News & Events

From The Times Union / By Antonio Civitella / September 12, 2017

What happened yesterday, last week or last month doesn’t matter. If you didn’t hit all your goals, that’s OK, because it is now a new year with new goals.

I told my team to not hold onto whatever New Year’s resolutions they may have made in December, and haven’t kept. I told them that It’s time to stop carrying that burden of an unkept promise they made to themselves. That can really weigh you down. Instead, let’s have a fresh start as schools are opening and hear from them what they need and what solutions we have to help them.

At the start of the summer we had a meeting about how July and August are to Transfinder’s support team what Black Friday is to retailers. The bulk of the calls our support team receives from transportation departments come in during that two-month window.

Black Friday is now in our rearview mirror. The holidays passed by so fast that we’re into the New Year!

This mindset is all based on nearly 30 years of truly understanding our clients. Our calendar is aligned with their calendar. You cannot make your clients line up with your calendar. It doesn’t work that way.

So my question to any business leaders out there is this: Have you noticed the ebbs and flows and rhythms of your clients’ seasons? When they want to hear from you? When they are looking for help or looking for new solutions? When they don’t want to hear from you?

Do you know when your New Year is with your staff (It may be different depending on the various teams you have. I know it is at Transfinder!).

There’s a very popular sales mantra out there that I’ve used myself. ABC-Always Be Closing.
I think it needs to be revised to include: To ABL, ABS, ABA and ABD. I know it’s not as catchy as ABC and there’s no Jackson 5 jingle to go with any of them.

But we need to:
Always Be Listening to our clients and our industry. The boots-on-the-ground personnel know what they currently want and need and if we listen close enough, we can anticipate what they will want and need in the future.

Always Be Seeing what is taking place in our school transportation departments as well as in the industry and in the regulatory environment. We can’t work in a vacuum.

Always Be Attentive. We should put even more effort into assisting our clients than we put into landing them in the first place. In many companies, it’s just the opposite. They put all their effort into winning the business and then move on to their next potential sale. We can’t do that. The marriage between Transfinder and our clients has to be stronger than the engagement period. (More on that in a future post).

Finally, we need to Always Be Delivering.

So here’s wishing you and yours a most Happy New Year!