Yearly, america exports billions of {dollars} price of forest merchandise — all the pieces from the uncooked timber utilized in development to the reams of paper utilized in workplaces all around the world.
Most individuals don’t give a lot thought to how all these bins of copy paper make their option to the warehouses and cabinets of their native retailers. However these questions preserve Steve Zambo, founding father of Ally International Logistics (AGL), up at evening.
Based in 2013, AGL started as an exporter of products for producers within the forest merchandise sector. In 2020, like most companies world wide, AGL discovered itself dealing with a pandemic crossroads.
That is the story of how Zambo and his crew at AGL not solely weathered probably the most economically disruptive occasion in current reminiscence, however grew their enterprise and elevated income by 275% in simply three years.
Regular Development, Unprecedented Change
Logistics is among the many most advanced of industries. Coordinating the transport of frequent on a regular basis items throughout even quick distances requires refined stock and fleet administration programs, which makes exporting specialised cargo equivalent to timber that rather more difficult.
Shortly after AGL was established in 2013, the US forest merchandise business skilled a interval of sustained progress. 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 business.
That progress, in addition to nearly all the pieces else on the earth, was stopped in its tracks by the emergence of COVID-19. Because the world entered numerous levels of lockdown measures in an try and include the unfold of the virus, worldwide commerce, together with a lot of the import/export business, floor to a halt.
Nearly in a single day, AGL’s enterprise was confronted with perilous uncertainty. In an try and 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 wish 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 transferring ahead.”
That call was simply step one. If AGL was to efficiently make the transition and survive, the gross sales crew must establish new potential prospects, in addition to providers past AGL’s core experience.
“Not solely had been we seeking to prospect into corporations situated in america, however we additionally determined to start out exploring new alternatives for serving industries exterior of forest merchandise,” Zambo says.
Zambo and his crew 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 pressured 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 conventional method, leveraging present relationships and pitching to prospects in face-to-face eventualities. Now, with ZoomInfo, we’re capable of simply establish key prospects in new markets and export their particulars instantly 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 carefully with the profiles of AGL’s most popular consumers and best-fit prospects. Zambo’s gross sales crew might 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 crew wasn’t simply reaching extra leads, they had been partaking stronger leads with higher info, leading to bigger offers and better revenues.
“ZoomInfo has given us a greater understanding of who we ought to be focusing on, serving to us additional house in on the important thing attributes that make up our splendid 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 changing into a ZoomInfo buyer, AGL’s home income was $800,000. In its second yr, 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 the whole yr. To date this yr, we’ve finished 3,300 shipments and are on monitor to cross 4,000. We’re additionally now the [second-largest] forest merchandise exporter in america, and are regularly 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 can be nonetheless being felt, from sharp will increase in the price of transport items abroad to heightened shopper demand for paper merchandise equivalent to rest room paper.
However startups within the logistics sector had been laborious at work innovating below difficult situations 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 reworking 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.
“After I shaped the corporate, I named it ‘Ally’ as a result of we wished to be greater than only a logistics firm,” Zambo says. “We wished to really be an ally. It’s not simply transactional. We actually care about what [our customers] are doing.”
