A Good Question
I recently received this question I thought I’d blog for any of you out there who might be asking the same question.
I am very interested in taking the Brooke Freight Broker training class. I have done allot of research into the transportation industry and am familiar with much of it given my experience as Director of Operations at a publishing firm for 20 years. I was responsible for all aspects of distribution and logistics. The prospect of working in this industry as a freight broker / agent and being able to have it as a home based business is very intriguing - particularly from where I live.
My first question is whether or not you felt any advantage to taking the "live" class in Dallas versus the on-line course through Gatlin Education. Both appear to be excellent, yet the live class is one week where the on-line course would last much longer at 150 hours. Cost is a bit of a factor as well, but I am willing to pay for the quality course.
My second question is whether or not you recommend being a freight broker agent first rather than jumping in head first as a broker. My desire is to be a broker. Is it difficult to leave a brokerage house as an agent to start your own brokerage house? Are there non-compete issues?
Any advise or direction you could give me would be extremely helpful and appreciated. I look forward to taking your training course very soon.
Blessings,
Stephen D.
Sisters, OR
Stephen,
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Choosing a course all depends on how you think you learn most effectively. The live class is more interactive. The on-line course is more detailed. The live class is available in more locations than Dallas. See the website for a , and keep checking back because we are adding new classes as the need arises. We currently have live courses in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, Ontario, California, Jacksonville, Florida, Charlotte, North Carolina, Rochester, New York, and Indianapolis, Indiana.
One of the things we hear from graduates is how much they enjoyed meeting other students and keeping in touch with them as they each start their own business. We have super instructors, so having face-to-face interaction with them is beneficial. The online course is very convenient, very thorough and you can take it at your own pace. I know our live course graduates feel a bit of information overload by the end of the week.
Honestly the best case is to take the two-week course (Freight Broker Basic, then hands on Freight Broker Advanced) and then the on-line course. The hands on Advanced Course is offered after the basic when requested by graduates. We will have more information on that in the near future.
Upon graduation you will be set and be ready to compete in this industry.
I’ll answer your second question tomorrow. Thanks for the inquiry.
Moving Forward,
Jeff
Sales Tips and Tricks
Need a few more tips to close out more sales? Could you use some motivational speak? Then sign up for one of our Super Sales Days.
The Thursday of our Freight Broker Training Course will be opened up to all sales professionals who want to learn and be motivated by the Top Gun sales professionals Jeff Ashcraft , Lance White and me, Jeff Roach. We each approach sales with our own style, befitting our unique personalities and professional experience.
The one day Super Sales Day will be held on the Thursday of the class date of the basic course every Month. Our beautiful auditorium has a back seating area ideal for additional students on that one day. So if you are in sales and need a day of motivation, and sales tips from seasoned guys with an entertaining style then join us. Freight Brokers will benefit greatly but the techniques are applicable to all sales fields.
I started my sales career selling door to door in my neighborhood as a kid. I just about always got the top sales award for selling whatever the school fund rasier was that year. I still use the same techniques, just honed a bit for my more sophisticated audience. Jeff Ashcraft works for one of the largest truckload Brokers in the nation. His career started as a car salesman. Lance background includes sales in the financial arena and business ownership.
First Super Salesday will be Thursday, January 24, 2008 in Dallas. To sign up, view our schedule or for questions go to our website or call 214-206-1169.
Moving forward,
Jeff Roach
The Thursday of our Freight Broker Training Course will be opened up to all sales professionals who want to learn and be motivated by the Top Gun sales professionals Jeff Ashcraft , Lance White and me, Jeff Roach. We each approach sales with our own style, befitting our unique personalities and professional experience.
The one day Super Sales Day will be held on the Thursday of the class date of the basic course every Month. Our beautiful auditorium has a back seating area ideal for additional students on that one day. So if you are in sales and need a day of motivation, and sales tips from seasoned guys with an entertaining style then join us. Freight Brokers will benefit greatly but the techniques are applicable to all sales fields.
I started my sales career selling door to door in my neighborhood as a kid. I just about always got the top sales award for selling whatever the school fund rasier was that year. I still use the same techniques, just honed a bit for my more sophisticated audience. Jeff Ashcraft works for one of the largest truckload Brokers in the nation. His career started as a car salesman. Lance background includes sales in the financial arena and business ownership.
