The Sales Playbook for Mexico Freight

This is the second post in the Mexico Freight Playbook series. Read Part 1 here.

In Part 1, I covered why Mexico matters, how to build the team, and what scale looks like. This post is the sales playbook — how to actually find the freight, get into accounts, and close the business.

I've done hundreds of Mexico 101 sessions with brokers over the years. This is everything I tell them.

I get some version of this question in almost every Mexico 101 session I do. Let me unpack it.

First, the Spanish thing: you don't need to speak Spanish to sell Mexico freight. I can't tell you how many times I've talked to sales reps that are like: "I'm using Google Translate to call shippers in Mexico and emailing them."

Please don't do that.

Here's the thing — you're not selling to shippers in Mexico. You're selling to shippers in the United States who happen to have freight going to or coming from Mexico. Big difference.

The transportation manager in Mexico City or Monterrey or Aguascalientes gets cold-called every single day by Mexican trucking companies. They have salespeople walking into their facility constantly saying "I have trucks, give me your freight." Everyone knows that the Honda plant in Guadalajara ships freight to the U.S. They're getting calls all day about it.

But Brett at the Tier 2 automotive supplier in Mount Juliet, Tennessee? The guy whose main job is managing U.S. distribution and the Mexico stuff is just this headache he inherited? Nobody is calling him about Mexico. Nobody.

Brett doesn't know how cross-border works. He doesn't speak Spanish either. He doesn't have time to figure it out. But he's got two trucks a day coming from his supplier in Aguascalientes and he's paying way too much because he doesn't know any better.

Be the person who solves Brett's problem. That's your unfair advantage.

You don't need Spanish to talk to Brett. You need to understand cross-border freight well enough to explain it simply. That's it.

Now, where do you find the Bretts? Where do you find the freight? That's what this entire playbook is about. Let's get into it.

The easiest place to start is freight you're already moving. When it comes to your existing book, you want to do three things:

Go into your TMS right now and pull every load that picks up or delivers in a border city: Laredo, El Paso, McAllen, Brownsville, Eagle Pass, Nogales, Pharr.

If it's delivering to Laredo (or any border city except San Diego), it's almost certainly going across the border. Those "J&J Forwarding" deliveries in Laredo? That freight is going to Mexico. You just don't know it yet.

Here's the conversation:

"I noticed this load delivers to a forwarder in Laredo. I can take this all the way into Mexico for you — door-to-door, no one touches the freight at the border, better visibility, less risk of damage. Who can I talk to about your cross-border freight?"

That's an instant conversation opener with a warm lead. Nothing beats a warm lead.

And if they don't handle the Mexico piece themselves, ask who does. They'll usually give you that contact, and now you've got another warm lead:

"I work with so-and-so on the U.S. side. We move four or five loads a week from Ohio to El Paso. We want to provide service on the Mexico side and take this direct for you."

Here's a real example of what this conversion looks like.

I got a call from a guy I used to work with who'd moved to a CPG company bringing temp-controlled food product out of Mexico — guacamole, specifically — into their distribution centers in the Midwest.

He said: "We have no idea when our freight is actually going to show up. We don't know when it's going to get to the border. We don't know when it's going to cross. We just get it in Laredo and try to pick it up from there, and half the time we've got a truck pre-arranged that ends up sitting at the border because the load didn't cross in time."

The problem? Their co-packer in Mexico was handling the transportation. Freight was moving from the co-packer's facility to the border, and the shipper had no visibility, no control, and no ability to plan.

I told him: go back to your co-packer and tell them you're going to pick it up from their facility. You take over the move from origin in Mexico all the way to your warehouse.

Once they did that, the detention charges disappeared. The border delays went away. They had complete visibility from the moment the truck left Mexico to when it rolled into their dock. They cut the risk, cut the cost, and completely controlled their supply chain.

This is one of the most underrated conversations you can have with a customer: "Do you actually control your cross-border moves, or is someone else handing it off to you at the border?"

If the answer is the latter — if there's a co-packer, a supplier, or a forwarder making those arrangements — that's your opening. Step in. Take over the full move. Give them visibility they've never had.

