13 Essential Sales Call Questions for Freight Brokers [Infographic]
Sales prospecting often means cold calling as many people as you can, and hoping they all end in a hot lead or new client for your freight agency. Getting a prospect on the phone long enough to ask your essential sales call questions is crucial. However, people don’t take to cold calling quite as well as they used to. In fact, 200 million Americans have registered their phone numbers on a “Do Not Call” list.
So, what can you do to ensure you’re carrying out effective sales calls? Ask the right questions. A first call with a potential client will set the tone for the remainder of your relationship together. If you have the time and resources, it’s highly recommended that you carry out some research about your prospect and their company and industry before calling. And when you’re on the call, sincerely listen and ask about their specific problems and concerns, and — most importantly — offer help. Help them envision their business running a little smoother doing business with you.
If you’re not sure if you’re asking the right questions to set your relationship up for success, don’t fret! We’ve compiled 13 essential questions that freight brokers like you should ask on a sales call to help not only make effective sales, but build sustainable client relationships, as well.
Hi Kathryn,
Very informative article.It will surely come in handy,when am meeting with my first potential client 😁.
Great information. Cost is another question people ask about.
I really like the blog and especially the infographic about essential sales call questions for Freight Brokers. Thanks for sharing.
The infographic does a fantastic job of relaying the tips you have to offer. I especially like the tip about finding out if anyone else, aside from yourself, handles the shipping. After all, you want to make sure that the two of you are on the same page when you’re shipping freight.
I am just starting to become a Freight Broker. This information has helped me a lot. Thank you for your help.
Hi I am now starting as a freight broker and looking for customers can you help with that
Hi Kerls! Keep following LDI’s blog. We post lots of materials to help support freight brokers!
Thanks, all! I’m so happy this infographic has come in handy for all of you.
If there are other topics you’d like to see us write about, be sure to let us know!
-Kathryn
I agree with the author, asking the right questions is the best way to make a sales call. Starting off by getting to know the person and asking about their lives, and their needs is how I like to start. Questions will reveal what a person needs, and as a salesperson, it’s our job to fulfill those needs. It makes things a lot easier. Thanks for the graphic too, it was a helpful reminder.
this could really help me a lot !! credits to the writter
I don’t know very much about freight shipping and so I wanted to look further into it. I really appreciated the part that talked about making sure to ask the right questions. Getting all of the information right up front is really important and can make a big difference.
Found your blog. Its really nice on courier. I appreciate your article. Its important to get quality courier services. So thanks for sharing all that important information.
INFORMATIVE……IT WILL DEFINITELY HELP ME IN MY SALES CALLS AND CLIENT MEETINGS…….THANK YOU “EARLINE”!!!!
Helpful tips! Can you tell me what info do you send to shippers once you do get their email adress?
Thank you
Glad you found this useful, D.R! We put shippers in contact with our freight broker agents so you find the right fit for your needs. We’ll have someone contact you directly soon!
Great article. Thank you so much for sharing such a great piece article. I really appreciate.
Glad you found it useful!
Great article. We use a similar approach at Fox Logistics, always starting with learning more about the customer’s needs instead of launching into a pitch about how great we are.
Couldn’t agree more, Matthew! Listening to customer’s needs first saves a lot of frustration on both sides of the sales. Thanks for reading and chiming in!
Excellent post, thanks a lot for sharing this very informative article. So much to learn from this post. Great blog.
Thanks, Independent Freight! Glad you found value in it!
I really like this infographic. Can I share this one my website?
Sure, Tony! Do you regularly train brokers or dispatchers? If so, give us a call. We might be able to help you out further!
Very informative! thank you so much for sharing this worthy post with us.
Happy to help, David. We also regularly share informative freight industry advice and insights on our LinkedIn page. We’d love to have you join the conversations there!
What do you do when you are cold calling out and nobody wants any new prospects or any new carriers? How do you deal with the “We’re not interested” or the “We use our own carriers?” I am feeling highly defeated with the cold calling and hitting a dead end. Having problems acquiring new customers is my downfall right now and eventually will reflect on my work performance.
Please help! Feel free to email me with any tips you may have.
Thanks for sharing, Stephanie! You’re facing a problem all entrepreneurs have to deal with: rejection. It happens to all of us. I’d like to point you to our blog post, 5 Ways for Freight Brokers Deal With Rejection, and hope you take some comfort in it. Personally, I always keep the mentality to aim for a 10 percent success rate, which is sort of a broadly accepted rate in Sales. Out of every 10 inquiries, if you get 1 interested person, you’re winning! That means that out of 50 inquiries, you might get 5, and unfortunately, those 5 might come 40 inquires in. But they will come! Focus on the long game, and don’t give up, Stephanie!
I like that you said that it is important to research the company’s prior to calling clients. My friend told me that he wanted to take a course to become a broker. I’m going to help him by sharing this information with him, thank you for sharing.
Glad to hear you find it valuable, Ron! Thanks for passing it along.
I have a team that manage all that work for me. but I always ask my shipping team, when it will be delivered.
I really don’t know much about freight shipping so I should take a look at this a bit more.
As usual, an uninformative answer that avoided the question in a political way. These 13 questions are great..AFTER you get past the “I’m not interesed” or hang up stage. It literally asks the redundant question of how to you get past these responses, and then continues to give strategies for scenarios that occur AFTER the initial rejection stage.
This is a fair thing to point out, Adam. Our techniques to keep people on the phone is one of the first things our Agent Development team trains new agents to overcome. We keep that particular training reserved solely for our own agents as it’s so valuable, as you’ve pointed out here. So for anyone looking for that kind of support for the launch of their agency, contact us today!