How to quote a price for a novice freight forwarder?

When many new freight forwarders first enter the industry, the biggest problem is how to contact customers by phone and how to quote. Today I will share my personal views on the issue of quotation. Here are my own insights and the experience of my predecessors. I learned from it and felt that I have benefited a lot. I would like to share it with you and thank those senior colleagues who have shared their experiences with you.

1. New freight forwarders often have the following problems when quoting: 1. Don’t understand the market and blindly quote. Many newcomers do not have a good understanding of their products and prices, main target markets, and peer quotations, and they do not understand the customer's situation as much as possible from all aspects. This makes us lose the initiative in dealing with customers. For example, when we picked up the phone, we didn't get to know the customer. We just called as soon as we got the phone number. During the first call, we used to brag about how great the company was. As a result, when the customer asked about the price, they didn't know how to get a good quote. , you also have to look up information or find peers to inquire about prices. This gives the customer the feeling that it is unprofessional, and in the end it is a waste of money.

2. There is no effective method and no accurate gap. During the offer process, there was no detailed analysis of specific issues, but a blind pursuit of "one size fits all." There was no categorization of customers by level, but just a bunch of beards and eyebrows. In the end, the deal was taken, the price was quoted, and the person ran away.

3. Failure to dig deep into customers and lack of customer tracking. The main body of the market is commodities, and the owners of commodities are people, that is, people (businessmen) in the market, which is what we call customers. As long as you occupy the customers, you will occupy the market. However, we are lagging behind in this regard. Among the more than 20 customers we have contacted, almost no one has followed up to the end. They all stop following up after they send an inquiry and give a reply. Even if they follow up, there is no follow-up. Dig deeper. As a result, customers are not customers and acquaintances are not familiar with each other.

2. How to inquire:

The market is filled with thousands of freight forwarders, many of whom are not shipping agents or bookmakers. How to get a good price to improve the competitiveness of our products is a big problem faced by every freight forwarder. When facing peers, first, we must pay attention to the accumulation of relationships, survival of the fittest, and selectively retain bookmakers with stronger strength or dedicated line advantages to maintain contact. Second, grasp the psychology of your peers. When the order is placed, be confident and ask them to give the lowest price. If you are simply asking for a price, you should not go too far into the details. The third is the feedback on goods delivery after the inquiry. This is essential exchange and communication with peers. Be honest with each other and analyze and solve problems together. Do not think that I will give you goods, I am the uncle. It is best to become good friends with peers.

In the face of ship owners, since the particularity of the shipping industry determines the dominance of shipping companies, we generally choose to find shipping companies to sell and directly approve prices during the off-season when we have a certain amount of pallets in hand. , and establish good cooperative relations;. Secondly, when inquiring about prices from shipowners, detailed pallet information should be provided to deepen trust and grasp the psychological characteristics of shipowners’ sales in the off-season. After the final inquiry, immediately follow up with a MAIL with inquiry details. Don't underestimate an email. As the same saying goes, only if you value others will others value you.

Other points to note:

(1) Since our company’s business focuses on agents and direct customers, frequent price inquiries are inevitable, especially for agent appointments. For goods, the delivery rate after inquiry must be relatively low, so we need to communicate well with our partners, otherwise the other party will easily get bored and eventually ignore our inquiry and quote randomly, which will force ourselves to Entering a dead end;

(2) Pay attention to the skills when asking for prices. For example, if a new agent asks for the price of all cabinet types at a point where the possibility of selling goods is very low, if you directly ask your peers rashly, they will think you are This is a general inquiry, and you will not make a serious quotation. At this time, you can try to ask your peers for a certain cabinet type, and finally ask about other cabinet types. Usually at this time, they will quote you more patiently, and the price reliability is relatively high. ;

(3) For quotations at certain deviation points, you can refer to the MAERSK website system, such as Chongqing freight rates. If you cannot find the Chongqing freight forwarding quotation for a while, you can check the Chongqing delivery through the MAERSK website. The approximate barge fee in Shanghai, combined with the price from Shanghai on hand, can be used to infer the freight rate in Chongqing, which can basically be reported.

3. How to quote:

After talking about a lot of things above, the key point today finally comes out, which is how to quote a quote to customers. I think this is the most important thing for newcomers. A little bit.

When facing direct customers: you must remember the three words of fast, ruthless and accurate. Fast: The fastest response is the first magic weapon to win. If you are a customer and call for quotation, you can get an answer immediately. Do you feel that this salesperson is very skilled in business? For such a company, you can feel confident transporting goods. Accurate: An accurate understanding of the market is an important prerequisite for gaining the initiative in quotation. An accurate quotation will definitely make you stand out from the competition with your peers. Ruthless: Know yourself and the enemy, and you will never be defeated in a hundred battles! Strive for maximum profits for yourself with a full understanding of the market. The purpose of doing business is to make money, and Lei Feng also needs to have enough to eat. Since we are doing business, we must strive for the maximum profit for our friends. During the actual quotation process, you can find out the prices directly released by 3-4 shipowners, and then go to the market to inquire about the prices released by your peers, and then add an appropriate profit to quote the customer. Whether the customer is satisfied with the price, basically if they have any questions You will understand it clearly, and this generally has a higher chance of success, and you can also give effective suggestions or opinions to customers.

Facing peers:

(1) Selectively accept inquiries and achieve maximum utilization within limited time and market resources. Non-advantageous routes may not be available in the market. Finding the best peer price is not considered.

(2) Focus on inquiries from foreign counterparts and use information asymmetry to win business.

(3) Compared with direct customers, the degree of freedom in controlling the profit of peer quotations is lower and can be determined at an appropriate time.

You should also pay attention to the following points when quoting:

(1) Standardize the quotation format, especially for foreign agents, try to form your own set of formats to give people a professional feel , a feeling of clarity at a glance;

(2) When quoting, it is not necessary to be too detailed about the shipowner information and other non-key concerns of the customer, so as to avoid the passive situation caused by the price change of the voyage;

(3) The validity period should be indicated when quoting. If you are not sure about the validity period of the freight rate, you can make a statement with SUBJECT TO FINAL CONFIRM and try to take the initiative.

(4) If the wrong price is reported, it doesn’t matter. If the price difference is relatively small, you can stay put for now. If the customer has further inquiries, you can make adjustments on the grounds of changes in validity period or surcharge; if the price difference is relatively small, If the price is too large, you need to immediately quote the corrected price to the customer and reasonably explain your mistake.

(5) Having a price list of our own is an important factor in whether we can do a good job in inquiry and quotation. This requires us to accumulate enough freight price information in our daily work to ensure that the freight price is the best. The price source channels are smooth, and we always grasp the advantageous freight rates in the market!

This article is just to inspire others. I hope colleagues in the industry can share their experiences and help each other complement each other. It is also helpful for newcomers.