Sales

lightning66

Rookie Expediter
What should i pay a salesman for getting me new jobs for expediting? if commision how much? and do i pay once or continue as long as the job lasts?
 

Moot

Veteran Expediter
Owner/Operator
When you use the term "salesman", do you mean a broker that procures freight for you to haul or a recruiter that finds a fleet owner to drive for or to lease on with a carrier the recruiter represents?
 

lightning66

Rookie Expediter
When you use the term "salesman", do you mean a broker that procures freight for you to haul or a recruiter that finds a fleet owner to drive for or to lease on with a carrier the recruiter represents?

no.. i just have a guy thats good at sales going to cold call factorys and walk ins..any imput would help.... thank you
 

Brisco

Expert Expediter
no.. i just have a guy thats good at sales going to cold call factorys and walk ins..any imput would help.... thank you

Selling Expediting Services........

Might want to look into getting your Brokerage Permits First..........
 

blizzard2014

Veteran Expediter
Driver
Selling Expediting Services........

Might want to look into getting your Brokerage Permits First..........

You don't have to be a broker to solicit direct work from shippers. All you need to have is contract carrier authority and your liability and cargo insurance up to date. You can't legally broker out any loads that you can't cover with one of your own trucks. But as long as it is one of your company trucks picking up the load directly from the shipper, all you need is the contract carrier authority.
 

lightning66

Rookie Expediter
You don't have to be a broker to solicit direct work from shippers. All you need to have is contract carrier authority and your liability and cargo insurance up to date. You can't legally broker out any loads that you can't cover with one of your own trucks. But as long as it is one of your company trucks picking up the load directly from the shipper, all you need is the contract carrier authority.

Thanks blizzard he and i are both going to drive my vans too .. but if he gets us jobs say even by word of mouth what would be fair to pay him?
 

purgoose10

Veteran Expediter
Thanks blizzard he and i are both going to drive my vans too .. but if he gets us jobs say even by word of mouth what would be fair to pay him?

One inexperienced hand leading the other to the poor house.

If your supplying the insurance and his expenses, the going rate for a broker salesman is 10-15% off the top of the bill. Thats in my area. That's for every load you haul from his account. So whats the difference between paying him than paying someone who is experienced and can get you backhauls?
 

blizzard2014

Veteran Expediter
Driver
Well, some people aren't really good at sales. I am really good at customer service, keeping the customers happy, getting paperwork processed quickly, providing timely updates on loads, and working out problems on the fly. I am however not so great at sales. I can't sit there and make hundreds of calls a day to try and find one account. Plus, you can't drive or run a company if you are on the phone all day looking for new customer accounts. That is why as a CEO, you have to hire appropriate people to perform the appropriate jobs within the company.
 

blizzard2014

Veteran Expediter
Driver
One inexperienced hand leading the other to the poor house.

If your supplying the insurance and his expenses, the going rate for a broker salesman is 10-15% off the top of the bill. Thats in my area. That's for every load you haul from his account. So whats the difference between paying him than paying someone who is experienced and can get you backhauls?

I hope you're not calling me inexperienced. I have more experience than a lot of people on EO combined. Just because I got sick, went into the hospital, and had to sign off on one of my companies doesn't mean I'm inexperienced. And as for the percentages, it all depends on the company. Also, you have to pay your salesman his percentage for as long as that customer uses you to move their freight.

I usually pay the salesman/broker agent 60 percent if the salesman/broker agent books the loads and monitors them. If the salesman/broker agent just wants to find the customers, set up the accounts, and do nothing in the way of booking, brokering, or managing those accounts, I would pay that salesman 20-30 percent for finding the account.

Sometimes having a good sales agent can make a big difference in how fast your company grows. Also make sure you have the infrastructure in place to handle all of the business that will be coming in. You can't manage 15 loads a day as a single person operation. You are going to need dispatchers, salesmen, and dedicated customer service representatives. If you try and get too big too fast, you will fail to provide good customer service, and you will lose the new accounts. I hope this helps some.
 
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purgoose10

Veteran Expediter
I hope you're not calling me inexperienced. I have more experience than a lot of people on EO combined. Just because I got sick, went into the hospital, and had to sign off on one of my companies doesn't mean I'm inexperienced. And as for the percentages, it all depends on the company. Also, you have to pay your salesman his percentage for as long as that customer uses you to move their freight.

I usually pay the salesman/broker agent 60 percent if the salesman/broker agent books the loads and monitors them. If the salesman/broker agent just wants to find the customers, set up the accounts, and do nothing in the way of booking, brokering, or managing those accounts, I would pay that salesman 20-30 percent for finding the account.

Sometimes having a good sales agent can make a big difference in how fast your company grows. Also make sure you have the infrastructure in place to handle all of the business that will be coming in. You can't manage 15 loads a day as a single person operation. You are going to need dispatchers, salesman, and dedicated customer service representatives. If you try and get too big too fast you will not provide good customer service and you will lose the new accounts. I hope this helps some.

Where in blue blazes do you see your name anywhere on that post. Your in Michigan I'm in SC and all depends on what the salemans job entails. Stop taking everything personnel.
 

blizzard2014

Veteran Expediter
Driver
Where in blue blazes do you see your name anywhere on that post. Your in Michigan I'm in SC and all depends on what the salemans job entails. Stop taking everything personnel.

The guy was asking me for advice and you posted was one inexperienced hand leading the other into the poor house. I took that as if you were saying I was going to give him advice to lead him into the poor house. Any how, why is everyone so scared of a guy with a couple of cargo vans getting some direct customers? This is a capitalist society. Anyone with a cargo van and cargo insurance can get customers.
 

EASYTRADER

Expert Expediter
I was a salesman of various products for about 10 years. I worked for big companies and small ones. A few good companies but most were crap.

Having said that, Salespeople DRIVE business. Without salesman no business can can grow or even exist. Very few salespeople are good at sales. My experience has been only about 1 or 2 of every 10 people working in sales are any good at it.

So my point is, if this guy is good pay him what he is worth to you. I'm sure there is a "standard" in this industry for a guy going around lining up accounts. Whateve that is pay a little more.
 

EASYTRADER

Expert Expediter
Taking your "salesguy" and putting him int a cargo van to haul is a horrible waste of resources. Any semi conscious fool can drive a van around, almost NOBOBY can cold call a business and line up new sales.

Also, once a customer is lined up, you have to keep making love to them or like a wife they stray. Their is no such thing as a 'kept' account. Sales relationships are 'personal' relationships and have to be played on that level. If your sales guy isn't going back and 'reselling' the account and staying fresh in their minds you will loose the account. Some accounts you will lose anyway, so part of the job is to keep fresh accounts moving into their place.

Unless the guy WANTs to drive a van, pulling him off sales to make deliveries is a terrible, terrible misuse of that resource.

Sent from my SPH-D700 using EO Forums mobile app
 

EASYTRADER

Expert Expediter
One other thing, I was a good salesperson, but I absolutely HATED it, which is why I consciously took a 40% pay cut to buy a truck and sign on with the Fed.
 
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