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Welcome to our new series “Get To Know A Broker”! This our second editon and we are fortunate enough to have Brian share his experience of being a freight broker and how he got there! He gives great advice about how to stand out as a Freight Broker and the importance of Self Care to be always operating at your best!

• Please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?

“I kind of happened on this industry accidentally. I was working in a warehouse, they started cutting my hours from full-time to part-time so I emailed one of the brokers that we were using to move our freight and got an interview the next day.”

• Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?

“I only lasted 5 months in my first role in operations. The 3PL where I was at was fairly large and had the sales person pay 33% of your salary and expenses, as a result they were breathing down your neck all day and really gave it to you when you messed up. Which, as someone so green to the industry, happened a few times. The only upside for this company was that they provided great training that most small to medium sized companies could not provide.

Once I started at my next company, I already had a head start as they were expecting to hire someone green. Since then, I spent time only at 2 other brokers and have been consistently trending upwards throughout my short career.

There have been some downs but a huge majority of ups. I started out green, and then spent years as just customer service, then quickly used the skills that I learned to propel myself to dispatch and sales.”

• Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about your Brokerage – what should we know?

“I currently work at a small 3PL. I tell everyone that it’s “boutique sized” to glam it up a little. My selling point for customers is that we offer catered and hands-on service to accommodate all of their needs. Currently, 90% of my work is intra-Canadian freight.”

• Where did you get your training? What did you like and dislike about it?

“My training was done on the job at Traffic Tech, here in Montreal. Their process has been unmatched, compared to the unstructured on-the-job training that I have witnessed at my other employers.

They had a binder that acted as your manual and provided you with daily training in a CSR “incubator” that came with a secluded test-system where they had you run scenarios. You have to pass the incubator phase to graduate to working for your sales person. They would also call newer CSRs in for pop quizzes to test how well they knew their material. It was a great system and I wish I saw that from other employers.”

• Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success in the Logistics industry?

“I have learned over the years to detach myself as much as I can from my work at the end of the day as a means to self preservation. In an industry where we’re kind of working 24/7, I find that we need to be deliberate in taking care of our stress. This isn’t exclusive to logistics and transportation but I try to tell every green person that I come across that they need to actively practice self care to avoid burnout.

I also tell myself that if problems didn’t happen, I’d be out of a job. People are constantly amazed by how calm and unstressed I am in this stressful, hectic industry. Part of it comes from my ability to break down obstacles and problems and tackle them in an efficient manner. By tackling a few tasks at a time, you avoid feeling overwhelmed, which is where mistakes happen.”

• What has been the proudest moment of your career as a Freight Broker so far?

“I was able to bring over an old customer from one employer to the other, not from just soliciting but from providing customer service so great that it was memorable to them.”

• Lastly, any advice you would like to give to other people wanting to get into the logistics industry?!

“Practice deliberate self-care. If nothing ever goes wrong, we’re out of a job.”

Working in thefreight brokerageindustry is not a simple task, and it takes a certain type of person to make a successfulshipping agent. If you are thinking about entering this career field, you should first take a look to see if you have some of the most important characteristics needed to be a great shipping agent.

PEOPLE SKILLS

Any professional that works in the freight brokerage industry will need to have good people and communication skills. It is important to remember that you need to have a good relationship with your clients in order to earn your living, so you’ll need to go the extra mile to make them happy. By nurturing this relationship, you can help to develop a long-term business partnership that will provide you with a steady stream of income.

TRANSPORTATION INDUSTRY KNOWLEDGE

Freight brokers spend a lot of time working with professionals in the transportation industry, specifically those who work in trucking. Therefore, it is important to make sure that you know about the environmental and safety regulations that surround this industry. You will need to be updated on transportation costs like fuel prices, and you will also need to find the most honest and reliable companies to transport your client’s freight.

TOPNOTCH OFFICE SKILLS

As a shipping agent you will spend most of your time in your office, in front of your computer, and you will rarely make contact with any of the freight that you are having shipped. Therefore, it is important to ensure that you have advanced computer skills, and you will need to be highly organized to ensure that shipments are arriving at the correct destination at the right time. You will also need to find cost-effective transportation, so being skilled in research and negotiation will also be helpful.

