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Prospecting And Sales Calls

There is a love/hate relationship when it comes to a freight broker obtaining a new customer. They love getting the new customer but hate the process for doing so. Unfortunately, all freight brokers know that to get a customer they must prospect and make the sales call.

When we speak of prospecting we’re referring to finding potential customers to contact in hopes of them choosing to use your service. The contact would be the actual sales call. What most brokers hate about prospecting and sales calls is that it’s monotonous. I’ll be the first to agree, but I’ll also be the first to tell you that if you don’t, you’ll never have real success as a freight broker.

A freight broker is first and foremost a salesperson. That’s why a good freight broker is paid well. Standard commission for a freight broker agent is 60%. Regardless of the company, product, or service, you’ll find that salespeople are normally paid well. Why is this? The simple answer is because not everyone can do it. The real answer is that not everyone will do what it takes to be successful.

I’ve heard many say that they’re not a natural born salesperson. The fact is everyone is a natural born salesperson. You’ve been selling your entire life. Selling yourself in a job interview, selling the idea of him or her going out with you, selling what you wanted for your birthday or Christmas. Get the idea?

What you must learn to be a successful salesperson is the process. Prospecting and sales calls are part of this process. You have to start thinking and working like a professional salesperson. As you start thinking and working like a professional salesperson, things will start to happen.

A professional salesperson is disciplined. They know that if they don’t make a sale they don’t make the money. To have the opportunity to make a sale they must have someone to sell too. This is prospecting. You can’t have too many prospects.

A professional salesperson knows that they must make the sales call. If they don’t, again they can’t make the money. A professional salesperson doesn’t care about rejection, they don’t care how many no’s they get. They are focused on obtaining a yes!

Professional salespeople understand that they also earn money from people telling them no. It’s part of their job to hear people say no. But how can one make money when they were told no during the sales call?

Well, let’s say that a salesperson made 10 sales calls today, they were told no nine times and yes once. Over the course of the year that one yes earned the salesperson an income of $10K. The professional salesperson would see it as making $1K per sales call. Even the no’s made the salesperson money.

A professional salesperson will keep good records. They can tell you how many sales calls they must make to get a yes. They can tell you how much money they’ll make, on average, from each sale. By knowing this information, a professional salesperson can know exactly what they must do to earn the money they wish to earn. They also know what must be done to add to their income. They have a process.

How does all of this play out for a freight broker? First, a freight broker must prospect and make sales calls, that’s a given. As a new broker doesn’t have customers or loads, they must make hundreds of sales calls.

The more calls the new broker makes the better they will become at making sales calls, at least they should. The better they become the more customers they’ll add to their customer base. The more customers the higher their daily load count. From this daily load count they’ll begin to collect the data needed to know which customers and loads are making them money as opposed to the ones that are not.

As a new freight broker begins to recognize the numbers and learns how to read them, they are able to zero in on how many sales calls they must make to obtain a customer, how many customers they must have to make X amount of money. Once they learn how to read the data from their past work, the more profitable their future work will become.

It’s not easy, if it was everyone would be doing it. But it’s being done every day. There are many freight broker agents that earn a six-digit income. It doesn’t happen overnight, it takes time and work. If you have questions, please feel free to call and speak to one of our consultants.

Thanks, talk soon…
TALTOA

How To Become A Freight Broker Or Freight Broker Agent

If you’ve been searching the internet attempting to learn how to become a freight broker or freight broker agent, well, this article is for you. First you need to know the difference between a freight broker and a freight broker agent. In a nutshell, a freight broker is the company and the freight broker agent is one contracted to the freight broker company to act as a freight broker for that company. Confused?

The term freight broker has to distinct definitions; the first is the freight broker as a company. To be a freight broker company you will need a license (also known as authority), a $75K property broker surety bond, BOC-3, and UCR. You’ll also want to be incorporated, have business insurance (contingent cargo, liability, errors & omission…). Side note, incorporate before filing for your license.

Once all of this is in place and active, you may now operate as a freight broker company. You have all the responsibility and liability. You’re going to broker freight, bill the shippers, pay the trucks, plus all of the other day-to-day administrative duties associated with being the freight broker company. Additionally, you are paying all the bills (software, load boards, credit check services…).

Let’s pile on some more here, you will need operating capital! Often you will be paying a truck that moved a load before you see a penny from a shipper for that same load. I know that some say you can factor your invoices and get money faster, but that is a no-no for a freight broker.

As a shipper depends on you to pay the truck, they expect you to be financially sound. A little-known fact is that should a broker fail to pay a carrier and the carrier can’t collect from the bond, a carrier does have possible recourse on the shipper.

