spans 25+ years. His experience is broad-based, spanning entire supply chains, including business process redesign, sourcing, distribution network design, transportation management, distribution operations, outsourcing selection, and business strategy for major manufacturers, distributors, retailers including eCommerce, and service organizations.
About JBF Consulting
Since 2003, we’ve been helping shippers of all sizes and across many industries select, implement and squeeze as much value as possible out of their logistics systems. We speak your language — not consultant-speak – and we get to know you. Our leadership team has over 70 years of logistics and TMS implementation experience. Because we operate in a niche — we’re not all things to all people — our team members have a very specialized skill set: logistics operations experience + transportation technology + communication and problem-solving skills + a bunch of other cool stuff.