OK, everyone, thank you for joining for the module. Twenty one. This one is talking about how to effectively communicate with the shippers. So that's there's different aspects to the dispatching to your dispatching duties. One is talking to drivers. One is talking to shippers and brokers and another is talking to the receivers, possibly at times. So there's kind of different ways to communicate. with these entities so right now we're going to talk about how to effectively communicate uh with the shippers and I think you all will find this uh module of great benefit so listen up guys so Let's start here. Let's say you finally get the shipper on the phone and this is your golden opportunity. This is the moment you've been waiting for. Right. And, you know, you get on the phone with the shipper and you just freeze. You have no clue what to say to this shipper. OK. And the last thing that you want to do is. come off, you know, you don't want to be worried. You don't want to be worried about sounding crazy to the shipper. You don't want to come off like you don't know what you're talking about, like you're a newbie, you know, so now you're all frustrated, you're worried and you're panicking. So that's what this chapter is about. I want to be able to walk you guys through proper communication so that that confidence is there when you are talking to these shippers, asking them for their business. Okay. Now, before we get into the chapter, let me just preface by saying I thought, you know, about how I wanted to set up this chapter. I could have just added some scripts in here, you know, giving you guys scripts to follow and say, just use these and you'll be fine. You know, but to be very honest, you all, I am not a script person. I cannot stand scripts. They are very robotic. They make you sound very robotic and monotone, which I absolutely hate. It makes me itch. It annoys me. And it just takes away from your personality, okay? Everybody's personality is different. Everybody's vocabulary is different. And so the last thing I want to do is set anybody up for failure by just throwing some scripts in this chapter. and telling you to just use that, and that's all you have to do, okay? And furthermore, if all shippers make decisions differently, how can I just provide you with one script that's supposed to influence all of them? You know what I mean? That's really all a cold call is, right? It's the process of reaching out to someone we've never spoken to with the goal of influencing their decision to work with us. That's what it's about. We're not trying to convince. We're not debating them. We're not trying to manipulate them. We're just trying to engage them, establish trust, and then locate an opportunity or for an issue that they have and see if we can provide a solution for it. So rather than me giving you specific words for you to read, I'm going to take you through the structure of the call, okay, and what you should be achieving in each step. First thing we are going to want to know, we're going to want to figure out what's in it for them. Mm hmm. You know, as in why should they care about whatever it is you're calling about? OK, you know, think about it. Think about when when you get a cold call, if someone doesn't get to the point pretty quickly and start engaging you, what's going to happen? You know, unless you're that super sweet person that just, you know, always gives telemarketers the time of day. You know, that one percent of the world that does that. OK, cool. The other ninety nine percent. We're going to hang up. Right. That's exactly that's what we're going to do. And that is where so many people go wrong because they begin their call by announcing who they are, who they work for and why they're the greatest thing in the world since, you know, sliced bread. OK. And then they expect the person that's listening to to their little spill to just be so impressed that they stop everything they're doing and buy whatever it is they're selling. That's just not how this works. And then there's the approach of, hey, this is so-and-so from so-and-so brokerage. And I was just calling to see if we could discuss the possibility of us working together. OK, now imagine if you got that call, would you stop what you're doing so that a salesperson can have a conversation about selling you something or convincing you to work with them? You know, probably not. But don't get me wrong, guys. Sometimes that approach can work. OK, it's really you really have to be able to fill out the person that you're speaking with. OK, because I'll give you an example. Some companies that, you know, transport whoever the traffic manager is, a lot of times they work with lots of brokers. And, you know, if they email out, for example, if they email out a list of what loads they have for the day and you're interested in possibly quoting that, they'll just say, sure, what's your email? I'll put you on our list so we can when we send out our emails every morning, you'll get it. OK, it could be as simple as that, you know. So if that's the case, you don't want to put on your whole razzle dazzle and do all that because it's just not necessary. And the shipper may not even want to, knowing that the shipper is already going to add you, if the shipper already knows they're going to add you in their head, But they're just kind of waiting for you to get it all out. You know, if they're sounding annoyed, like, come on, you know, they're probably going to, in so many words, cut you off and say, yeah, you know, just we can get you on the list. You know, we'll add you. And if it's as simple as that, then let let that be good enough. Let him put you on the list and say, have a great day. OK, don't stay on the phone and do all the extra stuff if it's not necessary. okay most of the time it is going to be necessary you're going to need to convince somebody but every now and then you'll