Finding leads

Where the other 120 accounts come from

Australian trade data works differently to the US, and most of the tools sold to freight salespeople don't do what they claim here. This is what actually generates leads in Melbourne — including the free stuff nobody uses.

On this page

The truth about Australian trade data
Free public lists that actually work
Building a trigger monitoring system
The referral engine
Trade shows & events calendar
Drive-day routes
How to door-knock an industrial estate
The quarterly touch system
Don't waste money on these

01 The truth about Australian trade data

Save yourself a few thousand dollars

Australia does not publish import bill-of-lading data. The United States does, and that's why tools like Panjiva, ImportGenius and Descartes Datamyne exist and why their sales reps are so confident. In Australia, the Border Force does not release shipment-level import records to commercial data vendors.

So when a data vendor tells you they can show you "who imports what into Melbourne and who their forwarder is" — for Australian imports, they generally can't, and any coverage they claim is derived, partial and stale. Ask for a live sample search on three Melbourne companies before you sign anything.

What these tools are genuinely good for

Australian exporters shipping to the United States. US customs data is real and detailed. If a Melbourne company ships to America, you can often see the consignee, the commodity, the frequency and sometimes the forwarder. That's live intelligence on the export side — which, conveniently, is the side Melbourne is strong on.
Understanding a prospect's overseas supplier base if their suppliers ship to the US as well.
Researching a target's international footprint before a meeting.

What to use instead for the Australian side

ABS international trade statistics

Free. Commodity by country by state. It won't name companies, but it tells you which Victorian export categories are growing, which lanes are thickening, and where to point your effort. Use it for territory strategy, not for lead names.

DFAT trade data and market briefs

Free. Country-level trade profiles. Useful for a credible conversation with an exporter about their destination market.

02 Free public lists that actually work

Austrade EMDG grant recipients

The Export Market Development Grants scheme reimburses companies for money spent developing overseas markets, and Austrade publishes recipient lists. This is a public register of Australian businesses that are actively spending their own money to export. Filter to Victoria and you have a list of companies who are, by definition, exporting or trying to.

Why it's the best free list in the country: a grant recipient has already committed to an export push. They have overseas customers or are chasing them. They have freight requirements and often no idea how to optimise them. And almost no forwarding BDM uses this list, because it takes twenty minutes to find.

Global Victoria — trade missions and exporter programmes

The Victorian government's trade agency runs missions, publishes exporter case studies and maintains sector programmes. Companies on a trade mission are actively building overseas business. Get to know the Global Victoria trade managers by sector — they meet exporters all day and are usually happy to make introductions, because helping a Victorian exporter ship more efficiently is literally their job.

Industry association member directories

Most are public and most list every member company with contact details. Join one or two where you'll actually turn up.

Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association — Melbourne-based, huge member list, runs the Auto Aftermarket Expo
AusBiotech — biotech and medtech, strong Victorian chapter
Medical Technology Association of Australia
Australian Meat Industry Council and Seafood Industry Australia
AUSVEG, Cherry Growers Australia, Australian Table Grape Association (Mildura)
Australian Industry Group and the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Export Council of Australia
Freight & Trade Alliance — where the customs brokers are

Melbourne Market, Epping — go in person at 5am

The wholesale fruit, vegetable and flower market puts dozens of produce traders, exporters and flower importers in one building. Get a buyer's or visitor's pass, turn up before dawn with a coffee and business cards, and walk the floor. You'll meet more genuine perishables prospects in three hours than in a month of cold calling, and you'll meet them in the environment where they're most receptive — standing on the floor, not screening calls.

Industrial property reports

CBRE, Colliers, JLL and Knight Frank publish free quarterly industrial market reports naming incoming tenants and new facilities in Truganina, Dandenong South, Ravenhall and the northern corridor. A company moving into a new distribution centre re-tenders its logistics within about twelve months. Also worth cultivating: the industrial leasing agents themselves, who know who's moving before anyone else does.

Seek and LinkedIn job ads

Search Melbourne for Import Coordinator, Export Coordinator, Logistics Manager, Supply Chain Manager, Customs Compliance. Every one of those ads means one of three things: the company is growing, the person who owned the incumbent forwarder relationship has just left, or they're bringing freight management in-house. All three are openings. Set up saved searches with daily alerts.

03 Building a trigger monitoring system

Remember the four reasons accounts move: service failure, personnel change, new lane, capacity crunch. You can't manufacture them, but you can get told when they happen. Spend one hour on a Friday afternoon building this, and it runs itself.