First Super Salesday will be Thursday, January 24, 2008 in Dallas. To sign up, view our schedule or for questions go to our website or call 214-206-1169.
Moving forward,
Jeff Roach
Step out on a Limb
Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires...courage.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Each day in my email inbox I get two encouragements to think on throughout that day. I get a quote (like the one above) each day from ZigZiglar.com and a Bible verse from BibleoftheDay.com. I need encouragement to have courage for the day Starting your own business takes courage. Courage to start, courage to continue on and courage to finish strong each day strong. I pray each day to do only what God would have me do that day…and to do it to the best of my ability.
Today I encourage you to be proactive and develop your people skills
Go the extra mile. Be proactive. Don’t wait for others to think of reasons they should use you. After you begin building up a relationship with a traffic manager, study what you can about their organization - then go in and proactively ask a lot of questions, then listen - try to determine what their transportation needs and challenges are, and any problems or obstacles that they run into. I repeat: listen. Do you think of salesmen as good listeners? Or good talkers, persuaders? You earn the right to talk and persuade after you’ve listened proactively and learned about what your prospect wants.
Act with a sense of urgency. Let them know you want to earn their business.
-Great People Skills:
What are you building? TRUST. You build trust by doing what you say you’re going to do when you say you’re going to do it. Tell your prospect up front that you can only control one thing in this business. That is your ability to establish trust with both the shipper and the carrier by looking out for both of their best interests. The other thing that you can control is communication. Most shippers want more than anything someone they can trust, who will be fair to them, and will deliver what they promised – service and communication. Your PRODUCT is your ability to build trust, and your ability to communicate the status of the shipment from pick-up to delivery.
During the holiday season you can practice your proactive people skills on friends and family. Be proactive by starting an intriguing conversation. Develop people skills by approaching the one in the room who is the hardest to talk to (perhaps a teen). Ask open-ended questions. (those are questions that require more than a yes or a no answer). Conversation ideas: current events, holiday plans, reflections on 2007, children, hobbies, interests, resolutions, best Christmas gift ever, etc. Some people are comfortable talking about personal issues right off; others need to warm up to you by talking more “weather” kind of talk. As you go through the day, make mental note of what happened to you, that day that might make for interesting conversation because your listener can relate or will find humorous.
Moving forward,
Jeff Roach
www.brooketraining.com
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Each day in my email inbox I get two encouragements to think on throughout that day. I get a quote (like the one above) each day from ZigZiglar.com and a Bible verse from BibleoftheDay.com. I need encouragement to have courage for the day Starting your own business takes courage. Courage to start, courage to continue on and courage to finish strong each day strong. I pray each day to do only what God would have me do that day…and to do it to the best of my ability.
Today I encourage you to be proactive and develop your people skills
Go the extra mile. Be proactive. Don’t wait for others to think of reasons they should use you. After you begin building up a relationship with a traffic manager, study what you can about their organization - then go in and proactively ask a lot of questions, then listen - try to determine what their transportation needs and challenges are, and any problems or obstacles that they run into. I repeat: listen. Do you think of salesmen as good listeners? Or good talkers, persuaders? You earn the right to talk and persuade after you’ve listened proactively and learned about what your prospect wants.
Act with a sense of urgency. Let them know you want to earn their business.
-Great People Skills:
What are you building? TRUST. You build trust by doing what you say you’re going to do when you say you’re going to do it. Tell your prospect up front that you can only control one thing in this business. That is your ability to establish trust with both the shipper and the carrier by looking out for both of their best interests. The other thing that you can control is communication. Most shippers want more than anything someone they can trust, who will be fair to them, and will deliver what they promised – service and communication. Your PRODUCT is your ability to build trust, and your ability to communicate the status of the shipment from pick-up to delivery.
During the holiday season you can practice your proactive people skills on friends and family. Be proactive by starting an intriguing conversation. Develop people skills by approaching the one in the room who is the hardest to talk to (perhaps a teen). Ask open-ended questions. (those are questions that require more than a yes or a no answer). Conversation ideas: current events, holiday plans, reflections on 2007, children, hobbies, interests, resolutions, best Christmas gift ever, etc. Some people are comfortable talking about personal issues right off; others need to warm up to you by talking more “weather” kind of talk. As you go through the day, make mental note of what happened to you, that day that might make for interesting conversation because your listener can relate or will find humorous.
