1139. #TFCP - Techniques For Successful Prospecting In Freight!

And I say that before every single show. And what I mean by that is I only speak with transportation professionals because at the end of the day, you guys, I want to talk to the right individuals who have done what you're looking to do or who are currently doing what you're trying to achieve. So you can take that information, apply it, utilize it and see a meaningful difference in your business and your life. Happy Friday everybody. We have a rare solo show here this beautiful sunny Friday morning. And yeah, we're going to be talking about some prospecting techniques and some sales techniques inside of transportation. It is probably the most common DM that I receive out there is how do I find shippers, what sales advice can you give and stuff like that.

And again, I'm not a sales guru, but I am just a dude who actually sells and does the job that I talk about every single day inside of the show. And I want to continue to deliver what is working for us personally as we're going out and going through there. A couple of quick announcements, you guys. I say this a lot, but if you guys want to get in on the hottest newsletter in transportation, you guys go to the freightcoach.com it will auto prompt you to register for it. I don't just use everybody's email address that I have. I won't do that to people. So if you want to check it out, go to the freightcoach.com you guys. My friends over at Green Screens, they send us a weekly lane report that we put that out there.

This is a way for you guys to track where lanes are trending, where rates are trending and everything else. We also upload the fuel reports. We do a weekly fuel report out there as well. So you guys can see our diesel price is dropping. Everything else that way you guys don't have to go out there and show and search for it. And then also, you know, we do a little bit of information from some of the shows that we release out there. We, you know, use that and transcribe some of those episodes and put that information out there to highlight some of that, you guys. But, you know, again, check it out. Freightcoach.com auto register for that and we'll go from there. Corey Buchan. Happy Friday, everybody. He says. Robert Cowton, Good morning, man says AI is advancing faster than we believe.

Someone sent me a test model built in 10 minutes that a solo broker could book 20 loads simultaneously once you set parameters. Scary. Yeah, man, I think it's definitely making things pretty interesting out there with stuff. And you know, from my perspective, you know, man, I'm, I, it's. It's going to be a good tool for the right companies. Right. And, and I truly feel like a lot of us are already utilizing it. It's, you know, I'm it. I'm still not exactly sold on how it's going to fix literally every single one of our problems. I, I'm a wait and see. It's definitely real. It's definitely. I think one of the bigger things that are out there that are going to affect a lot more people's lives and I think some of them want to even comprehend in this moment.

I just think that in due time. I mean it. I look at it like this as somebody. And Robert, you might feel this way as well, right? Like I want to increase my output. I'm sure you want to increase your output as well. And I think like, these tools that are out there give you that opportunity to do that without bringing on, you know, headcount and everything else. Because, you know, in the real world where we both operate, I know that, you know, you have to balance a budget. You have to, you know, utilize your P L and deploy your capital in the right areas and stuff like that. So I think that's where an AI tool could come in and help, especially in the building stages of of a business to help you get up and running.

And yeah, when it comes down to the AI dialers and stuff like that, man, I, I will never do that inside of my company or companies. I will never utilize AI to answer the phone or make outbound calls on our behalf and stuff like that. I just, dude, I just look at it as, at some point, how are you going to prove that you're human. Because we might go pretty far to the one direction and it might snap back. I don't know. All I know is I'm just going to continue to do what I do and continue to show up and try and earn people's business every single way I can. Cody Miller. Good morning, freight enthusiast. Good to see you, man. But I will get right into it here you guys again.

Finding shippers, sales, all of that stuff, that is something that we, I, I get the most dms out there. So I'm gonna go through and talk about what I actually do to go out there and try and develop business. Because I'm out there cold calling. I'm doing all of this every single day. And I have some internal data on some sales strategies that worked for us, some that were a complete and utter failure and ones that I think people should avoid like the plague. If I was in your position, which a lot of you who are tuning into the show, I feel like we're all in the same position here. But as you're starting out, you know, I, I think analysis paralysis is what kills a lot of people's dreams out there about going out. Because there is so much opportunity, right?

