You're already in the room with them. The trade shows, the network conferences, the same logistics communities. You just never followed up on LinkedIn. Here's the fix.
Most freight forwarders join a network, attend a few conferences, collect a stack of business cards, and stop there. The relationships that could have kept compounding just sit unused.
Here's the part almost nobody does the math on: LinkedIn lets you send up to 100 connection requests a week. That's over 5,000 a year. If you're a member of even one logistics network, you likely have hundreds of forwarders you've met, or could easily reach, who you've never connected with.
The reason most forwarders don't bother isn't laziness. It's that a cold request feels like a cold request. No context, no reason to accept, just a name and a blue button. So the response rate is low, and the habit never sticks.
The fix is one line.
"Hi, fellow [network name] member here, would love to connect and stay in touch."
If you're a member of a logistics network, you already have the one thing that turns a cold request into a warm one: a shared network. Something as simple as that line changes the entire dynamic. You're not a stranger anymore. You both showed up to the same conferences, joined the same community, know the same people. The trust-building work is already done, most forwarders just never bring it onto LinkedIn where it can actually compound.
Start working through the member list of every network you belong to. Max out your 100 a week. Mention the network every time. A year from now, you won't just have more connections, you'll have more of the right people seeing your name every time you post, and more of them thinking of you when a shipment needs a partner.
This isn't theory. This is the same approach behind a following of 10,000+ LinkedIn connections, the large majority of whom are freight forwarders, built by treating every existing network relationship as something to actually activate, not just collect.