If you factor your shippers invoice, your shipper will receive official notice from the factoring company. This notice will notify your shipper that you have chosen to factor their invoices. Therefore, any billing can only be between the factoring company and your shipper. This is basically telling the shipper that your brokerage is not financially sound and raises a red flag.

Besides scaring the bejeebers out of your shipper, the only benefit to the broker is receiving enough advance money to pay the truck, maybe. The net for the load brokered comes after the shipper pays the invoice. But, out of this net will be fees and any other charges the factoring company has imposed. You’re giving away the very profit you need to operate. DON’T FACTOR!

To be a freight broker agent, all one needs is to contract to an existing freight broker as an agent. This allows the freight broker agent to broker loads under the freight brokers license. The freight broker agent is an independent business that will earn money, just like the broker, from the nets of the loads moved. This commission is normally 60%. So, if the freight broker agent moved a load that had a $300 net, the agent would earn $180.

The benefits of working as a freight broker agent, especially for one just starting their career as a freight broker, are huge. A freight broker agent doesn’t have to worry about billing shippers, paying carriers, paying for software, or any of the other administrative costs associated with operating a freight broker company. A freight broker agent can focus on building their business and making money.

As the majority of freight broker agents work from home, the overhead added is minimal. A freight broker agent can expect their monthly expenses to be from $0 – $200. There aren’t many business that can be started for this low amount. All you need to work as a freight broker agent is computer (or other internet device), internet, and telephone. As you are reading this article, and assuming you have a telephone, you have the necessary equipment to work as a freight broker agent.

There’s another benefit for starting as a freight broker agent. After you’ve built your business, you can start your freight broker company and take your business with you. Your customers are your customers. The only exception is if you signed a contract stating otherwise, and you should never sign a contract that wouldn’t allow you to work your customers should you leave that brokerage. Brokers that have no-competes or restrict you from working your customers, you want no part of, and these are few.

Not only are you making money working as a freight broker agent, but you’ve also gained the experience needed for operating your freight brokerage and now meet all qualification requirements mandated in MAP-21 for obtaining your freight broker license.

We’ve had clients that had the goal of obtaining their freight broker license after building their business to have a change of heart once built. The main reason for the change of heart has been that they’re making great money without all of the headache. To each their own.

Hope this has helped to clear some things up for you if you’ve wanted to enter this industry. It’s a great business, can provide unlimited income, great growth potential, and more… if done right.

Thanks, and talk soon…

TALTOA

Building A Carrier Following

Working as a freight broker or freight broker agent means that you are your own business. With that comes the responsibility of ownership. This means taking care of situations as they develop.

These situations allow you, as a freight broker, to separate yourself from the pack. Your shipper will take notice and the carrier will notice. Shippers and carriers both want to work with a freight broker that they can rely on and trust to be there when needed.

As a freight broker, you know that you have a need to build your book of business. Find any classified ad for a freight broker seeking agents, and you’ll find that they require agents have a book of business. This book of business simply means having a customer/shipper base in place.

In addition to having a shipper base, you’ll want to also have a carrier following. A carrier following is trucking companies that will work with you on a regular basis. These carriers know that they can trust you, that you will be there for them on each and every load they move for you.

When you have a book of business and a carrier following, you will have greater success. But how does one develop a carrier following? One load at a time!

When a carrier agrees to move a load for a broker they’ve not worked with, they’ll often be cautious. They don’t know you, this is the first time they’ve worked with you, so there is the “unknown” factor at play. Remember, you get one chance to make a great first impression, so make it count.

How does a broker make a great first impression? First and foremost is to be 100% honest about the load. Don’t leave out any details. There shouldn’t be any surprises.

Everyone in transportation knows that sometimes “trucking happens”. When “trucking happens”, you need to be available. Don’t ignore the problem. Work with the carrier and shipper to get the problem resolved. Often, the problem can be fixed with a couple of calls. Ignore the problem and it will only get worse.

Make a great first impression on the first load, and that carrier will want to work with you again. Make a bad first impression, and that carrier will deadhead a thousand miles before taking any of your loads.

The same holds true for every load you move. You want to build trust with a carrier and keep it. This is how you build a carrier following. It starts with the first load and continues with every future load.

Thanks, and talk soon,

TALTOA

Be Successful Working From Home!

As most freight broker agents work from home, I felt it necessary that they be warned of the potential pitfalls before getting started. As a freight broker agent working from home, it’s easy to get side-tracked from doing what you should to be successful. Believe it or not, this side-tracking can begin as soon as you get out of bed.

