5 Ways to Win (and Keep) New Clients in Logistics | Ep 59
In this solo episode, Brian Hastings, co-founder of Veritas Logistics, lays out five tactical principles every freight broker needs to master to win new business—and actually keep it. With 24,000 brokerages competing for attention and trust, Brian shares what separates the amateurs from the professionals: belief, niche expertise, honest communication, a service-first mindset, and genuine relationship-building.
Whether you're just getting started in freight sales or looking to sharpen your client retention game, this episode delivers actionable advice straight from someone who's been in the trenches. Plus, Brian reflects on Veritas’s five-year journey from a basement startup to a growing logistics powerhouse, and the values that fueled their rise.
The Logistics & Leadership Podcast, powered by Veritas Logistics, redefines logistics and personal growth. Hosted by industry veterans and supply chain leaders Brian Hastings and Justin Maines, it shares their journey from humble beginnings to a $50 million company. Discover invaluable lessons in logistics, mental toughness, and embracing the entrepreneurial spirit. The show delves into personal and professional development, routine, and the power of betting on oneself. From inspiring stories to practical insights, this podcast is a must for aspiring entrepreneurs, logistics professionals, and anyone seeking to push limits and achieve success.
Timestamps:
(00:00) - Introduction & today's focus: client acquisition + retention
(00:45) - The #1 mindset shift: belief in your service
(02:00) - Why you must niche down to speak confidently
(03:15) - Honest communication: why "the harder right" builds trust
(04:00) - You've landed the client—now here’s how to keep them
(04:30) - What a service-first mindset actually looks like
(05:45) - Why short-term thinking kills long-term partnerships
(06:30) - The human advantage in an AI-automated world
(07:45) - Caring about the person behind the PO
(08:30) - How to stand out on high-volume sales calls
(09:45) - A personal reflection: 5 years of Veritas Logistics
(10:30) - Startup in a basement: risks, doubt, and survival
(11:30) - Vision check: What "people first" really means at Veritas
(12:15) - Looking ahead: hiring, growth, and ideal partners
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▶️ Send us your questions!! ask@go-veritas.com
Watch the pod on: YouTube
Transcript
Hi, my name is Brian Hastings, I'm co founder of Veritas Logistics.
Speaker A:And on our show today in logistics and leadership we're going to talk about five ways to land new business as well as how to service that business for the long term partnership.
Speaker A:Welcome back to Logistics and Leadership show.
Speaker A:My name is Brian Hastings.
Speaker A:I'm co founder of Veritas Logistics.
Speaker A:And today on today's episode, I'm going to talk to you about a couple things and the first one is something that we hear all the time from different people in the industry regarding how do I land more clients and how do I keep those clients happy.
Speaker A:Now the first thing goes, you have to have a strong belief system and what that means is you have to actually believe that you are the best service provider in the industry.
Speaker A:Without that, you're not doing yourself any favors.
Speaker A:You're not doing your client any favors.
Speaker A:You know, there's thousands of shippers across the country and 24,000 brokerages.
Speaker A:These shippers are being called every single day.
Speaker A:And if you don't believe in your product or you don't believe in yourself, they're going to smell that over the phone and they're going to turn you away or get rejected and hang up the second piece.
Speaker A:Your level of experience, well, maybe you're brand new, maybe you don't have a ton of experience in the industry, but I'm telling you, you have to niche down into what you're good at or what your company focuses on.
Speaker A:This gives you the opportunity to sound better on the phone and know what you are talking about.
Speaker A:If you're mispronouncing different cities or you're, you have no idea or it seems like you have no idea about their shipments or the type of products that they move, you're not going to have a chance.
Speaker A:So know your industry niche down in a certain market to understand exactly who they are and what value you can bring if you don't niche down.
Speaker A:If you're trying to do everything, you know, flatbed, reefer van, any type of, you know, shipments out there, you're not going to have the expertise and you're not going to have the knowledge to help out that client and bring long term value.
Speaker A:The third thing is you have to have honest communication with your clients, with your prospects, you have to do what you say you are going to do.
Speaker A:Honest communication should be table stakes in this, in this industry, and sometimes it's not.
