Email Essentials for Freight Brokers | Episode 292

Poor email habits can cost you customers. In this episode, we break down the fundamentals of professional email communication for freight brokers and why it matters more than you think.

🔹 Write clear, purpose-driven messages
🔹 Use subject lines and recipient lists effectively
🔹 Repackage sloppy carrier emails before forwarding
🔹 Always follow up calls with confirmation emails
🔹 Avoid costly miscommunication and protect your business

Listen now and sharpen one of your most overlooked tools in freight: your inbox.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, we're back .
Episode 292, freight 360podcast.
Dude, I got to tell you, man,it was 81 degrees in western New
York yesterday and it is Wokeup.
It was like in the upper 30stoday.
So back back in the hoodieweather for us, at least for

(00:21):
today.
We'll see, but anyway, welcomeback.
Another episode of our podcast.
Here we're going to talk aboutsome of the basics of email
communication with shipperstoday the do's, the don'ts, the
why's, the why not's, all thatgood stuff.
Make sure you're checking outall of our other content.
We get questions all the timelike hey, how do I do this?

(00:42):
How do I do that?
We have a searchable libraryright on our website,
freight360.net.
Type in whatever you're tryingto look for and you will get
some feedback or some contentpodcast long form you got
shorter videos, clips, blogs,etc.
You'll also find the FreightBroker Basics course on our
website and continue to share us.
We've been growing and growingand growing.

(01:02):
There's a lot of um rejuvenatedinterest in our industry this
year, so very excited for Ben.
What's going on in your neck ofthe woods?
I know your battle.
You were battling a little bitof uh feeling.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
COVID wasn't great.
End of like pretty muchsymptoms.
Kind of felt a little bit aboutthree, four days ago but just
going through like kind ofclearing the fog out and trying
to get on the other end of it.
But yeah, feeling a lot better,anxious to dig into some of the
stuff today.
For sure, a lot in the news.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
Oh yeah.
I'll hit news first.
A lot of this in our newsletterthat came out earlier this week
, but the English proficiencyfor CDL holders that was that's
like been kind of the big one.
We've been hearing this comingthough for a while, so it wasn't
like a surprise, and it's alsonothing new, right Like, this is

(02:00):
a law that's been on the booksfor a while.
But I think that the big thingis Sean Duffy, the DOT secretary
, is basically saying we'regoing to actually start to
implement some of the regulationthat's already in existence.
Right so like, and I think thereason behind it this is not
like a hey, we don't like peoplethat speak a different language

(02:21):
.
It's, you know, when it comesto compliance and road signs and
construction signs and talkingwith a DOT inspector being able
to be proficient and understandthe English language.
I think that's where this isall coming from.
What's your, what's your takeon it?

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah, I think I had read and I never got a chance to
dig into like the specificspecifics, but it seems like it
was rolled back a bit or eased,or enforcement was eased during
like the Obama administrationand again, like I do really
think it also has a lot to dowith the market.
I mean, I don't think there'sany way you could have put

(02:58):
something like this in placebeginning of the pandemic.
It would have crushed thesupply chain.
So it's like, hey, when we needyou, we need you.
Well, oh, hey, the market'ssoft and we're about to enforce
tariffs and we're going to put agiant freight recession into
practice where there's not goingto be anything to move.
So like it's a convenient timefor us to now crack down on this

(03:19):
thing.
So I mean, to me it's kind of Idon't know, depending on the
wind, the way the wind's blowing, on whether or not they want to
enforce these things, which Ifeel like is maybe a little
disingenuous.
Like there was a funny meme andfreight caviar.
I don't know if you saw it atthe very bottom of it, Right, it
was basically a picture ofTrump and it said basically that

(03:42):
he was doing this at the exactsame time he was causing, you
know, massive shortage.
I don't like to read it.
It's it's a picture of Trumpdressed kind of like a Buddhist
monk, with a yin yang in thefront.
It just says avoiding theoncoming freight recession by
shutting down every truckcarrier that can't speak English
.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
It gets pretty spot on I mean, oh man, so that that
was like the big executive orderthat came out.
Some other things, did you seethe Amazon thing?

Speaker 2 (04:17):
What's that?
Did you see the Amazon thing?
It was hysterical.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
This is the Bezos talking to Trump.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
Yeah, terrible.
Uh, this is the bezos talkingto trump, yeah.
But so there was apparently aleaked article that was refuted
later by amazon.
That amazon, well, because kimustarted putting in tariff
charges on all the invoices andpeople started freaking out,
right, yep.
And then I guess it was leakedthat amazon was going to do the
same, putting a charge next towhatever products were bought
from China and showing like, hey, this is your price increase

(04:46):
related to the tariffs.
So the press secretary came outand said this is a hostile and
political act by Amazon and isnot a surprise, because Amazon
has partnered with a Chinesepropaganda arm.
And I'm like what?
Like Dooner had a post and itwas the first time I saw it.

(05:07):
We were talking about it onLinkedIn and I was like wait a
minute, like why is this a badthing?
If you wanted to be able toshow Americans what they're
buying from China and thenincentivize them to buy American
, don't you want them to seewhere the tariffs are doing this
?
It's like, hey, we're puttingtariffs in place to make you buy
American, but we don't want youto see where those tariffs are

(05:29):
on which products Like.
To me, it made absolutely nosense why the White House would
be opposed to it, other than thefact that, like, maybe they
just didn't want people to knowthat this is actually going to
make things more expensive.
Because then the presssecretary said, well, I don't
know why Amazon didn't do thisduring the Biden administration,
when inflation was the highestin 40 years.
And I'm like I even said this.

(05:50):
I was like, how would you haveput that in Amazon?
Like, this thing is vaguelymore expensive because of
government spending.
Like, it's not exactly like apercentage in a dollar that you
can attribute to a product inthe same way you can a tariff.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
And in a dollar that you can attribute to a product
in the same way you can a tariff, and it was just kind of
hysterical.
Yeah, I think there's.
There's definitely multipleways to to look at it, you know,
depending on what yourmotivation is.
The other things too, and again, this is all like I feel like
when we had the covid exhaustionand the you know tip fatigue.
I feel like I'm getting tarifffatigue now, so like.
But here's some other ones thatcame out in our news this week.