Trigger	How to catch it	What to do within 48 hours
New logistics / supply chain hire	LinkedIn Sales Navigator job-change alerts across your saved target list. Check every Monday.	Highest conversion trigger there is. Congratulate them, don't pitch. Ask for fifteen minutes in their first month "to introduce myself as an option, so you know who's out there."
New export market or distributor	Google Alerts on company names. ASX announcements for listed targets. Industry press. Global Victoria mission lists.	"I saw you've picked up distribution in Korea — have you locked in how that freight moves yet?" A new lane has no incumbent.
Warehouse move or expansion	Industrial property reports, leasing agents, LinkedIn company posts.	Offer a full supply chain review timed to the move. Moves are when everything is on the table.
Capital raise or acquisition	ASX announcements, AFR, startup press for the medtech and biotech targets.	Money means growth means volume. Get in before the volume arrives, not after.
Competitor disruption	Industry chatter, LinkedIn, your own customers, customs brokers. Watch anyone still migrating off legacy Schenker or Agility systems.	Call every account you know is on that provider. Don't badmouth the competitor — just be available and specific.
Seasonal peak approaching	Your own calendar. Build it once, work backwards eight weeks from each peak.	"Space to Asia will tighten in January. Do you want me to hold you some?" Capacity is the one thing a shipper can't get from a spreadsheet.
New airline route or capacity	Air cargo press, airline cargo reps, Melbourne Airport announcements.	Call everyone shipping to that region. The Riyadh freighter is a live example right now.

04 The referral engine — cheapest freight you'll ever win

Cold calling is the loudest part of the job and the smallest part of the result. Five referral channels will out-produce your phone if you invest in them properly.

1. Mainfreight's own domestic customers

The transport and warehousing side of the business has thousands of Australian customers. A meaningful number of them import or export and have never been asked. They already trust the brand, already have an account, already pay on time.

Do this: ask your branch manager for the local transport and logistics customer list. Cross-reference it against importers and exporters. Then go and see them with their existing account manager — never around them. Internal cross-sell dies when the domestic rep thinks you're poaching their relationship.

2. The overseas branch network

Inbound nominations are free freight. When an overseas Mainfreight branch has a customer shipping to Australia, someone has to handle the Melbourne end.

Do this: pick the five branches on your strongest lanes and build actual relationships with their salespeople — video calls, not emails. Send them Melbourne-side leads first. Reciprocity is the entire currency of a forwarding network, and the branches that get fed, feed back.

3. Customs brokers without an air product

Melbourne has plenty of small brokers who do the entry but don't want to handle the freight. They need a forwarder they can trust not to steal the client.

Do this: find them through the Freight & Trade Alliance and industry events. Be explicit and honest about the boundaries — you handle freight, they keep the customs relationship and the client. Break that once and you'll never get another referral from anyone.

4. Airline cargo reps and GSAs

Airline cargo salespeople know exactly which shippers are moving what out of Melbourne, and they want their capacity filled.

Do this: take them to lunch. Not to ask for leads directly — that's crass and they'll say no — but to become the forwarder they think of when a shipper asks them "who should I use?" It happens more often than you'd think.

5. Adjacent, non-competing suppliers

People who sell to your prospects but don't sell freight: packaging suppliers, cold chain and data-logger vendors, quality and certification consultants, export documentation specialists, trade finance brokers, industrial real estate agents.

Do this: build a small mutual referral circle of five or six of them. Meet quarterly. Feed them first.

6. Your own existing customers

The most underused source in sales. A happy customer will introduce you to their peers if you actually ask, and freight people move companies constantly — follow your contacts when they change jobs.

Do this: at every quarterly review, ask one question: "Who else should I be talking to?" Then shut up.

05 Trade shows & events worth the day off the phone

Rule for all of them: don't exhibit, attend. A stand costs thousands and attracts other suppliers. Walking the floor with good shoes and a stack of cards costs a day and puts you in front of a hundred shippers who are standing still and happy to talk.

Event	Sector	Why go
MEGATRANS	Logistics	Melbourne-based logistics and supply chain show. Good for partners and market intelligence, though heavy on suppliers.
Auto Aftermarket Expo (AAAA)	Automotive	Melbourne. Dense with importers and exporters, and the buyers are on the floor. Excellent value.
Fine Food Australia	Food & beverage	Alternates between Melbourne and Sydney. Food manufacturers and exporters in volume.
Foodservice Australia	Food	Melbourne. Importers of specialty and premium product.
Australian Manufacturing Week	Manufacturing	Machinery, precision engineering, industrial. Your capital equipment and spares prospects.
AusPack	Packaging & processing	Machinery importers and food processors.
AusBiotech National Conference	Biotech	The Victorian life sciences sector in one room. Go for relationships, not transactions.
Reed Gift Fairs · Life Instyle	Consumer goods	Melbourne. Wall-to-wall importers of homewares, gifts and lifestyle product, most of them small enough to make their own freight decisions.
Australian International Airshow, Avalon	Aerospace & defence	Biennial, next in 2027. The single best aerospace networking event in the country. Plan for it a year out.
Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show	Horticulture	Growers and flower importers.

