For companies that lack brick-and-mortar store locations and require on-the-go service, like a delivery company, marketing is especially important.

Because you may not have the benefit of a storefront that advertises your company to anybody who passes by, you need to be especially active and intelligent with your marketing efforts in order to build up business.

1) The first step in smart marketing is knowing your business plan.

As you worked on your business model, you likely took a look at what competitors offered to customers and based some of your services either on their models or on the gaps in service from other courier companies.

Your marketing efforts should focus on your company’s strengths. Make note of services that other companies provide but that you can perform with higher quality, and also list the services that are unique to your courier service.

By promoting the differences between your company and others in the area, you will be able to attract a greater amount of new customers.

Marketing for courier services can come in a number of forms, so be sure to approach the project from a few angles.

2) One key in the internet age is to set up a good website for your company.

If you have the budget, think about contracting a web designer to build your site and teach you how to operate it.

Your site should be easy to use, with all of the necessary information customers may need for contacting your company and using your services.

Including online delivery request forms is simple these days and creates another way that people or businesses have easy access to your services.

3) Printed materials are also very helpful.

Be sure to have plenty of business cards to hand out or leave with small businesses or on local bulletin boards.

Having brochures and other printed material available can be helpful for discussing your service with the owners or people in charge of deliveries for businesses in the area.

4) Create an offer.

When you first begin to build your customer base, offering special deals for delivery services can be very helpful for getting your foot in the door.

First, have a set of coupons printed out, offering one free delivery (or at least a discount on the first delivery).

Hand those coupons out to local businesses and targeted customers, then keep track of how effective the coupons are in terms of attracting customers.

Giving businesses one free delivery and then demonstrating a high level of service is one tactic that can encourage these clients to give you additional business in the future.

Starting a courier service does not require excessive startup capital. But if you have a smart marketing plan in place, you’ll require even less by quickly attracting a stream of customers.

What will you carry?

The first step in determining your business model is to figure out what type of parcels you would like to deliver. First, you will need to settle on either business or residential deliveries, or a combination of the two.

Think about what types of services you would like to offer.

If you would like to focus on fast, secure deliveries, it probably makes sense to work mostly with businesses. But if you are also offering packaging and printing services, you can also be of service to individuals who may not send packages so frequently.

It’s also important to consider what types of packages you are going to deliver.

If you have a mid-sized vehicle, for example, you won’t be able to transport packages that are too large. If you cannot offer extremely fast service, it may not make sense to deliver envelopes for businesses that need fast transportation of documents.

Where will you carry it?

The next consideration should be your business area. This will depend on how much business you expect to have in the local area and also how much capacity you have for longer-distance travel.

If you have multiple employees, traveling outside of the immediate area is much easier.

If you are working by yourself, on the other hand, it may be more difficult to visit multiple locations that are far from each other every day.

The volume and speed of your business should be determining factors. Don’t guarantee fast delivery if you need to travel all over the area every day. But if you don’t have enough business in the immediate area, it might pay to expand.

How much will you charge?

The pricing of your services should be based on a combination of the above considerations. First, take a look at the prices of your competitors.

Keep in mind that big companies like UPS have a very different business model from the one you are using for your courier service, so you don’t need to model your prices on theirs.

It makes more sense for you to consider the prices of businesses that are similar to yours in terms of scale and your service area.

The baseline of your price should be the mileage covered for each delivery.

Set a certain price for deliveries in the local area, and think about raising that price slightly for deliveries that require traveling a longer distance.

Also, factor in flat rates for standard envelopes and packages, along with additional fees for larger parcels.

You will also need to set up pricing for special situations, such as those that take place after hours or require express delivery.

Even when the potential client understands the pitch and sees the advantages of using the courier service, they may still be resistant to actually taking the leap and signing up.

That’s when closing techniques come in handy. If the entrepreneur isn’t careful, he will lose easy sales because he simply doesn’t close a hot prospect.

