How to Write a High-Converting Freight Broker Sales Pitch

To grow your freight brokerage, you’ll need to prospect for new business constantly. You’ll need to refine your freight broker sales pitch to be successful, whether you’re doing in-person visits or sending cold emails.

Some customers will drop over time, no matter how good you are at your job. If you’re not adding new customers regularly, you’re losing ground. So, let’s talk about how to craft your freight broker sales pitch email, look at a few templates, and kick around a few freight broker sales tips to help grow your business.

How to craft a great freight broker sales pitch

When sending an email, you need a great freight broker sales pitch that captures attention and gets them to open your email. Since less than 30% of all emails get opened, you’ll need to grab them immediately with an engaging subject line.

The subject line

The job of your subject line is to capture their attention, make a good first impression, and get recipients to open your email.

The best advice for crafting a subject line is to focus on how you can solve your prospect’s problem. For example, if you know that shippers are struggling to find carriers, you might focus on how your network solves that problem. If you’re soliciting carriers, you might talk about how you’ve got loads ready to go.

Most people read many of their emails on mobile devices, so keep your subject line short to avoid email platforms from cutting it off. Shoot for between 40 and 70 characters total (including spaces). According to a study by Marketo, the best-performing subject lines are about seven words.

The email body

People have short attention spans, so even if you get someone to open your email, you’ll need relevant and concise content to hold their attention. Most people will skim your email, spending only 10 seconds looking at so don’t waste their time! Consider using bullet points and headlines to emphasize key points.

You need to explain the problem and how you can solve it quickly. Here are three steps to crafting your freight broker sales pitch.

• Explain the problem
• Empathize with the challenge
• Offer a viable solution

Who you are and what you do

Provide a one-line value statement that explains who you are and why they should do business with you. You want to establish trust and tell prospects what makes you different from other brokers.

The call to action

You’ll want to conclude with a to action to get them to take the next step. It should be direct and to the point, so tell them exactly what you want to do. Limit your ask to one thing to make it simple and easy for them to act.

Of the emails that get opened and read, the average clickthrough rate is less than 3%, so you need to give them a compelling reason to click or call.

6 questions brokers should ask shippers during an in-person sales pitch

When you get an opportunity to talk to someone on the phone or meet in person, remember that your focus needs to be firmly on them. It’s all about what you can do for them.

Here are some of the questions you should ask shippers during an in-person pitch.

Question #1. What are your biggest challenges at the moment?

The faster you can understand their pain points, the easier it will be to tailor your approach to fit their situation.

You must listen intently here. It will shape the rest of your conversation as you continue to talk about their problems and explain what you can do to solve them later.

Question #2. How much time and money are these issues costing you each month?

If possible, you want them to quantify the impact of these problems. For example, if they are consistently paying higher rates because they are having trouble finding carriers in their lanes, this can help when you discuss your carrier network.

You’ll also want to determine how big a problem this is and what happens if they don’t solve the issue. Once you are aware of the problem, you can empathize with them and let them know others have felt the same way, and then explain how you were able to solve their problems.

Question #3. How much time do you spend fixing issues every week related to your logistics?

This can make your prospects think about their recent problems and relive the frustration. It can be a great way to transition into how you can relieve their frustration.

Question #4. What do you like most about your current broker partners?

They’ve likely been working with another broker for some time, so assess how happy they are with the relationship. If they are happy, you’ll have to work harder to find the opportunity. If they aren’t satisfied, find out why and see if it’s something you can address.

You may want to follow up by asking about what they like least about their current broker partners to see if that gets a reaction.

Question #5. What does the process look like when you add new broker partners or vendors?

This helps you understand what it takes to start working with them. Some companies have a formal process, such as procuring bids or submitting a request for proposals (RFP). Some have layers of management that are part of the process. Others do business on a handshake.

You are trying to determine if you are talking to the actual decision-maker or how you will have to tailor your approach to secure their business.

Question #6: How are you currently measuring success?

This is also a helpful question to determine how a company will measure freight brokers in the future. Different shippers will use different metrics, including things like:

• Total costs
• # of tenders accepted
• On-time pickup and delivery
• Claims

Getting them to tell you their top two or three gives you a better idea of what they value.

How to distribute your sales pitch (with templates)

While you will want to customize your sales pitch, here are a few templates to get you started on the right path.

Sample email template

Keep your email short and sweet. Get right to the point and get them to act! The best way to approach email is to do a little online research first to find out about the prospect and then personalize them. For example:

Subject line:
Frustrated with high shipping costs? We can help.

Body:

With XYZ Company, you’ll always get the best rates with the best carriers.

• We rate against hundreds of thousands of daily loans and a million power units so you get the best pricing available.
• You won’t have to wait for responses. We use AI to get rate data fast and book your loads.
• We work with an extensive carrier network so we can handle your loads, guaranteed.

Call to Action:

Learn how we can solve your logistics problems, get your loads shipped fast, and do it all for less. Contact Jim at XYZ Company today.

Sample phone template

Unless you’ve already pre-qualified a prospect, your phone call has to find out whether the customer has a need and whether you’re speaking to the right person. In most cases, the person you’re calling will be busy, so you can’t waste their time.

Hello. My name is Jim and I’m a freight broker at XYC Company. I know you’re busy so let me ask you just one question: We’re hearing from a lot of shippers that they’re increasingly frustrated with delivery times and shipping costs. Are you having any problems getting your shipment delivered on time at a reasonable rate?

If the answer is yes, then dive into your solutions. If the answer is no, move on to other potential pain points or use some of the questions above. Your goal is to find out where they need help so you can discuss how you can solve their problem. But first, you have to find out what the problems are.

The problem you focus on in the first question will vary depending on what is currently trending in the industry. It might be based on capacity issues, rising fuel costs, or something different altogether. The goal is to get a prospect talking, to pinpoint problems so you can keep them on the line to listen to your pitch.

Sample in-person template

When you get an in-person meeting, you’ll likely have a little more time to talk. You’ll want to have a good 30-second elevator speech about you and your company and then launch into the questions above to identify pain points and solutions.

Thanks for meeting with me. XYC Brokerage has been in the logistics business for more than 20 years and we’ve moved millions of shipments. We work with hundreds of companies like yours so we know what it takes to get the job right. We can handle the logistics headaches for you so you can focus more on taking your business to the next level. We have access to the largest network of carriers in your lanes which means we get you the best rates.

Can I ask you a few questions to see if we can help?

Find capacity and build a stronger business.

Prospecting for new business may not be fun, but it is an essential part of growing your business. By asking the right questions and using these freight broker sales tips, you can improve your cold calling, email, and in-person visits.

As you grow, Truckstop is here to help you scale. You can find capacity, find the best rates and carriers, and book loads instantly to build a strong business.

Buy Truckstop Load Board for Brokers today.