Moving forward,
Jeff Roach
www.brooketraining.com
The Key to Self Motivation is You
Last week I wrote about a Freight Broker’s need to be organized, disciplined, patient, focused and diligent. You must also develop self-motivation, resourcefulness and be persuasive. ¬
As a freight broker or even as an agent you are the one that has to get yourself going everyday. You also need to be self-motivated in order to discipline yourself to constantly make the calls necessary to secure and build your business. Just because you finish the freight broker course and hang your shingle out, the business won’t just start coming to you. YOU go out to them. As you get to know prospects and their needs, you can begin to persuade them why they should want to use you. You need to believe in yourself first for others to believe in you. You need to be resourceful. Be creative and think of ways that you can help make their job easier, and services that you can offer. Set yourself apart from your competition by offering more and offering unique services if at all possible. Remember that you are a service company, so the more ways that you can think of to bring added values and extra personal customer service to your prospective clients, the better chance you have of winning them over, and the more they will be happy to pay the price for your service. I can’t emphasize enough that winning in this industry is a process that takes time. Focus on daily progress, not perfection. Just like running a marathon- ten more yards every day for a year, and you’re ready to do the marathon.
Moving forward,
Jeff Roach
www.brooketraining ,com
As a freight broker or even as an agent you are the one that has to get yourself going everyday. You also need to be self-motivated in order to discipline yourself to constantly make the calls necessary to secure and build your business. Just because you finish the freight broker course and hang your shingle out, the business won’t just start coming to you. YOU go out to them. As you get to know prospects and their needs, you can begin to persuade them why they should want to use you. You need to believe in yourself first for others to believe in you. You need to be resourceful. Be creative and think of ways that you can help make their job easier, and services that you can offer. Set yourself apart from your competition by offering more and offering unique services if at all possible. Remember that you are a service company, so the more ways that you can think of to bring added values and extra personal customer service to your prospective clients, the better chance you have of winning them over, and the more they will be happy to pay the price for your service. I can’t emphasize enough that winning in this industry is a process that takes time. Focus on daily progress, not perfection. Just like running a marathon- ten more yards every day for a year, and you’re ready to do the marathon.
Moving forward,
Jeff Roach
www.brooketraining ,com
The Harvest Takes Time
We live in a get rich quick, I want it today, instant gratification society. Making money as a freight broker or agent takes time. I tell all my students to have at least 6 months of living expenses saved up before starting their business. You can comfortably live off those savings while you take the time to plant sales seeds, water then harvest some loads.
Be patient, diligent and focused
You have to be patient, especially during the initial start-up phase of your brokerage or agency. Just as in any new business, it takes time to begin building up your clients, so it will be awhile before your revenue begins coming in. Think of the your personal relationships. They took time to develop. Some friends you’ve made along the way have stuck, some have not. Business relationships work much the same. It takes time for you to find customers who fit with your style and for customers to have faith in you.
You have to be focused and diligent during this time. As I wrote about yesterday, keep good records of correspondences. You must focus in on making as many calls as you can, to begin building up these relationships that are going to make your business successful. The sale itself takes patience. It takes about eight to nine touches for a customer to make a change – this includes phone calls, emails, rate quotes sent, cards, personal visit, etcetera. You have to be top of mind when they have a critical load.
Attitude is everything, but perseverance is a close second.
Moving forward,
Jeff Roach
www.justintimefreight.com
Be patient, diligent and focused
You have to be patient, especially during the initial start-up phase of your brokerage or agency. Just as in any new business, it takes time to begin building up your clients, so it will be awhile before your revenue begins coming in. Think of the your personal relationships. They took time to develop. Some friends you’ve made along the way have stuck, some have not. Business relationships work much the same. It takes time for you to find customers who fit with your style and for customers to have faith in you.
You have to be focused and diligent during this time. As I wrote about yesterday, keep good records of correspondences. You must focus in on making as many calls as you can, to begin building up these relationships that are going to make your business successful. The sale itself takes patience. It takes about eight to nine touches for a customer to make a change – this includes phone calls, emails, rate quotes sent, cards, personal visit, etcetera. You have to be top of mind when they have a critical load.
Attitude is everything, but perseverance is a close second.