But with the right techniques and a little practice, closing the sale becomes a simple, straightforward, and very profitable process.

Prepare for the close

Before closing the sale, the courier service salesman should make sure that he’s covered all the steps of his pitch.

His audience should know exactly what his courier service does, how it differs from competing courier services, and how switching to his courier service will benefit their business.

If the potential client doesn’t yet have all these answers, it’s too early to start the close.

A-B-C (Always be closing)

Closing is really a process. Throughout the meeting, the salesman should be asking for the potential client’s agreement.

“So you see how my courier service will save you money?” “And don’t you agree our service sounds more reliable than our competitors?”

Questions like these warm up the potential client, and get them ready to say “yes” to the courier service’s main sales pitch.

Ask non-binding closing questions

Before asking for a final yes or no, get the client to discuss more generally the terms of the sales.

For instance, ask them what price they’d be willing to pay if they switched to a new courier service.

Or ask them how quickly they would need packages delivered, if they began using a courier for deliveries.

These questions establish the terms of the sale, and help the salesman formulate his final sales pitch.

Not only do they warm the client up to saying “yes,” but when the salesman makes his final sales pitch, he can do so with numbers and terms that the client has already approved.

At that point, closing the sale will be simply a matter of getting the client to agree to terms they’ve approved earlier in the sales meeting.

Pop the question

Don’t beat around the bush. Ask the potential client directly if they are ready to start using the courier service.

If a contract is necessary to begin the business relationship, get them to sign the contract then and there.

Don’t put it off till another meeting. If there’s no contract, just an agreement that they will call the courier service the next time they need a delivery, get them to say that.

Once they have given their word to use the service, they’ll be very likely to do so. But they only agree to use the new courier service when asked — so make sure to pop the question!

This requires preparation and practice, because the better the sales pitch, the more clients that will come to the new service.

Following the steps outlined below can help any courier service entrepreneur hone their sales pitch to perfection.

To begin, have materials to distribute to everyone in the sales meeting.

This should include a brief fact sheet on the business, contact information for the entrepreneur’s team, and a detailed business plan that can answer any particular questions the potential client may have.

It may also help to have a frequently asked questions sheet prepared, in case certain questions come up over and over.

Many business people will listen to the pitch, but only make their decision about the courier service afterward.

Leaving them with some compelling material to read and consider can make the difference between a yes and a no.

Explain why the client will save money. All businesses are about turning a profit, and the partnerships they form are always geared toward increasing that profit.

If the new courier service will save its clients money simply by performing deliveries for less, then say that.

But there are other ways to help increase their profits. Faster deliveries might keep increase the satisfaction of their customers, and hence bring in more orders for them.

Or the courier service might specialize in secure deliveries that cut down on costly damage in transit.

In some way, the new courier service must benefit its clients’ bottom lines, and that should be the centerpiece of the in-person sales pitch.

Solicit questions. It’s impossible to know exactly what the client will think about the presentation.

If they have any doubts about the courier service, the entrepreneur wants to get those concerns on the table and address them during the meeting, rather than leaving the client to wonder.

Encourage questions and know the sales pitch inside and out so that those questions can be answered quickly and convincingly.

Assume the sale. Go into the meeting with the presumption that the potential client will say “yes,” and then become an actual client.

An enormous part of being convincing to others is appearing convinced of one’s self. When the entrepreneur acts confident and assured during in-person pitches, the audience will notice it and they’ll react more favorably.

With this preparation, the entrepreneur behind the new courier service will impress the people they pitch, and they’ll soon be looking at a very full roster of clients.

Courier services are not new, and many businesses and individuals will already have identified one that more or less fits their needs.

The great news is that most of the companies that will benefit from using a delivery service may not even realize that it is an option!

Earning these customers’ business will simply be a matter of explaining to them why they should use a courier service.

Delivery companies and couriers create value for the clients by saving them time and money. The more time and money a delivery company can save a client, the more they are able to charge.

