3PL recap: How to become a rock star freight broker

This fireside chat recap is from FreightWaves’ 3PL Summit on Wednesday.

FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: Grow, little rock star

DETAILS: All brokerages want to grow, but it can be overwhelming. FreightWaves talks about strategies to grow a brokerage with or without years of experience.

SPEAKERS: Mary O’Connell is a freight broker, 3PL expert and host of the FreightWaves podcast Check Call. Benjamin Kowalski is a transportation consultant and co-host of the podcast Freight 360.

KEY QUOTES FROM KOWALSKI

“The first thing that is important before anybody starts out in their journey is to have proper expectations, because when we know where the hurdles are, at the very least, we’re less surprised.”

“The biggest thing that is important before you ever pick up the phone to call shippers is to determine, what is the value you’re going to add? What are you going to start with when you pick up that phone?”

“We all end up in tunnel vision, when we’re stuck in the weeds, and brokerages are definitely one that perpetuates that, where we get stuck in our shipments, our customers, the details. It’s very easy to get lost and we should take a step back and say, ‘I’ve been working in my business every day, but I need to take a step back and figure out how to work on my business and what are the questions, the tasks and the things that I want to accomplish over the long run.”