Like there's so much opportunity for, you know, whether it's ltl, Ocean, drayage, full truckload, whatever it is, right, that you're out there and you're spraying and praying, you know, you're just calling people for the sake of calling. You're trying to get anybody on the phone who will listen. And that's why you can't really get into a groove with any customers or prospects. And you're not, you feel like you're not gaining any traction. At least that's the way that I felt early on in my career. And it was because I didn't know why I was calling people. I was just calling them because my boss told me I got a call. So I look at it like this.

If you're going to start out from scratch, maybe you're an agent now or you started, you got your own authority, you started your own business and you just need to go, right? Like, you need revenue, you don't have any customers. Or maybe you had all these customers who said they were going to come work with you, and now they're not, and you're stuck and you're like, where do I go? Number one. First step, identify your ideal customer profile. All right, your icp, my friend Kara Smith Brown wrote a really good book out there called the revenue engine. All right? I would highly, highly recommend it. No, I do not make any fucking money by promoting this book for her at all.

She is just a really good friend of mine and it was a really good book and I would highly recommend you guys read it because it is all supply chain and transportation specific, you guys, and there's a lot of parallels that you can draw out there. So I would buy that book, I would read that and you know, but most importantly, identify your ideal customer profile. All right? Like, we only do full truckload. All right? That, that's our jam. We, we do full truckload. Ideally it is on a flatbed or an open deck trailer. We do some drive and work because there's a lot of bleed over in between the two modes at the end of the day. And then that is our pitch, right? Like that's who we're going after. We're going after full truckload. And that's really it.

And I, I do that because at the end of the day, you guys, I just don't like ltl. I, I think it's a major pain in the ass. I think that there is way more work that you put into than you get out of it. And some people love it. I don't. Right. So that's my thing. And, and I openly tell my prospects, like, hey, if you're primarily ltl, we're not a fit. We're not going to be your guy. I don't even want to fucking quote your stuff. And it's tough when you're, you know, needing revenue, but you need to know who you're going after, right? So as I'm going out there and I've identified my customer profile, right? Like I have, and I go out there and I eliminate certain companies of certain size, right?

Like, I know a lot of the publicly traded companies that are out there I don't even want to fuck with right now at this point in my career, all right? Like, I don't want to mess with them mainly, like there's a long sales cycle that's associated with it. But I also look at my internal capabilities inside of my organization. Can we move a lot of volume? Yes, we can. But is that something? Can we move the volume of freight that some of those larger publicly traded companies need us to move on a daily basis? In today's day? No. Would we be willing to hire people in the event that that came up? Yes. But right now I'm not going after them because of that. And then two, it's a Long sales cycle, right?

Like some of these guys that are out there and you know, this is the same in the dry van space and the reefer space and everything else. You guys, a lot of those large publicly traded organizations that are out there, they're been working with the exact same providers for a very long time. Not everybody, but a lot of it has to do with money. All right? They need millions of dollars of capital every single month and credit extended to them to be able to move their freight. And if you don't have that type of money to extend to people, save yourself the heartache, right? Because you don't want to get to that finish line and then you're in a position to where you're like I actually can't do this. Or they have technology, right?

Like they have EDI or they have something that costs thousands of dollars a month just to be able to move their freight and you don't have that capital, right? So I look at it from my perspective of I want to be very aware of who I'm going after and there is a certain customer that is at this point for me it's not worth us going after because I need to go after people that like we can turn on in a, whether it's a 90 day sales cycle or 180 day sales cycle from the first point of contact. And I need to onboard people that we can start actively moving freight with and some of those larger ones that are two to a three year sales cycle. There's a lot of red tape that's associated with it.

And then in my business's current structure is not worth us going after. So who does that identify and that. So I want to remove that from it. And then also I want to remove the shippers that are out there that are like, hey, we're 90% LTL. We have one full truckload every four months. All right? That's not somebody who I want to go after. Or maybe they only move one full truckload a quarter or every three months or whatever that looks like, right? I don't want to go after somebody like that because again, I want to build up that consistency. So there is that small to mid sized market that I go after and I'm like on the high end of the midsize market, you guys, you are still looking at an extended sales cycle.

So again it's identifying that level of shipper that you want to go after so you can start to really establish yourself. Okay. And from my perspective you need to know who that is. And what you're going to do. Hold one second here. All right, so now that we are, we know who we're going to go after. All right now it's like, how are you going to call somebody? How are you going to prospect them? What do you even say on the phone? I think that there's a lot of emphasis on having an extremely long sales pitch and the perfect thing to say and everything else under the sun. I am all about keeping it short, sweet, to the point here is who I am. This is what we do. This is all I'm trying to achieve with this phone call today. All right?