Moving forward,
Jeff Roach
www.justintimefreight.com
The Organized Freight Broker/Agent
A successful freight broker or agent is detail oriented and organized. I am not organized by nature so I have to work hard at sticking with my systems. A prospect will not feel confidant in giving you his business if they don’t think you can keep up with the details. After all they pay extra to a freight broker to handle details that others let slip. Be a detailed record keeper.
You must be able to keep good records, such as:
*Contact records from your calls
*Records of rate quotes and dates you sent out
*Dispatch records
*Motor carrier records, including their 1099 information,
Types of equipment, insurance certificates and safety records
*Shipper records and details
*Contracts with your carriers/customers/agents if you’re a
Broker
*Your filing systems should be set up so that your information
Is easily accessible at your fingertips
Most brokerage operations software programs that you can purchase have systems built in to make you more organized. They supply forms, dispatch records, etc that keep you organized and professional.
Learn your software so you can use it to the greatest advantage. Keep as much as you can on your computer and back it up. Papers are easily misplaced. I often write something on a piece of paper then type it into my to do list on my computer. I’ll more likely remember if I’ve written and typed the item.
So my tip for the day is to look at your desk, how can it be better organized with the things you use the most at your fingertips. Clutter makes you feel unorganized, reducing clutter helps you work with more efficiently.
Moving forward
Jeff Roach
www.brooketraining.com
You must be able to keep good records, such as:
*Contact records from your calls
*Records of rate quotes and dates you sent out
*Dispatch records
*Motor carrier records, including their 1099 information,
Types of equipment, insurance certificates and safety records
*Shipper records and details
*Contracts with your carriers/customers/agents if you’re a
Broker
*Your filing systems should be set up so that your information
Is easily accessible at your fingertips
Most brokerage operations software programs that you can purchase have systems built in to make you more organized. They supply forms, dispatch records, etc that keep you organized and professional.
Learn your software so you can use it to the greatest advantage. Keep as much as you can on your computer and back it up. Papers are easily misplaced. I often write something on a piece of paper then type it into my to do list on my computer. I’ll more likely remember if I’ve written and typed the item.
So my tip for the day is to look at your desk, how can it be better organized with the things you use the most at your fingertips. Clutter makes you feel unorganized, reducing clutter helps you work with more efficiently.
Moving forward
Jeff Roach
www.brooketraining.com
Sales Intensive
We’ve been brainstorming on what intensive class would be most beneficial for students, graduates and others. The answer is a crash sales class. Obviously, if you don’t have sales, you don’t have a business.
So the Thursday of our Freight Broker Training Course will be opened up to all sales professionals who want to learn and be motivated by the Top Gun sales professionals Jeff Ashcraft , Lance White and me. We each approach sales with our own style, befitting our unique personalities and professional experience.
The one day Super Sales Day will be held on the Thursday of the class date of the basic course every Month. Our beautiful auditorium has a back seating area ideal for additional students on that one day. So if you are in sales and need a day of motivation, and sales tips from seasoned guys with an entertaining style join us. Freight Brokers will benefit greatly but the techniques are applicable to all sales fields.
I started my sales career selling door to door in my neighborhood as a kid. I just about always got the top sales award for selling whatever the school fund rasier was that year. I still use the same techniques, just honed a bit for my more sophisticated audience,
First Super Salesday will be Thursday, January 24, 2008 in Dallas. To sign up, view our schedule or for questions go to our website or call 214-206-1169.
Moving forward,
Jeff Roach
So the Thursday of our Freight Broker Training Course will be opened up to all sales professionals who want to learn and be motivated by the Top Gun sales professionals Jeff Ashcraft , Lance White and me. We each approach sales with our own style, befitting our unique personalities and professional experience.
The one day Super Sales Day will be held on the Thursday of the class date of the basic course every Month. Our beautiful auditorium has a back seating area ideal for additional students on that one day. So if you are in sales and need a day of motivation, and sales tips from seasoned guys with an entertaining style join us. Freight Brokers will benefit greatly but the techniques are applicable to all sales fields.
I started my sales career selling door to door in my neighborhood as a kid. I just about always got the top sales award for selling whatever the school fund rasier was that year. I still use the same techniques, just honed a bit for my more sophisticated audience,
First Super Salesday will be Thursday, January 24, 2008 in Dallas. To sign up, view our schedule or for questions go to our website or call 214-206-1169.
Moving forward,
Jeff Roach
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