Are Shipping Rates Negotiable?
Most business services are negotiable to some degree. A great mistake made by many small business owners is to simply accept the prices that they are quoted at first glance. If you are dealing with a Chicago Messenger Service, it is important that you always ask if there is any room for negotiation on the prices that you have been quoted. This can help small business owners especially find ways to keep their businesses profitable.
When you're shipping goods with a courier company, you are usually going to have an account with them. If you don't have an account, you should certainly open one if you want to try and get better rates on your shipping. While negotiating is possible, if you try to negotiate without an account you will often not have any success. Normally, preferred rates are only going to be offered to account holders.
The first step to getting preferred shipping rates is to always ask your courier company what the options are for negotiating a better rate. The reason that most people think that shipping rates are not negotiable is because they never ask. Courier companies are not going to volunteer the fact that you might be able to pay less than their quoted rates, but if you ask them, there is always a chance that you are going to be able to find yourself a deal.
When you are trying to get a better rate on shipping, there are a few things that you can do which will increase your chances. First, you can offer to increase the volume that you are going to ship with a company. For instance, if you ship with another company currently, offer to make the one you are negotiating with your sole shipping provider.
The important thing when you are trying to negotiate with a courier company is to know what you should go after. Some people will try very hard to negotiate with a courier company in order to get a percentage savings on a single order. This isn't a valuable use of your time. Instead, you want to try and get a preferred rate with the courier company that will apply to all of your shipments. It almost doesn't matter how small a savings you get if it applies to your entire account, as over the long run it will certainly save you much more money than a single discount will.
About the Author:
Corey Michaels is a consultant for Chicago Messenger Service and chicago freight forwarding companies as well as national courier service businesses.
Article Marketing
4 people like this article
