You want to carry on your freight broker business and want to know that how you can find shippers, or you want to start your freight broker business and want to know before how to find shippers as a freight broker?
Freight brokers find shippers by actively doing cold and warm calls. They also ask for referrals and find “like” businesses so that they can connect the shippers with the carriers.
In this article, I will discuss in detail that how you can find shippers as freight brokers, but if you really need an in-depth freight broker training course and become an expert, then this guide is for you.
Ways To Find Shippers As A Freight Broker
Here are several ways that you can use to find shippers and connect them with the carriers.
Cold Calling:
This is one of the most effective methods that freight brokers use to find shippers. In this approach, you will need to make a lot of calls to various businesses and ask if they are shipping any goods and if not, then you can offer your services. This process may require some time, but it is worth it as it can help you get a lot of business from that area or area/city.
Warm Calling:
In this process, you need to find a couple of businesses in a specific location and build rapport with them. After establishing a relationship with these shippers, you can offer your services, and if they have the supply chain needs, then only will they contact you.
Let’s take an example that you are a freight broker in Atlanta, and you want to find shippers. You decide to make cold calls in the city of Atlanta; one hour later, you may be able to get 10 shippers on your call list. Now you need to go through each listing and leave them voice-mail messages or talk with them personally. Once you have completed this process, you need to go back into the directory and find another group of 10 names. You may be able to reach more than 65 shippers in Atlanta within one day.
Through Referrals:
You can get a lot of business by asking for referrals from shippers. You can say some magic words or ask if they have any business contacts in the area that are shipping goods. Shippers will help you with it because their aim is to find some other businesses that may be interested in your services.
You need to follow some basic rules while taking the name of some other company from a shipper as this may be your potential client. You can ask for referrals from restaurants, warehouses, and retail shops and from your own previous customers as well as it is more efficient compared to cold or warm calling because you don’t need to waste time on the Internet searching these names.
Online Marketing:
The world is moving towards the online mode of doing business, and every business is shifting online as it provides them a lot of benefits. You can also do this as it will help you grow your freight broker business as well as increase your visibility.
There are many shipping portals that allow shipping companies to post their services for free, while some charge a commission for the freight broker who finds a shipper. You can also post your services on various social media sites, job boards, and classified ads websites to find shippers.
You should keep in mind that most of the people who are looking for transportation services post their needs on online marketplaces where truckers or freight brokers post their services, and in order to get their business, you need to be there too.
Prospecting:
It is the most important skill in this profession that one needs to learn in order to find shippers and keep clients.
You should always look for new leads because once you stop prospecting, then your current client base will slowly reduce, which can also impact your business negatively. Also, you can get new leads by going through your current customer list, doing a Google search for freight broker leads, or subscribing to a lead service that provides you a list of new leads every day.
You should also go to various tradeshows and meetups as this is where most of the shippers and carriers are present. You can also join local business groups and attend their meetings as this is where you can get a lot of information about the freight industry.
Check Your Competitors and Their Customers:
It is also necessary to keep an eye on your competitors and see what they are doing in order to get new shippers. Also, You can look for potential clients on their website, call them, or even send them a message via email.
you need to go through the listings that they have on their website, or if they don’t have, then you can scrape their data to find potential customers. You can also go through the feedback that they have on various consumer review websites or even call them because sometimes it happens that they don’t give you the correct information about themselves.
Load Boards:
A load board is an online marketplace where truckers and freight brokers post their services to find shippers. You can find a lot of potential shippers by searching through the various load boards.
There are many load boards that are available for free, and some charge a commission for the freight broker who finds a shipper. You should also post on the load boards as you can get a lot of business.
Also Read: How To Become A Freight Broker With No Experience
Final Words:
Now you know how you can find shippers as freight brokers, but if you really want to work as a professional freight broker, then The Freight Broker Training by Dennis Brown. This step-by-step training program will change your life forever. If you have questions, then please comment in the comment section, and I will answer you for sure.