Signature Consulting Group offers clients in the transportation and forwarding industry an extra hand when the growth of business moves faster than current staff can handle, yet the addition of full time, qualified personnel is not in the budget. With a wide variety of experience in transportation operations, sales, accounting, and training, Signature Consulting can provide a stop gap source for project management or business consulting to help keep your company moving in the right direction.

Our experience includes these arenas:

OPERATIONS

  • Over 50 plus years in the airfreight and logistics world working as both a forwarder and a traffic manager with extensive knowledge of the inner workings for freight operations.
  • Constantly seeking new ways to solve tough routing problems as well as the ability to tap into carrier relationships to make things happen.
  • Creative mind when considering project logistics involving assembly and distribution work.
  • Establishing pricing models and costing measurements that create desired gross margins
  • Ability to see bigger picture of the operations/sales relationship to help both sides achieve success.
  • Able to sit in front of customers and provide a confident operational perspective that fits in with their shipping requirements.
  • Familiar with new TSA rules and regulations and have put together documentation to insure a company is in compliance.
  • Ability to review a company’s program to insure they will not have issues with TSA inspections.

SALES

  • Understanding of the sales process and ability to put together presentations that will capture the customer’s interest.
  • Understanding of how to work with sales people to help them gain an “operational mind” as they talk to customers.
  • Development of sales management tools that will increase account executive productivity as well as account retention.
  • Understanding of the vertical markets and how to penetrate these with greater success, as well as developing plans to integrate them into current operational models and provide optimal service.           
  • Ability to develop and execute sales training courses that will set your sales team apart from others.

PRICING STRATEGIES

  • Developed cost modeling that allows for easy development of standardized tariffs for all service levels.
  • Developed customized tariffs and proposals that present a professional image of the company to the customer.
  • Understand how to get the most out of a spot rate situation when negotiating with carriers and vendors to get customers to buy.
  • Experience in handling major corporation RFI/RFQ packages.
  • Able to analyze cost structures and insure that shipments make money somehow.
  • Understand how to gain lane specific pricing for customer opportunities.

PROCESSES AND PROCEDURE

  • Ability to analyze the flow of an operation and uncover the inefficiencies.
  • Involved in several ISO training sessions and know the processes required to help get a company on its way to certification.
  • Writing skills that allow for procedures manuals to be developed, then the ability to train operations people on how things work.
  • Able to work within organization to help obtain buy in on new processes and procedures.

ACCOUNTING

  • Understand how to review and dissect profit and loss statements.
  • Help establish a chart of accounts to adhere to GAP accounting practices
  • Establish “Key Daily and Weekly Objectives” to measure how the company is performing
  • Assist in annual budget process  
  • Able to audit freight bills to uncover hidden expenses that are eroding profit margins.
  • Review company’s collection process and programs to reduce DSO

SYSTEMS

  • Experience in different airfreight IT systems, and understand the basics of most current models (Air-Trak, Trans-Soft, ediEnterprise).
  • Developed two barcode/scanner projects and understand how integrate a system into a company’s operations by working with the right vendors and then developing a plan to bring the system on line.
  • Provide in house training for any new systems or transitions into new systems.
  • Relationships with the brightest technology minds in transportation to help guide and create innovative tools for customer/company interfaces.

VENDOR RELATIONS

  • Experienced in negotiating and developing specialized programs with carriers to enhance service and promote profitability, while providing the vendor with new streams of revenue.
  • Strong relationship with the top executives of the major airlines and airfreight trucking companies.
  • Expertise in working closely with operations people within a carrier operation to solve missing freight mysteries.
  • An understanding of what vendors need and how to promote that with in the Forwarder organization to maximize the relationship.
  • Relationships with cartage companies around the nation in all major markets, and an understanding of what they are looking for in a partnership with a forwarder.
  • Ability to focus on service issues with cartage companies and also capable of working on pricing issues with the agent to reduce costs, based on joint commitments.