Tired of Cheap Customers? How Forwarders Can Upsell with Visibility

Every forwarder or LSP knows the feeling.

You fight to win a tender, sharpen your pencil to the point of pain, then spend the next year answering endless “Where’s my container?” emails for a margin that barely justifies the effort.

The problem isn’t that customers are inherently “cheap.” It’s that most forwarders are still selling one flat product: transport from A to B at the lowest possible rate.

If everything is included, nothing feels premium.

Visibility is your best lever to change that. When you package and price visibility as a service, you stop being just another rate in a spreadsheet and start acting like a partner that reduces risk, work, and uncertainty for your customers.

This article is a practical playbook for forwarders and LSPs who are tired of cheap customers—and ready to upsell with visibility.

1. The “Cheap Customer” Problem (Without the Rant)

Let’s name the pain points first.

Typical symptoms:

Customers run mini-RFPs on every shipment and push you to match the lowest spot rate.
Your ops team spends hours a day checking carrier portals and answering status emails.
You absorb the blame for delays you didn’t cause, with no extra revenue to cover the extra work.
Even when you deliver, you’re treated as interchangeable—not a partner, just a vendor.

It’s easy to conclude, “Our customers are cheap.”

But what’s really happening is this:

You’re giving away high-touch service and manual visibility work for free.
You’re not clearly differentiating between transport only and transport + visibility + reliability.
Your offer has no tiers. There’s no structural reason for a customer to pay you more.

If customers only see one thing to compare—price—they’ll push that lever as hard as they can.

Your job is to give them something else to compare and buy.

2. Why Visibility Is the Natural Upsell Lever

Visibility is where you already spend hidden effort:

Logging into carrier systems.
Chasing updates from partners.
Updating spreadsheets or emailing status to customers.
Reacting to exceptions at the last minute.

Done manually, this is pure cost.

With a modern visibility platform behind you, that same work can become a packaged, billable service.

Think about what visibility actually changes for your customer:

Customer service load
Fewer internal “where is it?” questions and fewer angry calls from their own clients.
Internal coordination
Sales, warehouse, and finance can all see the same shipment status instead of working blind.
Risk and exception management
Early warning on rollovers, congestion, or missed transshipments instead of late surprises.
Performance and planning
Data to compare carriers, ports, and routings over time—not just last week’s quote.

Platforms like TRADLINX give forwarders and LSPs:

Real-time container tracking across dozens of global carriers in a single interface.
Event-based visibility from pickup to empty return (gate-in/gate-out, vessel departure/arrival, delivery).
Frequent, automated updates with high data accuracy.
White-label portals that can carry your brand, not the platform’s.
API/webhook integration so shipment data flows into ERP/TMS/CRM systems.

This is no longer “we send you milestones.” This is a visibility product.

And products can be priced.

3. Segment Your Customers: Who Will Actually Pay for Visibility?

Not every customer will pay for more. That’s fine. Your goal is to find the ones who will.

A simple segmentation framework:

3.1 Pure Price Buyers

Primary concern: today’s rate.
Low loyalty; quick to move for small savings.
Low operational complexity, fewer stakeholders.

These customers may never pay for visibility. Keep them on a simple, low-touch offer—or consciously stop chasing them on price.

3.2 Cost-Pressured but Service-Sensitive

Talk constantly about cost, but suffer from:
- Late surprises
- Internal misalignment
- Frequent escalations when something goes wrong
- Often mid-sized shippers, importers, or distributors.

These are ideal candidates for a visibility upsell: they feel the pain you can solve.

3.3 Strategic Accounts

Larger volume and more complex networks.
Multiple internal stakeholders (supply chain, sales, finance, customer service).
Target customers for long-term collaboration.

They may not ask for “visibility” by name, but they want:

Predictability
Fewer surprises
Data for their own decision-making

These accounts should be offered your highest visibility tiers.

3.4 A Simple Exercise

Take your customer list and mark:

Volume: High / Medium / Low
Complexity: Simple / Multi-leg / Multi-carrier
Complaint level: Low / Medium / High
Growth potential: High / Medium / Low

Now circle the top 10–20 accounts where:

Volume or complexity is high, and
Complaints and escalations are frequent.

