May 6, 2025 • 38 mins
In this episode, you’ll learn another effective strategy to simplify and optimize your sales as a freight broker with Salesdash CRM’s founder, Josh Lyles!
Josh highlights the benefits of using Salesdash CRM, the vital role of cold calling in freight sales, consistent follow-ups, and building relationships, and the importance of targeting small to medium-sized shippers, qualifying and disqualifying leads efficiently, and continuous prospecting!
About Josh Lyles
Josh Lyles is the founder of Salesdash CRM, which is a sales CRM specific for freight brokerages, agencies, and asset-based companies. Josh has previous experience in sales management within freight brokerage and also at Tesla.
Connect with Josh
- Website: https://salesdashcrm.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshlyles/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Came back with a bank window down yelling now money anything hey oh got the foot on the gas pedal to the metal when I'm get to the back hey Got the foot on the gas pedal to the metal when the lane moving fast hey Let them all cross if they hate then let them hate them make a bigger balls.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hey what is up ladies and gentlemen? We are back. We are live. It is the Freight coach podcast, the top podcast in transportation coming to you guys every single weekday, 8:30 in Pacific, 10:30 Central to break down some industry headlines. But most importantly, you guys provide some actual insight into what you can do with all of this information. If this is your first time tuning in, welcome. This is the real side of freight, ladies and gentlemen. And I say that before every single show. And what I mean by that is I only speak with transportation professionals because at the end of the day, you guys, I want to talk to the right individuals who have done what you're looking to do or who are currently doing what you're trying to achieve.
(00:58):
So you can take that information, apply it, utilize it and see a meaningful difference in your business and your life. Happy Tuesday, everybody. I got a very special guest for you guys here today. I am going to bring him up in a second, but got a couple of quick announcements here to make tomorrow you guys drops our weekly newsletter. All right, so if you want to get in on the fracoach newsletter, need you to go to my website, thefraycoach.com it will auto prompt you to register for that. Now that does seem like an extra step, but at the end of the day, you guys, I don't auto assign my contact list up for stuff because I personally don't like it when people do that to me. So if you want to get in on that, you guys, we just talk about freight in there.
(01:33):
Again, I'm not trying to be a life coach or anything like that. So if you want to get in there, go to that. We talk about the industry, rates, fuel prices, all of that. It's just once a week out there. I'm not going to bombard you every single day on any of that stuff. So check that out. But with that being said, you guys, I am becoming more and more of a believer in the fact that we all need CRMs to track our progress with our accounts. And you know, the more accounts that you're going after, especially when you're starting to develop a book of business, you know, you might be going after a thousand different companies or 2000 different companies and the Organization of that and staying on top of those leads is imperative to business growth out there. So I got Mr.
(02:15):
Josh Lyles with Sales Dash CRM on the show today. So, Josh, thank you so much for joining me.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Of course, Chris, thanks for having me, man. I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
No, dude, absolutely. And, you know, I was never the. The biggest believer in like, CRMs and stuff because, like, and I say that because I bootstrapped my businesses, right? And I got away with using Google documents and Excel spreadsheets and like, there's alternatives out there, but, like, trying to stay organized with that, man. And I'm starting to realize that now more than ever. Josh is. It's like, dude, how much missed opportunities are coming because, like, you might be taking detailed notes in that, but you're not actually following up with people in a timely manner, and then you forget about it or something happens and you know, so it's like the organization of this stuff is. It's crucial, man.
(03:01):
But, dude, so before we go in and we're going to talk in depth about a lot of this stuff, but how'd you get your start in freight, Josh? Like, what brought you into starting your company here?
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Yeah, for sure. So I'm from Marietta, Georgia, originally. So I was living in Atlanta. I was working for Tesla, and so I started off in sales with them, got into management. It's kind of where my really big interest in CRM came from when I was selling a Tesla and at one point was a top 10 sales advisor for them in North America. But the CRM really helped me out. Like, I. I didn't come from any big sales background, if I'm being honest. But it just really helped me out with the notes. The fall of the organization. And then I got into management. They moved me up here to. To Nashville, which is where I live now. I've been in Nashville for seven years and I didn't know anybody when I moved to Nashville.
(03:49):
So my first two friends were friends of one of my best friends that I grew up with. And, you know, naturally I was just like, go out, hang out with them. And they would always be out with their co workers and their coworkers were freight brokers. I had no idea, man. I didn't know what a freight broker was in anything. So anyway, year goes by after I've been here and I'm with Tesla and I'm kind of at a period after three years that I wanted to leave. And I knew a lot of their coworkers because we had all gone out were friends at that point and I just kind of, you know, I didn't really care what industry I was going to be in. I also didn't even care what city I was going to live in.