Speaker A:If you find yourself in a challenging situation, make sure you choose the harder right over the easier wrong.
Speaker A:Now you've landed the business, you've closed the client.
Speaker A:What do we do next?
Speaker A:Well, now you have to service the client.
Speaker A:We are service providers.
Speaker A:That's what we do in the, in the brokerage world.
Speaker A:So you have to service the client.
Speaker A:And number one thing is you have to have a service first mindset.
Speaker A:How do I service this client?
Speaker A:How do I bring value on a daily basis?
Speaker A:How do I do things that sets myself apart and sets me apart from everybody else in the industry, from the four or five different people that they might be using today or the other people that are calling them on a daily basis.
Speaker A:Now if you're in it for the money, I'm telling you that has a short, short shelf life.
Speaker A:It is not going to last long, especially if there's an opportunity where maybe you misquoted on a load and you have to give a load back to me.
Speaker A:That should never be the case.
Speaker A:If you want to build long term relationships and long term partnerships, you have to be a person of your word and make sure that if you do underquote or if you mess up a specific shipment that you follow through with that shipment from A to B.
Speaker A:We believe in not giving loads back to customers, especially if you know we're going to lose money on it.
Speaker A:So what, you lose a couple hundred bucks, you move along, you live to see another day.
Speaker A:Why is the service first mindset important?
Speaker A:Well, in the day of advancing technology and AI and you know, everything under the sun that wants to be automated, people are craving and humans are craving for that personal interaction.
Speaker A:Remember the last time that, you know, you had a flight delayed or you had a flight canceled?
Speaker A:Did you want to talk to a bot or did you want to talk to a human that can help you out and get you on the right flight to get home to see your family?
Speaker A:More often than not, I would say that you, you'd rather speak to a human.
Speaker A:And the last piece about client service and a service first mindset is genuinely caring about that person's business and genuinely caring about your, your specific contact.
Speaker A:You know, we, we get so involved and so transactional in the day to day with, with this industry taking time apart to make sure that you're developing an actual relationship that's fruitful for both parties.
Speaker A:Now these are just a few ways to land the business in our industry as well as servicing the client.
Speaker A:Things that we hear from our customers and prospects and shippers all the time are when they get these phone calls, the person that's gonna move the needle and the person that's gonna get a follow up or a second phone call or a virtual call are those people that know what they're talking about.
Speaker A:So be well versed, be prepared, especially when you're making those calls and you're making 25 to 30 or maybe 50 a day if you're early on in your sales career.
Speaker A:These are just a few of the ways that we've heard from shippers over time on, you know, what to say and how to say it and what really moves the needle as opposed to just going through the motions of making specific sales calls.
Speaker A:If you're a shipper, a manufacturer in our industry today, we would love to hear from you.
Speaker A:You can go to our website, you can reach out to us directly.
Speaker A:We want to do business with people that appreciate long term partnerships and long term relationships.
Speaker A: ay, we're sitting here in May: Speaker A:We, you know, we jumped into the deep end and you know, we were trying to survive and trying to grind especially through some of the hard times.
Speaker A:Now we're coming up on that five year anniversary and I just want to recall, you know, why do we exist and why, why did we think that we could start a company and why, you know, how can we do it a little bit differently?
Speaker A:Our main vision, our main purpose is we want to be a people first company.
Speaker A:And what does that mean?
Speaker A:That's care of every single employee, every single shipping partner, every single business partner, every single vendor that we have to make sure that we're doing business in the most professional manner.
Speaker A:Now I will tell you, during those times, I think we were, you know, cooped up in our basement for, you know, the, the first 24 months until we got an actual office space.
Speaker A:And there were times where there's a lot of self doubt that creeps in and there's a lot of highs and there's definitely a lot of lows, especially being an entrepreneur in this space.
Speaker A:It was right around the time of COVID and trying to, you know, fight all the negativity and all the, the pessimism around that time.
Speaker A:And you know, here we are today, five years later.
Speaker A:We're a growing company, we're looking to expand, we're looking to hire the, the right type of people, we're looking to do business with the, the right type of shippers.
Speaker A:And manufacturers that want those long term partnerships and want those long term relationships.
