Contact Us
(888) 875-0799
(888) 875-0799
BUYER'S GUIDE
Every vendor pitch sounds the same. This is the checklist that separates the companies who understand lanes, modes and contract timing from the ones learning freight on your budget.
Short answer
Look at four things before anything else. First, can they write your qualification spec in freight terms? Second, have they run campaigns in your service line, not just “transportation and logistics”? Third, will they put exclusivity and non-conflict terms in writing? Fourth, do you keep the data when the program ends? Price comes fifth.
Table of Contents
8 sections
First decision
Short answer
List building, appointment setting and a full outsourced SDR program are three different things sold under one name. Pick the one you need, and decide if you want contract freight or spot freight, before you take a single sales call.
Product | What You Receive | Fits You When |
Prospect list building | Verified shipper records with contacts and firmographics | You have reps with open capacity and a script that already works |
Appointment setting | Booked meetings on your reps’ calendars with qualification notes attached | You have closers but nothing filling the top of the funnel |
Full outsourced SDR program | List, messaging, multichannel outreach, meetings, and reporting | You have no outbound function and no time to build one |
Before anyone pitches you, two more decisions cut the shortlist:
Still not sure if your own team should do this work? Our guide on how to get more logistics clients covers the prospecting side of that choice.
FIT
Short answer
“Transportation and logistics” is a label, not a skill. A vendor can book meetings for a freight brokerage and still miss what a shipper needs for bonded warehouse space. Find your row below and make them fill it in from memory.
Your Service Line | Buyer They Must Reach | What They Must Qualify On | Disqualifier |
Freight brokerage | Transportation manager, logistics manager | Lane pairs, mode, loads per week, incumbent broker, payment terms | Cannot explain a routing guide versus a spot tender |
Asset-based carrier | Transportation manager, distribution center manager | Lane density, drop trailer needs, dock hours, OTIF standard, equipment type | Pitches national coverage you do not have |
3PL and warehousing | VP of supply chain, director of distribution | SKU count, pallet positions, throughput, temperature and food-grade requirements, WMS in use | Runs a warehousing campaign as if it were a freight campaign |
Freight forwarding, drayage, customs | Import or export manager, trade compliance lead | Port pairs, container volume, Incoterms, customs broker in place, CTPAT status | No grasp of air versus ocean booking cycles |
Final mile and fulfillment | Ecommerce operations lead, retail supply chain manager | Order volume, delivery window promise, returns rate, threshold or room-of-choice service | Sells parcel savings to a freight buyer |
On the first call, ask each shortlisted company to fill in your row from memory. Thirty seconds is usually enough to tell who knows freight.
THE EVALUATION
Short answer
Check the qualification spec, freight fluency, channel mix and contact coverage, exclusivity, compliance, data ownership and reporting. The first two carry half the decision.
The seven criteria
8 sections
Vendors talk about qualifying leads. Very few hand you the criteria before the contract is signed. So ask for a one-page spec. Run your eye down it and look for these fields:
One line in the agreement does the rest. A meeting missing two or more fields does not count toward your monthly number.
Ask six questions on the first call and listen. They are not trick questions. Anyone who has spent time in freight answers all six straight away.
If they cannot answer these while selling to you, they will not answer them on a live call with your prospect, under your brand name.
You can see how that mix runs day to day on our logistics lead generation service page.
Buyers skip this question more than any other. It is also the most expensive one to skip.
There are only so many shippers in a given lane. If your vendor runs the same target list for a competing broker, one prospect gets two near-identical calls in a single week. You both come off as spam.
Get answers in writing on four points:
Then ask for a non-conflict clause tied to your service line and your primary lanes. A vendor with a healthy pipeline will sign it.
Everything they send goes out under your name, so the exposure lands on you.
Anything the vendor keeps is pipeline you are renting. That switching cost is there by design.
Activity counts are easy to send and hard to use. Ask instead for reporting that answers the questions your Monday sales meeting puts on the table.
Metric | What It Tells You |
| Contact rate | Whether the data is accurate and the titles are right |
| Conversation rate | Whether the opener lands with freight buyers |
| Meetings held versus booked | Whether the confirmation process holds the meeting together |
| Lane-matched meeting rate | Whether meetings fit freight you can actually move |
| Bid and RFP invitations | Whether meetings turn into award opportunities |
| Pipeline by service line | Where the program produces and where it stalls |
Weekly reporting is the minimum. A monthly cadence means you find out a campaign is misaimed thirty days too late.
Get Started
Your reps may be better at closing than prospecting. We deliver qualified shipper leads matched to the lanes and freight modes you want to grow.
DISQUALIFIERS
Short answer
Guaranteed volumes with no written lead definition, a database they will not sample, form fills counted as leads, and no straight answer on competing accounts in your lanes.
THE SCREEN
Short answer
Ask ten questions on the first call. They cover targeting, experience and terms. If they dodge more than two, move on.
On Targeting
On Experience
On Terms
Our logistics lead generation pricing page walks through engagement structure and terms. The logistics lead generation FAQ answers what buyers ask most.
Compare
Short answer
Score each company one to five on seven criteria, multiply by weight, and total it. Below a weighted 3.5, run a pilot at most. Never an annual contract.
Criterion | Weight |
Freight fluency and service line experience | 25% |
Qualification spec and lead definition | 25% |
Exclusivity and conflict terms | 15% |
Channel mix and contact coverage | 10% |
Compliance and brand safety | 10% |
Data ownership and exit terms | 10% |
Reporting depth | 5% |
THE PILOT
Short answer
Shippers take three to nine months to decide. So a 90 day pilot will not show closed revenue. Look at lane-matched meetings instead.
Put these five points in writing before launch:
Any vendor who refuses a scoped pilot should explain why. A team that already knows freight proves it inside sixty days.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Try month to month first. A 90 day pilot with written success criteria works too. A twelve-month lock-in hands you all the risk, and it does that before anyone has qualified a shipper on your lanes.
A generalist can work, but only if they build a freight-specific qualification spec and prove it in a live campaign. What matters is the qualifying itself. Lanes, modes, volume and contract timing. Without that, they learn freight on your money.
Comparing cost per meeting before agreeing on what a meeting must contain. A cheap meeting with a warehouse supervisor who cannot award freight costs far more than an expensive meeting with the person who signs the contract.