(04:20):
I just wanted to get out of Tesla at that point. Yeah. And so, yeah, I went and interviewed. It was one point logistics Andy Shields, who you've had on the show before and went into the office and man, just like you go onto the brokerage floor and like you're hearing everybody on the phone and all the activity people running desk to desk and stuff. It was, I don't know, I just love the energy. So, yeah, I came on site for a bunch of interviews. They were super skeptical of bringing on, you know, a sales manager. Cause I actually came on as a sales manager to oversee a team of 12 and we know with no freight experience, but after about a handful of interviews, was able to talk my way into it.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Dude, I love it, man. So what led you to starting Sales Dash here then?
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Yeah, I'd always wanted to start my own company. It was one of those things being at Tesla. I didn't want to continue to like, try to climb a ladder, go to a regional position. I wasn't, I got to, I got really good insight with my boss there. She was great and one of the best leaders I've worked for. And I just didn't really want to keep going up the ladder there and then I, I don't, you know, like, my dad's entrepreneurial. I've always wanted to start my own business. I'm just one of those people that if other people can build their own things and if you have the skills, then shoot, man, like I just bet on yourself, invest in yourself kind of person.
(05:31):
And so honestly, I mean, I just kind of like stepped back and I was like, if I was to start something, what would I want to do? And I know this sounds pretty crazy, but like, CRMs were super impactful for me in my career, both as a salesperson, as a manager. But to me they were just too complex. And when I would talk with my sales reps, work with sales reps, they're just, they don't really know where to start. And so I just felt like the workflows and everything and I just simp. I basically just thought simplicity was the big area of opportunity was really what I thought it was. I thought it was kind of bogus too, that you kind of had to hire somebody to like customize, build it out and that it was Just like, this crazy process.
(06:07):
It just didn't really make sense to me as a salesperson who's just like, hey, you got to move fast.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
And so that's really where it started, man. And so I originally, like, contracted two different developers to try to see, like, hey, can I even get it off the ground? And candidly, like, my first two years of the business did not go well because I just started off basically marketing it to any and everybody that was just a smaller business. It was a very lightweight, customizable CRM, which I do think has helped us out now at this point, because the customizing of sales dash is pretty solid, in my opinion. Like, you don't have to hire somebody to customize it. It's pretty easy. But that's really, ultimately where it started, was just, like, going for simplicity.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah. I mean, as somebody who appreciates simplicity, I'm. I'm, like, all about that. Right? Because, like, for. For me, it was, you know, I. I look at it, you know, as somebody who's bootstrapping everything is. Is like, how. How do you get the most bang for your buck out there when you're trying to develop business? You know what I mean? And when you're going out there, it's like, do I pay my rent or do I pay for technology? And I think, like, there's a time and a place for a lot of this stuff out there, Josh. There really is. When you can afford it, get all the tech in the world, right? But it's like, when you're kind of getting your business up and running, it's one of those things to me where it's like, all right, what can you do with less? Right?
(07:22):
And now I'm getting to a point in my business where, like, we're moving a lot more freight than we have in the past. We're reaching out to more companies, you know, than we need. Because, like, as you know, most startups are extremely fragile. You know, like, just to get the revenue to come in, to be able to even pay yourself as an owner, let alone hire a team around you to get out there and start building up around that. And, you know, I. I'm starting to realize. And it's funny, anytime I see people say, like, oh, cold calling's dead, and all this stuff doesn't work, I'm like, you're clearly not doing it, or you just don't know how to complete a sentence. And I get it. There's. There's a sales strategy for everybody out there.
(08:03):
But I'm like, man, We've been, all things considered, very successful on the phone in moving down the path, right? Because I think like, there's a massive misconception out there because if you call somebody, you're just entitled to their business, you know, And I break it down as like, hey, first couple of calls, you're just trying to get them to remember you at the end of the day. And then when you finally get the name of the decision maker, you know, how are you going to follow up with them? Or maybe you had a really good conversation with the decision maker and they said, hey, call them back in April. And you want to sit here and think like, oh, April, I'm going to do it no matter what, they're going to remember me.