(06:29):
Imports clearly are going downIf you look at, let's see.
So sea shipments fell 65percent in just three weeks.
According to Flexport, can'tfreighters canceled 80 voyages.
That's an even higher spikethan during the peak of COVID.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
So here's the thing though the orders are decreasing
, but we are still seeing anincrease in containers arriving
because orders spiked higherthan they ever have pre-tariff.
So right now and this is thething, so for people wondering
how this is impacting thefreight market right now we are
still at the peak of containersarriving.

(07:09):
However, orders leaving Chinahave decreased 80%.
So we're right at the pointbetween where they are the
highest they've ever been andthey're likely to fall to the
lowest level they've ever beenin the next 45 days yeah, ever
been in the next 45 days.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
Yeah.
So when we say, like they'recanceling voyages, this, this
could be a voyage that wasscheduled for a month from now,
which wouldn't arrive for twomonths from now you know what I
mean which we had the shelvesfor two and a half to three
months from now.
So the the big thing that theywere saying is expect, unless
things change but I meanespecially with where things,

(07:45):
how cancellations are happeningright now I expect there to be
like I don't want to say emptyshelves that was the phrase that
was used in the news articlesbut lesser of certain items that
you would normally see thatcome from that area.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
The other.

Speaker 1 (07:55):
The other tariff related one was on was specific
to yeah, imported medium andheavy duty trucks and their
parts.
Yeah, imported medium and heavyduty trucks and their parts.
So again, this just depends onwhat the product is, where it's
coming from.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
This is open for public comment, which closes on
May and steel, so they didn'tget like multiple tariffs
stacked on top was what I read.
But here's another reallyinteresting thing that I didn't
know.
I listened to an interview withRyan Peterson.

(08:32):
He's the CEO and founder ofFlexport and he was explaining
how the tariffs kind of play out.
And this is really fascinatingbecause so one tariffs are
typically paid by the importer,meaning they're paid by the US
company, typically right Now.
The other thing he said is theUnited States is one of the few

(08:53):
countries that doesn't require acompany to be established in
the United States for a foreigncompany to do business.
So, for example, a lot ofcompanies that sell products on
Amazon are Chinese businesses inChina.
Ok, and he said, here's whythat matters Because one fraud
became rampant, meaning like, ok, I'm shipping $80,000 in

(09:17):
whatever toy robots, ok, they'rejust changing the paperwork and
saying that's a $10,000shipment to pay a smaller tariff
.
Now here's the second thingwhen they catch it and he's like
it's a very small percentagethat they do catch there are no
repercussions Because whathappens is they go oh, this
company in wherever in China.

(09:38):
You're now not allowed to shipinto the United States because
this is fraud.
Right, that company justcreates another shell company in
China and they don't lose theirAmazon listing.
So like, literally, theircustomer facing store on Amazon
doesn't change, just the companythat shipped to fulfill it
changed to another entity inChina, and then they just ship

(10:01):
more product in the next weekChina, and then they just ship
more product in the next week.

Speaker 1 (10:03):
What is like?

Speaker 2 (10:04):
so you're literally not doing anything to impose
these tariffs on the Chinesecompanies.
It's all on the United Statescompany.

Speaker 1 (10:12):
What?
This might be a little bit of apivot here, but what's to stop
a Chinese company from shippingto another country and like
fraudulently just saying oh,it's shipping from Cambodia, now
Nothing.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
And here's the other thing.
I was listening to anotherinterview where they were
talking about how this happensthe other way.
Like the chipsack, they're likeoh, it's basically just a list
of companies that you can't shipto in China, but there are some
companies they can, and theywere talking about instances
where, like, company A isliterally next to company B and
they're like company A is on theband list, you can't ship chips

(10:48):
to it, company B isn't.
And they're like you can see onsatellites that they just built
a bridge between company A andcompany B, so like they're just
shipping chips to the onecompany that isn't on the band
list and literally taking themon a bridge and walking them
over to the other company andcompany, the one that is on the
band list.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
And they're like there are so many fools in this
process that aren't beingaddressed, aren't being
discussed, and it's just likethis giant sweeping approach to
a very complicated situationthat has many, many aspects to
it that just aren't being talkedabout.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
Yep, all right, let's hit the sports here real quick.
The big, the big uh ticket itemwas the nfl draft was last
weekend and, uh, shadur sandersman, like I did not go to the
steelers, I know right, you guyslike still don't have a
quarterback.
Um, I guess you have MasonRudolph, right, but he ends up.

(11:46):
So Shador ends up going toCleveland, who has Deshaun
Watson, who's out all year withan injury and only has one more
year left after that on hiscontract, so we'll see how that
pans out.
And then even Shiloh, hisyounger brother I can't remember
which team, but he got signedas well.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
So I when I was watching the draft call.
Did you see the call?
It was great.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
They said it was from like New Orleans or whatever.
But what I was laughing is Iwas like watching on Thursday
and then Friday and I'm likethis guy still hasn't been
drafted and I thought about it.
I was like, well, you got tothink about it.
I'm like if you're a GM or afront office executive for an

(12:34):
organization, you know that withShador Sanders comes the
influence and the chirping ofDeion Sanders.
Right, yeah, ouch, prime.
And I'm you're thinking like,do I really want this guy
breathing down my neck or likeinfluencing our organization, et
cetera.
So you got to wonder was thereany of that thought process for?

Speaker 2 (12:55):
any of you.
Here's a question I have foryou because, like, I don't
follow college football thatmuch but I mean everything that
I had heard.
And again, he was really pickedto go to the Steelers by a lot
of ESPN and a lot ofcommentators but everyone in
Pittsburgh was like there's nochance he's coming here, at
least in the Pittsburgh sportsradio.
And the thing they talked abouta lot was they were like this

(13:16):
guy isn't a first round pick.
Like if he wasn't Deion's kidand he wasn't being hyped by the
media because everybody wantsto watch it and it's all these
clickable articles there's noway he would have gone in the
first round.
And they were like, to behonest, he shouldn't have gone
in the first round.
Do you think it was all hypeand just media because people

(13:36):
wanted to see what happened withhim related to Dion, or do you
think he was actually goodenough to go first round?

