Logistics professional/ Ex broker currently Recruiting Freight agents ♟️ player/ problem solver/ co host of 2 dawgs 1 pod.
Several months ago I made a post encouraging people to get into logistics. Several people commented Matt why would you say that. You built your book in 22, 23 it’s different now. No one is on boarding. Lot of doom and gloom scrolling on here. So when I took this shipper role I was genuinely curious what the quality of the sales emails and calls would be. I didn’t get one good one. They all were either asking to get set up, if I had any loads, long 3 paragraphs about services and rates, ( someone even asked me what I do). We told most people that called we weren’t on boarding for 6-9 months. Would I have said the same thing if I got a good call or email? No, I was waiting for one. Never got one though so I just set up my friends. Even something simple like we ship for your competitor and run that product in xyz lane are you running out of this area too? Based on what I saw in 3 months, I am not sold on the doom and gloom. Very few other sales jobs you can get ahead simply by doing 5 minutes of homework and being unique. Just my 2 cents. #kidfreight #sales #logistics #trucking
There might be some “confirmation bias” in the scenario, because you already have a positive predisposition to certain carriers/friends, what others have to say won’t sound appealing. However if you were really lacking in capacity, those “others” would suddenly sound more “appealing “ and you would engage with them in a more meaningful way and possibly close business (in an alternate universe, if that makes any sense LOL)
Hi Mr. Dahl! I sling freight. Can I move your loads? I promise I’m the cheapest but if I’m not I’ll under cut whoever you’re working with. Agree?
I've answered a couple of them lately to offer ideas to help them with their cold emails.
I'm sorry but three months is nothing. I don't support having a victim mentality to any degree but it's not about doom and gloom as much as it is about apparent economic difficulties in combination with it being historically a bad market
Lesson learnt : Become a friend with shipping manager ☝🏼😀
Way too much focus on quantity over quality when it comes to sales outreach. That initial email should be asking for a meeting to learn their business and find a way you can help them. If you're expecting load offers or an RFP from a cold email, you're already way behind.
Regardless of if 3pl revenues have dropped 15% or not, the market is still infinitely larger than an individual could ever get their arms around. The current state of the market matters less when you look at it from that standpoint - either way, there's growth potential for each individual's portfolio. Doom and gloom not required.
Matt Dahl a lot of sales people suck and are lazy. I was one of them. Especially my first year selling. I learned a lot of what not to do that year though
Logistics Analyst @ Patten Seed | Driving Supply Chain Efficiency
2moI get the same pitch from almost everyone. 90% are generic copy and paste with zero homework. Offering a plethora of services that I have no need for. Drayage? Don’t do it. Air freight? Nope. Sprinter Vans? Try again. I think most of the blame is on lack of training. Sales teams are pushing quantity over quality. Heck, when I was brokering, I was told “not to waste time doing research. You could have made 5 calls in the 10 minutes you spent on their website.” That doesn’t work anymore in the current market. Right now, everybody has capacity. It’s about what separates you from the rest. Do your homework, find out where I ship from, products I move, ask intelligent questions about my inbound raw materials. I use 4 total brokers, three of which I brought on this quarter and are top 25 brokers in terms of size/Revenue. Tell me what you can offer me that they cannot? If your answer is capacity or technology, you are probably wrong.