(08:38):
And then you know what, life happens and you forgot to put something in your calendar or something came up during that time and then you just forgot about that opportunity. And then that opportunity has now gone to the wayside because contrary to what you want to think, nobody remembers you after you call them.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Even if you have a 20 plus minute conversation. I can't even remember how many times that's happened where you think, oh, I've just had this really long conversation with them, they're going to remember me forever. I think it's just one of the, I think once you've done enough of the reps and you've kind of gone through that scenario before, you know, enough times, you start to remember that, hey, like that's the reason why you have to constantly be calling and emailing and staying in front of people with the follow ups.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
So what do you think are some of the biggest threats to most sales reps out there and like their overall.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Growth just not doing enough activity? Like, I would just say it's just massive action, man. Like, I think that's it more than anything. And then sometimes I think stepping back and actually saying, hey, like what's actually working and what's not working? And it's like to me it's pretty simple. I think the bar for sales is a little bit lower than it's ever been because everybody's looking for shortcuts right now, you know, and there's also a lot of people that aren't, in my opinion, like sort of doing their work or you know, for example, just working to improve their skills like you mentioned, like, what's even the whole purpose of you calling? And if you're just constantly, you know, it's the definition of insanity. But if you're doing the same things over and over again and you're expecting different results.
(10:04):
Like, you have to be willing to switch things up and to try new things. And so to me, it always boils down to action. Because at the end of the day, like, I think human nature, when you're gonna make a cold call, you try and approach and you know, they give you an F, you or they just like hang up, click and all that kind of stuff. Like you feel that, right? It's almost like a punch that you feel and then you're gonna know next time. Like once you've felt that, to try something else, right? Like you gotta try some other sort of like one liner or intro or question, which I think questions are honestly typically the biggest thing that people need to go with.
(10:36):
And that's where I think ultimately, like with more action at the end of the day and more activity, things can go really well. But I think if you are not able to develop the thick skin and if you're not able to continue to push through, like, that's. Especially when it comes to freight brokerage, man. Like, that's the reason why it's such a cold call. Heavy industry, it's worked so well for a lot, you know, most of the largest ones in the space. And so I think that's, I don't know, to me, it's the biggest thing. Everybody's got their own approach to it. But I do think today it's one of those games where you do have to be willing to try and do a little bit of everything with, you know, with calls, with emails, with social content, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
I think that a lot of individuals are, they think they're doing a lot more than they really are, you know, and it is a numbers game at the end of the day. And you know, you're right, like, dude, you're gonna get hung up on. I have found. And again, I like, I want people to like, you know, rest assured here I, I cold call literally every single day. I don't remember any, like, extremely negative reaction from a cold call here. Over the last six months to a year, like at all, have there been people who are short with you on the phone? Of course, man. Like, you're literally interrupting their day. All right? At the end of the day, you're interrupting their day. They don't want to talk to you, whether it's the gatekeeper or the decision maker.
(11:53):
But if there's one word that comes to mind is cordial, people have been very cordial over the phone. They're not like, giving me their business, but they're not like telling me to pound sand or, you know, anything like that. And I boil it down to the fact that, like, I am very prepared when I call people, you know, like, I have their website up, I know exactly why I'm calling and I'm not looking to just bid on freight for the sake of bidding on freight. Like, we're very specialized in what we do and we want to stay inside of that. Right? Full truckload. That, that's pretty much it for new business development. Existing customers, if they come to me and say, hey, I have this issue with us, I really want you to attack this for us, that's a different conversation.
(12:36):
But from a new business development perspective, for me, it's about going after the exact same stuff, repeatable, scalable, have that exact same conversations. It's like, if you want to sound more confident on the phone, say the same stuff more and more, you know, get that, you know, that transition of a cold call going in your mind. But I think like, you know, every, like a lot of people want easier at the end of the day, Josh, they want like, oh yeah, send a DM and they're just going to give me all their business and all of that stuff. They want them, they want more with less output.
(13:05):
And I just look at it as like, man, if there's anything that I think is going to come from the absolute domination of AI across the board is the people who actually know how to have a conversation, whether it's in person or over the phone. Because I think, like, it's only a matter of time before people are going to, you know, put some prompts in there. How do you show that you're a real person? Yada, yada. I think it's only a matter of time and your ability to communicate. I mean, you'll never go hungry if you have the ability to communicate. Is it easy all the time? Absolutely not. It's not easy at all. But what is easy is your ability to prepare before you actually dial somebody. And if you do this enough, like, again, I preload five calls at a time.
(13:48):
My, my next five calls are already preloaded. I have their websites up. I know who I'm going to go in and I'm know what I'm going after and I'm not wasting their time. Because I think that's another thing too is people try and like, become best friends with these people, right? Away. It's like, I think that's a fatal error. We can build rapport in time, you know, like, but for the most part, just be direct. Let them know why you're calling. This is what I'm doing. And I, and I truly feel like that's why we've been able to like move along. The sales train here is it's like we just don't waste anybody's time when we're calling. Because I personally hate it when people waste my time. So I try and like put that out there when I'm calling people.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
So when you're calling people, I know you mentioned like the website and all that stuff. Is your approach normally to like try to get a quote as fast as possible or is it more so? No, I need to learn more about your business first.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Straight up. I want to know as much about their business as I possibly can. And I do not say anything other than the absolute truth when I'm calling. If they say, why are you calling? I say it's 100% a sales call. I'm just calling to introduce ourselves. This is what we do. And more times than not, people appreciate the nonsense approach to that.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
So you've been brokering for how many years now, dude?
