How freight brokers actually find shippers
Bad prospecting is a list problem, not a phone problem. Here's where the names come from and why twenty is the right number.
You can run a perfect script into a company that ships two loads a month and get nowhere. Same script into the right plant and you're in. Most new brokers blame their phone skills for what is actually a list problem.
Where the names come from
All of these are free. Together they'll produce more companies than you can call.
- State and county manufacturer directories. Search "[your state] manufacturers directory." Most states publish one; many counties do too. Filter by product type and employee count.
- Drive the industrial parks. Read the signs. Note the truck docks. A company with six dock doors ships freight — that's your list.
- Read the load board backwards. Stop looking at what's posted. Look at who is posting. The shippers and other brokers posting your lanes are telling you who moves freight there.
- Ask your own carriers. "Who else do you load for around here?" A driver knows every dock in a 100-mile radius. Most brokers never ask.
- Trade association member lists. Whatever your area makes — lumber, steel, poultry, aggregates — has an association, and it publishes members.
The one to skip
Purchased lead lists. Everyone bought the same one, and those people are hostile by now. You are the eleventh broker this month with the same spreadsheet. Skip it entirely.
Twenty names, not a hundred
Put twenty companies on your list before you make a single call. Not a hundred. Twenty. Manufacturers, distributors and plants within about two hours of you, shipping freight you can actually cover with carriers you actually know.
A hundred names you'll never work is just a way of feeling productive without calling anybody. Twenty is small enough that you run out of excuses. You either called them or you didn't.
What to write down for each one
Company, city, contact name and title if you can find one, phone, email, and what they ship. Then leave a column for what they told you and one for the next call date. That second column is the entire follow-up system, and it's why the free tracker exists.
One email a week. Tuesdays. Free.
Rates, carriers, detention, and getting paid — from someone still booking loads. Subscribe and the first email brings you the Shipper Call Tracker, the spreadsheet that keeps prospects from going cold.
One email a week · Unsubscribe in one click
The Shipper Playbook runs this whole process on your phone: scripts that fill in with your name and theirs, six objections tap-to-open, follow-ups that schedule themselves. $47, one time, 30-day refund.
See the playbook