Help! New to freight brokerage

I am an owner operator who also just got my broker license. I've been working for about 3 months and make about $1000 / week on average moving freight as a broker which is nice to supplement my income since its not full time yet. This is my advice to you

1. Do your sales intelligence before that first of call. Find out what the company ships what their commodity is and who the shipping manager is.
2. Try to send him a connection request with a message on LinkedIn. This gives him and idea who you are he gets to put a face to the name and it gives you another touchpoint.
3. Remember that the hardest part is to get their attention and you're also not trying to make a sell on the first call don't ever beg for Freight. Don't SOUND like salesman they HATE that! Get to know them and what their problems are
4. Always ask for a follow up call regardless of how the call is going and ALWAYS ask for a specific date and time. If the customer responds I have some free time next week just call me then you respond back okay what day next week will you have the most free time and what time of the day works best for you in terms of your schedule? This is where a lot of sales people fail. ASK FOR AN APPOINTMENT
5. Remember that objections are not rejections but requests for more information. "I don't work with freight brokers" it's my absolute favorite objection. If you can work around these then you have the potential to set up a great Customer because if he's telling all Brokers this it means that you are going to be one of the few he works with you can break through to him. If any customer ever tells you they don't work with Brokers they are lying 99% of the time.
6. Be persistent and reliable, never think your bring annoying when he doesn't respond to your email and ignored your call the next day and you send another email 2 days later after that. Stay on top of it. 8 had customers now that didn't get back to me for up to a month. But eventually bad things happen and when they do just got an email from you the day before talking about how you can solve their problems such as late deliveries and they have a late delivery you will be the first person they think of
7. Get a good CRM

Good luck to you and I can't wait to hear about your first success. Feel free to message me if you want to share any thoughts or ideas and progress. I'm always open to being in touch with other freight brokers to learn from them as much as they can learn from me

 

Best reply I have seen. The only thing I can add is to have a clear concise plan of action that can be monitored and measured for success. A great deal of the work is in repeating the same task over and over for weeks. The success builds over time. While that first shipper seems elusive if you work the plan eventually the flood gates will open and the work will flow. Trust in the process and allow the law of averages to work in your favor.

 

Hello Everyone,

I Hope that I can get some advice. I am a new freight broker but I did not come into this industry blindly. I took a freight brokering course and gained a fair amount of knowledge, but as we all know everything looks easier when your being taught by a professional then actually going out there and getting it done your self. Its been 2 months and I moved 3 loads. these loads have all been machines like Caterpillars and John Deere and the the shippers I deal with dont give exact measurements. This has been annoying because I feel like I am forced to to search for these measurement's. Should I Waste my time and look for these measurements? Is this something the shipper should be providing me with? should I as a freight broker focus on a different type of shipment? also are there types of preferred shipments that brokers like dealing with more then others?

I do appreciate any advice and welcome feedback I am trying to better myself and my business and would like to hear what other brokers think.

Thank you and all the best,
Jonathan

 

Big oof, dude. Are you working for yourself, or someone else?

If you're going to be moving equipment, you need to familiarize yourself with it, before you even bid it, and then familiarize yourself with the carriers' processes in order to actually haul the equipment. So yes, even if your customer doesn't provide you with anything more than make and model, you absolutely need to be looking into the specs. If you go off gut judgement, you're gonna be in for a bad time.

 

How will you relay the dimensions to the truck, if you don't know the dimensions?? This leads to TONU, rescheduled trucks, and pissed off... everybody.

 

Can I get some advise and how this brokerage work. I promise I want to change the game. Pay drivers more and get rid of greedy brokers info please thanks