Safety is Good Business Do You Have A Marketing Plan?

Forget Your Title – You Are Not Just a Safety Director You may not realize it but your job is more marketing than safety In order for your programs to be effective you have to “sell” them to your organization

The Safety Dept. is a Business Businesses are in business to make money Safety Dept. should be a profit generating center – you generate profits, by protecting the money the company makes To “protect profits” you must find ways to reduce expenses related to operations

Develop a Business Plan Good businesses have a business plan To build this plan you must answer some questions and gather some data

Question #1 What products/services does the safety dept. provide? –Driver screening/hiring, training, compliance, internal audits, accident investigation/analysis, accident and injury prevention and reduction, etc. Put some thought into it and see what else you can come up with

Know What Your Services Cost After making a list of services, you need to know what it costs to perform them Things to include: –Time cost, personnel wages, materials, etc. Must know these costs to do cost vs. benefit analysis later

How Do I Protect Profits? Cost vs. Benefit When you save more money by providing your service than what it cost to provide the service For example, if it costs you $5,000 to hire a driver. If you can reduce driver turnover, and hire 10 fewer drivers this year you will save the company $50,000 over last year!

Gather Your Data Gross revenue per year Gross expenses per year Annual fleet mileage Profit Margin Gross revenue per truck and per mile Expenses per truck and per mile Miles per truck Mileage for various common trips Average driver gross pay Average driver pay per mile Driver turnover rate Down time cost per day and/or hour

Gather Your Data Accident Costs – annual, per truck, per mile On-road repair costs Insurance premiums – total and per truck Vehicle maintenance – total and per truck Driver hiring Employee benefits Average #losses per truck, per driver Any other data available

Question #2 Who Are Your Customers? –Drivers, operations, dispatch, maintenance, upper management, sales, accounting, your insurance company, shippers, receivers, DOT inspectors, other government agencies, etc. –Again try to think of as many as possible

Do You Speak Their Language? Think about who you will be speaking to –Dispatch, sales, upper management, maintenance, etc. What language do they speak? –Everyone has their own hot button –Money, loads, down time, labor hours, etc. Use the data you gathered to show them in a way they understand

What do These Customers Want? Think about what these people need or want –Better drivers, less down time, compliance with the regulations, more money in the bottom line, etc. How can you satisfy this want or need? How can you get them to “buy” your service to give them what they want?

Think About Why People Buy Anything What motivated you to make your last few purchases? –Fear, comfort, benefit, improved self image, etc. Now think about how you will market your services to get others to buy into it – if you were shopping for safety why would you buy?

Does Selling Fear Work? The answer is – maybe temporarily If you try to scare people into being safe or complying with the rules – what happens when the bad thing you promised doesn’t happen? For example, You say, “If the DOT came in and saw us doing things like this they would shut us down”…next month you get an audit and pass with a Satisfactory rating. Now what happens?

What is the Best Sales Approach? Make them feel “smart” for buying from you Show them how the benefits far outweigh the costs Make them feel like they would be crazy not to buy

Good Places to Start Track everything! –Driver quality – age, # moving violation, # of accidents, driving experience, experience with company, etc. –Accident information –Road-side inspection data – out of services, vehicle defects, warnings, etc. Then look for connections and trends

Example of Findings Your data shows that drivers hired with more than 3 moving violations have twice as many accidents as drivers with 3 or less violations Lane change accidents account for 45% of your accidents How can you use this information to sell safety to the company?

Make Them Feel Smart Show them the costs in terms that they understand –Dollars, # of loads, down time hours, etc. Show them your goal - for example, a 15% decrease in # of sideswipe accidents, etc. Show them your plan to reach the goal and what it will cost SHOW THEM THE BENEFIT