Speaker 1 (13:41):
I watched Colorado almost every game last season.

Speaker 2 (13:46):
They have a mediocre season.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
Well, yeah, I mean they had a mediocre season but
they have some really goodplayers on their team, Like, for
example, travis Hunter, thesecond overall pick, who the
Jaguars swap or like traded upfor the dude plays like 150
snaps a game.
He plays cornerback and widereceiver Like he is hands down.
I was like he.

(14:08):
He could have gone number oneoverall if cam award wasn't like
on the board and the Titansdidn't need a quarterback but
should do her Like.
I think he is a very talentedquarterback but I think and I I
legitimate thought, legitimatelythought he would have gone top
10 but definitely first round um, just based on what teams

(14:30):
needed and his, his talent andthe just like the energy that
and fan base that he'll bring toa team.
I thought like you know one ofthese, you know like I thought
the giants for sure were goingto snag him.
But regardless, there's areason that I don't get paid to

(14:50):
make those decisions for an NFLorganization, because I am a fan
who watches the games at homeand has my own opinion Right.
It's not my expertise, butwatching him play, I think he's
a really talented quarterbackbut at the same time I also
loved tim tebow in college.
I was a florida gators fanthroughout that entire uh, you
know that entire four years thathe was there and the dynasty

(15:12):
that they had with the you knowchampion.
They did like an nfl or anetflix series the swamp, I
think it was called on that team.
It was pretty good but, liketebow, not a good fit for the
nfl, like very different incollege versus.
So I don't know, I don't know.
Um, you know, I think you couldargue that he could have been a

(15:33):
first round pick.
I think you could argue that hecould have gone undrafted and I
think you can argue anything inbetween.
So it's just there's a lot ofdynamics with him, um, with the
family and the spotlight and youknow who knows you get.
You put these guys up againstan NFL defense versus a college
defense and it is two differentgames.

(15:54):
So yeah, but anyway, um, yeah,I didn't see the draft card like
the draft, uh, uh grade for theSteelers.
I don't know if you saw any ofthat.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
They did pretty good.
I can't remember off the top ofmy head.
I mean, obviously they got abig defensive lineman I think I
can't remember what it was mymind's blanking.
They had a couple two, I thinkreally good picks.
One guy they had to let goafter his medical evaluation and
I think they picked up somebodyrecently, right after that.

(16:29):
But overall the sentiment wasthat they had a pretty good
draft.
But again, you don't know untilthe season plays out and those
guys start to play.
Because, to your point and thisis what they were talking about
this morning like collegeversus the NFL, you're talking
top 1%, like it's not even closethe way the game's played, the
speed, who you're playingagainst, the defenses, the
offenses.
Like it's not.
It's literally 1% or 2% of it,might even be less than it might

(16:54):
even be like 0.2%.
Right in college make it andhave like more than a one-year
career or even a one-year careerin the NFL.
Like it's a very, very smallpercentage.

Speaker 1 (17:03):
Yep.
So the Pittsburgh Steelers wererated an overall a um with your
picks.
The bills Um, I believe we gota, b.
What did we get?
B minus, yeah, or B plus, allright, here's what I loved about
it Um, uh.
So the Bills picked up MaxwellHairston in the first round and

(17:27):
he's a cornerback.
So the Bills very much neededsome stronger defense.
So Ray Davis a running back forthe Bills that was drafted last
year is from Kentucky.
Our first overall pick isMaxwell Hairston.
The guy basically comes up allexcited and he's like tell Ray
Davis, I'm moving into his houseand then, like literally three

(17:48):
rounds later, they picked DionWalker, who's a defensive tackle
from Kentucky.
So we got all these Kentuckyboys now on the Bills squad Also
picked up defensive tackle,edge, cornerback, and then there
actually was a receiver tightend in there as well, but very,
very focused on the defense,which I think is good.
I don't think the Bills didanything to increase their

(18:13):
offense at all in the draft.
I really don't.
Even with late offensive pickslike wide receiver and tight end
, I don't think the offense wasthe problem last year.
They just let too many pointsscored against them.
So we'll see.
Man, it's like you know we gotthe draft done.
Next thing you know it's goingto be training camp and then we
have preseason before you knowit.
So but I definitely want to beable to enjoy some warm weather
in summertime before I thinkabout falling football.

(18:35):
So, anyway, anything else insports before we jump into shift
gears back to freight fromsports.
So today's topic we're going towe're going to talk through
email communication withshippers, right, so I don't want
to focus on email prospectingunless you you want to go down
that road.
But more so I have seen, I'veseen customers lost because of

(19:04):
bad email.
I have seen like ridiculousamount of time wasted because of
poor email management and we'llkind of break down a lot of
this stuff.
But what made you think becausethis idea was yours what made
you think email communication?
Did you have something happenrecently?
Or Nothing has happened.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
Just spent a lot of time on this.
We've brought in a couple ofnew sales guys and some of the
older ones and we were reallydigging into how they were
communicating and just saw lotsof I don't want to say lots of,
but like it was really apparentSome of the folks that weren't
getting traction weren't gettingtraction because of poor email

(19:43):
communication.
Yeah, Like, when you read themit was either you know, grammar
wasn't checked, they weren't,they weren't succinct, Right, or
like simple.
Like it needs to be simple,direct, easily readable,
Otherwise no one's payingattention.
And, to be honest, like I lovethe one note in there.
It's like it's kind of like ahandshake.

(20:03):
It'd be like if you went over.
Your first impression is soimportant, right, Like we don't
need to go through how importantit's.
Like there's tons of stats,there's tons of things that
would tell you like that first.
It's like milliseconds.
So when you meet somebody inperson, you are generating your
opinion of them.
You're assessing whether or notyou like them, want to do
business with them, can trustthem, Even what everything that

(20:25):
they say after.
That is a function of where youstart.
And, like, when you start onthat poor footing and you give
someone a poor impression.
It is such a steep hill toclimb if you're ever able to get
it back, Because people arejust like, yeah, like I'm not
doing, like.
It just gives you a bad feelingand you're like, yeah, OK, I
got enough choices, I'm notgoing to go back to this one.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
Dude.
I'll give you examples.
Right, like it, because I don'twant to drive right past this
first impression thing.
Because think about, likeemails that you get, right, I'll
speak from my personalexperience, whether it is
someone that we're looking to dobusiness with or if it's
someone that's, trying to, like,sell to us, right, whatever the
case might be, the things thatI that stand out to me right
away is like no subject line,bad grammar or spelling in a

(21:09):
subject line.
And then I get into the actualemail.
Is it too long, is it confusing?
Is it too short?
Is there grammar, grammarerrors?
You know all of that.
And here's the deal Like,literally, when I go to compose
an email, I have threeopportunities to utilize AI
without having to spend too muchtime.
There's no copy and pasteinvolved in these steps.