However, customers are given to inertia: unless they are shown a very good reason to change the way they do things, they probably won’t change. That’s why it’s important to develop a concise and compelling sales pitch that can change customers’ minds.

In other words, it will require telling them why your new courier service is going to save them time and money, and why they should go through the hassle of adjusting their daily routine.

The first step of writing a good sales pitch is to outline what your services are, who they are for, and why it’s a better fit than the alternatives.

Think of these as the three W’s: What is this new company? Who is it targeting? And why should the target audience care about its services?

Answering the three W’s will focus a sales pitch on what matters most: What the courier service does well, and how its services can benefit businesses and individuals that use it.

Too often business people making sales pitches get bogged down in details that aren’t relevant to their clients.

There will be many logistical questions to agonize over while setting up a new courier service, but many of them simply won’t be relevant to the clients.

They want to be told, in as direct and simple a manner as possible, why they will benefit from this new service. Focus the sales pitch on that point, and it will succeed.

Once the owner of a new courier service has answered the three W’s, he or she should step back and reconsider the answers.

Just because all the questions are answered doesn’t mean the pitch is ready.

It’s important to re-think and re-write the sales pitch several times to distill it down to its essence.

In general, each time the sales pitch is written, it will get a little bit shorter and a little bit more focused.

Shorter and more direct sales pitches will be more effective, so rewriting is worth the extra effort.

Finally, the sales pitch should be tweaked to fit the different audiences that might hear it.

If it’s being delivered to client who has an unlimited budget and needs deliveries as fast as possible, the emphasis of the pitch should be on the courier service’s speed.

A smaller client that simply needs reliable deliveries done cheap won’t want to hear about speed.

They’ll be curious about pricing and guarantees.

Consider the clients, and be ready to deliver several different versions of the sales pitch.

However, when they do that, not all the results that come up will link to courier business websites.

Some will go instead to business directories, like Yelp and Google Places.

These directories provide customers with enormous amounts of information about local businesses, and they’re widely trusted.

Courier services that use them properly can generate lots of new business without ever spending a dime.

To begin using these online directories to promote a courier business, it’s first necessary to identify which ones list businesses in your area.

Some directories, like Yelp and Yellow Pages, operate nationwide. Others are specific to one state or city. A quick Google search will turn up the biggest and most widely read directories in your area.

Once these are found, courier operators should see which ones list their business.

Any that don’t are major liabilities, because all customers going to those websites to find “courier services” will be sent to other couriers!

To correct this problem, email the website to notify them of the oversight, and include in the email all the information about your courier service: address, phone number, rates, and so forth.

Some web directories even included automated forms that allow business owners to submit their business name and information immediately.

Even if the directories already include information on your courier service, it won’t necessarily be complete.

Many of these directories are automatically filled out with very basic information about all businesses in an area, but rely on business owners and customers to supply more specific information.

Either email the directories the full information about your courier service, or use their automated system to flesh out the information on your business. And be sure that all such directory pages link directly to your web site.

Double-check the information that’s already on the website. If a courier service’s phone number is listed wrong, or if the service is misclassified as another type of business, that could be costing it lots of customers.

Lastly, if the directory accepts customer reviews, make sure there are at least a few submitted.

If your courier service doesn’t have any reviews, ask regular customers to add one. It only takes a minute, but having lots of positive reviews makes a business look more established and more worthy of its customers’ trust. (And in the courier business, having the trust of customers is of the utmost importance.)

Whatever you do, don’t submit fake reviews. Many directories have software to detect fake reviews, and they’ll punish businesses that submit them by delisting them, or listing them less prominently.

Results will be far better if you simply ask customers to submit a brief review — and perhaps give them a discount on their next delivery in return.

The dynamics of phone conversations are different, and demand a more direct, more persuasive, and more compelling approach.

The tips below can help business people starting new courier businesses hone their phone pitches to be as effective as possible.

Eliminate distractions from the environment.