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Close to 15, I'd say.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Do you, do you feel like when you. Because I remember, you know, I made cold calls to shippers and whatnot, you know, back in the day and stuff. And I can always kind of speak to it now, at least on the tech side, like when I call VP of sales or somebody in sweet suite C suite at a brokerage. But do you feel from like this time period now that people are actually either picking up more, at least a little bit more receptive to the calls than they were? Let's just say, I don't know, five, ten years ago. I would like, what's your feel on that?
Speaker 2 (15:27):
It's harder to develop business now because what the way it used to be, man, is if you had a couple of quality conversations with people, they're going to give you a prove it shipment. This is like pre2020, you know, you have a couple of decent conversations, they're going to be like, all right, man, hey, you know, you sound good enough, essentially. Like, let's give you a shot now. You can have all of those quality conversations. They just don't need you right now and they're not going to make a change. And so you kind of need to like be right place, right time with a lot of prospects. I don't think the sale is, like, either easier or harder. I just think, like, the cycle is longer than it once was. And I think, like, there's a.
(16:09):
I mean, I just blame the COVID era for that. Right. Because there was so much uncertainty that came along with it. You know, shipments sat for days on end. And then since it's kind of like, calm down in a sense where, like, freight's picking up on time, it's delivering on time, there's no need to change. So they're not going to change with that. It doesn't matter how much they like you. It doesn't matter how great you might sound on the phone and how great your services are. It's just a very challenging time to develop business because people don't need to make a change. I would say that's the only real discernible difference that. That. That comes along with it.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Yeah. That's interesting. So I'm curious from your. Because like I. I told you, I've listened to the show before, and I know you're. You've historically been a spreadsheets guy. What's. Yeah, and you kind of opened up like, hey, more open to CRMs. But I guess from more recent times in particular, like, what's made you actually more open to CRMs compared to the spreadsheets? Because I can understand. I can still understand the spreadsheets conversation. Like, we worked with so many people that use spreadsheets. Like you said, if you're bootstrapping type for cash and all that kind of stuff, it makes a lot of sense because it's just easy. It's name, email, phone number, notes, and all that kind of stuff. But what's actually made you a little bit more open to the CRMs, from.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
My perspective, it's an organization piece, right? Because I feel like at times I'm going after the wrong opportunities. I might be spending too much time going after accounts that I should be spending more time going after the ones that, like, I've already kind of started talking to. Right. Like, should I be following up with them more? And then, like, I've just. I've noticed that I've put notes in there. Hey, they said to call back at this time. I didn't upload it into my calendar. And then that was just a missed opportunity. And I've seen that kind of pop up more times than I'm even proud to admit out there. But I'm a human being. I'm going to make mistakes.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Everybody does it.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
I've seen it Enough now, Josh, where I'm like, I need to get more organized. And then from like a lead generation perspective as well, I'm looking for more of that one stop shop. Right. Like how do I partner with somebody that has lead generation software inside of their CRM where it's like If I download 100 companies, for example, it auto builds it inside of a CRM for me so I don't have to go and download a list from this one, you know, or maybe there's an integration already in place with like a seamless or you know, sales. I'm forgetting the really expensive one that's out there.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Zoom info.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Zoom info. Yeah. So it's like how do I do that instead of. And saving a step. Right. And then how do I set those alerts in there where if it's like, hey, I talked to Susie Today on the 6th of May, we had a really good conversation. She said calling back middle of June, where I can have that in the CRM and then have it send me a calendar invite or a calendar reminder or some notification that says, hey, call Susie today and that, or call Susie tomorrow. And then I can build up my outreach at that time based on that so I can stay in front of the right people as opposed to like trying to contact the masses.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Yeah. How big are you? Are you going after like smaller to medium sized shippers?
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Yeah, 100%. I essentially, if I see publicly traded on their website or a stock ticker on their website, I don't even call. And it's not that we can't move their freight right now. I just know those accounts have a very long sales cycle attached to it and I'm not chasing a quick buck, but I'm chasing revenue that I can get within like six months, not four years.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Gotcha. Yeah, I feel like one of, I mean, I think it depends on like the size, but even in my opinion at the smaller to medium size level, especially like closer to medium size for the shippers and stuff, I think one of the things that people discount or overlook a little bit is like how many, like the actual who all at the ship are you reaching out to? Right, yeah. Because to me, like sometimes you are sort of going at a higher level and then trying to work your way down or sometimes you're going more at the field level, you know, with just like down the main line then the extension and you know, trying to learn more about what they ship, how often they ship it and all that kind of stuff. And then like Work your way up to the decision maker.