That is your first target group for visibility-based upsell.

4. Design Visibility Packages You Can Actually Sell

If visibility is just “included,” you’ll never get paid for it.

You need clear, simple packages. Here’s a model you can adapt.

4.1 Example Packaging

Tier	For Which Customers	What They Get	How You Talk About It
Standard	Price-focused, simple flows	Basic milestone updates, email notifications, phone/email support during business hours	“Transport with essential tracking.”
Visibility Plus	Service-sensitive accounts	Real-time container tracking portal, event-based alerts, multi-user access, standard KPI report	“Fewer surprises, fewer emails, more control.”
Visibility Enterprise	Strategic and key accounts	White-label portal, exception management rules, API/integration, custom dashboards, review meetings	“A shared control tower for your ocean freight.”

4.2 Make the Difference Obvious

For Standard, you might offer:

Milestone updates at key events (departure, arrival, delivery).
Support via email/phone.

For Visibility Plus, you add:

Real-time portal access across carriers.
Automatic alerts for delays, rollovers, and long dwell times.
Exports of shipment data for their internal reporting.

For Visibility Enterprise, you add:

White-label tracking so their customers see their brand.
Deeper integration into their ERP or TMS.
Periodic performance reviews and route/carrier optimization support.

The important part: these are not free upgrades.

They are structured, named packages that can appear as distinct lines on a proposal or contract.

5. Delivering Upsell Without Breaking Your Team

A common fear is: “If we promise more visibility, we’ll overwhelm operations.”

That’s where the right platform matters.

With a system like TRADLINX behind the scenes, your team gets:

One interface for 50+ carriers, instead of jumping between carrier portals.
Event-based monitoring across the whole journey (pickup to empty return).
Proactive alerts for exceptions, so they can act rather than constantly check.
Data integration into your existing systems via API, webhook, or export.
White-label portals you can switch on for selected customers.

This means you can increase perceived service without increasing manual work at the same rate.

A simple rollout playbook:

Pick a pilot group
Choose 3–5 customers from your segmented list who are likely to see value.
Define their package
Decide what each gets: portal access, alerts, reports, review cadence.
Train your team
Give sales and account managers short scripts and a live demo environment.
Measure the impact
Track:

Number of “where is my shipment?” inquiries.
Escalations due to late surprises.
Renewal and retention rates.
Margin improvement vs. purely price-driven accounts.

5. Standardize and scale
Turn what works into a repeatable offer, and roll it out to the next wave of accounts.

6. When to Walk Away from Truly Cheap Customers

Even with perfect packaging, some customers will never buy anything beyond the lowest rate.

It’s important to recognize them and decide how much energy they deserve.

Signs of a truly price-only customer:

They run mini-auctions on almost every shipment.
They show no interest in visibility, reliability, or data—even when you demonstrate clear benefits.
They switch providers regularly for marginal savings.

In these cases, you have three options:

Offer a strict transport-only service
Minimal tracking, minimal service, minimal margin. Automated as much as possible.
Set a margin floor
Decide the minimum you’re willing to accept and stick to it. If they leave, they leave.
Refocus on higher-value accounts
Visibility upsell gives you a reason to invest more in customers who value more.

The goal is not to eliminate cheap customers entirely, but to stop organizing your whole business around them.

7. Key Takeaways: From Price-Taker to Value Partner

If you’re tired of cheap customers, visibility is not just a tool—it’s your path to a different business model.

Customers push on price because that’s the only lever you’ve put on the table.
Visibility solves real problems: uncertainty, manual work, and late surprises.
When you package visibility into clear Standard / Plus / Enterprise tiers, you create natural upsell paths.
Good messaging focuses on outcomes: fewer status calls, earlier warning, better decisions—not just “a portal.”
With the right platform, you can deliver higher service levels without drowning operations.
Some customers will always be price-only. That’s okay. Visibility helps you identify and prioritize the ones who see you as a partner, not just a number in an RFP.

Move visibility from the “free” column to the “value” column, and you’ll find that a lot of your “cheap” customers were actually just waiting for a better offer.