Because at the end of the day I need to do that process of elimination standpoint. I need to get rid of prospects who are not going to be a fit for us. Maybe they have their own internal fleet or their brother in law owns a logistics company and they're not going to make a change. There's a lot of different things that are out there. So I'm going through and I want to keep it as short and sweet as possible because if you're going to get somebody's attention, they're not going to give you 20 minutes of their time. Right. Especially on the first outreach. So again, I want to keep it short, sweet, to the point. You can use a variation or an iteration of this. Okay. Hi, my name is Chris Shawley. I am with Freight Coach Logistics. Yes, we are a broker.

We specialize in full truckload. We primarily service food or we primarily service insert any commodity. Our primary region is within the Southeast or the Midwest. I was really reaching out today to introduce ourselves and again you get that down to like that 10 to 15 second elevator pitch out there to try and gain somebody's attention. Because, you know, here's a prime example. One of my cold calls this morning, this was the person answered the phone and then they had said, they're like, hey listen, the shipping department has said that we are not able to send any calls back at this time. We're just not looking to add anybody. And I'm like, hey, that's not a problem at all. I don't want to waste your guys time or anything like that, but is it all right if I call back in a couple of months?

The gatekeeper was extremely friendly and said, yeah, you know what, that's not a problem. It's always good just touch base every once in a while. Okay, perfect. So I go in and I update my notes in there. And then that is how I handle that situation where I'M not pushy. I'm not trying to do anything out. Like, I'm not trying to like make a bad name for myself with any of my prospects, right? Because I feel like you can talk yourself out of a lot of deals just by not paying attention. And it, from my perspective here, we need to set ourselves up for long term success because ultimately right now it is very challenging to develop new business due to the fact that nobody really needs any help. Right?

Like, there's not necessarily a need for a new provider or a need to shake things up. From my perspective and from what I'm hearing, for the most part, it's just, you know, things are good and that is fine. Because ultimately, you guys, I'm a service provider. Like I said this the other day on the show, I'm a service provider. All right? When you need me, we're here for you. If you don't need us, I'm not going to wear you out. And I've done that and it has never really worked out for me. But this slow and steady approach of really finding out how do they want to be prospected without working yourself out of an opportunity. Now, you know, you guys can call some people and they're going to be extremely friendly with you.

They're going to tell you literally everything that you need about those companies as long as you have actual questions to ask them. Right? Because everyone's default go to is, hey, I'm desperate, let me bid on your freight. I don't care what it is. If you're going to put it on a truck, I want to bid on it. You just sound like everybody else that's out there and I just don't see how that works out at scale. It might, it just never has for me personally. So as I'm going out there, you guys, I know what I'm going after. And again, I'm really just reaching out to introduce myself. We're talking about the very first outreach. Okay? And it's short, sweet, to the point. They're not going to give you a bunch of time. Some people do not all that often, though.

So again, I want to be short, sweet, to the point, find out how do they want to be contacted. Right. Are they going to transfer me back to the logistics manager? Are we going to leave a voicemail? I always leave a voicemail no matter what. Or is the gatekeeper going to say, hey, actually we've been told to. They only communicate via email. So logistics@abc shipper.com Send over your information there, and they just sift through it at that point. Okay, cool. Now I know how they want to be communicated with, all right? And it's very important to establish that as soon as the sooner you get that information, the better off you're going to be long term with that. So, you know, as we're going in short, sweet, to the point, who are we going after? Why are we going after them?

And then stick with that because again, you guys, you need to build up a system to follow, okay? Because it's very easy to sit here and say, hey, I'm really motivated today. So you know what? I'm going to go make a hundred fucking phone calls. Everything's feeling great. You're going to rock through them. You're going to wake up the next day and you're going to feel like shit, and you're not going to want to do anything. And then you're going to rely on the fact that you made 100 calls the other day. So you're good, right? Like, you don't need to do it because you made those hundred calls. That's why. Develop a system that you can follow every single day of the week, all right? I don't care what number you choose, all right? This is an arbitrary number.

