Oct 28 • General discussion
Learn When to Say NO
Sometimes you just have to say no and let that one go. Recently I've had one of my bigger customers getting really tight on his prices for EVERY lane. You guessed it, he's pricing me up against the 3 letter monster competitor that prides themselves in being the lowest bidder at all times and is in court fighting lawsuits for screwing over carriers. It happens every year right around the same time, I know for a lot of companies Q4 can be a very tight one especially if the bottom line for the year isn't being met for that company. But this isn't general freight either. Its highly laborious freight in which I have a lot of experience in both on the trucking side and the broker side, so I know what carriers are going to want to haul this freight, and being more concerned about quality over quantity I know the numbers he wants me to match will not be enough buying power to purchase the services of a high quality carrier. So I do what I always do in this case, I let the 3 letter company have the freight and sit back and wait for them to screw up as the ALWAYS do lol. Listen, it always gets under the skin when a low quality competitor comes in and starts taking freight away from you. But this is business, its not charity and as long as your are confident in your prices, and why they are where they are, its ok to draw a line. This particular customer has been driving prices down so low were only averaging 5 to 8% commission lately, and with as needy as this customer is those numbers aren't what they need to be to justify the labor required to move and facilitate the shipments. I even discounted a load down to 0 commission recently to help him out over one of his own employee's mistakes but being the concerned partner that I am I ate the cost. As its commonly said on the road, not all freight is good freight, and this is true on the broker side as well. Sometimes you just have to refocus your energy and efforts to another direction, and hope you have done a good enough job in the past for them to come back to you first when the competitor drops the ball. Know your worth is true in every aspect of life but most importantly in business. Especially in tight times, there are plenty of businesses out there hurting and begging for any work period. But you cant compare yourself with them if you know your quality service is superior and you most definitely cannot lower your standards to their level. Keep striving to be better every day and take the slow down as an opportunity to grow your business even more. At the end of the day, as long as your quality is worth it, when that customer's bank roll is flowing again they will call you back and look for the better service. Sometimes you shop snap on, sometimes you shop harbor freight. You can't take it personal. Just roll with the punches and keep it moving.
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Learn When to Say NO
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