Just as there are recipes for success, there are recipes for failure. As a freight broker agent, you’ve done your homework and you’ve tested things during the course of your business that have helped you determine what works and what does not. For a freight broker agent, a typical day almost always involves having several balls in the air at once. And when things get busy or you get caught up in the day-to-day minutia of things, it’s all too easy to slip into low gear or take your eye off the prize. For instance, how many of you have lost sight of obtaining new contacts, emails or phone numbers? How many of you stopped building your contact list? Or only send emails rather than use the phone, if you DO make any contacts? Do you believe that your customers will stay loyal and always work with you? Do you only service the current customers that you have? Or maybe you’ve decided to coast and rest on the current flow of business that you have. These behaviors sound pretty harmless and might even be acceptable to you. But know this: If you continue on this path for your business, you are most definitely creating a Recipe for Failure.
The billionaire Charlie Munger has a strategy to discover how to be successful called “Inversion”. Basically, this strategy means that in order to figure out how to BE successful, you must first ask what it would take to be UNsuccessful. Freight broker agents can apply this principle to moving freight as well. So, according to Munger’s strategy, the following actionables would be a Freight Broker’s Recipe for Success:
- Obtain three new email contacts and three new phone numbers every day.
- Call 10 prospects every day.
- Add to your contact list every day.
- Use the telephone as much as possible rather than just sending emails.
- Be aware that your customers will eventually leave at some point, so prepare by adding to and diversifying your contact list.
Remember, this is a minimum. Following this Recipe for Success isn’t just for when you’re not doing as well or not moving as much freight as you would like. A successful freight broker would continue following this Recipe for Success even when they don’t have to. So when the down cycle comes, for example in December which is typically a slow month in the freight sales industry, you’ll be so well prepared with your large and prosperous contact list that you won’t feel any strain. It’s just like Sun Tzu said, “Plan for what is difficult while it is easy, do what is great while it is small”.
Ten calls a day and 3 new contacts a day is a minimum. Want to get ahead FASTER, then:
- Make more calls.
- Contact more new prospects.
- Diversify your contact list.
When you’re in a down cycle, it’s just as important to keep following this recipe. During these times, diversify your contact list. Just as you wouldn’t invest all your money in the stock market in just one stock or bond, don’t put all your hopes of moving freight on just a few prospects.
Getting three new contacts a day is increasing the investment you have in this industry. When you do this, the result is simple: you make more sales and achieve your goals faster, building an ongoing successful freight agent business.