Maybe you need to start with 25. All right? You need to start with 25 calls, and you make 25 cold calls every single day and do that for like two straight weeks, all right? Do that for two straight weeks and then track your progress. And by progress, I mean it might take you four hours to make those 25 cold calls right away, all right? Because again, I live in reality. I'm not afraid to admit this, you guys, but like, it. It's can be pretty intense right away if you've never really had to make sales calls before or cold calls because, you know, at the end of the day, you just never know what you're getting on the other end of the phone.

Now rest assured, if you are prepared, if you know why you're calling them, it will come through in your voice and you will come to realize, like 95% of the calls that you actually have. They're very cordial, all right? They are very cordial. They're very nice people for the most part. You, yeah, you catch the occasional one, but that is so few and far between than not, you know, so just again, I'm trying to help alleviate a lot of that anxiety that somebody might have before they pick up the phone for the first time. And again, don't feel bad if it takes you five hours to make five, 25 cold calls, all right? As long as you continue to do that day in and day out. And then if you get to the second week, maybe you get it down to four hours, right?

Maybe take you four hours to make 25 cold calls. That is progress and that's the progress that we need to look for. Because again, anybody can do when they're motivated, you guys, all right? But again, you got to build up that discipline, that routine and your ability to do that day in and day out. Because that consistency, doing it the right way will serve you better in the long run. Because again, as you get a little bit more efficient with your time, bump it up, maybe, hey, I'm going to do 30, this, these next two weeks, then you get it to 35, 40, 45, 50, whatever that arbitrary number is. You guys do that and then look for that increase out there so you can go and, and do this stuff day in and day out.

Because what you will do is you will start following that system, increasing your output every single day and then the likelihood of you getting somebody on the phone who is looking for your service at the time exponentially increases. Right? But again, you're going to do it first call, short, sweet, to the point. If you have a meaningful conversation of any sort, take detailed notes of that, all right? Take very detailed notes because when you follow up with them, because that's where all the magic really happens, you guys. All right? Very, very, very rarely are you going to cold call somebody the first time. You're going to have a 30 minute conversation, you're going to start bidding on their fright, everything's going to work out. Very rarely. I'm never going to say impossible because fucking anything is possible. But it's very few and far between.

So with that being said, take detailed notes. Now, second call, how long in between follow ups? Again, if you're asking the right questions, they're going to let you know, hey, listen, we're slow for these next couple of months, but I want you to call me back in March or whatever that is, and again, follow what they say. And that's one thing that will separate you out there because again, a lot of people hear that, they hang up, they call back the next week, hey, do you need me? Hey, do you need me? Hey, do you need me? I don't like to do that at all. That's just not my style. Again, to each their own. So if they told you to call them back, whatever that is, that follow up, again, you know who to ask for this time.

Maybe it's the gatekeeper and they're very friendly. Let them know that, right? Like compliment the gatekeepers, you guys, I think that is a very underutilized skill set to do, to befriend them, compliment them, everything else and then you know who to ask for. And again, have those notes up from your very first phone call with them. Maybe they told you, hey, we're like 85% job site delivery, you know, 15% distribution center or you know, whatever, talk to them about their business. Again, you guys, you need to become a subject matter expert, okay? Educate your prospects or your customers on your skill sets, okay? Whether it's, you know, like again going to job sites, ask them about is it crane offloaded, Is it, you know, does it need to be a moffitt truck to go in there?

Again, the more specific you can get, the more of a subject matter expert you will seem and be perceived by your prospects. Because again, you need to build up that confidence in them that for that they have in you and your abilities and skill sets that are out there. Okay? And I, I just look at it where you know, again, this is a long term deal, all right, this, it might take three months and this is not from the first time you dial them, right? Like it might take 90 days, 180 days, whatever that is, from the first time you get the actual decision maker on the phone. All right? So you might call a business for six months, voicemail, voicemail, voicemail.

And then in month seven, you follow up and then you finally get the person on the phone and then you have a meaningful conversation. That's when the sales cycle actually begins. It's not when you first started dialing these companies. Because I've got some companies I've been calling for seven months now and they're not answering at all. And it does not matter how silky smooth I sound on the phone. But again, to kind of recap up to this point, if you're tuning in, again, identify your ideal customer. Who are you? Why are you calling them? Who are you short, sweet, to the point, meaningful tidbits from that conversation, Take detailed notes of it and then ask when can you follow up? All right? I very, very much like doing all of that.

