Great prospecting starts with a compelling hook. Of all the various freight broker sales tips, setting the hook is essential for getting and keeping a prospect’s attention.
The hook is the alternative reason for reaching out to a prospect that does not involve trying to sell your product or service. It could be casually talking about an announcement your prospect’s company just made about a new product or customer. It could be relevant industry news, like a recent merger or acquisition. Or it could be a conference presentation or webinar your prospect just delivered.
Whatever hook you use, it must be highly relevant to your prospect. Using a hook shows that you are not just calling down a list of companies, but have done your research and might have something of value in freight broker sales to share with them.
To help you build a hook that works time and time again, here are seven of the most effective ways the best freight brokers set the hook when prospecting.
The first place to look for your hook is also the most obvious. Your prospect’s website will have vital information you need about where the company is located, the products it sells, and the customers it serves. Company websites are positioned to speak directly to customers. Go through this information carefully; it will give you numerous clues how to position your sales presentation to align with how it serves your prospect’s customers.
Setting up Google alerts on prospects is a simple but fantastic tactic in this list of freight broker sales tips. Google alerts keep you connected with the latest news and announcements, even after your mind has shifted focus to another prospect. Opening an email or cold call mentioning exciting news about a new customer, product or acquisition will help start a conversation. It also shows your prospect that you keep on top of industry trends.
Speaking of keeping on top of trends, using freight market data is another attention grabber that is not as always evident in the list of freight broker sales tips. Building an opening line that draws your prospects into an article about what is happening now with load volumes and truck capacity is sure to leave them wanting to know more. Using powerful freight market analytic tools like FreightWaves SONAR will give you the ultimate freight market data you can use to set a hook with all of your prospects.
Much like the latest headline about prospects themselves, sharing news about their industry and competitors can be just as powerful and effective as the other freight broker sales tips listed today. Even more powerful is using information from the first three categories above, company information and news along with freight market data and industry trends to create your own analysis that will set a hook each and every time.
With the rise of virtual conferences, this hook technique has become even more powerful. Way back when, like 2019, most freight broker sales tips said freight brokers would have to travel hundreds or even thousands of miles to hear a prospect speak live at an industry conference. Now, with virtual conferences at low- to no-cost to attend, any freight broker can listen in on a prospect’s live or on-demand presentation. This gives you the perfect opportunity to reach out and start a discussion about the prospect’s recent conference presentation. After all, everyone likes to share their knowledge; set it up so that your prospects can share their knowledge with you.
You can also reach out to prospects that have appeared on podcasts and webinars in much the same way as you would with conferences. It’s a perfect opportunity to start a conversation by asking questions and letting your prospect be the authority on a topic. A more powerful method, however, is to create your own podcast and invite your prospects on as guests. This allows you to prospect without necessarily trying to pitch your product or service. It also allows you to build quite a bit of credibility, by creating an immense amount of value for your prospect without asking anything in return.
Always follow your prospects on social media. Post and comment on topics that your prospects find interesting. This hook-setting strategy allows you to both acknowledge your prospects’ expertise as well as your own. There is no reason to be too “salesy” right off the bat, even though it’s very tempting to do so. By interacting with your prospects on LinkedIn or Twitter about different topics, you build credibility. Once you have built some rapport with a prospect is the time when you can use it as your hook to start talking shop a bit more seriously.
FreightWaves SONAR provides the fastest freight market data in the world across all major modes of traffic – guiding those who are seeking how to be a successful freight broker or to use in executing these freight broker sales tips. The SONAR platform is the only freight forecasting and analytics platform that offers real-time freight market intelligence driven off actual freight contract tenders.
SONAR contains proprietary data that comes from actual load tenders, electronic logging devices and transportation management systems, along with dozens of third-party global freight and logistics-related index providers like TCA Benchmarking, Freightos, ACT, Drewry and DTN.
Whether you’re working from the office or from home, SONAR can provide you the data and intelligence you need to stay ahead of your competitors.
Find out more about FreightWaves SONAR for brokers. You can find more information on freight brokerage and carrier sales tips on the popular FreightWaves sales show, Put That Coffee Down.
