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Contract logistics providers · Sales strategy

Choose the industries, sites and bids to chase, and the ones to turn down.

A sales strategy for a contract logistics provider decides which industries and corridors to sell into, which services to lead with, and which bids to refuse because the site, the term or the payment cannot carry the cost. GullySales works it out with your directors from your own contracts, site occupancy and lost bids.

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Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.

A logistics manager and client review a warehouse dispatch

What sales strategy means

Sales strategy is deciding which customers to chase, through which channel and at what price, instead of every salesperson working their own way. GullySales sets this plan against your actual pipeline and the deals you have won and lost so far.

Also for contract logistics providers

Sales and marketing for contract logistics providers, the overview.

Last updated 6 Oct 2026.

For contract logistics providers

Where it usually goes wrong, and what we would do.

  • “Everything gets bid, so nothing is won on strength”

    Every RFQ gets an answer, operations is stretched across ten bids and the ones that suit you get the same attention as the ones that do not.

  • “Empty racking is the real sales target”

    A site with free space and a team in place costs the same to run as a full one. Sales does not see occupancy, so it chases new places instead of filling its own.

  • “One large client carries the company”

    A single contract is most of the revenue, and its renewal date is the most important date in the diary. Nobody has a plan for what comes after.

What we do

What we deliver for contract logistics providers.

Every deliverable, what it covers for you, and the result it is there to produce. Nothing here is an extra.

  1. A target list by industry and corridor

    Built from where your sites are, the industries you already run well and the plants within reach of each.

    Result: Outreach goes where you can serve, not where a list was bought.

  2. A bid and no-bid rule

    A written test on site fit, term, payment days, liability and who it would compete with, agreed by directors and applied to each RFQ.

    Result: The decision stops depending on who is in the room.

  3. A service lead for each industry

    Which service to open with for each industry, drawn from your own margins and your site's real strengths.

    Result: Each buyer hears about what you do best for their kind of goods.

  4. An occupancy-linked selling plan

    Free space and spare manning at each site, with the buyers most likely to need it.

    Result: Existing sites fill before new ones are opened.

  5. An account plan for each large client

    Contacts at each plant, contract dates, the services not yet sold and the person who owns the relationship.

    Result: Expansion is planned, not left to chance.

  6. A stop list

    The kinds of work, regions and buyers you will no longer chase, with the reason recorded.

    Result: Effort stops going to work that costs you more than it earns.

How the result is measured

  • Win rate
  • Average deal size
  • Pipeline coverage against target

Recorded as a baseline before work starts, so every later report has an honest comparison.

Read the full sales strategy and consulting page

Choices a sales strategy makes

Settle these choices about industries, sites and bids from your own contracts and occupancy records.

Which industry to sell into first
List current clients by industry and mark which have the best renewals, the cleanest payments and the fewest disputes. Chase more of that type before a new one.
Which service to lead with
Compare dedicated warehousing, in-plant work and transport on your own contract margins. Open conversations with the service that earns, not the one with the most pallets.
How a sale moves from RFI to contract
Write the steps, the owner of each and the point where operations and finance must sign. A step with no owner is where bids stall.
Which corridors you can cover
Mark the plants within reach of each site and the supervisors available to run them. Do not bid for a plant you cannot staff on the first day.
What to say no to
Decline an RFQ when the term is too short to recover set-up costs, payment days are too long or liability is uncapped. Log each refusal and the reason.
What to stop
Drop work that ties up supervisors for little margin, unless it leads to a larger contract you are actively pursuing.

Who it is for

This is written for these contract logistics providers.

  • Dedicated warehousing for manufacturers
  • In-plant and line-side logistics for auto and engineering plants
  • Inbound milk-run and supplier pickup operators
  • FMCG and consumer durables distribution centres
  • Pharma and healthcare 3PLs with temperature-controlled storage
  • Retail and ecommerce replenishment operators
  • Spare parts and aftermarket logistics
  • Reverse logistics and returns processing

Not for

It is not the right fit if.

  • You bid on every invitation and accept the cost, with no wish to set a no-bid rule.
  • You have a single large client and no capacity to serve another.
  • The owners will not agree which industries to pursue, so a plan would sit on a shelf.

How it works

How the sales strategy work runs

The work itself, in order. How an engagement starts, from your brief to a written scope, is set out on our method page.

  1. 1

    Agree the question

    We read your requirements brief and fix the decision the strategy has to answer, so the review does not drift.

  2. 2

    Read your records

    We go through sales data, quotations, lost deals and enquiry sources, and talk to the people who sell and the people who deliver.

  3. 3

    Test the findings in the market

    Segments, channels and competitors are checked against buyers outside your current customer list, including a few conversations with buyers and with those who did not buy.

  4. 4

    Draft the direction with you

    Choices are put to the owner and sales leaders before they are written up, because they hold the knowledge and have to carry it out.

  5. 5

    Write, present and hand over

    The strategy and roadmap are written, presented with the reasoning, and left with a named owner for each first action.

Where this fits

Three pieces of sales work, in this order.

This work sits inside sales process design, at stage 1, prospecting and lead generation. The audit comes before it, and sales management keeps it running.

  1. Step 1

    Sales audit

    Find where deals are being lost and what to fix first.

    Start here if you cannot say where orders are lost.

  2. Step 2 · you are here

    Sales process design

    One written way to sell, from first enquiry to repeat order.

    Start here if every salesperson sells differently.

  3. Step 3

    Sales management

    A target, a review routine and someone who owns the number.

    Start here if the team has targets and no routine.

Tell us what you need Your brief is read before we call. Scope, fee and term in writing.

FAQ

Questions owners ask before they call.

Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.

Tell us what you need
Our MD wins every contract. When should that change?
When bids wait because the MD is travelling, or when no one else can hold a client relationship. Hand renewals and day-to-day account contact to account managers first, and keep the MD on new senior-level introductions where that seniority counts.
Should we open a site before we have a client for it?
That is a decision for your directors and your finance people. From the sales side, a site opened with no anchor client turns into a hunt for any client. Many providers wait for a signed anchor, or open with a client already in the pipeline.
When should we revisit the plan?
After each major award or loss, and before you commit to new space. Read what the last few bids say about where you win and where you do not. A plan that only gets looked at at year-end has usually been overtaken.
When do we hire a business development person?
When you can name the industries, the corridors and the list the MD will work, and operations can serve what the MD wins. Without that list, the MD chases every consultant's invitation and the team stops trusting the pipeline.
How much does it cost?
There is no price list, because the work differs by business. The fee is scoped after we have read your brief and spoken to you, and put in writing before anything starts, split into our time, your media spend and production.
How soon will we see results?
It depends on the trade, the channel and what is already in place. After we have read your brief and spoken to you, we say what we would expect to move first and how it will be measured against the baseline. Nothing here is guaranteed.
Who will actually do the work?
The person you speak to before anything starts. We work from one office in Nagarbhavi, Bengaluru, with no account managers in between.
What do you need from us?
Your brief, and a conversation. After that, access to whatever this work touches, such as your website, your accounts or your enquiry record, and time with the people who handle your enquiries.
What if we are not happy with the work?
Tell us and the plan changes. Everything is reported against the baseline, so a number that is not moving is visible to both sides. The term is in your written scope, and the refund and cancellation policy sets out the rest.

From the blog

Further reading for contract logistics providers.

All articles

More for contract logistics providers

Everything else we would do for you.

Closest to this: sales craft

Also for contract logistics providers

Or start from the overview: sales and marketing for contract logistics providers.

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