3PL Perspectives
TIA EDUCATION HAS always centered around the idea of helping support our membership to grow their businesses and thrive within a competitive marketplace. As TIA Education has grown over the past few years, the focus has always been the same: provide up-to-date resources. As part of those resources, we have received feedback that often members enjoyed and appreciated TIA education resources, yet they never knew what was next for them on their professional development journey.
TIA has developed Education Pathways to help streamline this process for all members moving forward. These pathways were designed to show you where you currently fall in our education course structure, and what courses would be next on your education ladder if you choose to continue your professional development using TIA education resources.
Here are just a few examples of TIA’s current education pathways:
Intro Pathway: Break into the Industry
As you can see from the title, these courses are introductory courses for 3PL professionals who are new to the industry. Bolstered by TIA’s New Broker Course and New Broker Success Package, the content in this pathway has been designed and rigorously reviewed by TIA committee volunteers to ensure that every student who purchases these courses has a solid baseline to work from moving forward.
The New Broker Success Package is an example of a holistic training program that TIA offers. When a student purchases the New Broker Success Package, they are receiving much more than education—they are receiving membership through the association which gives them access to a myriad of resources in the Member Resource Library, contracts and frameworks, live coaching, and support from TIA staff while participants embark on their journey to establish a freight brokerage. Students receive immediate access to the New Broker Course, and upon completion are enrolled in live coaching with our slate of industry professionals.
Over the course of 16 weeks, students dive deeper into the topics they covered during their time in the New Broker Course, which deepens the learning curve for them and provides them opportunities to ask questions, and more importantly, receive answers on issues that are relevant to them as they grow their business. The Intro Pathway seeks to do just that—provide new entrants into the industry the information and support they need to be successful.
Modes Pathway: Find Your Niche
TIA believes that learning more about the lanes you currently run in, as well as finding ways to expand your business into emerging lanes of interest is of the utmost importance to growing brokerages. The Modes Pathway was designed with that in mind—to help existing members dive deeper into subject matter they want to learn more about or get the basics on how a new lane may operate, so that they can make informed decisions on whether to expand their businesses.
By offering four lane-specific courses, TIA helps members become experts in their current lanes and open new doors to different areas of the transportation market.
One course where members have been seeing great returns on their investment is the Intermodal Bundle. Designed by industry experts in the intermodal space, this course is updated throughout the year by TIA Intermodal and Education committees to ensure the most up-to-date information is being offered, and that students have what they need to be successful in this lane. By purchasing the bundle package, you receive immediate access to both the introductory and advanced courses—12 modules and 20 hours of content—that provide students with a complete picture of how intermodal works.
Growth Pathway: Become More Knowledgeable
An area of focus and expansion in 2022 is TIA’s Growth Pathway— designed for 3PL professionals who have 2+ years of experience in the industry and for emerging leaders who are looking to diversify their understanding of how 3PL businesses work. Much of the feedback we have received is that this is an area of opportunity where TIA has only scratched the surface of what could be offered in this space. By reaching out to industry professionals and university professors to design courses in Management, Marketing, and Sales, TIA is offering cutting-edge educational content to our membership.
Two examples are the 3PL Management Accelerator Program and Partnership Selling in the Supply Chain.
3PL Management Accelerator Program: This course was designed to give emerging leaders the soft skills they may be lacking as they move up through the management ranks of their companies. By focusing on how to develop better leaders through improved customer and carrier relationships, and how to manage your professional presence through effective communication, time management, emotional intelligence, and more, this course will help you take your management skills to the next level.
Partnership Selling in The Supply Chain: Content for this course was designed by the industry-renowned expert Jim Kenny, Ph.D., to help address the unique characteristics of selling within the 3PL industry. By focusing on how you and your sales team can build long-term partnering relationships, plan and make effective sales calls, and understanding the buying behavior and process of your customers, the Partnership Selling course will help you and your team increase your closing percentages by overcoming common objections.
Expert Pathway: Become the Best
The Expert Pathway is TIA’s most well-known pathway due to its inclusion of the Certified Transportation Broker (CTB) program. Many of our members know that the CTB designation helps to set them apart from their competitors by demonstrating a deeper knowledge of the industry. A less well-known and new program that TIA has launched in the past year is the TIA Leadership Academy.
The TIA Leadership Academy was developed by TIA staff and experts within TIA membership in specific areas to help those who have been identified as the next generation of up-and-coming leaders receive a well-rounded understanding of the following content areas:
- Sales & Marketing
- Financial Management
- Legal Management
- HR Management
- Operations Management
- 3PL Leadership
This executive MBA-style program has been developed with multiple universities that lead the nation in supply chain management. By limiting the in-person cohort size to 15 students, those who are accepted into the program receive a one-of-a-kind learning experience that leans heavily on the instructors’ industry knowledge, as well as leveraging the knowledge of peers within the cohort to maximize your learning throughout the five-month course.
As you can see, TIA excels in offering industry-leading courses that meet your needs regardless of where you are at in your current 3PL career.
Be sure to reach out to the TIA Education department if you have any questions by emailing us at [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you and helping you and your companies continue your development using TIA educational resources.