And this is just where we found the most success, you guys, in developing people from a cold call into a prospect and then a prospect into a customer at that point is it's slow, it's steady, And I want my brand recognition out there to be the opposite of, you know, like, I do not want to be perceived as a pushy sales rep, all right? I want to be viewed as a subject matter expert, okay? And it's very easy to fall into the pushy sales rep when you're not getting results, okay? I. Everything that I am telling you guys is from somebody who is self employed, okay? I do not have a golden nest egg to pull money from where I can just sit around and fiddle around all day long.

I am somebody who is in the trenches, making calls every single day, trying to build my business, all right? There is no surprise to anybody who's been trying to sell over these last couple of years. It is extremely challenging, okay? So I want to kind of talk about that a little bit. You are not alone, all right? You are not the only one who is facing setbacks, adversity, all of that stuff, and trying to build your book of business onboard customers, we're all going through it. Some people on the Internet won't admit it. There's a lot of people out there who are spouting off, who have established businesses that they've been working with for a long time, so they're not really selling anymore, okay? And I think, like, that is one thing that you need to be aware of, all right?

So, no, you are not alone in it, all right? There is nothing. Sometimes, you guys, it doesn't matter how good your product or service is. If the market's. There's nothing you can do about it, okay? But what you can do is, again, I provide a service. I will be here when you need me. I want to politely stay in front of people so they think of us when their current network fails. Because if there is anything that is a guarantee in transportation, is this. And this is just business development entirely. This isn't just transportation. Everybody's good until they're not. Then who do they think of in that moment? And right now, that's where we need to position ourselves for the most part, okay? We need to position ourselves as, hey, when your current network fails, I'm here for you, all right?

I'm a real person. Maybe you showed up at the front door, you shook their hand, you dropped off their business card, whatever that looks like. You're just being present, all right? And that's where it is. You know, you got to be persistent. You got to be present in all of that stuff, and you just got to keep following up, but you got to do it politely, all right? I don't want to ever have. And again, this isn't going to be perfect or anything like that, but I want people's perception of my company to be in the positive of, like, hey, they listen, they're respectful. Everything else, they're not pushy. They're not that prototypical sales rep that most people think about when they think of a pushy of a sales rep. And that's what I think a lot of us need to get at.

But again, you guys just. But most importantly, you just got to keep. You just got to try, all right? You just got to pick up the phone. You just got to start dialing. Everybody can be nervous at times. Everybody can suck at times. I just. I got hung up on the other day because I lost my train of thought in the middle of the fucking call. It's called being a human being. But, you know, at the end of the day, you guys, I'm just willing to pay that price. And you got to ask yourself, are you willing to pay that price? Are you willing to pay that price? Where you might sound a little stupid on the phone, which I have, I probably still do it this time.

I'm sure there's still prospects out there who get my phone calls like, look at this idiot. It might happen. But at the end of the day, you guys, they're a complete stranger. They're not thinking of me five seconds after they hang up the phone on me. But again, you just got to put yourself out there. You got to put in the work, and you got to do it for a very long time. And you got to build a system that you can follow and do day in and day out, you guys, because that's what's most important. None of this is going to happen in a day, a week or a month. It might take months, it might take years. And it's just the price that you have to pay. All right? You have to do it.

You have to build that system, and you got to see the real progress comes in what used to take you six hours. You might get it down in three hours now. And look for those little things to keep that consistency going. All right? So that's what I'm going to talk about today from a prospecting perspective, building that system up. Identify your ideal customer profile and just follow this, all right? Follow this day in and day out, you guys. It takes a very long time, but it is very worth it if you stick with this long enough. But that will be it, ladies and gentlemen, as always. If you guys got value in what you heard, subscribe to the show. If you're feeling really motivated after this one, you want to do your boy a solid, Rank the show on itunes and Spotify, okay?

Because that's what helps it get out there to more and more people, is because if you saw value, chances are your network's going to see value as well. I appreciate you guys. I love you guys, and we'll be talking to you soon.