(21:31):
I've got three options to useAI to proofread, to rewrite it,
to shorten it, to lengthen it,to change the tone.
I've got the Outlook AI plugin.
I've got the Mac ai or appleintelligence plugin and I've got
the hub spot.
Uh, whatever, I don't know whathub spot calls.
It's like a little star thatpops up that you can, you know,

(21:52):
use their ai and like there'salmost no excuse now to to write
a poorly, not to mention theirspell check, it's like yes and
grammar check and Outlook.
So and Gmail, if you're usingGmail, and to your point, like
very basics, right?

Speaker 2 (22:09):
I think here's the other thing that I've noticed
that we were working on withsome folks like cradle to grave
brokers, clients that do thisright.
There's a very different speedof which you talk to a company
you're doing business with andwhen you're prospecting.
So, for instance, if you and Ihave been doing business
together for a year or two andyou need an update as soon as

(22:31):
you email me, gettinginformation back to you timely
is very, very important, so I'mgoing to respond quickly and as
accurately as I can.
But again, it is a differenttone because you know and trust
me, we have a relationship.
My call it.
Like the penalty I pay if Imake a mistake is pretty low
because we've been doingbusiness a long time, we've

(22:52):
talked together, we know eachother.
Like if I misspelled a word,you'll forgive that in order to
get a little faster.
Like you'll take it with agrain of salt If it's somebody I
don't know.
And I'm trying to establish arelationship with one of the
things I've seen with brokersthat are doing both, and this is
why it's hard.
You're talking all day long toyour customers and then you get

(23:13):
a prospect that emails you andyou just jump in at the same
speed and fire off that response.
And then and I've done this too, especially early on I went oh
shit, that's not what I wantedto say.
I didn't want to say it likethat, I misspelled that and I
kind of quoted that lane withoutasking another question.
Then you send another email andgo hey, sorry, just to clarify
this is what I meant.
And can you answer this question?

(23:33):
Like it shows them you're notslowing down enough and you're
creating this impression that,like you just care about moving
fast and not about details.
Well, in our world, details arethe most important thing.
So when you're setting thatfirst impression, if you're
sending back either incoherentdetails or confusing messages or

(23:54):
a sentence that contradicts thenext sentence, and then it kind
of doesn't make any sense, andthen you've got to clarify, and
they get three emails in thenext 35 seconds, that is giving
them a very poor impression thatyou don't take your time with
the work you're doing, and it isa very bad taste in their mouth
.
So you need to be able to slowdown or speed up, kind of based
on who you're talking to, and Ithink that is just one of those

(24:16):
basic things that's very helpfulin this.

Speaker 1 (24:19):
Yeah, so to kind of like also give a broad overview
on email.
Email is arguably the mostrelevant communication style in
our industry.
Right, people make phone calls,but those phone calls are not
always documented.
They might be recorded on oneend and not the other, they may

(24:39):
not be recorded at all.
But if you record a phone callthen you got to go back and
listen to it or read atranscript.
Emails like boom it's, it'sgoing to live there forever,
even if it's in your deleted boxor you know whatever the case
might be in that regard.
But it's quick, it's efficient.
You can hit 10 people in thesame email with copying and BCC

(24:59):
or as a phone call.
You wait for it to ring.
You might get a voicemail.
You wait for the greeting ofthe voicemail and then you wait
for the beep and then you leaveyour voicemail and you don't
know if they're going to evenlisten to the voicemail for
hours, right?
Whereas email, like we all gotit on our phone, we're all,
we're all in our email all daylong.
It is just quick and very, verymuch relevant in our industry.

(25:22):
So that's why we're.
You know we talk a lot aboutcalling and cold calling and all
of that.
But there are, legitimately,people that I have done business
with for years, um withinorganizations that I've worked
at, external Um, and this is inlike not even just in freight,
like in any other dealings in mylife that, like it could be,

(25:44):
I'm doing my taxes or I'mdealing with something in the
army.
Like I can't stand when someonedoes not know how to properly
email and I'm like how, like wegrew up with this, you know what
I mean and if you're, if you'rea bit older, it's still been
around and part of our you knowecosystem for decades.
At this point, 30 years almostat this point, give or take,

(26:07):
yeah, so this is just basicstuff that we want to point out
because a lot of times you don'tknow what you don't know and if
someone hasn't told you that,hey, your emails suck.
We're going to try and make youthink about that stuff today so
you can have an honest personalreflection on it.

Speaker 2 (26:20):
Here's one more just as a tip before we kind of dig
into it.
Here's one more just as a tip,for we kind of dig into it is
like if you're emailing aprospect, do one of two things
either save it into a draft andread it five or 10 minutes later
again before you send it, or atthe very least I'll hit the pop
out, so it pops the email outand sits at the bottom of my
screen.
I'll do something else, comeback and read it again because

(26:42):
you want to read it.
Most of us write and talk theway we're thinking, not the way
it's being received.
So it's really helpful to writethe way you wanted to do
something else and come backBecause for a prospecting email
like it usually doesn't need tobe back unless it's like hey,
can you give me a quote on thisand you need to get a number
back.
Okay, I would say, pick up thephone anyway, but regardless,

(27:06):
like you want to be able to readthat email with kind of a clear
mind and then read it and golike does this make sense to me
is the first question I ask.
The second is do I have anyunnecessary words or sentences?
Can I trim this down.
You don't want any unnecessarywords, like you're not writing a
paper for college or highschool where you're getting
points for making it longer andfancier Word count.

