Transcript

Let's discuss best practices!

Your goal on the first call is to introduce yourself and your company. Find out about the shipper. And provide information about your company. Make sure you are in an area where calls won’t drop and background noise is at a limit. Tell the shipper your areas of strength and lane interests. Also be honest about your weaknesses. And have the mindset of being an extension of the shipper’s logistics supply chain. Ask about other possible locations they ship from.

You'll also want to prepare for the call by enacting a pre-call planning process. This is where you will organize your thoughts, words, and materials in preparation for speaking with your potential customer.

Making the Sale

Direct shipper decision makers can hold a variety of titles. Therefore, when calling, you can ask to speak to an associated title, or simply as for ‘the transportation decision maker’ or the traffic department if you do not have a contact name.

You'll want to focus on three areas when planning your sales approach to direct shippers.

1. Lead Generation. 

Utilizing internet searches, paid sales leads, and plain old researching will help you to generate leads for your business.

2.Marketing.

You'll need to have marketing material for direct shippers. This information should have the specific carriers information that will be hauling the customers loads.

3.Scripting.

Be sure to write a script for direct shippers. You can utilize the call script template available in the course to fine tune your own.