How to be a freight broker sales call rockstar - Tips & tricks
TLDR - Here's what you need to know:
- Shadow high performing employees in your organization to learn what makes them successful
- Reflect on your current processes and habits and identify areas you can improve
- Have a plan on how you'll generate leads and outreach to them — this includes things like a script to get the conversation started
- Leverage technology like a freight broker software to help increase your efficiency
Some people will tell you that great salespeople are born — those people are wrong. Great salespeople are made not born. There are tips, tricks, and strategies anyone can use when they're figuring out how to be a freight broker sales call rockstar.
Just the fact that you are considering a career in freight broker sales (or are already in the industry) is the biggest step you need to take. Since you’ve already done that, these tips can help you to take your sales figures to the next level.
Tip 1: Learn from the best
No matter what you want to learn in life, the best person to learn from is someone who has already achieved what you want to do.
In the freight broker business you work for, there are probably already high-achieving sales team members who are freight broker sales rockstars. Identify who the high performing sales employees are and see if you can shadow them.
Shadowing a high performing employee will give you the opportunity to learn the processes they have, as well as the talk tracks they use when communicating with prospects. Sitting in on calls with prospects is a beneficial way to learn how to sell and close business.
If something works for the person you shadow, it should work for you, even if you put your own spin on their process.
Tip 2: Be self-aware and define your habits
Once you've discovered what makes the best freight salespeople in your organization successful, it's time to figure out how to become a freight broker sales call rockstar in your own right.
To do that, analyze the current processes and habits you have — how do those processes and habits compare to those of the person you shadowed? Is there anything that's holding you back?
If there is something holding you back, reflect on what that is. Are you scared of cold calling? Are you less outgoing than the top performers in your industry?
On the first episode of Rose Rocket’s podcast, Freight Famous, our guest, Ed Stockman from Newtrul, talked about advice he got from a sports coach that he applied in his professional life as well, “Understand your habits. Understand and define the habits that you will require to eventually win.”
Good salespeople aren’t all the same. The real trick is to figure out what your strengths and weaknesses are and use that knowledge to develop your own sales style.
Tip 3: Have a plan and know what you're doing every single day
They say success is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. They are right — even when it comes to sales.
Make sure that you plan and structure your day so you can spend more time doing what really matters in sales: talking to more people in the right positions. The more people you can connect with, the better your results are going to be.
So, get rid of all the busy work, block out time to do administration and other tasks, but spend most of your day selling. If your company has technology like a freight broker software, learn how to use it effectively, so that the technology can help increase your efficiency when completing administrative tasks.
Tip 4: Be committed. Have a good work ethic and discipline
It takes time to become a freight broker sales rockstar. In the beginning, you might have more bad days than good, but with perseverance that will change.
The key to succeeding at anything is getting up, getting dressed and showing up, even when it's difficult. If you can do that, and push through the days when you think you want to quit, you will get where you want to and be successful.
Tip 5: Have a plan of attack in regard to lead generation and outreach
Failing to plan is planning to fail.
Have you ever wondered why people spend a lot of time, money and effort on business plans, marketing plans and project plans? It's because they work.
When you first start out in freight broker sales, you might not know what the best time to call your customers is. You might not know what the best features are, and what you need to highlight in your pitch – but you can learn all of those things.
Using your best assumptions and what you learned from shadowing, prepare a plan on how you'll generate leads and outreach to them. As you continue to learn, be prepared to change your plan and adapt as time goes by and circumstances change.
Another thing that will help you be successful is to research your prospects. Ed Stockman in our first episode of Freight Famous shared, “Let’s go through the hard work, let’s understand [the shipper’s] network and let’s compare that to our network and do a little behind the scenes work analytics work to understand how do we provide capacity to this particular shipper and let's go in there and sell something real to them.”
With tools like LinkedIn and the internet, you can find out a lot about the people you need to reach out to before you ever pick up the phone. Get involved in networking and listen more than you speak, so you can find out what the real problems and challenges your prospects face are. Once you know those things, you will have a much better idea of how to sell them your services.
Tip 6: Know your value proposition
Another key to success is knowing what your unique value proposition or unique selling point is. Knowing what sets your business apart from everyone else will help you sell your customers.
Before you ever pick up the phone to start “dialling for dollars” you need to know exactly why people will benefit from your service instead of someone else’s – and it really is all about the customer.
Do your values align with their values? Do you offer services that most people don’t? Are you able to provide them a piece of your freight broker software like a partner app where they can self-serve things like track & trace?
If you want to make the sale, you have to stand out from everyone else, so make sure you know exactly what sets you apart and what makes you unique.
Tip 7: Get a script
Once you know who you are selling to, how you are going to sell them and what your unique selling proposition is, it’s time to start calling.
However, for most of us, there’s nothing quite as terrifying as staring at a phone with no idea what to say. That’s why you need a plan and a script. Here are some tips you can use to take the guesswork out of making the call:
- Speak to the right person: You want to speak to someone who is a decision maker, or who has access to them. You can use prospecting tools to find out who you need to reach out to or call the office and ask for the information. Speaking to the correct person is key, as it will streamline the process of connecting with a prospect and then moving them through the sales funnel. Wait until you can connect directly to make your pitch.
- Understand that relationships matter: At least part of your conversation should be about finding common ground that you can build on – and remember that trust sometimes takes time. You might have to reach out more than once before you can make a successful pitch.
- Tailor your pitch around the problems you know you can solve for them: If you’ve done enough research, you will already know what their pain points are, so highlight how your service can help them.
4. The next important thing you need to do is have a script. You don’t have to follow this religiously, but you should have some kind of outline of what you want to say, so you don’t get stuck on the first few calls you make:
You: Hi! Am I speaking with [contact name]?
Lead: Yes [hopefully!]
You: Perfect! My name is [Enter name] and I work for [enter company], I wanted to talk to you today about [enter service they offer] and how I think our companies could collaborate…
From there, go into your value pitch and connect all the research you’ve done on their network to your own.
Bonus tip: Keep on Trucking
The most important thing you can learn when you are figuring out how to be a freight broker sales call rockstar is perseverance.
In the early days of your career, your network will be quite small and you might not know anyone. There won’t be many (if any) warm introductions, and you will probably get more people hanging up or saying no than you ever imagined possible.
Every single salesperson out there, in every industry, for as long as there have been sales calls have had the exact same problem.
The longer you persevere, the bigger your network will get. The more word of mouth referrals you will get. The more customer success stories you will be able to share.
So, the most important thing you need to remember when you’re learning to master the freight broker sales call is not to quit. Every mistake you make, and every no you get is a lesson.
Success Awaits
Whether you’ve had a lot of freight broker sales training or found yourself in the deep end treading water, these freight broker sales tips should help you to find your feet.
Remember that no one starts out knowing exactly how to make a sale. It’s a process, and everyone has to learn how to do it. So be prepared to have a harder time starting out, pay attention to what people around you say and do, and remember that everything worth doing is hard at first. If you can do all that, and you have a great service to sell, it’s only a matter of time till you’re the next big sales rockstar.
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