When pitching over the phone, it’s possible to call from a noisy room, with people and pets moving around and making sound, or with the TV on, or music playing in the background.

But those distractions will not only cut into the focus of the salesperson, the person on the other end of the phone will pick up on them too, and pay less attention to the sales pitch.

Don’t battle a crying baby or barking dog for the client’s attention.

Move to a quiet place where there won’t be any such distractions.

Introduce, then pause.

When calling to make a sales pitch, the salesperson should immediately identify who they are, but they shouldn’t launch right into their pitch.

Instead, give the person on the other end of the phone a chance to speak.

If they don’t have time to talk then, they’ll say so, and the salesperson can call back later.

If they don’t have the authority to speak with a salesperson, they’ll say that, and the salesperson can ask to speak to a manager.

Speaking to someone who doesn’t have the time to listen, or the power to make decisions, is a waste of time for everyone involved.

Just as importantly, letting the other person speak before beginning the sales pitch creates a rapport that will help close the deal.

In a normal conversation, there’s a back-and-forth between the speakers. Neither one dominates the conversation.

The closer the sales pitch is to a normal conversation, the more effective it will be.

Focus on tone of voice.

Over the phone, the potential customer can only judge the person they are speaking to by the tone of their voice.

If the salesperson speaks slowly and confidently, it will reassure the potential customer that they are speaking to someone who’s reliable.

Be brief and be assured.

When listening to a sales pitch over the phone, the potential customer is more likely to tune out than if they were speaking to the sales person face to face.

For that reason, it’s essential to keep the pitch as short and interesting as possible. It’s also critical to consider the phrasing of the pitch.

Don’t ask the person if they want to switch to a new courier service. Tell them they do want to switch, and explain why the new service is superior to their old one.

If business people pitching a new courier service follow these tips for phone pitches, they’ll soon see themselves closing a much higher percentage of their calls.

Leads are potential clients who may need your services either right now or down the road.

Leads are the life blood of every business, and no business can survive for long without a steady stream of leads.

So, when starting a delivery business or courier service, apart from all of the various business startup tasks you will have to perform, your main goal is to find and cultivate leads.

Nowadays, generating leads is all about the internet.

The days when businesses got their leads through phone book listings, newspaper advertisements, and spot ads in weekly circulars are long gone, with websites and social media replacing those outdated methods as the avenues of choice for businesses that need new leads.

The bad news is that many small courier businesses — and, in fact, small businesses in most sectors — do not take full advantage of the internet’s lead generating power. This costs them customers, and it hurts their bottom line.

But there’s good news, too. Although many small courier businesses don’t take advantage of the internet, there’s no reason they can’t start. And those who start now will reap the benefits of diminished competition on hyper-local websites.

So follow the tips outlined below, and your courier business’s online presence will become a lead-generating machine.

Step One: Get A Website

Far too many courier businesses haven’t even done this much.

Without a website, it is extremely hard for customers searching online for local courier businesses to learn about yours.

Although there are a few courier service directories, business owners shouldn’t rely on these to direct traffic to their courier service.

It’s better to create a dedicated website, and allow directories and search engines to link to that.

And once the website is created, potential customers who find it will read about your courier service and all its wonderful advantages, and they’ll become leads you can capitalize on.

Step Two: Optimize the website for search engines

People no longer have the patience to flip through phone books and find “courier services” listed on page 954.

Instead, they go directly to their computers and type “courier services in City X” into Google, Yahoo, or Bing, and they click on one of the first links to pop up. Your business should be one of those first links.

If it isn’t, many hot leads will be going to other businesses instead. There are countless guides online that explain how to optimize a website for search engines.

Find one and follow it. It can require a substantial time investment at first, but it will pay dividends for years to come.

Step Three: Link the website to directories

There are many important online directories that get tons of traffic and redirect visitors to local businesses.

Some of the most important are Yelp, Google Places, and YellowPages. These all allow business owners to submit their business if it’s not already included.

