Shipper Directories

Shipper Directories are probably the most misunderstood if not the most misused tool in a freight broker’s arsenal. Not a week goes by that we don't receive the highest praise from individuals concerning our Shippers Directory... and at least one letter of contempt.

It amazes me that each letter of contempt carries a common theme of the directory being just a list of companies with contact information and no more. A Shippers Directory, be it ours or anyone else's is just that... a list of companies with contact information. By no means are the directories a guaranteed source of accounts, they are only ONE tool for generating leads.

The nice thing about the directories is that you don't just use them once, they should be used and re-used. Our directory is designed so that you may add notes as you are speaking with a prospect. This allows the user to know, without having to find the legal pad they used that day while prospecting, what was discussed during the prospect call. To know when to call back, to have the name of the contact or any other information that may assist in converting the prospect into a customer.

It should be used daily if only to refresh yourself on the notes you have taken so that you don't miss something. Have 5 different directories? Then you should have 5 to review daily. If you’re not, you’re missing sales! Your losing money!

As a freight broker you should be prospecting every day. Not just looking up companies to call but actually contacting them. No one likes to prospect or cold call for that matter, but it's a fact of our business. If your not prospecting new accounts you're already out of business, you just don't know it yet.

Our clients are advised to make 10 prospect calls per day. One of the reasons is to get them in the habit of prospecting. I read in a research study a while back that it takes approximately 2 weeks of doing something to make it a habit, part of your routine. It's so crucial that a freight broker prospects that it needs to become habit, part of their routine.

Here's why...

Meet Joe, he's a new freight broker ready to set the world on fire. He prospects, makes the calls and does everything exactly like he's suppose to...then he starts making $1,000.00 a week and decides that instead of prospecting today he's going to play a round of golf. Tomorrow he figures that he's making enough money, he'll prospect next week.

Joe has four accounts that earn him commissions of $1,000.00 per week. To keep this simple let's say that each account is responsible for 25% of Joe's income. It took Joe about 90 days to develop each client. Today Joe calls one of his accounts to find out that his contact isn't there anymore. They have been terminated. There's someone new and they have their own people they deal with and Joe ain't one of them.

In one fleeting moment, one that Joe had absolutely no control over, he lost 25% of his income. With nothing to replace it because he hadn't been prospecting, he must start now. Joe knows that it could take him as long as 90 days to replace the income he lost.

You get the picture. Things can go south quickly! As such you must prospect daily. A shipper directory is a tool designed to help you save time prospecting by providing names, numbers and other information about shippers. You must provide the skills and techniques needed to convert the prospect into an account... these skills & techniques can be learned.

New Blog - Same Company...

Welcome to the "New" Blog of TALTOA. If you've been keeping up with us over the years you know that we have had a Blog from almost day one. You may be asking, what's this? Well to explain in detail would require us to write a book so to keep a long story short we wanted to have our Blog under the same name of our main company, TALTOA.

If you noticed our original Blog was under the name of FBT 101 which is the freight broker division of TALTOA. However if you read the post's you will see that they cover more than just being or becoming a freight broker. In order to bring everything home, so-to-speak, we have created our "New" Blog under the TALTOA heading. If you're new to our Blog you can click the "Original Blog" link and read all of our post's from day 1.

If you're familiar with TALTOA then you know who we are and what we do. For those of you that are new to TALTOA, we are a transportation and logistics training and consulting company based in Fort Smith, Ar. Our origins date to the early 90's when we were just a freight brokerage. At that time we had more accounts than we could service and we needed agents. The problem was that we needed agents that would service our clients the way our clients had come to expect from our brokerage.

We chose to bring in agents that had little to no transportation experience. This way we knew we could train them in the skills and techniques that had made us successful. No easy task to do all of this while still servicing our clients. To achieve the success with our training program we needed a manual, hence the Freight Broker Training 101 Manual. Next we needed a type of curriculum in order to take our new agents through our training program. Although we didn't know it at the time, these were the first Freight Broker Training Workshops.

After much success someone joked one day that we should bottle our program and distribute it, and that's basically what we did. Over the years there have been changes such as new products and services, new areas of expertise were added to our consulting packages so that name Freight Broker Training 101 didn't quite define us correctly. It was obvious that we were a full service transportation and logistics training and consulting company.

After much talk and thought TALTOA was created to house all of our services. The name TALTOA was originally an abbreviation for Transportation and Logistics Training of America. Now it's just TALTOA because we offer so much more than just training. We have Manuals, Directories, Web Design, Consulting, Software, and Subscription Services with more tools/services being added on a regular basis.

Over the years we have consulted hundreds of transportation companies, trained thousands of transportation professionals, provided services to scores of individuals wishing to enter or further their transportation career.

Our success have been our clients success. From a freight broker agent contracting our services and with-in 45 days earning as much as $1,000.00 per week. The new freight brokerage that contracted TALTOA for 15 months to consult them in their start-up and day-to-day operations that was able to move 2000 loads in less than a year, their first year!

From the transporter that wanted to transport RV's that now owns his own transportation company, from the trucking company that needed a new source of revenue that contracted us to assist them with their brokerage. The former NFL cornerback that contracted TALTOA to assist him with his role in the trucking company he was investing in.

Although we can't guarantee anyone’s success, we can guarantee that your chance of success is greatly improved by having TALTOA as part of your team! We have a history of success and that's why so many have chose us to assist them when needed.

So, although a new Blog.... we're still the same company --- TALTOA!