In our Transportation Tuesday series, we’re partnering with industry leaders to share tips on how you can improve your business success and growth. This week’s tip is brought to you by Freight 360.
The number one issue freight brokers run into with prospecting is finding the time to actually make enough calls to close new customers. Below are tips will add the efficiency you need so you can make more calls.
What is ‘batching’?
“Batching” refers to the process of grouping similar tasks together. Think of a batch of cookies. It would take exponentially more time to mix the batter and bake each cookie one at a time. Sounds a little absurd, right? That’s exactly what we see with freight brokers. They search around the web looking for the perfect lead, spend anywhere from a minute up to 15-20 minutes to determine if they’re going to even call that lead. Then, once they’ve worked up enough courage, they’ll pick up that 300-pound phone and make that one dial. Chances are, they’ll either get a voicemail or be screened by a gatekeeper in their first attempt.
Just like baking one cookie at a time, they’ll expend all of this effort and time just to make a single dial. Then, if you haven’t been interrupted with an urgent customer email, you start the cycle all over again.
How batching works in lead generation
What we suggest is that you batch your lead generation time and your dial time separately. For instance, instead of searching for each lead before you dial, spend an allotted amount of time each day searching and compiling leads into your CRM or a lead list.
This allows you to focus on one skill at a time, which allows you to become better at it faster. It also takes the stress of dialing the phone out of lead generation. Now you won’t be using lead generation as a form of call avoidance. We’ve all spent a little extra time reading a company website to avoid picking up the phone.
Now you have a task that has a simple specific goal: Find a predetermined number of prospects in a specific amount of time.
Making calls
The other activity you’ll have batched is your actual dialing. Now that we have this as a standalone activity, we can evaluate how we’re doing and where we can improve. The number one area that will get you more customers is simple: Make more calls. Sales is a numbers game above all else. Think of it like baseball – you need lots of at-bats to hit home runs.
Now that you’re not slowing yourself down with other tasks, your call volume will go up. If you want to continually improve, pick a number each day as a target. Without it, you can’t tell if you accomplished what you’d set out to achieve, let alone achieve it. The trick is to pick a number that’s challenging but not so out of reach that you’ll be constantly let down if you don’t hit it. Then, increase it by 5-10% each day or week. This will allow you to build up your confidence faster, and you’ll work gradually up to your dialing potential without the burnout and emotional ups and downs.
None of these are a magic bullet to hit any target you want. They are the recipe to consistently grow your business week over week, quarter over quarter and year over year. Everyone wants the easiest, most effective way to close more business. Few are willing to put the time, energy and effort that it takes to get there.
Have a tip to share or want some advice?
If you want to share your own insight and be featured in our next Transportation Tuesday Tip or if you want us to dive deeper into a challenge you’re facing, email us at tips@dat.com.
About Freight 360
Freight 360 is a community for freight brokers and the place where you will find training and content on everything freight. We believe that making transportation knowledge accessible for all creates efficiency within the industry. Our weekly podcast and library of content is designed to educate freight brokers around the globe.
