Freight Brokerage Business. The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.
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or operator “Can you give me the name and title of the person in charge of choosing carriers for your outbound shipments?”
It is important to ask for the name and the title before you ask to be connected with that individual. Of course, sometimes operators will transfer your call, but when they don’t, you begin the conversation with the advantage of knowing whom you’re talking to and the ability to call that person by name.
Once you’re on the phone with that person, confirm that you are indeed talking to the decision-maker. The receptionist may have referred you to the shipping clerk, who fills out the freight bills, calls carriers, and handles some tracing functions—but who does not actually make the decisions. Don’t be shy about asking this question. Most companies these days operate “lean and mean,” and workers don’t have time to listen to a sales presentation they don’t have the authority to act on.
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Instead of playing voicemail tag, you may find it beneficial to ask for a prospect’s email address and then send that person a short, personalized, and well-written introductory email message. After an initial in-person sales meeting, you can use email to follow up.
Remember, you need to identify the real decision maker (and keep in mind that there may be more than one in many companies), but don’t ignore the decision influencers. As the name indicates, these are the people who are in a position to influence the decision-making process. They could be telephone operators, receptionists, administrative workers, shipping and receiving clerks—even high-ranking corporate officers.
Think about this: Say you and another broker are competing for a major piece of business from a particular company. The plant manager is making the decision, and his goal is to find someone who can work well with his shipping clerk so he can delegate the details and focus on other things.
You and the other broker are offering very similar rate and service packages, but the other broker took the time to talk with the shipping clerk, maybe even took him to lunch, and established a relationship you don’t have. With all else being nearly equal, if the plant manager asks the shipping clerk for input in the decision, who do you think he’s going to recommend?
This doesn’t mean you need to wine and dine every shipping clerk at every company you deal with or that you need to send all the receptionists’ flowers and candy every week. What it means is that you respect their roles in the process and you communicate with them to find out what they need and how you can best meet those needs.
Once you’ve confirmed that a business has freight you can handle and you know who makes the routing decisions, you need to find out what they need before you begin telling them what you can do. It’s a waste of their time and yours for you to do this any other way.
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Before your first sales calls, do some research on the companies so you know how to approach them. Find out what they do, what they ship, and who the decision-makers are. Are they senior executives looking to improve service and save money or a traffic manager who will see you as a threat? “If you go in the wrong way, you’re dead in the water,” says Indianapolis-based freight broker Chuck Andrews.
For example, why bother to spend time telling them about the wide variety of equipment you can provide, only to find out 20 minutes later that they only need standard trailers? Besides wasting time, that sends a clear message that you’re far more interested in making the sale than you are in your customer. Before making a sales call, get to know as much about a prospect and their needs as possible. You can often learn a lot by visiting a prospect’s website, for example.
So how do you find out what a prospective customer needs? Simple: Just ask or do some online research. Say something like “Before I tell you about our services, I’d like to ask you a few questions to find out exactly what you need. Can you tell me about your outbound freight?” Most of the time, you’ll get more information than you need. Have a notebook handy and take notes while your customer talks; don’t count on being able to accurately remember all the details of weights, commodities, and destinations. Most importantly, never say “no” to a customer. When they need something you can’t provide, offer them an alternative instead.
When a customer (or a prospect) asks you a question about your capabilities, try to determine what’s behind the question before you answer it. This lets you answer in the most positive and appropriate way possible.
Consider this scenario: You are in Charleston, South Carolina, making a presentation to the traffic manager at a midsize manufacturing firm. She asks “Do you work with any carriers that go to Des Moines, Iowa?” The short—and honest—answer is that you do not. So rather than lie, you simply say “No, I’m sorry.” And you’ve lost every ounce of sales momentum you’ve built to that point.
But suppose you respond to her question with a question of your own. You might say “Why do you ask?” or “Do you have shipments going to Des Moines?” If she says the reason for her question is that she ships a truckload a week to Des Moines, you can ask more questions about the move and her needs and offer to get back to her after you’ve had a chance to find a carrier with a more competitive rate and service package than she has now.
But if she says “No, we don’t ship out there, but one of our senior managers just left us to take a job with a company there, so I was just thinking about that city,” you can avoid a flat “no” answer and instead emphasize your flexibility and willingness to shop until you find what your customers want.
This is a technique you can apply to just about any situation and relationship. Suppose your spouse says “Are you hungry?” If you just say “yes,” you might find yourself presented with a gourmet home-cooked meal—or being dragged out the door to a restaurant you didn’t really want to go to. It’s always better to know what’s behind the question before you answer.
If you’ve ever taken a basic sales course, you’ve probably heard “sell the sizzle, not the steak.” What that means is you need to understand the difference between features and benefits—and focus on the benefits.
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Turn maintaining current customer records into a sales opportunity for your business. Call every customer at least once a year, and say something like “We’re checking our records for accuracy and completeness.” Go through the information you have and then say, “Do you have any needs we haven’t discussed that we might be able to help you with?”
A feature is an aspect of the service you provide; the benefit is what the customer gains from that aspect. For example, the fact that you will call the shipper with delivery notification within two hours of the freight being unloaded is a feature. That the shipper has the peace of mind of knowing that the freight has been delivered on time and in good condition is a benefit. That you have access to thousands of carriers is a feature. That by using your firm, your customers are assured of getting the equipment they need when they need it is a benefit.
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