Look at your customer list and compare it to the industries that over-index in Mexico freight: automotive, electronics, appliances, furniture, retail, food & beverage, industrial components, apparel. If your customers fall into these categories, they almost certainly have Mexico freight — they just haven't told you about it.

This sounds obvious, but most brokers don't do it: tell your customers you can service their Mexico lanes and ask them for it.

If you don't tell them you can do it, and if you don't market it, they won't tell you about it. They assume you're a domestic-only shop. You have to put it out there.

Send an email. Mention it on your next call. Add it to your email signature. Whatever it takes to get the word out that you handle cross-border.

This sounds old school because it is. But it works.

Go to a grocery store, Home Depot, Lowe's — any retailer. Look at the labels. "Made in Mexico" or "Hecho en México" means there's freight moving.

And don't just look at the finished product — think about the packaging materials too. Those caps on your water bottle? Extremely high chance they were produced in Ensenada, BCN. The plastic components, the cardboard, the shrink wrap — all of that is freight.

Trace it back: Who's the manufacturer? Where's their U.S. distribution? Who's handling their transportation? Who makes their packaging?

That's a great story to start a conversation: "Hey, I was at the grocery store. I saw you guys make your stuff in Mexico. Can I help you ship it?"

I've used that line multiple times. It actually works.

Some industries are loaded with Mexico freight:

If you have customers in these categories, they have Mexico freight. They might just not know you can help with it.

A lot of the time they assume you don't do cross-border, so they don't tell you about it. You have to ask.

Here's the best part about Mexico freight: it's almost never on their standard RFP.

Every salesperson has gotten the "we just ran our RFP two months ago" objection. You set a reminder for 10 months from now and move on.

With Mexico, you don't have to wait. When they hit you with that objection, you pivot:

"I totally understand. What about Mexico? That's usually not on the RFP. Who handles that for you?"

Nine times out of ten, they say something like: "Oh, we basically just give all that to Landstar" or "Swift handles it, but honestly we're not super happy with them."

And now you're in a conversation that can close this week — not in 10 months.

I did this with a Fortune 100 shipper right after Arrive acquired Forager. The sales rep had been trying to get a meeting for months. They kept saying no. Finally he said "we just bought Forager, we can do cross-border" and they took the call.

I was on a call with that shipper two weeks after the acquisition closed. We got consistent freight from them, then expanded into their domestic U.S. business. They became a major account.

The ability to get in outside of an RFP cycle when you have something unique and niche to offer — I've seen it work multiple times.

I introduced you to Brett earlier — the Tier 2 supplier in Tennessee that nobody's calling about Mexico freight. Now let's talk about how to actually find these people.

Do some research before you reach out. Go to their website. A lot of companies list their facilities right on their website, which is really cool. You can see they have a plant in Guanajuato or Querétaro.

Then your outreach is direct and specific:

"I see you have a manufacturing facility in Querétaro and distribution in the United States. We provide cross-border services — we can give you capacity to export from Mexico to the U.S. Let me know when you have time to talk."

Be short and sweet. That's what customers are looking for.

Here's a pro tip: Google "Nissan Sentra suppliers" and you'll find one of those pictures of a car with all the different logos pointing off it — that's a feeding frenzy. Every one of those suppliers is receiving parts from or shipping parts to Mexico.

Even better — pull up Google Maps around a major OEM facility. The Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga has an entire industrial park surrounding it: Gestamp, Yanfeng, Grupo Antolin, Faurecia, Schnellecke — all Tier 1 suppliers receiving components from Mexico every day. Nobody is cold-calling those companies about Mexico freight.

Mexico freight is stickier than domestic, and it opens doors to everything else.

When you talk to a shipper, their biggest problem is not usually going to be cross-border. They're gonna say it's something like tracking or capacity or rates. But when you ask them about Mexico, they'll go: "Oh, well, yeah, I mean it's like 10% of our freight spend. So it's not a huge amount of our business, but it's a huge headache."

That 10% is a major pain point. They might not offer it up to you — you have to pull at it. But when you solve that problem, you've got a customer for life.

