How to get contracts/shippers

I wonder about your sanity how you ended up with a fleet of trucks and asking such a silly question as to how to get leads for them.

Maybe you should try another industry. Go buy a big bull dozer and ask some construction people where to get started building roads.

Or maybe buy an Alaskan crab boat and ask some fishermen where they fish at and how does one manage a boat.

 

Thanks man! This was a big help!

 

At least he started a trucking company rather than opening a restaurant. Never go full retard.

 

Does anybody have any success stories since the beginning of this thread? I would love to hear them!

 

There are loads of successful small trucking companies. It just requires that you know what you're doing and have enough money to fund the minimum viable business you're trying to start.

 

Most definitely! I was specifically talking about the guys that were trying to secure contracts/dedicated freight for the first time that started this discussion.

 

Now that they've actually done it or tried to do it they don't want to share lol. Turns out sales work is real work. I really wish I could be a fly on the wall when some trucking company owner who hates freight brokers has a light bulb moment about that.

Making cold calls is seriously the most soul sucking activity imaginable. I'm convinced it's incredibly toxic to creatures as social as humans. And unfortunately anyone who has any level of sales talent cannot be immune to the toxicity. IDGAF what people think of me guy sucks at sales unfortunately. Most super successful salespeople have found some edge that they are using to have more success and have to eat less rejection. It's truly a horrible experience until you find out what that edge is.

Seriously hating sales is 99% of the reason I move produce for a living. There are other brokers out there who are making WAY more money than I am because they pair my level of operations with a really good customer to make absurd amounts. I should be looking for that customer until I find them. Instead I'm sitting here typing on a message board instead of doing work that would actually get me paid.

EDIT: I actually think that truckers and salespeople have a lot in common on this actually. You know that feeling you got when someone told you that no you could have what you wanted? You know that feeling you had when you asked a girl/boy out and he/she/it said no? Or worse laughed in your face and said hell no? Salespeople go through that every day for money.

You know that horrible feeling you get when you haven't seen a single human being who loved or cared about you in the slightest in like three days? A week? A month? Truck drivers deal with that loneliness every day for money.

Shockingly they are two of the best jobs you can get without a college degree. And all they require is that you be able to stand them. You don't even have to be the best or anything. Although if you can stand this and be the best you're in for a hell of a ride in either field.

 

Yea that is my biggest fear about the whole thing. I am such a people person and i have to prepare myself for the cold rejection i am set to face in a couple of months. Thats what i wish too, that i could be a fly on the wall and see how conversations like that go before i just wake up one morning and dive off the deep end!

 

The best way to go at it is to just tear the bandaid off and go. One nice thing about cold calling is that at least initially there are no real consequences for screwing up. It won't go well at first because you'll have no idea what you're doing. Slowly, over time, you'll start to get better at it and your pitch will get more and more organic.

I'd actually strongly recommend against reading any books about sales at all. I think that they funnel most people into the same types of selling as everyone else is doing, and that's not as effective as simply being yourself and trying to sell. Authenticity is impossible to fake. The lack of fakery is why brand new salespeople often do really well... Until they learn enough to start to screw it up by being 'smart'.

 

can you help me to find the shippers