(27:26):
Yeah, your points are comingthrough, is it?
Are you concise?
Did you say it as clear and asshort as possible to get your
message across?
And is it confusing or does itmake sense the first time you
read it?
If you got to pause, read yourown email and go wait a minute,
then you got to start over or goback and trim it and reformat
it.
Cause like I'll find that, likeI'm like, oh, that second

(27:48):
sentence should probably befirst, my first should probably
be third, and the way I finishedthat makes more sense up here.
Cause you want it to flow likeinformation.
You don't want it to bounce allover the place, like, ah, I'm
talking about this lane, thenI'm asking about your insurance,
and I'm talking about the laneagain, then I ask about the date
for the lane, then I'm talkingabout your insurance again.
Like kind of think about howthis makes sense on a topic Like

(28:10):
you would talk about this, thentalk about this, then ask this
right.

Speaker 1 (28:15):
Yeah, one of the things that we were always
taught in the army is it'scalled bluff bottom line up
front and that's kind of like ifthere's a big, if there's a
long discussion or a long emailand it's necessary to be long,
put the like the tldr too longdidn't read.
Or the bluff bottom line upfront, put that at the beginning

(28:35):
like it could be um, you know,bottom line up front is like
need to um, need to discuss rateadjustment for this lane boom.
Here's why right, like don't,don't start with five minutes
like setting the scene.
You're not like you know, you'renot writing a script to get to
the final point of what youwanted to say tarantino bottom

(28:58):
out front and then, you know,reverse engineer it.
So, um, one of the things that I, you know, I I absolutely
cannot stand is like the overlywordy emails like just terribly
too long.
And I'm with you like concise,short, because you gotta
remember, like if you've got,let's say, you send an email and

(29:21):
it's four paragraphs long andthere's 12 people on it because
it's about an issue, all right,you just took, you know,
possibly five minutes out of 12people's work life.
That's an hour's worth of liketime that you just consume
because you just wrote thelongest email.
That was not necessary.
You know, time is finite in ourworld.

Speaker 2 (29:42):
And you need to be considerate of that right
necessary.
You know time is finite in ourworld, so, and you need to be
considerate of that right.
Like every time you're sendingan email, you're asking somebody
to take time out of their dayto read this.
It's literally a request.
You're making a polite requestthat, hey, can you please read
this for me?
Right?
Would you type this out andwalk over and hand it to
somebody you didn't know and gohey, can you please read this
one page typed message to thisperson I don't know and expect

(30:04):
them to read it?
He would never do that.
Right?
If you're going to hand it tohim, you would write it as short
and as concise as possible andbe like hey, this is interesting
enough to you, I'd like to talkmore, right?
The one last thing that, too,that I wanted to say is like is
like first, principles of emails, and this is one thing that I
don't think people think a lotabout.
It is they did a study on, like, where your time goes, and it's

(30:25):
funny because everyone thoughtwhen email came out, that we
would get more done in less time, but the opposite happened.
We literally then now have moremessages because they're easier
to send.
And what most people don'tthink about is like every time
you send an email, on average itturns into three.
You respond and I respond again, and maybe four you're

(30:46):
responding back again.
Right, and then I got to stopwhat I'm doing to read your
email.
Then you got to stop whatyou're doing to read my response
back.
And in shipping, where I seethis most common is if you have
a load and you need the detailsto be able to book the load or
quote the load, write all of thequestions in your first email.

(31:07):
Do not send six emails askingdetails about a load.
Hey, when does this pick up?
You tell me hey, what's thewait on this?
You tell me hey, what is thedelivery time?
Is it by appointment or firstcome, first serve?
You tell me oh, hey, what's thevalue?
That's like nine emails when Icould have sent you one and said
and you just bullet point themhey, what is the appointment
pickup or delivery?

(31:28):
What is the weight on this?
What is the commodity?
What is the value on this?
What is the equipment type wecan load and are there any other
requirements I need to be awareof?
I put it all just in one.
You send me one response.
I saved you time, you saved metime.
I'm not sending nine emails,you're not getting nine, and it
sets the tone that like I'mprofessional and I know how to

(31:51):
ask you everything I need to andone question.
I don't need to walk over andtap you on the shoulder,
proverbially like nine timesevery time I've got a question,
to just finish one load.

Speaker 1 (32:02):
Yeah, no, a hundred percent.
And, um, this is about email.
But sometimes you just got toget on the phone right, like if
it's, if it's, you know, goingto be a lot of back and forth,
like more like, hey, when do youhave a few minutes so we can
just hop on the phone and talkthrough all these details?

Speaker 2 (32:25):
And then you can send a summarized email afterward to
document it.
Like, sometimes email is notthe best.
Here's the other knot.
The other knot I see a lot ispeople prospecting with email
and then somebody emails backand they go hey, what's the
average volume on this lane?
Like that is not a question youwant to ask in writing, because
one, it's like proprietaryinformation about a company that
they're not going to want toput in writing and two, that
should be handled verbally.
So much of prospecting shouldnot be done over email.

(32:48):
If they are emailing you back,they're thinking about you.
That's when you just pick upthe phone and call.
You also shouldn't email themand go when's a good time for us
to schedule a call?
They don't know what their dayslook like.
The same way you don't as afreight broker.
A shipper doesn't either.
So if they're emailing you,you're top of mind.
Pick up the phone and just call.
Yep, don't send nine emailsasking these questions because

(33:08):
you're scared to pick up thephone and have a conversation.

Speaker 1 (33:10):
Here's a thing, too, that I've really liked in the
past is, like, if you're goingto use an email integration into
a CRM like HubSpot we talkabout a lot there's a lot of
other CRMs out there but I usedto use the tool on HubSpot when
you could see it would pop up onyour desktop like John Doe just
opened your message.
Yeah, Now, I know, Right, LikeHubSpot will do it, It'll track

(33:33):
it internally, but it'llliterally practically tell you
like he's reading it right now.
Pick up the phone, Call him,Right.
Same thing if you like, send aproposal over like hey, here's a
.
If you get a project of likehey, we got to move 25 flatbeds
from here to here over the nextseven days, I sent it over.
John Doe just opened your, youknow, RFP.

