Yearly, the USA exports billions of {dollars} price of forest merchandise — every little thing from the uncooked timber utilized in building to the reams of paper utilized in places of work all around the world.
Most individuals don’t give a lot thought to how all these containers of copy paper make their option to the warehouses and cabinets of their native retailers. However these questions maintain Steve Zambo, founding father of Ally World Logistics (AGL), up at night time.
Based in 2013, AGL started as an exporter of products for producers within the forest merchandise sector. In 2020, like most companies around the globe, AGL discovered itself dealing with a pandemic crossroads.
That is the story of how Zambo and his staff at AGL not solely weathered probably the most economically disruptive occasion in latest reminiscence, however grew their enterprise and elevated income by 275% in simply three years.
Regular Development, Unprecedented Change
Logistics is among the many most complicated of industries. Coordinating the transport of widespread on a regular basis items throughout even brief distances requires refined stock and fleet administration techniques, which makes exporting specialised cargo akin to timber that rather more difficult.
Shortly after AGL was established in 2013, the US forest merchandise trade skilled a interval of sustained development. Between 2016 and 2018, complete US forest product exports elevated from about $37.7 billion to about $40.9 billion, and AGL grew together with the remainder of the trade.
That development, in addition to nearly every little thing else on this planet, was stopped in its tracks by the emergence of COVID-19. Because the world entered varied levels of lockdown measures in an try to comprise the unfold of the virus, worldwide commerce, together with a lot of the import/export trade, floor to a halt.
Virtually in a single day, AGL’s enterprise was confronted with perilous uncertainty. In an try to mitigate the worst impacts of the pandemic, AGL determined to diversify its enterprise operations to incorporate a brand new, home arm.
“COVID was the catalyst for creating a brand new income stream. If we had been going to outlive, we would want to diversify our enterprise,” Zambo says. “That is after we determined that launching a home division to serve prospects in North America wouldn’t solely broaden our alternative, but in addition present a layer of stability for our enterprise shifting ahead.”
That call was simply step one. If AGL was to efficiently make the transition and survive, the gross sales staff must establish new potential prospects, in addition to providers past AGL’s core experience.
“Not solely had been we trying to prospect into corporations situated in the USA, however we additionally determined to begin exploring new alternatives for serving industries exterior of forest merchandise,” Zambo says.
Zambo and his staff at AGL wanted a companion to assist them navigate this era of intense uncertainty.
That’s when Zambo found ZoomInfo.
New Alternatives, New Methods to Promote
Like many industries previous to the pandemic, enterprise within the import/export sector was largely pushed by in-person relationships.
Earlier than COVID, conferences and commerce occasions had been essential to AGL’s networking efforts. The sudden introduction of journey restrictions and limits on in-person occasions compelled Zambo to rethink how AGL would establish new markets and shut new enterprise.
“We didn’t have a proper prospecting technique,” Zambo says. “We operated in a standard method, leveraging present relationships and pitching to prospects in face-to-face eventualities. Now, with ZoomInfo, we’re in a position to simply establish key prospects in new markets and export their particulars immediately into our CRM for our gross sales reps to start prospecting.”
Utilizing ZoomInfo, AGL refined its prospecting to proactively goal corporations that had demonstrated robust shopping for intent, and aligned intently with the profiles of AGL’s most well-liked patrons and best-fit prospects. Zambo’s gross sales staff may now analyze earlier offers together with missed alternatives, to establish areas of enchancment and maximize the influence of their go-to-market motions.
Zambo’s staff wasn’t simply reaching extra leads, they had been partaking stronger leads with higher data, leading to bigger offers and better revenues.
“ZoomInfo has given us a greater understanding of who we ought to be concentrating on, serving to us additional residence in on the important thing attributes that make up our ultimate buyer profile,” Zambo says. “This has been extremely useful as we proceed tapping into new areas of our complete addressable market.”
Extra Shipments, Extra Income
It didn’t take lengthy to see the influence of the brand new data-driven go-to-market technique on AGL’s backside line.
After the primary 12 months since turning into a ZoomInfo buyer, AGL’s home income was $800,000. In its second 12 months, AGL achieved revenues of $8 million — a tenfold enhance. Zambo says AGL anticipates exceeding $12 million of home income in 2023.
“ZoomInfo helps us faucet into new markets and construct a closeable pipeline at scale,” Zambo says. “In 2020, we did 959 shipments in your complete 12 months. Up to now this 12 months, we’ve executed 3,300 shipments and are on monitor to cross 4,000. We’re additionally now the [second-largest] forest merchandise exporter in the USA, and are frequently build up the verticals that we assist.”
Few industries have skilled as a lot disruption in recent times because the logistics sector. The pandemic revealed fragility in world provide chains in methods which might be nonetheless being felt, from sharp will increase in the price of transport items abroad to heightened client demand for paper merchandise akin to rest room paper.
However startups within the logistics sector had been exhausting at work innovating underneath difficult circumstances even earlier than the pandemic. Speedy developments in automated trucking applied sciences, elevated demand for seamless real-time stock and fleet administration applied sciences, and ongoing environmental and geopolitical pressures are all remodeling the logistics sector, creating issues in addition to alternative.
With ZoomInfo, AGL isn’t simply sourcing new enterprise extra successfully and shutting bigger offers. It’s fulfilling its mission to function a trusted ally to its companions navigating a interval of immense change — a promise that has been central to AGL’s philosophy from the very starting.
“Once I fashioned the corporate, I named it ‘Ally’ as a result of we needed to be greater than only a logistics firm,” Zambo says. “We needed to actually be an ally. It’s not simply transactional. We actually care about what [our customers] are doing.”
