Sales teams in logistics are drowning in data but still struggling to turn it into revenue. At Revenue Vessel, we streamline the chaos, providing unified, accurate datasets that empower reps to focus on what really matters—booking more business.
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We live in the golden age of supply chain data.
Panjiva and Import Genius hold troves of ocean import data for global shippers. Salesforce and Hubspot enable sales teams to track outreach and pipeline growth systematically. LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Zoominfo provide email and phone details for logistics, supply chain, and compliance stakeholders.
Unfortunately, the information age has not yet generated a mountain of revenue for logistics sales teams. Data is siloed across different providers - forcing sales reps to piece these systems together and sift through vast amounts of information for leads. Overwhelmed, many opt for simpler spray-and-pray approaches with low qualification rates, or give up entirely on prospecting. It is as if we have given reps a 5,000-piece Lego kit, no instructions, and a pat on the back for luck.
The outcomes are predictable. New reps without deep networks in international freight struggle to log productive activity. When they need to support larger strategic initiatives that require them to target a whole new set of prospects, like selling a new air BSA, they are often unsure where to begin beyond their existing customers.
Ideally, companies would equip their sales teams with a ranked list of importers, sorted by industry, tradelanes, and other key indicators. That list would then be paired with emails, phone numbers, and LinkedIn profiles for each target stakeholder. Instead of sifting through overwhelming data, reps can focus on sending emails and calling numbers. With this clear of a list, organizations have developed devastatingly effective outreach motions. Their sales teams both log more outreach and book more meetings by engaging in targeted conversations built on clear trade data.
If the ideal seems so clear, why do so many organizations struggle to achieve it? The challenge lies in three core flaws with existing data providers:
Existing Data Sources Do Not Provide Air Or Cross-Border Data
Ocean Manifest Data Is Declining As A Viable Data Source
Piecing Data Together From Multiple Providers Is Manual and Time-Consuming
Existing Data Sources Do Not Provide Air Or Cross-Border Data
Providers like Import Genius, Panjiva, and Datamyne have ocean import data but no air or cross-border data. If you are aiming to target these importers, you are out of luck.
Before working with us, customers were forced to use ineffective methods to source non-ocean prospects. I once spoke to a mid-sized forwarder who tried to find air leads by searching for fashion & apparel companies with minimal ocean imports in Import Genius. In theory, tiny ocean importers might have had significant air volumes that were hidden. Instead, these tiny ocean importers were more often just tiny shippers overall. Because there were so many of these dead ends, the sales team lost faith in this approach and gave up on prospecting new air leads entirely.
Logistics companies are aware of these limitations, but are forced to use these tools without better alternatives on the market.
Ocean Manifest Data Is Declining As A Viable Data Source
Ocean data has become increasingly unreliable as importers have requested manifest confidentiality. Bella+Canvas moves 15,000 TEU. They have so successfully wiped their data from ocean manifest records that they do not show up in Panjiva’s US data source. The best estimate from other sources is 42 TEU, a far cry from their actual shipment volumes. In another example, while Clark Associates moves 20,000 FEU, ocean manifest estimates range between merely 15 and 1,342 TEU. As importers of all sizes have begun obscuring their records, less and less shippers appear in these databases.
Worst of all, competition for the remaining dwindling leads has intensified. The result? A bloodbath. Buyers, bombarded with outreach, have become increasingly unresponsive.
Piecing Data Together Is Manual and Time-Consuming
Forcing teams to Frankenstein different data sources together often prevents them from doing any outreach whatsoever. Teams start with a list of consignees with import volumes from Panjiva or Import Genius, and then need to filter out duplicates, obscured data, and other general noise (many Chinese factories and forwarders appear as consignees in these records). Next, they need to find which leads are in their territory, which requires inputting the list into ZoomInfo to find industry and address. Then, they input each name into the CRM to check for prior history. Finally, they search for contacts on ZoomInfo, tearing their hair out when some companies do not have any available emails or phone numbers. This process can take 3-5 days to put together a list of 50 leads. To avoid it, many reps resort to a spray-and-pray approach or skip outreach altogether.
One of our customers made two full-time employees entirely responsible for list-building instead of having their sales reps do this work. Even with Panjiva, Zoominfo, Dun & Bradstreet and Salesforce, they could only churn out a maximum of 200 leads per week - insufficient for a team of 30+ sales reps. This experience shows that list building is not an organization problem; it is a software problem.
Our mission at Revenue Vessel is to take a messy, broken world of supply chain data into the ultimate, unified dataset for global trade. We have discovered reliable (and accurate) sources of air and cross-border shipment data. Better yet, importers cannot obscure their records from our ocean shipment data. We have consolidated our import data with firmographic data and contact data so you do not have to.
We have drawn upon a simple formula we learned at Flexport - eliminate all distractions that prevent outreach. Give sales reps a unified dataset complete with importers, contact details and tradelanes. Focus them on calling the best accounts. According to Ben Braverman, Flexport’s Chief Revenue Officer for the first six years:
Ben: "List construction is everything… If you have a list that is organized, enriched, and by enriched I mean it has all the data you would need to actually attack that customer - the names, the phone number, the email addresses, ideally an org chart - whatever you can get. If you build a list and you invest in it, it will make everything that you do after that list construction better and easier." (Source, 51:23)
As Head of Demand Generation, one of my core responsibilities was to provide lists of shippers with key tradelane data, ranked by suitability for Flexport. Our inside sales team prioritized from the given list and called 50+ leads a day. Requiring them to construct lists themselves would only distract them from what mattered most - building pipeline.
We built Revenue Vessel with one principle in mind - simplify outreach. We blend import data with firmographic details and contact information. We deliver all tradelane data and relevant contacts in one streamlined list. This keeps your sales team focused on what they are great at: booking new pipeline.
Interested in learning more? Let’s chat!