It’s easy to put on the sweatpants, fix a pot of coffee, and stroll down the hall to your office area to fire up your computer. You may sit there for a bit, drinking coffee and perusing the internet while trying to get your day started. Before you know it an hour has gone by and now it’s time to start your work day, and you’re still in your sweats. I know, I’ve done it. We all have.

Although this is a benefit of working from home, this can be hindering your progress. It’s hard to feel and act professionally if you don’t feel professional. Feeling professional creates an attitude of being professional and can change not only your outlook for the day but the way you work. It can set a productive tone for the whole day.

A typical question we get is what hours a freight broker agent typically works. My usual answer is any hours you want, but keep in mind that this is your business and if you’re not working you have no chance of making money. As for what time a freight broker agent starts their day, this depends on what time your earliest shipper begins theirs. If I have a shipper that is at their desk at 6 A.M., So am I.

To work as a successful freight broker agent you have to treat it as a real job, the only difference, you are the boss. If you know you need to be at your desk at 6 A.M., then be showered, dressed, and ready to work at 6 A.M. By being ready, you will be.

Often freight broker agents that work from home have other distractions such as family and friends. Everyone needs to understand that although you are working from home, you are still at work. When I started, it took a while before my wife realized that I couldn’t just stop working to take care of her honey do. After several “I’ll take care of it after work,” and the dirty looks received upon saying it, she started to understand.

Working from home is an adjustment for everyone but more times than not, the biggest adjustment has to come from the one working at home. Treat it like a real job, stay at your desk, put in a full day’s work and your chance of success will greatly increase.

Talk Soon,

TALTOA

How To Find Your Own Shippers!

If you’re in the transportation business you know that having your own shippers is crucial to the bottom line of your business. If you’re a carrier and use brokers for all of your loads, you are probably costing yourself $300 – $500+ per week per truck. If you’re a freight broker no shippers, means no loads, means no income. It’s that simple.

But how do you find the shippers to get the loads to put on your own trucks or to broker? It’s really not that difficult. The hardest thing about getting shippers is picking up the phone.

Now, regardless of what anyone tells you or advertises, there is no easy way to get shippers. Especially shippers that have good freight. What is good freight? This depends on a number of factors. Good freight can be the rate, the lane, the weight of the load, the commodity being shipped. Ask 5 people what a good load is and you’ll get 5 different answers.

Good freight is defined by you, your wants, your needs. For a carrier it might depend as much on the lane as the rate. For a broker, good freight might be the loads that are easiest to get a truck to move. Good is in the eyes of the beholder.

There is no magic potion or spell to get shippers with good freight. As each has their own definition of good freight you’ll just have to weed out the ones that don’t have your own particular brand of “good freight”.

Believe me, if there was a way to give you a list of shippers with good freight, that met your definition of good freight, I would have retired a long time ago and be sitting on a beach somewhere in a tropical climate.

The point is, there isn’t such a list. There is no shortcut. There is no easy way. You have to do the work.

Thanks, and talk soon.

TALTOA

Are You Marketing Your Business?

Most new and experienced freight brokers spend their day working with shippers and trucking companies moving loads. It’s a task that starts early, with 100% focus on getting the job done, but let’s not forget about marketing.

Too often brokers, as well as others in the transportation industry, focus only on getting the job done with little attention paid to their marketing. I’ve had brokers tell me that they are marketing with every call to a shipper or carrier, which is normally an excuse for not marketing. This can be a costly error.

A broker will spend hours prospecting new customers without a single thought on how to market themselves to attract a customer. Marketing is a means to attract customers that otherwise may not have used your service. Yes, prospect calls are marketing, but so is a website, social media, YouTube, direct mail, advertising, and more.

Today, all freight broker companies have a website. This wasn’t the case a few short years ago. It wasn’t that long ago that we would need to convince a client that a website was mandatory. Today, it’s a given with freight brokers, freight broker agents? Not so much.

A freight broker agent may not have the capital available for a vast marketing campaign, but they should work toward having their own website. A website is working 24/7. It’s a means to attract new shippers, carriers, and an inexpensive way to promote their business.

As an agent you are your own business, and you need to market that business. Your broker has a website, if a shipper or carrier found their website who do you think they will call? You or your broker? With a web site you are allowing shippers and carriers the ability to find, and call, you.

In addition, most freight broker agents have a desire to obtain their freight broker license. A web site allows them to begin branding their business now so that it is a recognizable name after they begin working as their own freight brokerage company. In short, it’s helping you today and tomorrow.

I urge you to take a few minutes and think about what you are doing to market your business? You might find that you aren’t doing much. By not marketing, how much money is going to your competitor that could have been yours?