get a shipper that's like sure just give me your email we'll add you on the list or something like that okay so if that's the case you roll with that um so but in the other times um we need to we need to have an approach right so what works We need to start by having an approach and having an intention before we pick up the phone and call somebody, okay? Let's go over some examples of that. It could be that you deliver loads, okay, to that shipper's location, okay? That's one. It could be that you have drivers that are legitimately looking for backhauls from one of your other customers, okay? um it could be that you specialize in whatever their commodity is you know it could be like heavy equipment or building materials maybe you specialize in moving that type of freight because a lot of times those type of materials um are wide loads can be wide loads just depending on you know what it is um and if you specialize in wide wide loads um that that could be um appealing to the shipper because they'll know that you have experience in wide loads and you know what that type of stuff requires. That could be an example as well. It could even be that your brokerage only works with companies in their industry and that their competitors use you, okay? So for example, if you're calling a steel company, whoever is the competitor of that steel company, you get on the phone, steel company say, hey, this is so-and-so with so-and-so brokerage, whatever the competitor company is, you wanna say their name. We book loads for, I'm sorry, we haul freight for, X, you know, ABC. And, you know, we were just curious if we could possibly help you out as well. OK, something like that. It really does not matter what you lead with as long as it answers the question of what's in it for them. OK, that is what's important. OK, so now that we have the shipper's attention, OK, we're letting them know, hey, this is what what's in it for you. This is what we can do potentially. Now we got to deliver on that. Right. So my go to when talking to a shipper is this is just my go to, you know, I typically say something like, well, we have trucks that deliver in your area weekly. Plenty of times every week we've got a receiver out that way, a couple of miles away from you, and I'd like to discuss to see if we may be a fit to work together. From there, what I do is I will pivot to asking about a few specific lanes that I've prepared. These are just best guesses. lanes that I believe that they may possibly be running. Okay. So for example, let's say if the shipper is in Memphis, Tennessee, I'm letting him know, Hey, we deliver to Memphis, Tennessee about twenty times a week. Okay. We've got trucks that drop out there about, uh, I'm sorry, twenty times a week. So, OK, now what I would then say is, you know, once our drivers deliver, they're looking for backhauls home. OK, and we're trying to constantly find loads right there where you are to get them home. We've got drivers that live in the northeastern region. OK, and then we also have a lot of drivers that live in the Midwest. okay so we need to we're trying to network with companies and businesses to try to get these drivers home okay and the less that our drivers are looking at new facilities every week the less that we have to worry about things like detention and unpredictable loading docks you know all that type of stuff that comes with having to um take loads from brokers um you know in go to these new businesses that may or may not have their stuff together. So, you know, we've heard from other drivers that you've really got a hand on your operations. And so teaming up together could potentially make for a smoother process for both of us, you know, so has it been finding capacity for your Northeast and your Midwest lane? Okay. That's the, that's the kind of conversation you want to have guys. you know and feel free to use my little spill but that's that's typically what I run with uh that's what has worked best for me uh my within my years of brokering okay now okay so now let's talk about what your secret weapon is okay yes you do have a secret weapon we're going to talk about that so We want to always, guys, we always, I'm sorry, take good notes on this. That's why I have her over there. You need to take good notes, especially on this whole chapter, guys, exam, okay? um so yeah uh your secret weapon guys we always want to follow up each statement with a question okay so that we can engage the other person on the line in further conversation and um that's important to do Next thing, a great tip to remember is that you have two ears and one mouth, okay? So we want to use them appropriately. We want to listen twice as much as we are talking, okay? Building a rapport is mostly established when the other person is talking and we're doing active listening, okay? And the key word there is active, actively listening, okay? So we're listening... not only to what's being said, but how it's being said. Okay. You want to think about the tone of voice and the rate of the speech. Okay. How fast or how slow that person is talking. And then what you want to do from there is you want to try and mirror that exact tone and rate of speech with your own. Okay. So you want to mirror that, you know, for example, um, In New York, people talk very fast, okay? They talk fast, they talk loud, and just, you know, you guys know how New Yorkers are. I love New Yorkers, by the way. But they value time and efficiency. You know, they're quick, quick, quick, boom, boom, boom. So if you're talking to somebody, you know, and you'll hear in their tone, we all know when we're talking to somebody from New York, right? So you'll hear that, and you want to respect that by picking up your pace in your tone. You know, especially if you're from the South. OK, because in the South, you typically have a little slower rate of speech. OK. You know, it's just and it