You have a sales team (however large or small it might be), whose sole purpose is to source and book shipments for your freight brokerage.
They call the customers, they get quotes for the customers, they figure out rates and services for the customers. They spend their entire day on the phone, or on their email, helping customers book shipments – and when they’re not doing that, they’re trying to get your brokerage more business.
The problem is, they spend so much time with your current customers, that they probably don’t have as much time as they’d like to spend on finding new customers.
So how do you fix that?
It’s not like those routine customers who take up so much time can just go online and book their own shipments.
Or can they?
Using an advanced TMS like BrokerWare™ allows your customers to have their own online portal.
Your sales team doesn’t have to spend 75% of their time on your routine customers – the ones who already know what they’re shipping, the weights, classes, and zip codes. They don’t have to hold the hands of those customers through the process.
The customer is probably just as sick of having to call your sales team to book routine shipments as your sales team is of spending the time booking them.
Instead of your sales team spending that time, you can set up customer portals, and let your customers get quotes and book shipments themselves.
What better way to optimize your flow of business than by removing a block from customers making orders?
Less work for your team means more time to prospect for new clients.
The best part about having customers log in to their own portal to get quotes and book shipments is that you save on the man-hours of inputting that information.
The customer gets what they want – they can book shipments faster.
You (and your sales team) get what you want – more business with less effort.
The less time your team has to spend taking, inputting, and managing those orders, the more efficient your third party logistics business is.
Everybody wins!
What exactly does the customer see, though?
You can set the margins for the carriers that your customers can see, so that even though they’re logging in and booking rates themselves – your markup is still there.
They’ll feel more in control, as they’ll be able to review options and choose the carrier they prefer.
You can customize how carriers display, ensuring that carriers who aren’t adequate don’t show up as an option if they’re not suitable for the shipment.
Plus, with least cost routing, your customer can check for themselves which carrier is the least expensive (but still reliable) without having to call or check individual carrier websites on their own.
And, last but certainly not least, thanks to BrokerWarepartners, they’ll also know the status of the carrier’s insurance and safety record. No one wants to ship with someone whose insurance is out of date, and thanks to SaferWatch and DAT Solutions, your customers will have up to date insurance information.
Your sales team still gets commission – even on customer entered orders
With all this self-sufficiency, your sales team might feel a little nervous about clients booking their own shipments. How do they get their commission if they’re not directly involved?
The sales people on your team still have their own portal and assigned customers, so any The sales people on your team still have their own portal and assigned customers, so any shipments booked by their customers are still a part of the commission they receive.
Plus, through BrokerWare
On top of that, within the sales portal, you can set who has access to which customers. No customer poaching, no stealing of other sales reps lists if someone quits, just each sales person with their customer roster.
Everyone wins – and your brokerage can grow.
The modern shipper is happy to go online and book their own shipments. Many, especially if the shipping manager is younger, would prefer to be able to go online and book shipments on their own.
So provide them that capability. With BrokerWare™, you add a link to the customer portal on your website.
They log in with their own credentials, which displays the customer portal settings you’ve provided for them.
They get access to the carriers, rates, and options you’ve selected for them.
All of this combines for an easy, fast, booking or quote generation system that makes your customers happy.
And happy customers book more shipments with you, as well as refer business to you.
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