(33:56):
Pick up the phone.
You know that's the optimaltime to do it and I'm like not
afraid to be like hey, I justsaw you were taking a look at
blah, blah, blah.
Like.
A lot of times people think, oh, these like you know, email
tracking tools and HubSpot andSalesforce they're just kind of
like you know behind the scenes,Intel, so I know what they're
doing, but they don't know thatI know what they're doing.

(34:16):
It's like no, I'm more thanhappy to be like hey, I noticed
you just read the email I wantedto call you.
While it's top of mind, that'ssimple Yep.

Speaker 2 (34:23):
Right, here's my.
My intro is always the sameit's hey, just wanted to give
you a buzz.
Didn't want to send you ahandful of emails, thought I'd
be faster.
Most people appreciate that,right?
Hey, I'm calling you to saveyou some time and I thought,
while you were looking at it, Icould just ask you a couple of
quick questions.
Get out of your hair and get towork on this for you, right?

(34:44):
People appreciate not havinganother nine emails that they've
got to read.
Everyone's got too many to getthrough every day, no matter
where you're at every day, nomatter where you're at.

Speaker 1 (34:59):
Yeah, oh, to that point over copying people right,
like or the opposite, like, not.
So there's, we'll take a minuteto go through this one.
Who's on the email?
How long are they on the thread?
Um, reply all or just reply.
So, like some, the some of thelike things that can really
cause annoying annoyances andheadaches is copying 20 people

(35:20):
when they don't all have to beon there Right.
Another one is someone sends anemail and there's a couple of a
couple of people copied becausethey need to be on there.
The person responds and doesn'treply.

Speaker 2 (35:32):
Reply all and it's like now salespeople do that to
us, Like as an executive, Ican't tell you how many times a
week, maybe a day where I'llsend some email with our CEO and
to the salesperson I'm like,hey, send a calendar invite.
And they send it to me.
And then I got to stop what I'mdoing and go hey, please add

(35:53):
everybody.
I put in copy to this calendarinvite.
Or please reply all toeverybody.
There's a reason I added threepeople, because they all need
your response, and then theyjust reply to me and now I'm
going to stop what I'm doing totell them to pay attention to
the first email I sent.

Speaker 1 (36:11):
Drives me nuts To that point.
The way you just described.
That is great, because youdidn't directly tell them that
hey, you just took a ding on mylevel of impression of you.
But the reality is they justgot dinged on their impression
that you've got of them RightBecause that happens with me a
lot too is like, and I've gotlike repeat offenders and I tell

(36:34):
them over and over like hey, um, please reply all and so, and
that like then I know the peoplethat I'm emailing, I'll send my
email and I'll I'll like add inthere, like, please reply all
when you get a chance.
Uh, but uh, I will tell youthis too.
Like there are, there are folksin so at my company, pierce

(36:55):
Worldwide, that are really,really good at like.
They have like blanketedstatements at the bottom of all
their emails, sometimes forcustomers, sometimes internally,
sometimes just for operations,but it's like really really good
.
We're like they just have acouple of like bulleted things
like for blah, blah, blah I'lljust make it generic Like for X,

(37:19):
y, z email.
You know this address forquestions about X.
You know ABC.
You know, get to this one.
If you don't hear back from uswithin 10 minutes, feel free to
double tap.
That's our expected responsetime, like setting clear
expectations just to save theunknown.
What's going on?
That's service right.

Speaker 2 (37:41):
That is service.
You're saving your customertime from having to look around
guests and have to think aboutit.
That is service, right?
Here's another one of my hugepet peeves in our industry If we
are talking about a purchaseorder or a load number, keep
talking in the same email thread.

(38:01):
I cannot stand when I'm talkingabout a load or a situation,
right, especially in likeproject and then either the
shipper or the carrier starts anew thread and doesn't change
the subject line.
But it is a different subjectline.
So now they're talking about PO1, 2, 3, 4, and there's a whole
thread we're talking about it.
Then something happens two dayslater and they start responding

(38:22):
about PO 1, 2, 3, 4 on an emailabout another order and they're
like oh yeah, hey, this ordertoo.
And you're like wait a minute,you're talking about this order
and this thread.
So when I go to research things,when I got to figure out what
happened, I've got like sixdifferent email threads where it
talks about one load, then adifferent load, then this load,

(38:42):
and then there's a whole threadover here that only talks about
that load.
Like if you were talking aboutone subject, keep talking about
it in that subject, which meansokay, even if that load was
three days ago or two weeks ago,if something else comes up that
you need to addressaccessorials, an additional
charge, a claim go to yoursearch bar, put that order

(39:08):
number in first, find the lastemail thread with it and then
hit reply all and ask it there,do not start a whole other email
thread.
So you have disjointedconversations, everywhere
talking about the same load andall these different
conversations.
It makes it impossible to tryto understand what actually
happened chronologicallythroughout time, because it's
just everywhere.

Speaker 1 (39:25):
Yeah, we had an issue .
It was a trend that was gettingworse and worse.
Where and this is like backoffice related stuff, so like if
there was a um, a load inquestion or a carrier in
question or a customer's creditor just a customer in question,
um, what would happen is like we, you know, we would say, hey,

(39:46):
we've got an email address forcredit, for claims, for carriers
.
Um, you know, please keep oneissue to each email chain.
Please identify the MC numberin the subject line, whatever,
right?
And people feel like, no matterhow much you tell them what to
do, they mess it up.

Speaker 2 (40:04):
So I was going to get to.

Speaker 1 (40:05):
So we created, I built out a like a help desk,
like an agent portal,essentially on our website,
where our brokers can go in andit'll say, like this is a
carrier related request.
They click on it, they fill outthe necessary fields and then it
uses a Zapier integration whichis like a back, it's like a

(40:27):
back connection tool, it's likea tool that connects multiple
things.
So what it does is like Zapiersees oh, a form was filled out
and it says what do I do next?
All right, when this form isfilled out, I need to generate
an email.
So then it generates an emailand it sends it to the proper
person, and then it pulls outpertinent information and

(40:48):
formats the subject line theexact way the recipient wants it
.
It copies the requester on it,it and then it sends a very
clean, organized message of justwhat's necessary to that person
and it starts the thread andthen, as they reply,
everything's in one you knowclean, uh thread there and we

(41:08):
always say, like, for any newissue, fill out a new ticket or
whatever you want to call it,and it keeps them all clean and
organized.

