For decades, logistics has been built around operational excellence. Companies invested in better fleets, stronger warehouse networks, more experienced planners, advanced transport management systems, and increasingly sophisticated operational processes.
This focus made perfect sense. Logistics is, after all, an industry where execution matters.
Yet while the operational side of the industry has become increasingly professional, another function has often remained surprisingly undervalued: marketing.
In many logistics companies, marketing is still perceived as a support department rather than a strategic business function. It is expected to manage social media, update the website, design brochures, organize trade fairs, and occasionally prepare presentations for the sales team. When budgets become tight, marketing is often among the first areas to see investment reduced.
This perspective may have worked twenty years ago. Today, it has become one of the biggest barriers to sustainable growth.
The Market Has Changed Faster Than Many Logistics Companies
The logistics industry has become significantly more competitive.
New freight forwarders enter the market every year. Digital freight platforms continue to expand. Customers have more providers to choose from than ever before. Information is available instantly, and buyers can compare dozens of logistics companies before speaking to a single salesperson.
Ironically, while competition has intensified, many logistics companies continue to communicate almost exactly the same message.
“Reliable service.”
“Competitive pricing.”
“Experienced team.”
“Customer-focused approach.”
These statements are not wrong. The problem is that every competitor says exactly the same thing. When companies sound identical, customers naturally begin comparing the only thing they can easily compare – price.
Altogether, many executives at logistics companies see price pressure as a market problem. But in many cases it is also a positioning problem. And positioning begins with marketing.
Marketing Is No Longer About Promotion
One of the biggest misconceptions in logistics is believing that marketing exists to make the company look good.
Modern marketing has a completely different purpose. Its role is to influence commercial outcomes. It should shape how potential customers perceive the company long before the first sales conversation ever takes place.
That matters because the buying process has fundamentally changed. Before contacting a logistics provider, decision-makers usually spend considerable time conducting independent research.
By the time a salesperson receives an inquiry, the customer has often already formed an opinion about several potential suppliers. In other words, marketing now influences buying decisions before sales has the opportunity to speak.
Companies that fail to recognize this are asking their sales teams to win customers who have already developed perceptions elsewhere.
Differentiation Is Built Long Before The Sales Meeting
Ask almost any logistics company why customers choose them, and the answers tend to sound remarkably familiar. “We provide excellent service.” “We are flexible.” “We respond quickly.” Our communication is better.”
But when you ask other questions like: How much better are you? Can you prove it? What challenges do customers have and how you solve those challenges? Do you think what you are saying is realy important? Most of the time, you will hear silence, or we are good, and we know that.
Real differentiation requires understanding something much deeper. This is strategic work. It cannot be reduced to creating attractive graphics or publishing regular LinkedIn posts. Marketing should help define how the company competes, not simply how it communicates.
The Industry Often Undervalues Marketing Expertise
There is another issue that receives surprisingly little attention. Logistics companies rarely compromise when hiring operational or sales specialists. Yet marketing is frequently treated differently.
Companies often assume that general marketing experience is enough. Someone can come from fashion, hospitality, consumer products, or telecommunications and immediately be expected to market logistics services effectively.
Sometimes that works. Often, it doesn’t. Because logistics is not a simple industry to explain.
First of all, it’s important to understand that logistics has many different modes and niches. And each of them has different customer buying journeys. Marketing freight forwarding, contract logistics, e-com logistics, 3PLs, etc, need a different approach.
The other important part is related to the knowledge of competitors, their strong and weak points, and, of course, the knowledge about the customer and the industries you are selling to.
Without it, marketing tends to produce generic messages that could belong to almost any logistics company. Generic marketing inevitably leads to generic positioning. And generic positioning almost always results in price competition.
Therefore, companies that are serious about positioning and their business reputation should look for someone who understands logistics marketing; it’s usually not an easy endeavor.
Marketing Is Becoming Part of Sales
Perhaps the biggest transformation happening today is the gradual disappearance of the traditional boundary between sales and marketing.
Historically, marketing generated brochures and exhibitions. Sales generated revenue. Those responsibilities are now merging.
Today’s sales professionals are increasingly expected to build visibility long before making contact. They publish insights. Comment on industry developments. Build professional credibility on LinkedIn.
In other words, they educate their networks and build trust before the first meeting. And this is becoming super effective because customers no longer evaluate only the company; they also evaluate the individual representing it.
A salesperson with a strong professional presence often enters conversations with significantly more credibility than someone whose online presence is almost invisible.
That makes every salesperson, to some extent, a marketer. Likewise, every marketer should understand the realities of the sales process.
Marketing’s Real Contribution Is Reducing Price Pressure
Many logistics executives still ask a familiar question: “What return do we get from marketing?”
This is often the wrong way to evaluate its contribution.
Marketing should not be judged solely by the number of leads it generates or the visibility it creates. Its real value lies in making the entire commercial process more effective. Strong marketing builds trust before the first sales conversation, strengthens differentiation, shortens sales cycles, supports higher win rates, and helps customers understand why a company deserves to be chosen for reasons beyond price.
In this sense, marketing is not simply a cost of doing business. It is an investment that improves the performance of the entire commercial organization.
The Future Belongs to Commercially Integrated Logistics Companies
Operational excellence will always remain essential in logistics. Without reliable execution, no amount of marketing can compensate. But operational excellence alone is no longer enough.
One characteristic consistently separates the strongest commercial organizations from the rest: sales and marketing work toward the same objective.
Marketing is not simply responsible for generating visibility, while sales focuses on closing deals. Instead, both functions operate as one commercial system.
Marketing helps shape positioning, educates the market, and creates content that supports every stage of the buyer journey. Sales then uses those insights and materials to build stronger customer conversations, shorten sales cycles, and reinforce the company’s value proposition.
When both functions are aligned, customers experience one consistent commercial narrative, from the first LinkedIn post to the final negotiation. That consistency builds trust, strengthens differentiation, and ultimately improves commercial performance.
About the Author:
Thomas Ananjevas is a seasoned supply chain professional with 15 years of experience in purchasing and selling logistics services and building supply chains from the ground up.
Today, he helps freight forwarders, transportation companies, 3PLs, warehousing providers, logistics technology companies, and other supply chain businesses improve their sales performance, strengthen their market positioning, and build scalable growth systems.
As the creator of the Logistics Growth Blueprint, Tomas works with companies to identify commercial bottlenecks, eliminate revenue leakage, improve customer acquisition, increase customer retention, and create more predictable growth without relying solely on price competition.
In addition to consulting, Tomas delivers training programs in sales, marketing, leadership, and customer experience for logistics organizations across Europe. He is also the creator of The Logistics Newsletter.
