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Who are you meeting? Get the brief.
Two links: your company, and the one you're selling to. Mallin researches the account and the people in the room, then hands you a pre-call brief: who actually decides, what to ask, and the ways the call can go sideways. Free preview, no transcript needed. There is a real one further down this page if you want to see it first.
This is what arrives.
An excerpt from a real brief, with the account and the people changed. Note what it does that a summary will not: it tells you who not to sell to, what not to say, and how sure it is about its own read.
The account
Calderwood Logistics
Regional freight brokerage, roughly 1,400 employees, Ohio. Mid rollout of a new transport management system after a 2025 acquisition nearly doubled their lane count.
Walk out of this call with
(a) the name of whoever owns carrier onboarding day to day, and (b) a 30 minute working session inside two weeks to size how many lanes are still being priced by hand.
Who you are meeting
VP Operations
Why this read. Operations owns the pain but not the budget. The system rollout is hers to deliver, so she is measured on adoption, not savings. She is the person who tells you who signs. She is not the person who signs.
Watch for. If she says you should come back once the rollout is stable, that is not an objection, it is a timeline. Ask what stable means and what date it has.
A question to lead with
“The acquisition roughly doubled your lane count. Which part of carrier onboarding did that break first?”
Why. Puts the problem in her words instead of yours, and tells you whether this is a volume problem or a process problem.
Listen for. A number, or a named team that is drowning. If she calls it manageable, this deal is not ready and you should stop qualifying it up.
Landmines
- Do not pitch against their new system. It is her project, and criticizing it makes you the enemy of the thing she is being measured on.
- Do not lead with cost per load. Operations is judged on service failures, not unit cost. Save the savings math for the finance conversation you are trying to earn.
Built from 8 public sources, including the acquisition announcement and two trade press pieces. Every line in a real brief carries its source, so you can check it before you walk in. Overall confidence: high.