"Can you just find us someone who already has the book and will work for less?"
If you have worked in freight forwarding long enough, you have heard this request. Every specialist recruiter has.
The request is not malicious. It just reveals the gap between what a top commercial producer actually costs and what a hiring manager thinks they should accept.
A freight forwarding sales producer who carries a portable book of business is one of the most competed-for professionals in the industry. Carriers know them. Shippers follow them. Trade lanes are built around them. These are not interchangeable people, and the relationships they carry don't transfer to a spreadsheet.
The assumption that this same producer is also looking for a pay cut? That's the part that earns the red card. 🟥
Closing that gap is exactly where our counsel starts. We are the #1 freight forwarding sales recruiters in the industry, and we know what it takes to find, attract, and land the commercial talent that moves the needle.
If you're a hiring manager who has asked a version of this question, we are not judging you. We are here to show you a better way to ask it.
Follow Darius and Company for straight talk on freight forwarding talent. DM us if you're ready to hire the right way.