What shipper prospecting looks like on the phone
A freight brokerage grows by finding shippers who will give it a lane, then earning more lanes by covering the first one well. The phone work behind that is repetitive in a specific way: most dials reach a front desk, an auto-attendant or a voicemail box, and the few real conversations are short. A shipping manager will give you two minutes if you ask a sharp question about their freight.
That makes two things matter more than raw dial count. First, the rep has to spend the block talking, not listening to rings. Second, whatever the shipper says in those two minutes (lanes, equipment, volume, what is going wrong with the current carrier) has to survive until the quote goes out and the follow-up call happens.
Three lines for a list full of front desks
A typical shipper list is company main lines with a named contact for only part of it. The first job on most calls is getting a name: “Who handles your outbound freight?” DialBreeze rings up to three numbers at once for one rep, so when two go to auto-attendants and one to a person, the rep takes the person.
- Got referral is a disposition, not a note. When the front desk gives you the shipping manager’s name, record it and the next attempt goes to that person.
- Voicemail drop leaves a recording you made. On Breeze and Jetstream the dialer waits for the beep before it plays the recording automatically, where enabled on your workspace.
- Attempt caps keep a company from getting called every day because it appears on three different lists.
Answer detection is not perfect and two people can answer at the same time. Choose a line count your reps can handle cleanly.
These are not dedicated freight fields. Review important details against the recording before quoting or handing off the opportunity.
The useful facts on a shipper call are concrete, and they are exactly what a hurried note loses:
- Lanes: origin and destination, often as city pairs (“Chicago to Dallas”).
- Equipment: dry van, reefer, flatbed, step deck, or LTL.
- Volume: loads per week or month, and whether it is steady or seasonal.
- Current setup: asset carriers, other brokers, a routing guide, or a dedicated fleet.
- Pain: late pickups, tender rejections, poor tracking updates, rates after a bid cycle.
- Process: who approves new vendors, whether there is a carrier or broker onboarding packet, and when the next RFP runs.
When the rep builds the quote an hour later, the lane and equipment are right there instead of in memory. Always check lanes, dates and any rate mentioned against the recording before sending a number. Outputs can be missing, delayed or wrong; verify important details against the recording.
Dispositions in freight terms
Generic dispositions (“Interested”, “Not interested”) do not tell a brokerage what to do next. A small freight-specific set does:
- Quote requested: the shipper named a lane and agreed to look at a rate. Create a task with the due date.
- Send lane sheet: interested in what you cover, no specific load yet.
- Got referral: you have the right name for the next attempt.
- Uses asset carrier only: a policy, not a mood. Note it and set a long callback, not a daily one.
- RFP later: contract freight goes out on a schedule. Record the month and call before it.
- Not a shipper: remove it from shipper lists so it stops wasting dials.
- Do not call: the person asked you to stop. It goes on the internal DNC list and leaves every queue.
Carrier calls use the same workflow
Brokerages also spend a lot of phone time on the carrier side: finding capacity on a lane and making check calls for loads in transit. The mechanics are the same (a list, a queue, a disposition, a note), so reps can run a carrier list in a separate session with its own dispositions, such as “Covered”, “Rate too high”, “Truck available Tuesday” or “Late, updated ETA”. Keep shipper and carrier lists apart so sales reporting stays clean.
DialBreeze is not a TMS or a load board. It does not track loads, verify carrier authority or post freight. It is the calling seat next to those tools.
Before you call: authority, lists and recording
Brokering freight requires FMCSA broker authority and financial security (a $75,000 surety bond or trust fund under 49 CFR 387.307). That is outside the dialer, but shippers will ask for your MC number on the first real call, so reps should have it ready.
On calling rules: most business-to-business calls fall outside the FTC Telemarketing Sales Rule under 16 CFR 310.6(b)(7). That is not a blanket exemption from every rule. Owner-operators and small shippers often answer on a personal cell phone, and TCPA restrictions on prerecorded and autodialed calls to wireless numbers can still apply. When someone asks you to stop calling, mark Do not call so it holds across every list.
Several states require every party to agree before a call is recorded, and a brokerage call often crosses state lines. Use a short disclosure at the start of the call.
What you need to start
- Prepaid calling credit: DialBreeze provides the calling and the numbers, at $0.75 per dialing hour.
- A shipper list as a CSV, with the company, contact name where you have one, and phone number.
- A headset and a browser with microphone access for each rep.
- An agreed disposition set so every rep uses the same outcomes.
Pick your plan and seats, check out, set your password. Load calling credit and start dialing. Start with a small eligible batch.