Logistics and freight sales: how to reach shippers and supply chain managers on LinkedIn

In most shippers, several people touch freight, and they don't all decide. Know who you're writing to and why it matters to them.

In larger companies, start with the logistics manager or head of supply chain and let procurement come in when there's a reason. In smaller ones, the founder or operations lead often decides alone.

Shippers rarely change providers on a whim. They change when something moves. Watch for these:

• Expansion: a new warehouse, a new market, a new production site.
• Hiring: open roles in logistics, transport or supply chain often mean change or growth.
• New products or channels: moving into retail, launching online, adding a category with different handling.
• Public frustration: posts or comments about delays, capacity or rising costs.
• A new person in the role: new supply chain leaders often review providers in their first months.
• Contract and tender cycles: if you know when a review is, you know when to be in the conversation.

Sales Navigator lets you combine function, seniority, industry, company size and geography, which is exactly what freight prospecting needs. A few habits keep the list useful:

1. 1Filter by the industries that ship what you're good at: food and drink, retail, automotive parts, chemicals, ecommerce.
2. 2Combine function (logistics, supply chain, operations) with seniority, so you reach the people who decide.
3. 3Set geography by the lanes you serve, not by where the head office is.
4. 4Add signals: recent job changes, company growth, posted on LinkedIn recently.
5. 5Keep each search narrow and save it, so new matches show up over time.

Beyond searches, look at the followers of trade publications and industry associations, the commenters on supply chain posts and the members of logistics groups. For the full method, see the Sales Navigator guide.

The more specific you can be about what a company moves, the less your message sounds like everyone else's. Most of this is public:

• What they make or sell, and how it moves: pallets, parcels, temperature-controlled, bulk, hazardous.
• Where they ship from and to: sites, distribution centres, markets, stores.
• Their growth: new locations, new markets, hiring.
• What the person has posted or commented on recently.
• Whether they fit your network. If you don't serve their lanes well, they're out.

Write one line per account on why they're in: "opening a second DC in the north, ships chilled, posts about capacity". That line becomes the message.

Skip the company introduction. Say something about their freight, connect it to what you do well, and ask one question.

The second message works because it's about her network, it names a lane you really run, and it asks for a small, reasonable step. More on writing for LinkedIn in why LinkedIn messages get ignored.

Most freight deals take more than one message, and many replies come from follow-ups. Each one should add something:

• A relevant observation about their lane, season or market.
• A short example of how you handled a similar shipment for a similar company, without naming anyone who didn't agree to it.
• A question about timing: "when do you usually review carriers?"
• A clear, polite close if they're not interested.

For timing and cadence, see LinkedIn follow-ups: where most of your meetings are hiding.

When a shipper replies, they usually ask about rates, capacity, coverage, tracking, insurance or how you handle problems. Answer what you can straight away, and get to a short call where you can learn their volumes and lanes properly. A good quote needs real data, and the call is how you get it. Send a calendar invite, a reminder before the call and a short follow-up after it with the next step.