How to actually work a trade show

Get the exhibitor list a week ahead. Pick 25 companies. Research them. Walk in with a printed list and a route. Ask each one one question — "do you import this yourselves or through a distributor?" — and if the answer is interesting, get a name and a card and leave. Don't sell on the floor. Follow up on the Tuesday after with a specific reference to what you talked about. Twenty-five conversations, five real leads, one day.

06 Drive-day routes

Melbourne is too spread out to visit randomly. Pick a precinct per day and stay in it. This is a standing weekly structure — adapt it, but keep the geographic discipline.

Day	Precinct	What's there
Monday	Airport & north	Tullamarine, Gladstone Park, Broadmeadows, Campbellfield, Somerton, Thomastown, Epping, Preston. Your backyard — easiest tour conversions.
Tuesday	West	Truganina, Laverton North, Derrimut, Ravenhall, Brooklyn, Altona. Warehouses and meat processors. Enormous density.
Wednesday	South-east	Dandenong South, Braeside, Keysborough, Hallam, Clayton, Mulgrave, Scoresby, Rowville. Manufacturing and medtech. The richest day.
Thursday	Facility tours + east	Morning tour slot at the airport facility, then run east to Bayswater, Kilsyth, Box Hill and Ringwood if no tour is booked.
Friday	Inner + admin	Richmond, Cremorne, Collingwood, Port Melbourne, South Melbourne, Parkville. Head offices, and people are relaxed on a Friday. Afternoon: CRM, quotes, next week's plan.
Monthly	Regional day trip	Rotate: Geelong → Warrnambool → Shepparton/Goulburn Valley → Gippsland → Mildura (make that one an overnight). Your competitors won't do this. That's precisely why it works.

07 How to door-knock an industrial estate

Unfashionable, and it still works better than email in this industry — particularly in Dandenong South, Bayswater and Laverton North, where the person who books the freight is thirty metres from the front door and nobody ever visits.

Go mid-morning or mid-afternoon. Never at shift change, never at lunch, never Monday morning or Friday afternoon.
Don't pitch at reception. Your only goal is a name. "Morning — I'm not here to sell you anything today. Who looks after your international freight? I just want to get the right name so I'm not wasting anyone's time."
Leave a card and one specific thing. Not a brochure. A single page on the airport facility, or a DG quick-reference card. Something they'd keep.
If they come out, keep it to five minutes. Ask two questions, offer the tour, leave. The discipline to leave early is what gets you the second meeting.
Log it the same day — name, role, what they said, next action, date. Eight door-knocks a day for a month is 160 named contacts, which is most of a territory.
Go back. The first visit is a name. The third visit is a relationship.

08 The quarterly touch system

This is the machine that makes the whole playbook work. Two hundred accounts, four touches a year each, is eight hundred touches — about sixteen a week. Entirely doable, and it means you are in front of every target in your territory once a quarter, forever, so that whenever one of the four triggers fires, you're the name they already have.

Touch	Format	Content
Q1	Phone	Check in. Any changes? What's the year look like? Nothing to sell.
Q2	Email or LinkedIn	Something genuinely useful — a rate trend, a capacity change, a new route, a regulatory change in their destination market. No ask.
Q3	Phone or visit	Peak season planning. "Space is going to tighten — what's your plan?" This is the one that converts.
Q4	Visit or tour invite	Face to face if you can get it, facility tour if you can't. End the year with a real conversation.

The rule that separates good BDMs from average ones

Every touch must give something before it asks for anything. If all four of your quarterly contacts are "just checking whether you need freight", you're noise and they'll stop taking your calls by Q3. Market intelligence, capacity news, a regulatory heads-up, an introduction to someone useful — be worth answering.

09 Don't waste money on these

Thing	Why not
Australian "import data" subscriptions	The shipment-level data doesn't exist publicly here. Demand a live sample search on three Melbourne companies before signing. See section 01.
Bought contact lists	Stale, wrong titles, and mailing them at scale creates Spam Act problems for your employer. Build your own from public sources.
Exhibiting at trade shows (early on)	Thousands of dollars to stand behind a table while other suppliers sell to you. Walk the floor instead.
Mass cold email	Low response, damages sender reputation, and Australian spam rules are stricter than most people realise. Targeted, researched, individual emails only.
Sponsoring things without a list	Golf days and industry dinners are fine if you know who's attending and have three names you want to meet. Otherwise it's an expensive lunch.
Generic branded merchandise	Nobody ever moved freight because of a stress ball. Spend it on taking three good prospects to lunch instead.