At Convoy, Customers’ Needs Change. Sales Strategy Doesn’t.

The team at digital freight network powerhouse Convoy loves problems. 

And 2020 has had no shortage of challenging problems to solve. In a post-COVID-19 world where consumer demand for essential products like pasta, toilet paper, meat and hand sanitizers sky-rocketed, a massive spotlight was shown on the importance of a dynamic supply chain. 

Grocery stores struggled to keep shelves full and online order fulfillment went from taking two days to two weeks. The need for companies to reliably move products from one place to another throughout the country was more tangible than ever.  

For many of those companies, Convoy was the answer.

The 5-year-old company was founded to solve two fundamental challenges in the trucking industry: the intense fragmentation of truck supply and the massive amounts of CO2 created from empty miles driven by trucks. This would be a daunting challenge to many, considering the size of the $800-billion trucking industry and the fact that nine of 10 trucks on the road belong to small trucking companies (with less than six trucks), but for Convoy, it became their mission. 

 

 

Convoy’s digital freight platform uses machine learning, automation and mobile technology to connect shippers with this fragmented supply base; help companies move products around the country via shippers; improve the livelihood of carriers; and reduce waste in the environment. 

“One of our core values, ‘Love problems, not solutions,’ is a reminder that we are tackling massive, evergreen problems that make a huge difference for our customers and the world.” Convoy’s Head of Sales Courtney McKlveen said.

McKlveen was most recently the head of U.S. field sales at Oath (Verizon Media), following the Verizon acquisition of Yahoo. In this role, Courtney helped build a powerful team, aligning the sales organizations in the U.S. of both AOL and Yahoo to serve some of the biggest brands in the United States. 

McKlveen, who joined the team after Convoy instituted a work-from-home policy due to COVID-19, said that the #LPNS core value was evident from day one. 

“I was immediately in problem-solving mode, figuring out how to effectively grow our sales team in the midst of a pandemic as our customers’ pain points and needs were constantly changing.” For Courtney, her 10+ years of sales leadership experience quickly came into play. 

“I jumped at the chance to grow and stretch professionally. There was a clear connection between my professional strengths in growing dynamic organizations and the marketplace we’re creating,” McKlveen said. 

Today, the Convoy team has more than 900 employees and is still growing fast. Below, the sales leader shares how her positive outlook on business has helped her turn problems into opportunities and set her fast-growing team up for success in the year to come.

 

Courtney, you’ve been at Convoy for under six months. What attracted you to the company and your role?

Convoy is reframing value, in many ways, within the massive and highly complex industry of freight. I was energized by Convoy’s company strategy and values and was drawn to the lively conversations with multiple individuals across functions within the organization. 

The decision to join Convoy meant learning a different industry since I did not have a background in freight or supply chain. I jumped at the chance to grow and stretch professionally and saw a clear connection between my professional strengths and the marketplace we’re creating. I’m a builder and as the group VP of sales, my role is to generate and cultivate new business for Convoy across our suite of products and services. The sales team is responsible for bringing new shippers into Convoy and creating value and stickiness as a key partner in shipper supply chain strategies. Sales has tremendous momentum and I was drawn to the drumbeat of capitalizing on that. 

 

How is the sales team at Convoy different from others you've worked with in the past?

From the first conversation with our CEO and several account executives, I found that the focus on customers and meeting their challenges head-on is core to the team’s DNA. We live our values. 

Freight is a complex, relationship-driven industry and the sales team is leaning into serving shippers in new ways. We have a skilled team of sales pros who know how to engage with shippers by developing authentic relationships grounded in value. 

Building any great team is all about putting together pieces and recognizing strengths, gaps and locating paths to fill the holes. We build one another up every day by staying grounded in our mission and remaining focused on the shippers’ needs to drive our decision-making process. 

Freight is a complex, relationship-driven industry and the sales team is leaning into serving shippers in new ways.”

 

In your experience, what is the remote onboarding process like?  

Remote onboarding can be challenging; you’re meeting dozens of incredibly passionate and smart people, all while furiously taking notes and staying present. 

There is so much knowledge that the team has that refining it down to a manageable and engaging onboarding program has been a lot of challenging but fun work. 

Onboarding is more fluid because we leverage mediums like video and Slack to help make things personal and casual for long days. We’ve condensed the timing and total training hours to ensure people can retain the info and avoid burnout.

The onboarding process for the sales team contains several critical elements across multiple weeks, focusing primarily on Convoy, the freight industry, and our customers. We offer mentorship opportunities, personalized time set with their manager and structured checkpoints at the end of every week to ensure team members are getting what they need to be successful. 

  

How did demand change for the shipping and logistics industry during the pandemic? What impact does Convoy hope to have on the industry?

This pandemic has impacted how shippers across the country view their supply chains. Transportation is a critical component of the supply chain. When you think about the bigger challenges that COVID-19 presented, such as restricted imports, driver shortages, health concerns and significantly reduced retail foot traffic, supply chains around the country completely changed overnight. 

The one common theme that COVID-19 reinforced is that a resilient and innovative transportation supply chain is necessary for future-proofing. I see companies continuing to embrace and invest in how technology can improve their supply chain and transportation operations. 

Convoy is hyper-focused on how we can help our shippers create resilient transportation networks by partnering to provide reliable capacity and helping them understand where their own gaps and areas for improvement are. It’s not just about finding trucks, but also about improving efficiency across our shippers’ entire transportation networks. 

 

 

What are Convoy’s growth plans in 2021?

You can’t have a mission statement like ours and not have massive growth plans. We have the infrastructure, talent and leadership to do something really special. 

That starts with the tip of the spear, our sales team. We will continue to grow the team, solving unique shipper challenges across the enterprise and mid-market space, and increasing our footprint in small business. 

Success in the sales team means mastering sales skills, strategic thinking, drive and overall work ethic. Within those competency areas, we believe that success is generated via an individual’s sales approach, including how they handle objections, their customer obsession, and their ability to sell solutions and deliver value. They should also exhibit a true passion for the business and a willingness to do the hard work to make it grow. 

 

Any exciting projects in the works for 2021? What role will you and your team play in getting those across the finish line?

Absolutely. One of Convoy’s values is to innovate deliberately, so our entire team is always challenging the status quo in search of a better solution for our shippers, better experiences for our carriers, and a better outcome for our planet. 

2020 showed us that our shippers intensely value partners who bring a new perspective and approach to solving problems in a year that saw nationwide shutdowns, rapid supply chain adjustments to the new normal, all while navigating one of the most volatile trucking markets in the last decade. 

We will be laser-focused on being a reliable and resilient partner for our shippers day-in and day-out, and that’s honestly been one of the blueprints to our ability to innovate deliberately. 

 

How do you ensure a diverse and inclusive hiring process?

This is top of mind for our entire organization to ensure we create an equitable and inclusive culture at Convoy. During hiring, we work to ensure we’re giving equal opportunity to people from underrepresented groups and looking for diverse backgrounds and profiles. 

The company has partnered with a great organization that provides DEI training and coaching for our leaders and individual contributors to become more aware of our own biases. We recently created a DEI advisory board to make sure we’re following through on our commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive culture. 

We strive to ensure the hiring process includes interviewers and candidates from various backgrounds. As a team, we continue to focus on prioritizing diversity and inclusion in the hiring process.

 

 

What professional development opportunities are available at Convoy? 

Convoy continues to invest in professional development, beginning with onboarding. With new employees, we dive deep on freight and supply chain management and provide ongoing leadership training.