just comes with different regions of the country. So sometimes one person can be different from one day to the next. You know, that's why your secret weapon is listening, guys, not just waiting for your turn to speak. OK, so make sure that you're practicing all of these. when you're on the phone with the chipper, okay? Now, let us talk about how to project yourself, okay? Write this down. This is very important. You have to do this, okay? No matter what, you always, always want to smile, okay? It is that simple. okay it's simple but it really is the most important thing no matter what you have to make sure that you are smiling guys because your voice you know that comes um it it comes across to the other person on the phone they can hear it in your voice and when you're smiling your voice uh it's gonna change okay and it'll also change based on your mood and your posture okay so one of the best ways Get some pep in your voices to stand up when you're making calls, okay? Because that'll immediately add energy to your voice. Motion creates emotion, okay? So stand up, walk around, do some jumping jacks, you know, get the blood flowing. Because no one wants to do business with Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh, if you guys know who that is, okay? um you know the donkey that was always talking slow and he was always monotone and depressed nobody wants to do business with somebody like that okay um smiling like I said smiling also changes the tone of your voice you know have you ever you know have you wanted to work have you ever wanted to work with someone that that was just miserable no because that energy transfers over to you right so neither do your prospects so you need to be sure that you got a note somewhere on your desk, put a little sticky note that reminds you to smile before you are making those type of calls, okay? Make sure to smile. All right. So lastly, you need to make sure that you have a prepared list of questions to ask in the conversation, okay? That would be very wise of you to do. So a couple of things that you could ask. I am going to give a few examples. One thing that you could ask is, can you tell me a little about how your shipping organization, I'm sorry, how your shipping is organized? Okay. How do you go about organizing your loads and how do you go about providing your loads, you know, sending, giving your loads, distributing. That's what I was looking for. How do you go about distributing your loads? Okay. That would be one good question to ask. You know, maybe they do it by email. Maybe they have you log into a website and if you are available to take a lane, you check the lane and then you get the load or, you know, maybe who knows. Every shipper is different, right? Another good question to ask is how many full truck loads do you ship on an average week? Okay, that's a great question to ask. So you can know how many lows that that shipper has on a regular basis to see what type of money you can make from them potentially, okay? Another question would be, how about during your busy season? Because we do, not we, shippers do have busy seasons, peak seasons is what they call them. You got your slow season, you got your peak seasons, okay? So you will wanna know if they have peak seasons. So the first question would be is, You know, how many loads do you move during your busy season? And then the next one will be when is your busy season, okay? So for some people, it'll be summer. Some people, depending on the commodities, it could be winter. Or, you know, it may not be any season. It may just be they're busy all year round, which would be great, right? Another question to ask is do you have any of your own trucks, okay? Do you have an in-house fleet that a lot of your loads go on, you know? Just again, to give you kind of an idea of how many loads may be available for you to help with as a broker. OK, what all of these questions have in common, guys, is that they are all open ended questions, meaning that they can't be answered by yes or no. OK, that's important. We do not want to ask closed questions, guys, because we don't want to give them an opportunity to say no. We want them to talk as much as possible so we can learn as much as possible about the business. Remember that when you're preparing your list of questions. All right. Guys, all these tips and structures should help you to better organize your thoughts and better execute your calls. Make sure that you don't forget the most important aspects. Okay. For any, for any business that you're calling in, this is very, very important. Okay. You have to ask for the business. Okay. Don't forget that that's very important. Ask for the business guys. Okay. No one is going to come out and just offer you their business. Okay. It's not only the most important thing, but it's also one of the things that rookies or newbies forget the most, okay? So you need to remember to ask for that business, guys. You know, put another reminder, another sticky note above your desk that reminds you to ask for the business no matter what, okay? And I guarantee you, if you do that and follow these instructions in this course, you are going to earn some business, okay? It will be inevitable. You can do it. OK, so that is going to complete the end of this chapter, guys. As always, I want to thank you for your time and I will see you in the next video. OK, guys, you heard what she said towards the end. Do not forget or do not be afraid to ask for the business. That is the whole basis of the conversation. She mentioned pertinent questions that you need to ask. So don't lose focus of what the call is for. Do not get in a situation where you get sidetracked or you lose your courage. The only thing they can do is say no. So you must ask for the business in order to develop your book of business. All right, that's the end of that module, so let's move on to our next one.