Speaker 2 (41:17):
So here's I want to piggyback on that because this
is one of the jobs I think as afreight broker call it
service-related that customersappreciate.
I had a carrier that was reallypretty reliable but very
disorganized on the dispatchside, meaning they would send
emails in all different placesabout orders with updates in

(41:39):
this order and then anotherupdate about a different order
in the same thread, and was veryconfusing, right?
What I've seen some brokers dois they just forward that right
to their customer and then thecustomer looks at the subject
and goes wait a minute, this isan update about this PO, but the
subject is this PO.
I'm confused, right.
What I think is service andwhat good brokers do is you need

(41:59):
to take that information comingfrom your carrier that is
disorganized.
You need to organize it intothe same thread and then send it
to your customer in anorganized fashion, digestible
manner.
Yeah, right, what you're doingis you're repackaging what is
confusing into something that isconcise, only has the
information your customer needsand is in the same thread, and

(42:22):
then your customer goes oh, thissubject line, this is the
update.
This is the rest of thecommunication with that load.
Every time I get an update abouta different order.
I got to go back, find thatthread, create it, reply all,
add my customer again and go.
Here's your update on this andI'll adjust the subject line
because that is the repackagingright.
Like this is what we do forlots of smaller carriers, for

(42:44):
our shippers, because ourshippers don't want that
headache trying to use theRosetta stone to try to figure
out exactly what the hell loadthey're talking about and which
communication piece A, b and Ctogether.
And also this creates tons ofheadaches and invoice issues
with updates in your customerupdating a different load
because the subject wasdifferent than the body of the
email.
You need to slow down, look atthat information and put it in a

(43:08):
concise and accuratecommunication email to your
customer so they're not confused.
That is part of our job.
That is the service that ourshippers expect from us um, how
often do you?

Speaker 1 (43:21):
well, I'll start with um.
I have been the recipient ofthe email where it's just
forwarded to me with no contextand I used to like be like I
gotta read this whole freakingthing.
I just copy and paste and chatGBT and I'm like summarize this
and it'll tell me like here'swhat this email thread's about.
Because sometimes, like, I'vehad it with a claim where, like,

(43:41):
the first email in the chain isfrom four months ago and I'm
like huh, like yeah, so I usethat a lot.
I'll just say, hey, summarizethis for me If somebody sent me
just forwarded a random umthread.
But the other thing too that II really love to use with, like
technology is like hubspot.

(44:03):
I try to email as much as I canfrom hubspot and if I'm doing
it from outlook, I'll copy itlike you just have the out, the
hubSpot like connection, so itgets logged, and I'll have a
little note like check the box,like follow up in how, whenever
you set the date or you knowwhether it's tomorrow or in a

(44:24):
month or a week, and then I'llmake sure I put like a the title
of the task regarding whateverit is.
So, like a lot, a lot of what Ido on the like managing an
agent program is a lot of kindof like, just random things that
come up, whether it is dealingwith an office's numbers,

(44:45):
looking at costs for a certainteam, dealing with, you know,
hanging issues of like claims,repeated issues of failing to
follow processes, or big bidsthat are coming up like whatever
it might be.
I hate, I would hate, to send anemail and then either never

(45:06):
hear back and I forget about it,or I want to follow up but I
forget about it.
So I'm all for like, documenteverything while I'm, while I'm
sending it, take the two secondsto check a box and save a task
to follow up that, and I get myemail every morning from hubspot
.
Here's your to-do list fortoday.
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
You know what I mean.
So, um, there's technology outthere like there is no reason to

(45:30):
be forgetting things, to beover complicating things.
Um, if we, if you spend moneyfor this technology, use it
right, like you're, like, like Iwas saying before, like, if you
have a license for microsoft365, well, guess what the
outlook portion of it now has?
Microsoft's was a co-pilotright built in for like, um, you

(45:52):
know rewriting and grammar andspell checking and shortening,
lengthening, whatever right youremails.

Speaker 2 (45:59):
Same with Gmail.
Here's the other one.
And again this is kind of email.
But, like, keeping emailthreads with the same load, even
on the carrier side, isincredibly important because
here's what happens right, likewhen we have invoicing issues
that we've got to work through,especially if it's from a month
ago right or 45 days ago.
I find it a few times where wewere working through like very

(46:21):
trivial things like a truckorder not used or like a
detention charge or somethingright, and trying to figure out
what actually happened, we'vegot to go into the inbox, like
the team inboxes.
It will take us sometimes 45minutes to an hour to find every
email about that load with thatcarrier, piece them together

(46:41):
and try to understand whatactually happened in that
situation so we can make surethe right company gets paid for
the right thing Right.
And again, all of that would beunnecessary if it was just one
thread.
First of all, and secondly,like it's a really good habit to
right click and save an emailas an attachment and upload it

(47:01):
to your TMS, because if we couldjust go into the TMS and see
all the communication with thecarrier on a load and just look
at the PDF that's saved in yourTMS.
It saves your admin team anyoneelse so much time by trying to
research and understand whathappened.
Remember, like every singleload, we expect to go right, so

(47:21):
we kind of overlook these things.
But in every instance wherethey don't go the way you expect
, a lot of times you've got towork backwards through what
happened, and when they're inlots of different emails it is
very difficult to piece togetherwhat happened in that scenario.

Speaker 1 (47:37):
Yeah, 100 percent, 100 percent.
What else do we got on here?
I feel like we went down arabbit hole on email.
I think, like the key, liketakeaway on all of this is like
email is probably not goinganywhere anytime soon as like
the primary method ofcommunication for us in

(47:58):
brokerage and um.
You know, use it to youradvantage, don't use it to
create headaches, I think I.
I think I brought this up likelast week or two weeks ago, one
of the examples we're talkingabout, like carrier setups and
whatnot, and there was like 200emails sent um regarding carrier
things.
Um, and then, like, out of that, like 30 carriers were like

(48:25):
actually onboarded.
So it was like for every onecarrier that was being set up,
there was like I don't knoweight or something like that
emails.
And it's like why?
Why so many emails thateveryone's reading um to
accomplish so little?
So, like back to your point atthe beginning.
Like it's you, you think we getmore done in less time, but
when done the wrong way, um getmore work for yourself.

