Dedicated to helping their agents be successful, Bennett Motor Express (BME) recently recruited transportation industry professional Lisa Pate to help BME’s agents enhance their selling skills and grow their businesses.
With 37 years of experience in the transportation industry, Lisa had a number of other offers when she moved to the Atlanta area. What made her choose Bennett Motor Express (BME) was how well the affiliate of Bennett International Group (BIG) treats their agents, owners/operators and contractors.
Pate says she saw an opportunity to really help agents build their businesses and be successful. “At Bennett, not only do agents have everything they need to transport their customers’ freight, but the senior management group treats their agents like family,” she says. “When you own a business and you’ve put everything you’ve got into growing that business, to be treated like family is invaluable.” Be sure to watch the video below to hear more from Lisa about the great benefits of working for Bennett.
BME President Jay Folladori says he expects Lisa to bring tremendous leadership and planning capabilities to the company. “Having Lisa as part of our team is a great opportunity for Bennett Motor Express,” he says. “She fully understands our business model and knows how to bring Bennett Motor Express opportunities to the vast commissioned agent industry. She is on the Board of the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA) and is well recognized in this industry.”
Pate’s role as director of agent development will be, among other things, to make sure that agents understand the value proposition of Bennett. The purpose is so agents have the information and training they need to initiate discussions with customers that lead to insights about additional customer transport challenges, she explains.
“Our goal will be to help agents use Bennett’s existing resources to grow their businesses without having to add staff or pay for external resources,” Pate says. “We want to make sure that new and existing customers are aware of the breadth of Bennett’s services. That we don’t just do flatbed and heavy haul transportation, but we also offer specialized air and space solutions or international freight forwarding, for example. Some customers may not know that we can do more than what we are providing to them currently.”
Pate says her first steps in her new job will be to focus on streamlining the complicated agency agreement and creating marketing materials that agents can send or leave behind when meeting with potential or existing customers. Next, Pate will develop an agent welcome package to ensure that all agents receive the same information about the company, as well as an orientation program to “bennettize” agents on BIG’s best practices.
Pate’s experience includes serving in various roles during 31 years with Landstar System, a transportation solutions provider. After leaving Landstar, she recruited agents for a small firm until her daughter finished high school in Jacksonville, Fla., where Pate has lived her entire life. Pate moved to Atlanta to be with her husband, also in the transportation industry, who had been working away from home during the week.
Pate had worked with Folladori while at Landstar where she was impressed with his leadership skills. “I knew the direction that he could take the company, so when he asked me to come and meet the senior management group, I could tell that that they treat their agents and owner/operators very well and saw that this was a great opportunity because of who the senior management is here at Bennett,” Pate says.
If you’re an agent and would like to learn more about joining BME, visit BME’s website or feel free to contact Lisa via email or call Bennett at 800-866-5500, and ask for Lisa.
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