(20:08):
But I think that's also one of the other things that some people don't think about is, like, It's a true B2B sales process. And so if you've got two, three, sometimes, you know, over five contacts, sometimes over 10 contacts that you're all reaching out to and you want to sort of track and say, hey, who all have I actually reached out to at the company? I think that's one of the bigger benefits of the CRM is to actually know what your approach has been and what's worked. Because truth be told, man, like, not every approach works for every company.
(20:34):
Like, sometimes you got to do go more at the bottom field level and then work your way up, or sometimes you got to go straight up to like the VP Director level, you know, and then, like, start there to actually get a conversation to open up. And I think that can be. It's just one of the things I think from being in it before and then, you know, still doing it, obviously again, like at the freight tech level to brokerages, it's a real thing that. That is not. Everybody thinks about, like, hey, shifting up the strategy there.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Yeah, I, you know, it. I see a lot of advice that comes across on. On social media, especially inside of the freight space, where it's like people who have been working with existing customers for years and they haven't necessarily developed business. Like, I don't know, I mean, some people, I can tell, they've never actually developed a book of business. They were handed one through attrition and stuff like that because it's like. And I say that because with what you just said there, Josh, there is no one size fits all for every single account that's out there. There is no. You can do this for every business out there and develop a book of business from. You have to be adaptable for a lot of companies that you're calling, you know, like.
(21:40):
And you also have to understand not every opportunity that you speak with is going to be the account that you think you can retire off of. And that's why I personally like talking to people on the phone, man, because, like, I want to sense. Do you guys actually know what you're talking about? You know, and. Or are you just somebody out there who's just doing that for a job? Like, you don't actually give a shit about those things. And, you know, I also want to find, like, I want to go after those shippers that have some volume attached to it, right? Like, hey, if you only do full truckload, that's phenomenal. But if you only have one full truckload a month, that's not going to move the needle for me. Again, I need to develop sustainability inside of my book of business.
(22:20):
And I also love the, just the approach that if you're going to tell me no, you're just going to tell me no right away and there's no passive aggressiveness that comes along with it or I'm just going to ignore you through email for a year and then I'm just going to block you. You know I hate that stuff, right? I could do it. If it's not a fit. Just tell me. And I want to get to that no or yes as fast as possible because there's tens of thousands, if not twenties of thousands of possible customers that are out there for you to develop and you really only need like four quality customers. If you think about it, that you can build a massive book of business off of and it just takes a very long time to get there.
(23:01):
And I think that in, you know, and especially inside of freight, the spray and pray methodology is like the chosen methodology to develop business. Hey, we'll do anything and everything. It does not matter. Just let us quote on your freight. And I'm just taking kind of the opposite approach. I don't want all of your freight. This is actually the only thing I'm calling for. If you're 85% LTL, you're not going to be a fit for me and I'm not going to be a fit for you. So I don't want to waste your time. And I, and I think about it a lot, Josh, from like the long term brand perspective, when people hear my name or my company's name, I want them to always think quality.
(23:35):
Realistically, they're not going to remember me, but if they do remember me, in the off chance that they do, I want them to be like, hey, those guys are respectful on the phone. And I feel like in today's day and age in business development when people are so pushy, they're so disrespectful on the phone. Not everybody, and I'm speaking in general terms here, it's a lot easier to stand out as like, hey, those guys actually listen, they actually paid attention to us. They did, they didn't push us, they weren't disrespectful, they didn't try and talk over us. I feel like at least this is what I'm convincing myself. My name's put into the we'll reach out to these guys if we actually need them bucket, as opposed to the we will never talk to that person or work with that company under any circumstances.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
And they probably told you like, oh yeah, we'll keep your name on file or yeah, exactly, something like that. Yeah, no, that's good. I mean, I, I think one thing that's kind of interesting, I mean, number one, I think with you being as honest as you are, people respect that, right? Because being the broker, I think that is talking to the shippers and says like, I can do anything and everything for you. I feel like a lot of them don't love to hear that could be wrong on that, but I feel like from a little bit, you know, from the experience for me, that's just not what a lot of people want to hear. They just want to hear what you're really good at, where you can help them.
(24:50):
And I think like you mentioned where it benefits you is you get to say, hey, great, with these other leads that I've got in my name, these are the ones that I can actually focus more time, attention and effort towards because disqualifying is just as important as qualifying, you know, and again, if they move one shipment every three months, like you should not be calling them every single week, it doesn't make sense. For you know, as the salesperson, I'm. One thing I'm kind of curious about for you, I'm assuming you probably have like, at a minimum for like you know, you mentioned four active customers moving all the time. Like what makes you continuously prospect?
