The follow-up cadence that actually lands shippers
Most brokers quit after three touches. Most shippers switch brokers between the fourth and the seventh. That gap is the entire opportunity.
Here's the whole game in two sentences. Most brokers stop calling a shipper after about three touches — not because of a decision, they just quietly stop. Most shippers who switch brokers do it somewhere around the fourth to seventh contact, because that's roughly how long it takes for something to break on their end while your name happens to be in front of them.
The gap between those two numbers is where nearly all of your competition disappears. It's the reason an average broker with a follow-up system beats a better broker without one.
The cadence
| Call | When | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Call 1 | Day 0 | Introduce yourself. Ask what they ship and where. Ask for nothing. |
| Call 2 | +2 weeks | Reference something specific they told you. Ask if anything is loose right now. |
| Call 3 | +3 weeks | Bring them something — a rate you're seeing on their lane, a capacity note. Not "just checking in." |
| Call 4 | +4 weeks | The ugly-load ask: "Next time you have one nobody wants, call me first." |
| Call 5 | +4 weeks | Short check-in. |
| Call 6 | +7 weeks | They know your name by now. This is usually where it turns. |
That's about five months to land one shipper. It sounds slow until you price out what one steady account is worth over a year.
Why call three matters most
"Just checking in" is a withdrawal. Bringing them a rate on their lane, or a note that capacity is tightening out of their area, is a deposit. It costs them nothing and proves you've been paying attention. Most brokers make three withdrawals and wonder why the account is empty.
The hard part isn't the calls
It's remembering who's due. You will not remember that the guy in Bessemer is due Thursday. Nobody does. The next call date goes in the sheet before you dial the next number, or it doesn't happen. Then every morning you sort by that column and work the top.
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