PROFESSIONALISM

As a freight broker, you will deal with a variety of shippers on a daily basis, so you will need to interact with them in a professional and courteous manner. It is imperative that you project the image of your company as one that is professional so that your customers feel confident that their freight is being handled with care. You should also ensure that you are being honest with your clients and refrain from engaging in unethical activities that could jeopardize your integrity and reputation, as this could be detrimental to your business.

Freight Broker can be very valuable to a business, especially if they find the right one. Being in this business for 10 years now, it is amazing to see how most broker operate. We have built our business on a simple concept, having the best customer service possible. Why is this so important and how can this help with long term success?

I would say the first step is being able to get your foot in their door. When you are trying to obtain a customer’s business, you are more than likely having to outdo their current options whether that be carriers directly or other freight broker. A lot of business only care about one thing, price. If that is their only care and the only thing that determines to win and losing business, then they might not be a great fit for your business. Those types of businesses sometimes don’t understand the value of building a relationship with someone that actually cares. There is a lot of value that a broker can bring to the table, you just need to make sure you explain that and hope they get it.

Once you have earned that opportunity to quote them, you need to prove why you are good at what you do. You know the figure of speech “the early bird gets the worm”? Well, when it comes to quoting you want to try and make sure you are the first person to respond. You want to make that impression that you are always on top of your emails etc. I cannot tell you how many times we win orders because we were the first to respond and not necessarily the cheapest option. Our goal is to respond within 5 minutes of the request.

By being extremely punctual has many advantages. We want to be that company where we are always given that last chance to beat the lowest rate if we are not it. This will allow us to figure out if there is enough profit on the shipment to get the order. We are that company for the majority of our customers as they know that they are in the best hands possible.  You are also proving to the customer that you have all your ducks in a row. When they ask for help they want it now, not 30 minutes from now, and not hours later. We hear it too many times where people don’t provide this kind of service and we love to hear that. That makes us stand out from the crowd and make a huge statement for us.

The next part of proving your worth comes when the rate quote actually is given. When you ask a lot of questions it sometimes makes the customer question their other options on why they are not asking these types of questions. The easiest example to give of that would be when they provide a minimal amount of info needed for a quote. We always want to make sure we get actual dimensions, a description of the freight, and most important the shipment value. Ready more about shipment value here (insert link for article). By asking all of these questions it shows that we are covering all of our basis to give the most accurate quote possible. This avoids any future issues. For example, when they accept your quote but you didn’t ask questions upfront, and now it is a residential delivery, or it is oversized and now has extreme length charges, or it is valued at $50,000 and the quote you gave them only covers $5,000. Now you can see why it makes sense to ask all of this upfront.

Another very important factor in building long term success and that is that honesty is the absolute best policy. Let’s clear one thing up now, nobody is perfect. Yes, we make mistakes as does everyone else. It is just a matter of fessing up to it and then dealing with it from there. I obviously like it when our competitors don’t have the same mindset as it only makes us look better than we already do. Whether the mistake is small or big, customers always understand that things happen. Don’t try and hide it and point fingers. This will never benefit you and only put you at risk for the worst thing possible, and that is losing a customer’s business forever if you get caught.

One major characteristic that makes us look great is that our customers know we are the experts. You want your customers to think of you first when they have a question they need to be answered or If they have an issue that needs to be tended to. Just be that company where you are always first on their list. This goes a long way and helps you build those lasting relationships.

After you have proven that you are good at what you do, then from there it is just a matter of being competitive with pricing and continue to provide the amazing service. In a perfect world, you want to be able to win every shipment, but the reality is that is never going to happen. Always make sure your customer knows you are wanting their business and make sure you are reaching out from time to time when things are slow for them.
To basically summarize this in a nutshell, be punctual, be available, be honest, and you will crush it! Source:https://www.freemanlogistics.com/blog/successful-freight-broker-characteristics/