(25:23):
Because that's one of the things for me, I would say, like, you know, on the sales dash side is, you know, sometimes we'll come across companies we work with mostly like growth driven brokerages and agencies and you know, some asset based companies. For us, we run into those companies where like, hey, we're just trying to maintain with what we've got, but I think that can actually hurt a lot of people because if you lose one of those customers and you're not trying to diversify your book, it can be an issue. But like, how, what's your mentality on that? Because you seem to be just like constant with it.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
I mean everything what you just said right there, man, I've been doing, I've been in business long enough to know that your customers today aren't guaranteed to work with you tomorrow. And you're never good in business, right? Like, I still have a mortgage to pay, Josh. And like until that's paid off like, I don't know, man, I got work to do. And I also look at it is this, you know, a really good friend of mine, you know Chris Brewer with River City Logistics, you know. Oh yeah, dude. I mean he's literally one of my best friends and you know, we talk a lot and he's helped align me a lot for how I'm going to be building my company out here.
(26:24):
And you know, from my perspective, man, the way that we, my business partner and I envision building out our company is we're going to, you know, the structure of it all, man. We're going to hire operations behind us and we're going to lead sales for the foreseeable future. And I want to hire, I want to grow, I want to scale, I want to, you know, ultimately build the best company I possibly can throughout the course of my career. You know, all like long term goal. I want to make C.H. Robinson look like a startup that's what I want to do over the longevity of my career. It might take me 30 years, 40 years to do it, but I'm working towards that.
(27:00):
I, I want to set the tone for when we hire people that like, dude, if you're going to work here, you're gonna bust your ass, you're gonna get, you're gonna be a part of something special. But like, we all work and we're never good enough. And that's just what has, I think kept me self employed now for over five years, Josh, is that I've never like drank my own Kool Aid and thought like, oh dude, I'm good. I can put my feet up. I can, you know, skate by like, no man, I'm like, I'm never in that spot and I'm just going to continue to push with that.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
Love it. Same same boat over here.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
So dude, you were saying? So like who is your guys's like target market? Like who are you guys really going after and who like who really needs a CRM at the end of the day?
Speaker 3 (27:47):
So obviously anybody is trying to grow their book of business and freight, you know. So like the majority of our customer base, we work with close to 200 teams right now, primarily brokerages, some agencies, and then also some asset based companies that can have, you know, like a brokerage division or arm. But really I would say anybody that's very focused on shipper prospecting. Shipper prospecting is primarily what people and teams use sales dash for. Just a, you know, very simple system. We have certain things in the system to help qualify profile shippers that's kind of already templated out. You know, you can basically build out lane profiles and log quotes also for shippers that you're talking to, we have like very easy searching aspects in the system.
(28:26):
If you're like, hey, I'm looking for my flatbed shippers, you know, within 75 miles of Houston, Texas. Like if you have all the lanes and quotes and everything in there, we've got really easy functionality for that stuff. But really I would just like in general, I'd say growth driven brokerages and you know, sales teams and freight and logistics is really the biggest thing. If you're not really prospecting and stuff. Like it's probably, it may not make the most sense if anything, but we've primarily worked with smaller teams. But this year we've started to work with some larger teams, you know, working on more integrations, API connectivity and that kind of stuff's been a really big focus for us this year. We're doing some pretty cool stuff.
(29:03):
And basically I would say integrations, APIs and even the carrier side to our system have kind of been the main focus for us this year.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
So if there's somebody who's historically operated off of Google documents and Excel spreadsheets, is there a way to drop all that shit into your CRM and it auto populates and builds it.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
It's super easy. Yeah. It would take you less than four minutes. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
No man, I love it. Right? And it is, I like, I look at it where, you know, eventually everybody gets that point where you are busy enough to where you need. You realize that organization and structure is really what you need to focus on. I think like, you know, and I'm actually, I'm going to talk about this on tomorrow's show. I'm going to be doing a solo episode on, you know, because I just passed five years of being self employed now like once a year.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Congrats man, that's huge.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
I appreciate that. And you know, I like to once a year do a show kind of based on like, hey, this is what I learned over this last year. And you know, selfishly, 30 years from now I want to be able to look back on a lot of those episodes and listen to them and be like, dude, you had no idea. But like in 15 days your life changed and you know, and all of that stuff and I just want that journey and you know, a lot of the entrepreneurs that I follow out there on social media and listen to their podcast they all say they're like, man, I wish I would have started documenting the journey earlier on. And I'm in a unique position because, like, I've literally documented everything since day one, since I was in my bedroom.