Here's why Mexico freight is so sticky: your customers might be transactional on their domestic U.S. freight, testing you out with spot loads here and there. But when it comes to cross-border, they're a lot more consistent with who they're going to work with because it's got a whole operational aspect to it. They're expecting consistency. They're going to give you more consistent freight because that freight needs to move consistently.

Once you prove you can do it, they stick with you. That makes it sticky revenue. Then you grow into their domestic freight, their Canadian freight, everything else.

Go after the medium-sized accounts, not the enterprise logos.

Everyone's calling Coke and Heineken and Home Depot. Literally everybody. The lesser-known companies — the Tier 2 suppliers, the regional manufacturers — are going to be your best customers because nobody else is sprinting after their Mexico freight.

The bigger brokers have their hands full with the larger enterprise accounts, and they're very comfortable with them. They don't want to spend time where you're going to be focusing.

And here's the thing about furniture, home goods, apparel, and textiles right now: because of the tariffs on China, these industries are growing fast in Mexico. A lot of those manufacturers are small now, but they can grow to mid-sized. If you can get in with a smaller manufacturer while demand is high, as they're looking for a reliable partner, you can grow with them.

You can go from shipping 10 loads a month to 100 loads a month because now they've bought a new facility, they have more people, they can start producing more to meet the demand. Get in early.

Here's something I hear constantly: "My sales reps are timid to expose their customers because they just don't know."

They're scared to bring up Mexico because they don't understand the mechanics. They're worried they'll look dumb or promise something they can't deliver.

The fix is simple: you need your Mexico person on those customer calls. Not buried in carrier communication all day — on the calls, selling.

When I was at Coyote, I'd send an email to the entire sales floor. Not a generic "we do Mexico now" announcement — I'd list the specific industries and commodities that signal Mexico freight. Automotive parts, appliances, electronics, tequila, paper products.

When you name those commodities, salespeople self-identify. They go, "Oh, I have a customer that ships automotive parts" or "My customer is a supplier for that company." That's your pipeline.

Then I'd get on the call with them as the Mexico expert. And every time, I could say, "I know exactly who's going to take this freight. I can name three carriers right now." That credibility came from having covered the freight myself.

Do 80% of the work for the sales rep. They still get paid their commission on freight they never could have closed alone. You build the Mexico book. The customer finally has someone who actually understands their cross-border headache. Everyone wins.

When you're talking to your customer and finding out about their Mexico freight, you want to discover where they have problems — without asking them directly, "Where's your problem?"

Because customers, as we all know, are perfect. They're not going to just tell you they have a problem.

The key coaching advice I give: figure out whether it's price, service, or complexity that drives their decision-making.

If it's price: They're shopping rates. You need to show value beyond the number — the complexity premium is justified, and you can explain why.

If it's service: They've been burned before. Loads showing up late. No visibility. Communication breakdowns. This is your sweet spot — service wins in cross-border.

If it's complexity: They don't understand how it works and they're scared of it. They need a partner who can walk them through it and make it feel simple.

Here's a question that opens doors: "Who's handling your Mexico freight right now?"

A lot of customers are relying on the same big player — one of the mega-brokers who treats their Mexico volume as an afterthought. Their freight gets put last. They're not a priority.

When you hear that, you've found your angle. You can be the partner who actually prioritizes their cross-border business, who picks up the phone, who knows their lanes.

Ask questions like:

These questions help you discover problems you can solve. Then when you provide a rate, you can say:

"Based on our conversations, I know you're having trouble with visibility at the border. We'll be able to provide you with that visibility. Here's the rate. Let me know when we can pick up."

That's capitalizing on the complexity. The whole cross-border sale is service, 100%. It's not just moving freight — it's a service that you need to execute on to have success.

Q: How do I price this stuff? I have no idea what the rates should be.

You need seven pieces of information to give a real rate — not a guess, not a range, a real rate:

A note on B1 drivers: If your customer (or you) won't allow a B1 driver to do the northbound crossing, you're dramatically limiting the carrier base. Most carriers at the southern border employ B1 drivers, not CDL drivers. Don't shoot yourself in the foot — or let your customer shoot themselves in the foot — by restricting this capacity unnecessarily.