Thanks, 

TALTOA

An Open Letter To Those Wishing To Work As A Freight Broker Or Freight Broker Agent

Hardly a day goes by that we don’t receive a phone call from someone wanting to know more about our services and how to become a freight broker or freight broker agent. That’s fine, as a matter of fact we encourage those considering this as a career do their research.  We feel that those wishing to work in this industry should have the facts before making a decision.

The reason for this open letter is that with nearly every call we receive, we find that the caller has been given bad or misguided information about working as a freight broker or freight broker agent. This bad information has normally been provided by a freight broker school in an attempt to sell the caller on attending their school. This has reached the point to where we felt the record needed to be set straight on several issues, and thus this letter.

First you should understand that TALTOA is a transportation and logistics training & consulting firm, not a school. We only accept clients that are wishing to work as a freight broker (having their own authority, bond, BOC-3, and UCR) or to work as a freight broker agent (contracted to a freight broker working under their authority). Although one is the broker the other an agent the two still have one glaring similarity… they are both an independent business. There is not an employee/employer relationship.

As such that is why our Packages are consulting that include training, if needed. It is not our intent to fill up a room with 20 people, teach them how to be a broker, and say good luck… next. 

Although much emphasis is placed on training, as well it should be, the real jewel of our packages is the consulting following the training. This is when you are working as a freight broker or freight broker agent and have questions and/or situations arise in which you need assistance. As this occurs, you are able to pick up the phone and call your assigned consultant to obtain the assistance needed. 

In short, our concern as a consultant is for our clients success! Not how many paid tuitions we can sell. It’s very obvious to us as well, from the daily calls we receive, that those interested in learning the business have listened to a lot of “sales pitches” from those interested in only one thing, getting their money!

Now here are some common misconceptions we hear on a daily basis concerning the facts of working as a freight broker or freight broker agent;

1)  Freight Broker Certification

Freight Broker Certifications are only provided by schools. To work as a freight broker or freight broker agent one does not get certified. If one is going to be a freight broker (not a freight broker agent) they must obtain their Authority, BOC-3, UCR, and bond. This can be done on your own however we recommend a process agent to perform this service for you in order to save you time, the peace of mind knowing that the paperwork was filed correctly, and you are indeed legal.

2)  You Can Use A Factoring Company, So Capital Isn’t A Requirement

To be honest, this is the reason for our Open Letter (straw that broke the camel’s back). We received a call yesterday from a potential client and it was stated that he was told that he could use a factoring company for cash flow so capital wasn’t a huge concern. This is so wrong in many ways, and for a “school” to be stating this, it’s obvious their only interest is sales, not the clients success.

A factoring company should never be used by a freight broker! If you are unsure of what a factoring company is or does, in a nutshell they buy your unpaid invoices, pay you a percentage immediately, then pay you the balance, minus commissions and fees, when your customer pays the invoice.

Now on the surface this sounds like a good idea, but in reality you are basically out of business before you begin. A broker will net, on average, 15% of the total invoice (some a bit more some a bit less). Most

factoring companies will advance you 85% of the invoice, with the balance paid after the invoice is paid. If you are using a factoring company to create cash flow the only one reaping the benefits is the trucking company, as they’ll be paid faster. You on the other hand have only been advanced enough to maybe pay the carrier. You are still waiting for your money as it will not be paid until the invoice is paid by the shipper.

However, even if you are able to wait for your money from the factoring company, you’ll find that out of your 15% you may only see 10% or less after the fees and commissions are subtracted.

Let’s put this into perspective, you have a shipper that you move a load for once per week at a rate of

$2,000.00. Subtracting your 15% (your money) you pay a truck $1,700.00 to move the load. You have been factoring this shipper/load over the course of a year. Let’s look at how much money you lost by using a factoring company for only one load per week from one shipper;

Total Freight From Shipper: $2,000.00 x 52 weeks = $104,000.00 Total Paid To Trucks: $1,700.00 x 52= $88,400.00

Total Income for broker before factoring: $15,600.00

Total Paid by broker for Factoring Company Services: $5,200.00

Total Income for broker AFTER factoring: $10,400.00 

This example is using one customer & one load. However if you are using a factoring company, you don’t factor a load, you factor a customer. That basically means that if you factor one customer, you have to factor ALL loads from that customer.

If you are moving 3 loads a week for the customer above, using the numbers provided in the example, now the cost for factoring has gone from $5,200.00 per year to $15,600.00 per year! The kicker is that you are still waiting until the shipper pays the invoice to the factoring company to get the balance of your money. In addition, it’s taken more time for you to get your money as the money owed you is first going to the factoring company, then to you.