(30:28):
So it's like I really want to build up a lot of that. But I feel like one of the biggest things that I've learned over this last year is about that organization and structure to like operate inside of and like that system. Because I feel like when you start anything, you're overwhelmed. You might be working 12 hours a day, but you're not effective at all. You're there, you're not really moving the needle. And then eventually through a bunch of refinement and organization, you're like, damn. And I, I truly feel this way now, man. I get more done in eight hours than most people do in a week, you know, and it's because I am regimented on every minute of my day is accounted for from when I wake up to when I go to bed. And it's always about moving that needle forward.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
I believe that too, man, because I do think there's a lot of people that are, they think they're being productive, you know, they're online and all that kind of stuff, but they're like, I label them as RGAs. I've got this little vision document that I keep in front of me. It's just like revenue generating activities and I'm just like, what are. Like just to keep a list of all the things that I can do, you know, externally, from a marketing sales aspect, from a product aspect, working with my team, you know, from like sales guy, developers and everything. Like what actually generates revenue for us because it's easy to get caught with certain, like, there's so many distractions these days. I think is one of the biggest issues.
(31:45):
And of course, like everybody has their lulls and all that kind of stuff, but if you can keep that stuff in front of you constantly and like build the discipline and the consistency, man, like it, that stuff just piles up and you just get better more and more as time goes on and all that kind of stuff. I'll give you a lot of props too, man, because I try to post a good amount of content. Content has really helped us out. And I think I've seen a stat out there that, you know, less than 1% of podcasts make it past like 10 episodes. And the fact that you're over a thousand freaking is insane, man. So kudos to you for that, dude.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
And here's the thing, Josh, is it. It's. It boils down to a system, man. Like I've developed a system over the years where now it's just like, you know, early on it was tough to get guests, not now I'm like, dude, I can send out 20 texts and have the next month booked up in like an hour. You know what I mean? So it's a lot different now. And now do we have system that we operate off of? Right. Like, you know, Christian on my team from behind the scenes, like he does all pre episode and post episode production. At this point he distributes everything for me. I don't really do a lot from that perspective anymore, but I did it for the first four years, man. Like I edited everything on my own, I scheduled all the postings, I did all of that.
(32:58):
And now I'm fortunately at a point where I got somebody to help me out and it's just helping us elevate our game and you know, like the desire for reality is still there. And that's what kind of shocks me after five years of doing all this, man, is it's just like the relevancy of this show is still at an all time high. And I get that every time I'm out in public and talking to the amount of people at all of these shows. And it's just like, man, it's just like we have to keep delivering that real value out there for people from people who are actually doing the jobs that they're talking about as opposed to just posting about it.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Well, there's thousands of people doing the job, you know, and not many people are got a freight broker show, you know, to talk about sales and growth and the challenges, the good, the bad and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, I mean, I think that's what's cool about it. And you know, you take a no BS approach, which is authentic. And a lot of people, I think it resonates with a lot of people. So, dude, it's cool to watch, man. Like, I definitely try to emulate some of it and whatnot. And yeah, I mean, I think the other thing too is it's like you probably get to talk to some. Yeah, I mean, not even probably, but you get to talk to some big leaders in the industry and you know, unique people in all kinds of aspects.
(34:05):
Whether it's like that are in brokerage, within tech or yeah, you know, insurance, the financial side, like all that kind of stuff and that can, you know, having those connections and stuff's very powerful too.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
No, it is man. Right. And ultimately at the end of the day, I just want to create a platform that people can come in, listen to get value out of what they hear and then go back and apply it to their business and like see meaningful difference out there, you know, Like, I feel like social media can be the greatest tool in history of man if utilized properly. And I am just taking the approach of trying my best to put my best foot forward, to just put content out there that people can get benefit from because it's like I could take the opposite approach, man, and that self fulfilling content and just chase vanity metrics out there. But I don't think my show would have been around for five years if that's the approach that I had taken at the end of the day.
(34:56):
And I feel like that's why it's just as strong, if not stronger and growing month over month is because of the approach that I take with it. And I'm gonna stick with it, man. I, I just, there's no reason to.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
Change for sure, man. I mean, I think the hardest part for most people is just like showing up, you know, to show up over a thousand times, just not the easiest thing for most people. Like it's just, it's easy to just stop and be like, oh, I've gotten to a good, you know, a certain level, you know, I'm making money now and whatever and I'm good until Joe.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Rogan is unseated as number one. I got a lot of work to do, man. And that's my approach with this. That's what I'm going after. I'm not going after number one in just transportation. I'm going after number one in the world because like I'm not doing this just for shits and giggles, man. I'm doing this to change the world. So.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
Hell yeah, man. Respect, dude.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Well, hey Josh, I appreciate your time today, man. How does anybody reach out to you guys to find out more about what you got going on with you guys?
