8 common mistakes when quoting freights

There can be many mistakes when quoting freights, due to the complex process it implies. So, we decided to list the eight most common of them to help freight forwarders to be aware of them and to get to know a way of avoiding them.

Making mistakes when quoting freights is very common, mostly because the sales team may get carried away by the rush and the pressure of clients requests. This doesn’t surprise anyone because freight forwarding pricing is still a manual process, which makes room for human errors.

Quotes are key in business and freight forwarders are aware of it. Delivering a good quotation can make the difference in closing a deal. However, they have not yet found a way to avoid some of the most common mistakes when quoting freights, such as:

1. Not paying attention to rate’s updates.

This is probably the most common mistake: using non-updated rates or not informing the client about their expiration dates. The first one can lead the freight forwarder to put a higher price, which could mean losing the deal, or to quote cheaper, which could mean losing profit if the client accepts it. The second one, can make the customer lose trust and think the company is unprofessional, which could mean a lost deal.

2. Not including details of services.

If the client receives an undetailed package of a freight service, he won’t know what it actually includes when comparing it to a cheaper offer, so he will probably take the last one. In other words, if freight forwarders brake down all of the services they offer in a quote, customers will actually value them and may be willing to choose them among other providers.

3. Wrong charges calculation.

We could say that almost every salesperson has forgotten to include in a quote some BL Fee, GRI, port taxes or other charges. This obviously has an impact on the total cost of the shipment and, it has to be either charged to the client or assumed by the freight forwarder.

4. Mistaken currency conversions.

The exchange rate used when quoting is a key point. It’s very important to keep in mind that US$ is different than EUR€, for example. A mistake like this could charge more costs and aggravate the losses, so freight forwarders need to focus on not making it.

5. Not adding terms and conditions.

When quoting freights, forwarders usually focus on getting all the job done and send it to the client, but forget to add the services’ terms and conditions. This can be a big problem when an inconvenient occurs with shipments. It’s important to be clear with the customers from the beginning, specifying those aspects that are crucial to include, like payment conditions, to avoid unnecessary conflicts and misunderstandings. By doing it, forwarders can maintain good relationships with their clients so that they keep on buying the service.

6. Sending an unprofessional quote.

Often, with the rush and work pressure, people skip details. This can be more delicate when it’s about a quote that doesn’t have a format, isn’t numbered, dated or even worse, with faults. When it happens, it can make the freight forwarder look unprofessional and unreliable.

7. Presenting delays in sending quotes.

Rate management and finding schedules are usually complex processes for freight forwarders. Many of them still do it all manually, which can lead to send quotes too late. While some competitors are using technology to create quotes faster and getting confirmation from clients in less time, the first ones are losing opportunities for taking too long in the same process.

8. Unable to find quotes after sending them.

As rough as it sounds, this happens more often than you’d think. After all of the sales effort and sending the quote to lead the client to accept the offer, freight forwarders may lose track of who is the sales executive, where is it store, which version is the updated one, what are the rates offered, etc. When this happens, companies may be losing important business opportunities.

Up to date, all this mistakes have been inevitable. Freight forwarders still rely on combined Excel and Access sheets to create professional and high quality quotes. This makes it prone to human errors, since it all depends on the sales team training, their pressure and workload.

This is part of the reason why we developed Cargofive, a software that automates most of rates management and quotes process. We want to help freight forwarders to avoid all of this common mistakes when quoting freights so they can focus on making more business deals. Those who are interested in knowing more about our solution can book a free demo with us and we’ll get in touch.