After 20 years as a third-party logistics provider, our company understands what it takes to assist freight brokers with building their respective book of business. We want to be honest and say it is hard work. Prospecting can be very difficult, especially in the current state of the market.
One of the toughest parts of business is landing a new customer. You take the time to prospect, reach out in a multitude of ways (cold calling, emails, social media, etc.) and sometimes to no avail. There is no "one size fits all" approach for any business, which adds to the frustration.
On average, it takes out 8-12 touch points to reach out to customers and 5 follow ups after a meeting to land a new prospect. With the constant state of marketing, it can be so easy to have your message lost in the clutter. How many emails do you delete from your inbox that were sent by a random party, not personalized and sometimes the messaging doesn't even make sense? Odds are, too many.
Freight Brokers are busy running the day-to-day business and there may not always be time to get on the phone, create a post or an email message to target potential new business. How can you stay ahead? Let's talk customer retention!
In business, the old adage is a customer is around 5 to 10x cheaper to maintain than it is to find a new customer. If you're a Freight Broker Agent, it's simply easier to run your business with the same partnerships, knowing that you would have the same baseline each month.
As a business owner, you should always be looking for a new customer, as your current customer situation may inevitably change. Do the hard work in your free time before the next customer becomes a need. Marketing itself isn't a faucet, you cannot turn it on and off as needed. We suggest keeping your marketing consistent throughout the year, making sure you're putting your brand out there for all to see.
The best way to retain your customer is to:
- build a positive report with them
- listen to their needs
- always understand their expectations
- always over deliver
It sounds intuitive but every situation is different. Expectations will be different with every company you work with and it can be easy to get lost in the minutia of your daily tasks. We suggest keeping the human element as your focus in your business. Help your partners and provide you solution, while keeping your relationships first.
*Image from Scott Graham of Unsplash
