Need Help With Freight Broker Sales Pitch

When I say fake it to you make it, I only mean when initially getting the customers. Once you get the customer honesty is 100 percent necessary, and without being honest you will lose your customer, and I do agree with you that the honesty issue has hurt the industry bad. When I said for him to fake it it until he makes it, I mean only on his initial calls and when he is first getting customers, because I own my own brokerage and I understand how hard it is to get customers, especially when your new. Never ever lie to your customer, always tell them everything straightforward, I just meant when trying to get them approved as a new customer you must act like you know everything and not fumble on your words. If my brokers lie they get fired, what I meant on my post was about getting new customers only, not setting up loads.

 

I missed understood you broker boo what you say is true. I tell my agents you must build your credibility every step of the way. You're the expert. You don't have to know everything about the freight business. Just make sure you know more than your customer. It's not what you know, it's what your customer thinks you know.

 

You get freight customers by solving their problems. Nearly every customer I have had over the last 25 years has come to me because they could not get good service. I am not a broker,but at times do match other shippers with good truckers. By doing this I help the customer solve a problem, and help my friends keep their wheels turning.Win, win, win.

 

Freight agents are not the experts. The drivers are the experts. Your thinking that the broker is smarter than the shipper tells me you probably believe he is smarter than the trucker. Not so. The broker needs the trucker more than the trucker needs the broker. A broker just simplifies the business aspect, but if no trucker, the agent has nothing to sell.
These desk jockeys might think they are the smartest cog in the wheel, but quite often they are the dumbest.

 

Once again the problem with fly by night brokers and carriers. I see you have been driving for 40 years so you might have been burned by some in the past. The problem is that most only pass on negative information when they find someone good they whant to keep it to themselves. I did in my 32 years of driving.

Read my post it's not what you know it's what the shipper thinks you know. I've built my business on the backs of carriers. Took me 4 months to find my first shipper but when I did had 30 carriers to choose from. Shippers never get a quote from me unless I've talked to the carrier first. That includes rail, ocean, LTL or FTL. If you have read any of my other post you will see that I agree with you the broker needs the trucker and my job is only to simplify the process while making some profit in the process. Nothing wrong with us both making money if it's done right.

 

I'm just starting out myself, I honestly think the first 500 phone calls will be the hardest. It's just learning from experience.

 

This is just my two cents but, speaking to the right people and persistence. We all know you have to have confidence and say the right stuff but it doesn't matter if you're not talking to the person who actually makes the deals.

it doesn't sound fun and it's not easy to start doing but persistance is a proven technique for sales. You don't have to be the used car salesman and call every day but I'd definitely revisit people that might have been somewhat interested or people that you felt a little connection with. Follow up with these people when the market changes and ask the question again about what lanes they're having trouble with. Their needs have most likely changed and you don't want them to forget you.

Another thing is common relations. For example, your company moves things for an auto manufacturer, you can call their parts suppliers and see if they need anything. Any large accounts, you can move down the line of smaller companies they're associated with

 

Do you remember when they tried the generic thing? White cans that just said "Beer", white boxes that said "Cereal"?

Well, as you know, that stuff didn't last long. They thought they could brand stuff by being generic. That's what you're doing if you use a free gmail account. I literally pay $14 a year for a domain and @mybusiness email.

PS.- nothing is free. Watch how those ads line up with your search's, email content, and such

 

If you want to be great at sales with shippers. Learn the difference between the decision makers. Purchasing is (inbound logistics), Transportation/Logistics managers/Shippers Outbound and Inbound logistics. Brokers of Raw materials(commodities) <--- **BLIND SHIPMENTS** protecting the supplier from knowing who the customer is and the customer from knowing who the supplier is. This is a very big pain for Commodity brokers sometimes because some Carriers might not be familiar with this process (but a lot are) but they have enough to focus on like the road so their attention can be inadvertently diverted. So by focusing on this sales procedure you can ensure great repeat business if you apply very great diligence.