Recruiting the right freight salesperson is only the beginning. The first six months of employment can determine whether a new sales hire builds a strong pipeline and becomes a long-term performer or struggles to gain traction. Clear leadership, structured onboarding, freight-specific sales training and regular coaching all play an important role in setting a salesperson up for success.
After more than 25 years recruiting within freight and logistics, I've seen businesses invest considerable time and money finding the right salesperson, looking for the right combination of industry experience, commercial ability, customer relationships, personality and cultural fit.
Then the candidate accepts the offer, everyone breathes a sigh of relief and the focus shifts elsewhere.
But recruitment is only the first step, and what happens during the first six months can be just as important as who you recruit.
Why do new freight salespeople struggle?
When a salesperson isn't performing after six months, it's easy to conclude that the wrong person was hired. Sometimes that's true, but before reaching that conclusion, I think employers need to ask a different question:
Did we give them what they needed to succeed?
Even experienced freight salespeople need to understand the business they've joined, including who the ideal customers are, which verticals and trade lanes are priorities, what type of freight the business actually wants and what the value proposition is beyond price.
They also need clarity around how pricing and operations will support them, who owns existing accounts and what is expected when it comes to prospecting, CRM activity and pipeline development.
If these things aren't clear internally, a new salesperson is left to work them out for themselves.
Successful sales onboarding starts with leadership
We often think onboarding is about preparing the new employee, but when recruiting a salesperson, I believe the business needs preparation too.
Before the salesperson starts approaching the market, leadership should be aligned on the commercial direction of the role. That means defining target customers, verticals and trade lanes, clarifying the value proposition, agreeing on account ownership and establishing expectations around activity, pipeline and CRM. Sales also needs to be aligned with pricing and operations.
Without that alignment, mixed messages can quickly appear. Sales may be chasing volume while management wants margin, the salesperson may target an industry the operations team doesn't particularly want, or pricing may not be able to support the service being promised.
A salesperson can't effectively execute a sales strategy that hasn't been clearly defined.
What should the first 90 days look like?
A new freight salesperson needs targets, but revenue shouldn't be the only measure of early success.
The first 90 days should establish the foundations for future sales performance, and a practical 30/60/90-day sales plan can give both the salesperson and their manager clarity around what should be happening at each stage.
During those early months, employers should be looking at whether the salesperson is targeting the right prospects, creating enough conversations, conducting effective discovery, identifying genuine opportunities, following up consistently and building a qualified pipeline.
They should also be developing the confidence to sell the company's value rather than immediately relying on price.
Revenue ultimately matters, but particularly in the early months, the behaviours and pipeline activity that lead to revenue can tell you much more about whether a salesperson is gaining traction.
Freight sales training needs to be specific
An experienced salesperson may know how to sell, but that doesn't necessarily mean they know how to sell your freight forwarding business.
Freight sales requires an understanding of customers, trade lanes, service requirements, operational capability, rates, margins and where the business can genuinely add value.
That's why freight sales training needs to be practical and relevant to situations salespeople face every day, including prospecting, creating conversations, discovery and qualification, handling objections, rate discussions, defending margin, negotiation, follow-up and progressing opportunities through the pipeline.
The objective isn't to teach sales theory. It's to develop the commercial confidence and practical capability required to have better conversations with real freight customers.
Sales and operations need to work together
One of the most important relationships for any freight salesperson is the relationship with operations and pricing because, while sales can win the customer, someone else has to deliver what was promised.
A new salesperson should spend time understanding how the business operates, where it's strong and which opportunities make both commercial and operational sense.
The better a salesperson understands the business behind the service, the better equipped they are to sell it. A strong relationship between sales and operations also reduces the likelihood of winning business that looks good on a sales report but creates problems operationally.
Why sales coaching matters during the first six months
Onboarding shouldn't finish after the first few weeks. New salespeople need regular coaching as their pipeline develops, and coaching needs to go further than simply asking, "How much have you sold?"
A useful sales conversation should explore which opportunities progressed, which stalled and why, what objections are coming up, what the salesperson learnt from recent meetings, what needs to happen next and where management support could help.
Regular pipeline reviews and manager coaching create accountability while also giving leaders an opportunity to develop the salesperson rather than simply measure them. This coaching rhythm is a core part of the sales success framework we've developed.
What should success look like after six months?
By six months, employers should be able to see much more than a revenue figure.
The salesperson should have a clear understanding of the company's target market and value proposition, be prospecting consistently, having stronger discovery conversations and building genuine qualified opportunities through the pipeline.
They should also understand how to progress those opportunities, be increasingly confident discussing value and defending margin, and have an established coaching relationship with their manager.
Those are the foundations that support sustainable sales performance.
Recruitment doesn't end when the salesperson starts
This is something I've been thinking about increasingly as a recruiter.
Traditionally, our role has been to find the right person, manage the recruitment process and get them successfully into the business, but what really defines a successful placement?
For me, it's not simply that someone accepts the job. It's that they succeed once they're there.
That's the thinking behind the Recruitment and Freight Sales Success Program we've developed for Australian freight forwarders.
Following a successful sales placement, the program includes a leadership workshop designed to prepare the business and salesperson for success. Together, we establish the ideal customer profile, salesperson scorecard, 30/60/90-day plan, weekly activity framework and manager coaching schedule.
Businesses can then continue with an optional six-week freight sales accelerator focused on developing practical capability across prospecting, customer conversations, discovery, value selling, negotiation and pipeline progression.
Final thoughts: Set your salesperson up to succeed
Recruiting the right freight salesperson matters, but even a great salesperson can struggle without clear direction, effective onboarding, practical training, operational support and strong sales leadership.
If you're investing in recruiting someone to grow your business, the first six months shouldn't be left to chance. Give them clarity, provide the right training and support, establish regular coaching and make sure the wider business is ready to help them succeed.
Because a successful freight sales hire isn't just about finding the right person.
It's about creating the right environment for that person to perform.