Whether you’ve read guides about starting a freight brokerage and are ready to get started or have experience in the industry, finding shippers is one of the most important factors. Here are some tips for finding freight shippers as a freight broker that can help you achieve your goals and boost profit margins.

Talk to Existing Customers

Make note of all of your current client’s shipping locations, and ask them if there are other locations, subsidiaries, or partners that you can team up with along those corridors. Sure, it’s easy to do an online search, but companies change ownership hands, lose clients and find new ones that might be noted on the web.

Be certain to remind them (should they choose to recommend you) that you offer solid trucking rate confirmations for their protection and their company’s. This helps shippers know that they are getting paid in accordance with the terms of the agreement.

Know Your Competitors

The shipping industry is highly ambitious, so building credit as a freight broker is important to keep up with competitors and exceed them. Strong credit along with satisfied shippers and recipients can allow you to negotiate higher prices as a broker.

After all, carriers and shippers tend to lean towards reliable, low-risk freight brokers. To better understand what your competition is doing, research what the top freight brokers in those regions are doing. Find out what they are charging. Do they work with fixed percentages or have a sliding scale to accommodate changes?

These discoveries can help identify areas of weakness in a competitor’s business structure. You can then find ways to serve portions of certain sectors of the market that other freight brokers are neglecting.

Make Some Cold Calls

Finding shippers as a freight broker can be as easy as making a few cold calls that could potentially lead to fruitful partnerships. Before cold calling, prepare a proposition and sales pitch that explains why your freight brokering service will value prospective clients.

Know that the first ten seconds of engagement will be the most critical. After a quick introduction, get right to the point. Discuss the regional company’s target shipping zones. Showing familiarity with the area means local businesses are likely to work with you.

Should they be interested, talk about how you factor invoices with a factory company. Explain that this practice streamlines the process, giving shippers easy access to collecting payments. If you haven’t already, consider signing a notice of assignment to simplify paperwork while ensuring satisfied shippers.

Warm Calling Tactics

Making warm calls is a bit more involved than cold calling, but it tends to yield better results. Instead of walking in half-blind, know what the shipper’s primary service needs are and whether they’ve expressed any interest in freight shippers or are looking for new partnerships.

This ensures that you don’t waste their time or yours, should their needs be well covered currently (unless you want to try and undercut competitors). It also shows your genuine interest in receiving them as clients and meeting their needs.

Reach out to Former Customers

Former customer accounts that suddenly ghost you are termed ‘orphan accounts’. Making contact with these former clients can be a remarkable way to expand your customer list and make your trucking business more profitable.

However, if there was a reason for their dissatisfaction with you, be sure to let them know that you have taken steps to resolve issues from the past in those areas. Explain that you’d like to regain their business. You may even offer a discounted rate for a few months to those who sign back on as a sign of good faith.

Look for Referrals

Owners are far more receptive to referrals provided by fellow trusted associates, and they carry more power in lead generation than marketing or advertising content. After developing solid relationships with a shipper, don’t be shy about asking for referrals.

Ask them if they are aware of other businesses in need of shipping brokerage services. If you’re lacking referrals, boosting credit with nonrecourse factoring for freight brokers may be a good option to free up working capital. This could make or break a client’s decision.

Create a Loyalty Program

Loyalty programs serve two primary purposes: to incentivize current clients to keep them with your company and to generate freight industry buzz that can establish and grow your brand image. These typically provide discounts, rewards, and other incentives to attract and retain clients.

Sponsoring a loyalty program fosters shipper retention and can result in overall growth in the industry. These programs can have a lasting major impact on your business, as they can strongly influence consumers’ decisions.

Rewarding loyalty counts, and promoting such programs can be amazing marketing strategies that distinguish your freight brokerage from others in ways beyond more than just price. Loyalty programs can involve several aspects with a similar principle. Most of them offer clients discounted brokerage rates after a certain number of transactions.

However, loyalty programs can entail more than only rewarding repeat customers. They can also be tailored to fit the main niche of your brokerage and be a more interesting way to express your company’s vision. Loyalty programs can deepen relationships while showing appreciation to clients.

Transportation Factoring for Truckers With Advanced Commercial Capital

Learn more about how to find shippers as a freight broker with assistance from the experienced team at Advanced Commercial Capital. We are the top choice for factoring for truckers, because we specialize in this field, giving it our full attention. In fact, factoring and related processes are all we do!

Invoice factoring offers trucking companies a number of benefits that make these agreements worthwhile. We can help secure advance funds that factoring can provide to help your startup or keep your business growing.

These finances can assist with covering payroll, fuel, maintenance, insurance, and other trucking-related expenses. Additionally, our factoring company can help save you money. We charge no setup fees and don’t require contracts while offering time-saving tools for shippers.