If it is, typically they allow business owners to fill out their page with more information, like opening and closing times, rates, fax numbers, and website addresses.

Make sure you have links in all directories, and that the information on the directories is complete and accurate. Soon enough, they’ll be sending torrents of new leads your way.

Lots of people won’t read the newspaper or watch the TV channel where the courier service is advertised, and if direct advertising is the only form of outreach the courier service is using, these people will be missed entirely.

So instead of relying exclusively on paid advertising, courier service operators should look into other creative ways of reaching new customers who may be hiding in plain sight.

And not only will these alternative outreach methods reach new customers, but they’re usually cheap or free, as well.

1) Start a blog.

Get a website if the courier service doesn’t already have one, and then put a blog on it. Update the blog frequently (several times a week, if not more) and don’t write only about the courier service.

Blog entries can cover business strategies, community events, and highlight non-competing businesses, and those are just a few of the possibilities.

What do courier service customers want or need to read about? Blog about that. They’ll come to read the blog, and stay to learn about the courier service.

2) Use Facebook and Twitter.

These are the biggest social networks of all, and when used effectively, they can quickly increase a courier service’s profile.

“Like” and retweet other businesses, and soon they’ll be doing the same for the courier service.

As a result, their fans and followers will come to know about the courier service, too.

3) Use reciprocal marketing.

Put up a bulletin board in the office, and use it to highlight other noncompeting businesses in the area.

In return, have them also put up a bulletin board that includes information about the courier service.

Focus on businesses that might share clients with a courier service.

A daycare probably won’t have lots of clients who need a courier service, but a print shop, a PR firm, or another firm that provides business solutions likely has lots of clients that could use a courier service.

4) Get more repeat business.

Increase the incentives for current customers to use the courier service more.

Offer them discounts when they use to service more frequently, or provide them freebies that will reward them for coming back again and again.

Businesses are quick to look for new customers, but they don’t spend nearly enough time increasing the business they receive from their current customers.

5) Start a link exchange.

Find a group of businesses in the area, and have them all link to each other’s websites.

Focus on exchanging links with businesses that share clients, but don’t compete directly with the courier service.

Expanding a courier business while keeping advertising costs low may seem like an impossible goal, but in fact there are numerous free or very cheap avenues through which creative courier service owners can get the word out about their businesses.

These methods harness new technologies and old-fashioned networking opportunities within the community, and when done right, they can be even more effective than directly buying advertising.

1) Start a referral program

Existing customers probably know of other businesses and individuals who have similar needs and could benefit from using a courier service as well.

Entice them to refer their friends and contacts by offering rebates and discounts for clients who send in new business.

Referral business is great, because the new clients come in having already been convinced by their friends and business partners that the courier service is a good value.

No sales pitch is necessary; people who come in from referrals are usually ready to sign right up. This saves time and increases revenue in a hurry.

2) Spread information.

Offer businesses and individuals—whether they use the courier service or not—some type of information that they need.

It could be a guide to quickly and safely transporting packages, or checklist on picking a good courier service, or a map of the community that courier drivers already use.

When people come to the courier service office (or its website) to get this information, they can also be pitched on the courier service itself, and some of them will become customers.

3) Make everyone a marketer.

If business is light, employees can use their extra time to contact potential new customers.

A simple phone call to introduce the courier service and the advantages of using couriers takes only a few minutes—but make enough of these phone calls, and there will suddenly be a lot more business coming through the door.

4) Comment on local blogs and forums.

Participation in these forums doesn’t have to be related to the courier service. Instead, entrepreneurs should discuss lots of other topics (though avoid touchy subjects that could turn people off from the business) and link their profiles and signatures to the courier service.

Everyone else who reads the blog or message board will then see the name of the courier service over and over.

That’s a lot of eyeballs, and the next time those readers need to send a package somewhere, they’ll call the courier service to do it for them — and the entrepreneur won’t have spent one cent on advertising.