When a customer asks "what's the rate for Mexico?", the correct answer is: "I need seven pieces of information to give you a real rate." Then walk them through the list.

Domestic freight averages maybe $150-200 margin per load. Cross-border Mexico, especially northbound, averages $500 a load. Open deck: $1,750-2,000.

The margins are two to three times higher than domestic. Don't be afraid to price accordingly.

A good sweet spot is around 20%. There are opportunities where you can go a lot higher than that — the more specific the freight, the more problems you're solving, the more you can charge. But don't go below 15%. Mexico freight commands a complexity premium, and it's justified.

If the customer pushes back on rate, explain the value: customs coordination, carrier vetting, tracking, security. You're not just moving freight — you're managing a multi-party operation across two countries.

Mexico rates vary dramatically by direction. Southbound and northbound on the same lane can differ by 30-50%.

Northbound is often more expensive because it requires dual customs clearance (Mexico export plus U.S. import) plus Carta Porte documentation. If your customer ships both ways, the rate difference is an opportunity.

Here are the five objections I hear most often — and how to handle them:

In my entire career brokering Mexico freight, I can count the theft incidents on one hand. It happens less frequently than in the U.S. domestic market.

Guy Fieri's tequila got stolen in the U.S., not Mexico. Most tequila that ships out of Guadalajara runs with security escorts. They know exactly where those drivers are supposed to go. They have security protocols.

The freight that gets targeted is high-risk, high-value: tequila, electronics, pharmaceuticals. And those shippers know it — they have protocols in place. Regular freight? The risk is overstated.

It looks chaotic at first. There's a lot going on — maybe 12 people on every email. Somebody is always getting blamed for something.

But reality is the same 12 people are on every email and they're always doing the same thing over and over again. It's a lot of repeatable tasks. Once you understand the pattern, you just keep doing it.

You'll start to see a rhythm and a system. You just have to learn it as you start to operate it.

No, you don't. Not to start. If anything, add someone at the border (Laredo) before you add someone in Mexico. That's where the carriers are, where the customs brokers are, where the action is.

When you find yourself going down to Laredo every week, that's when you hire someone there.

Relationships and reliability win every single day. Shippers will be more flexible on pricing as long as it's within reason — more flexible than you see on domestic freight.

You can win freight without having the cheapest rate. Service matters more in cross-border.

This is one of the most common concerns, especially for first-time Mexico shippers.

Mexican carriers carry essentially no cargo insurance — the carrier's liability is minimal. So who insures the freight? Almost always the shipper or receiver. This is standard practice.

Before you move freight for a customer, ask: "Is this freight insured on your end?" They'll say yes. If they seem confused, that's a red flag worth investigating.

This doesn't change much operationally. You're still vetting carriers, still managing the shipment. But the insurance situation explains why facilities are strict about security protocols — everyone knows prevention is everything.

If you do want to play the RFP game, cross-border RFPs follow a predictable calendar:

But here's the thing — and I said this earlier — you don't have to wait for RFP season with Mexico freight. Most shippers handle their cross-border outside their standard bid process. That means you can get in any time of year.

So yes, if there's an RFP, go after it. But don't let the calendar stop you from prospecting year-round. The RFP bypass is one of the biggest advantages of selling Mexico.

Selling Mexico freight isn't that different from selling any other freight. You're solving problems for customers. You're building relationships. You're demonstrating expertise.

The difference is that fewer people are doing it, which means less competition. The margins are higher. And once you win the business, it's stickier than domestic.

Start with your existing book. Ask every customer with border freight if you can take it all the way. Target the U.S. contacts, not the Mexican ones. Get in outside the RFP cycle with your Mexico wedge.

The freight is hiding in your book. Go find it.

Next in this series: Part 3 — The Operations Playbook (how the freight actually moves, pricing components, documents, and execution)

Have questions about selling Mexico freight? Drop me a note. I love talking about this stuff.