Phone skills

I cant stand when they ask me a price first they know what they can move it for give me a number, im always going to go high first, Its not like telling a customer let me see how cheap we can move it for and ill call you with a price first thing i do is give a price and say aleast this but it could be more let me work on it and ill call you back

Alot of brokers bid on jobs today and youll call on a load 5min later what can you do it for X_______and they say ill know by 2pm if i have it "What you dont have this load" hang up next caller is someone else with that same load trying to get a cheap price ive seen this happen alot and one broker will offer that load at over a $1,000 more

I have a truck doing a load to the port right now the dock slip showed shipping is already paid and its $1,700 more than im getting but its paying me $3/mi on a 400 mile run so i can care less what they made i even told the broker wow thats a good customer he said they have a shipping buget and was told by the end of the year if they didnt use it it wouldnt be as much money next year so there spending all that money!!!

 

In response to whomever commented about posting oneself and still getting lowball offers, that happens to me as well, over and over again. Am I insulted? Absolutely not. They make the most money when they successfully move freight at the lowest possible rate. I make money when I successfully move freight at the highest possible rate. Its business. Does not mean one has to haul it and many more times than I can count (when I continue with professionalism) they call back. Sometimes every 5 minutes upping the ante. Were I to have taken offense to their low offer would they call back?

Taking anything personally in this industry is foolish. Taking anything personally on this forum is foolish.

So many folks in this industry fail to look beyond the end of the hood. Its much more important to sit back and say to oneself, "How could I have done that differently?" than it is to point fingers at the broker, shipper, receiver, mega carriers when offered a low rate. So few individuals have the desire or ability to look inside themselves and realize that the biggest issue facing them can be spotted only in the mirror.

Jay

 

Going to try it tomorrow with one of my regular Brokers He has a great sense of humor!

 

You're paying WHAT to go to Boston? Hmm.. that'll pay my fuel, but I'm going to need an extra $100 to cover those NJTP and GWB tolls, and I might want to grab a McDouble for lunch too.

 

A small guy I was leased to years ago used to ask "Can I turn you upside down and shake an extra $100 out of you"?

 

Always talk with a smile.

They can hear it across the phone.

 

You literally have no idea... I sometimes wonder about people's common sense and intelligence by the way they talk on the phone. I picture them wearing sweat pants, a four day old stained t-shirt, and sandals as they talk to me about a rate while eating a Big Mac covered in sauce and let most of it drip down their chin.

Look, this is a business. I'm in it to make money to provide for my family and 9 other families... but I'm not greedy and I'm not out here to expect you to work for free either. I'll tell you this much though. If you call and are curt or don't even attempt to negotiate a rate or haggle, I'm not going to waste my time on you because you show no interest in doing business. Saying something like, "That's an okay rate, but I really need x to be able to take it right now." You may not get x if I don't have it, but if I do, you may get it or something close to it. On the contrary, if you get pissed off because I didn't give you $2-3/mile out of the gate and act like a 12 year old, I'm going to say, "thanks for calling, have a great day" and hang up the phone. I run a business. I don't have time to listen to you throw a temper tantrum.

Precisely! Not every one of our loads pays $3 a mile. We have customers that have lanes that don't pay the best, but we work to move those lanes as well as the others because if we can move those, who do you think they'll call first for the best paying loads? It works the same with us. You help us out in a pinch, we'll be the first to call you with the great paying loads. It's teamwork and business.

This has got to be one of the most well articulated posts I've seen here at TTR... outside of Bill's rambling. It was so good I had to put the entire quote in bold so maybe, just maybe, some of these supertruckers who frequent this forum will read it and take it all in. Jay, thanks for having a professional attitude. It goes so much farther when I'm speaking with someone on the other end of the phone that's professional. I'm more likely to go out of my way for someone who's polite, courteous, and who I know I can trust to do a good job versus some jack wagon who uses foul language and who I fear shows up to my customers in the "uniform" I described above. Is it really asking too much for you to show up in jeans, some sort of shirt with a collar, shoes/boots and be clean? I understand if you couldn't get a shower in due to time constraints but take pride in what you do!