(48:49):
Yeah, so, and there's anotheryeah, go ahead, go ahead.
I was going to hit on like umdocumenting certain like
important load details.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
I was just going to say this.
What I was going to say is likean overlook thing is like
changing the subject line tomatch what you're asking for.
Well, is service for yourcustomer, right?
I might talk about a PO if I'mtalking to the person tendering
the load to me, but if I'memailing the facility where I'm
picking up for an appointmentrequest, I'm going to put a

(49:20):
colon and write appointmentrequest in the subject line.
Why?
Because it allows that personto prioritize their emails.
They want to get theappointment request as they come
in.
They're probably not workingfrom the oldest to the newest.
If they see a subject line thatsays appointment request,
they'll probably jump on that tothrow that in the system
quicker, right, Helps them,helps me, right.

(49:40):
And then again, if I'm talkingabout going back to the shipper
on that same PO and now I've gotto request detention, I'll
adjust the subject line.
You keep the PO in there andyou just change the end of the
subject and you write detentionrequest because it allows them
to prioritize that request basedon the subject.
The subject of the email isexactly that.

(50:01):
What is the subject of theemail?
Why are you emailing me?
So like, don't overthink it,keep it simple but like this is
what it's for.
Don't have misleading.
Or like incredibly wordysubject lines that are entire
sentences that people look atand go like what are they
talking about?
Like it's supposed to give theman idea of what you're talking
about in the body of the emailyep 100 um.

Speaker 1 (50:28):
Last thing I'll I'll add in here, and we probably
like alluded to it if we didn'tdirectly say it either today or
in recent episodes.
It's like the things that cancause you to run into trouble on
a load and result in claims orlate, you know whatever.

(50:49):
Right, documenting an email isgreat, like temperature for a
reefer, setting appointmenttimes and appointment
requirements, the open or theavailable arrival and load times
at different facilities,requirements for a specific
shipment, whether it be you knowto strap and brace it whatever.

(51:14):
You know to strap and brace itwhatever.
Liftgate driver assist, all ofthis stuff right, very, very
important.
And this is what we have, likea dispatch checklist that runs
through a lot of this.
But just getting it over thephone with your customer is OK,
but I would recommend an emailafterward just saying hey, just

(51:34):
to verify.
Boom, boom, boom.
You know, now it's documented.

Speaker 2 (51:39):
It's as simple as replying with like yep,
confirmed, confirmed yeah, besthabit ever, one of the most
important things, I think, forany freight broker.
If there's anything you takeaway from this episode, anything
you do over the phone should befollowed up with an email that
has those details and just rightat the top please confirm.
I write per our conversation.

(52:00):
Again, it seems a little wordy,but it just lets them know.
Hey, we just talked, this iswhat we talked about.
Just respond, confirm, becausenow you have it in writing.
Right, whether it's a rate,whether it's an appointment, I
can't tell you how many loadsthat I've worked through where
an appointment person called,did their job.
That person answered, said I'vegot you in for this appointment

(52:20):
, and then a truck arrived andthey go we don't have you on the
schedule because that persongot taken away and just didn't
get in the system.
At least, if you have it inwriting, you now covered
yourself and your driver so youcan get them paid.
Hey spoke to Sally.
Hey for our conversation.
Appointment time is tomorrow forthis PO at 8 am.
Please confirm.

(52:41):
Boom, they say confirm.
I save that email again in myTMS because we need that for
invoicing If the driver arrivesand my accounting team is going
to use that email to compare itto the bill of lading and make
sure that the POD had a check-intime that was prior to that
appointment.
Give them everything they needto do their job.
If you confirmed it in writing,put it in the tms.

(53:03):
It's the proof the appointmentwas made, because if the driver
makes it there on time and getsdetention, this is what your
accounting team needs to makesure they get paid and the
driver gets paid for thesethings.

Speaker 1 (53:24):
Absolutely All right.
Good email discussion here.
Sometimes we have some nichepodcast episodes and this one is
very much relevant.
So if you, you know if you'relistening to this and you're
unsure if your emails are beingwritten correctly or if maybe
you need to improve them, thisis a good opportunity to just
think twice when you're writingthat next email.
Is this does this haveeverything in it that it needs

(53:44):
to have?
Is it going to the right people?
Am I including people orinformation that's a waste or
unnecessary?
Is this worthy of a phone callinstead of just an email?
You know, just think aboutthings like that Cause.
Um, we all get hundreds ofemails every day.
Like it is, it is overwhelmingwhen you come back from a day
off and you're like whathappened?

(54:06):
Oh like so, uh, good stuff, Ithink.
Uh, I know another topic wewere talking about doing um as a
follow-up to our last couplewas going through the manual,
like old school process of um,you know, vetting carriers.
Vetting a carrier, likeliterally, like without all the

(54:27):
fun bells and whistles thatexist now Um, so we can
definitely do something likethat Also on our coming up this
year.
We'll have to get these onesscheduled.
I'm showing Sal Mercoglianowe're going to do another water,
or was it?
Yeah, water transport right, wedid with him.
Ken from DAT we'd love to haveon talk about the market.

(54:50):
Steve Sporrell from was itfactory on freight, yeah,
comfrey, comfrey.
Yep, matt Leffler, armchairattorney.
So, yeah, well, we'll hope toget some.
If you guys have anysuggestions or recommendations
for a guest or a topic, let usknow.

(55:10):
We get a lot of junk requestslike people, people that just
want to get a free advertisementfor their company.
We're not going to do that, wedon't operate that way.
But good content is what we'relooking to deliver to you guys
consistently and we like to talkabout the things that you want
to hear and the things that arerelevant.
So keep your feedback andcomments and all that stuff

(55:32):
coming Ben.
Closing final thoughts here.

Speaker 2 (55:36):
Whether you believe you, can or believe you can't,
you're right.

Speaker 1 (55:40):
And until next time.
Now that the draft is over, goBills.