There are many reasons why a broker should NOT use a factoring company than just this example, but you should be able to see why factoring is not a good idea for a freight broker. For a school or training organization to recommend factoring as a means of financing is, in our opinion, very irresponsible and only being recommended as a sales tool to get you to attend their school.

3)  When Will I Take My Test So That I Can Start Brokering?

First there is no “Official Test” to work as either a freight broker or freight broker agent. The only tests are those given for review purposes by the school or training organizations. The fact is that one does not have to attend any school, pass any test, receive any type of a certificate to work as a freight broker or freight broker agent.

4)  We’re #1!     We’re The Best!     Make $100,000.00!

Regardless of any freight broker training school marketing claim, the truth is that no matter the training, school, or organization some people become successful while others don’t. Any claim contrary to this is pure fiction. Training can only prepare you but success will depend on you and the support you receive after you begin working as a freight broker or freight broker agent.

Choosing to enter the transportation industry as a freight broker or freight broker agent is a life changing decision that we take very seriously. Our desire is for you to be successful and if we feel that you could be heading in the wrong direction, we’ll tell you. That’s what a consultant is supposed to do.

As with any business though, it must be built. As you move loads you will earn money. Same as it would be if you had a brick and mortar store selling widgets, you must have customers in order to be successful. As a freight broker, the only way to obtain customers is through hard work. You’ll have to make hundreds of prospect calls in order to have shippers that will allow you to move their loads.

We’ve had clients that were making as much as $1,000.00 a week in 30 days and we’ve had clients that quit the business in 30 days. Recently we did a study as to why some clients succeeded while others failed when both were provided the same training, had the same access to consulting, and had the same access to the review material we provide.

We found that those whom succeeded were more ambitious, worked harder, and did all of the little things which the others did not. All in all discipline was the biggest difference between those who succeed and those who failed.

The only one that can insure success in this business, or any other, is you.

We hope that this has helped you to learn the facts as you make your decision to work as a freight broker or freight broker agent. Being a freight broker or freight broker agent can be a rewarding career personally and financially.

Thanks,
TALTOA

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow?

Originally posted March 9, 2018

The true history of freight brokering is actually not known. No individual, company, or country can be credited with the creation of freight brokering.

Personally I’ve heard stories ranging from Pedro and his trusty mule (I don’t get it either) too someone writing on their blog about the history of freight brokering that wrote about everything but the history of freight brokering.

So, it only leaves one to guess. My theory is that a young buck was sitting on the waters edge watching the ships coming in to port. Unload their massive holds, then watch that ship sit in the port for weeks or months at a time waiting to be loaded with something.

I imagine this young buck was an entrepreneur and thought to himself that he could make money if he were able to have loads waiting for ships. I can see the benefit for the ship owner as well, they would be able to quickly reload and sail back to their home port. Thus, the first freight broker.

Fast forward hundreds if not thousands of years and take notice of the original freight brokerage offices for trucking. They weren’t like they are now. At that time, it was normal for a freight broker to setup office in or at a truck stop. Minimal technology, at most a telephone, a typewriter, and stamps, lots of stamps.

A trucking company would contact the freight broker to let them know they would have a truck available, the broker would go to work finding a load. The driver would deliver their load and make a beeline for the truck stop and find the brokers office. The driver would sign in, sit down, and wait for his name to be called when the broker had that driver a load.

I ran across one of the last of these broker offices in the early 90’s at a truck stop in Cincinnati, Oh. I had heard about it and wanted to see it for myself. It was exactly how you would imagine. The broker sitting at his big desk in the front of the room, several rows of chairs lined up where drivers could sit and wait.

When I started brokering computers were still somewhat a new idea, the internet was just getting popular, and a fax machine and telephone were the mandatory tools for brokering freight. The first load board I used was set up like the old AOL. You dialed in via your noisy screeching modem and were charged a 10 cent per minute connection fee.

Today, fax has almost gone the way of the dinosaur with the computer (or any internet device), internet, and phone (landline, cell, or VoIP) being the mandatory equipment. With the technology today, a broker could have a face to face conversation with a shipper, dispatcher, or driver even though they’re a thousand miles apart.

Many times, I’ve been asked what I thought the future holds for a freight broker? Personally, I think the freight broker is in a better situation than a driver. Although I’d never want to be on the road with a fully loaded self-driving big truck, it appears that the geniuses (sarcasm) of the world are trying to make that a reality.

Bottom line? A freight broker is a sales person. Take the sales people out of the world and the economy comes to a screeching halt. The day may come when business owners trust a computer to negotiate their sales, but who would negotiate the sale of the computer with the business owner?

Thanks and talk soon.

TALTOA

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