Speaker 3 (35:49):
Yeah, you can go to our website, sales-CRM.com we've got everything about what we do, features, pricing, all that kind of stuff on there. And you can always reach out to me directly on LinkedIn. Josh Lyles l Y L E S I try to be as responsive as I can. I, I would say like emails, calls, all that kind of stuff. I normally respond to all of them, so pretty easy to reach from there too.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
Perfect, Josh. I appreciate it man. And that's going to be it for today, ladies and gentlemen, as always, if you got value in what you heard, which I know you did, and you're not subscribed, subscribe to the show. You guys, if you're feeling really ambitious after this one, which you should be, rank the show on itunes and Spotify, because if you saw value, your network's going to see value as well. I appreciate you guys. I love you guys, and we'll be talking to you soon. We just end the stream, bro.
Came back with a bank window down yelling now money anything hey oh got the foot on the gas pedal to the metal when I'm get to the back hey Got the foot on the gas pedal to the metal when the lane moving fast hey Let them all cross if they hate then let them hate them make a bigger balls.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hey what is up ladies and gentlemen? We are back. We are live. It is the Freight coach podcast, the top podcast in transportation coming to you guys every single weekday, 8:30 in Pacific, 10:30 Central to break down some industry headlines. But most importantly, you guys provide some actual insight into what you can do with all of this information. If this is your first time tuning in, welcome. This is the real side of freight, ladies and gentlemen. And I say that before every single show. And what I mean by that is I only speak with transportation professionals because at the end of the day, you guys, I want to talk to the right individuals who have done what you're looking to do or who are currently doing what you're trying to achieve.
(00:58):
So you can take that information, apply it, utilize it and see a meaningful difference in your business and your life. Happy Tuesday, everybody. I got a very special guest for you guys here today. I am going to bring him up in a second, but got a couple of quick announcements here to make tomorrow you guys drops our weekly newsletter. All right, so if you want to get in on the fracoach newsletter, need you to go to my website, thefraycoach.com it will auto prompt you to register for that. Now that does seem like an extra step, but at the end of the day, you guys, I don't auto assign my contact list up for stuff because I personally don't like it when people do that to me. So if you want to get in on that, you guys, we just talk about freight in there.
(01:33):
Again, I'm not trying to be a life coach or anything like that. So if you want to get in there, go to that. We talk about the industry, rates, fuel prices, all of that. It's just once a week out there. I'm not going to bombard you every single day on any of that stuff. So check that out. But with that being said, you guys, I am becoming more and more of a believer in the fact that we all need CRMs to track our progress with our accounts. And you know, the more accounts that you're going after, especially when you're starting to develop a book of business, you know, you might be going after a thousand different companies or 2000 different companies and the Organization of that and staying on top of those leads is imperative to business growth out there. So I got Mr.
(02:15):
Josh Lyles with Sales Dash CRM on the show today. So, Josh, thank you so much for joining me.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Of course, Chris, thanks for having me, man. I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
No, dude, absolutely. And, you know, I was never the. The biggest believer in like, CRMs and stuff because, like, and I say that because I bootstrapped my businesses, right? And I got away with using Google documents and Excel spreadsheets and like, there's alternatives out there, but, like, trying to stay organized with that, man. And I'm starting to realize that now more than ever. Josh is. It's like, dude, how much missed opportunities are coming because, like, you might be taking detailed notes in that, but you're not actually following up with people in a timely manner, and then you forget about it or something happens and you know, so it's like the organization of this stuff is. It's crucial, man.
(03:01):
But, dude, so before we go in and we're going to talk in depth about a lot of this stuff, but how'd you get your start in freight, Josh? Like, what brought you into starting your company here?
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Yeah, for sure. So I'm from Marietta, Georgia, originally. So I was living in Atlanta. I was working for Tesla, and so I started off in sales with them, got into management. It's kind of where my really big interest in CRM came from when I was selling a Tesla and at one point was a top 10 sales advisor for them in North America. But the CRM really helped me out. Like, I. I didn't come from any big sales background, if I'm being honest. But it just really helped me out with the notes. The fall of the organization. And then I got into management. They moved me up here to. To Nashville, which is where I live now. I've been in Nashville for seven years and I didn't know anybody when I moved to Nashville.
(03:49):
So my first two friends were friends of one of my best friends that I grew up with. And, you know, naturally I was just like, go out, hang out with them. And they would always be out with their co workers and their coworkers were freight brokers. I had no idea, man. I didn't know what a freight broker was in anything. So anyway, year goes by after I've been here and I'm with Tesla and I'm kind of at a period after three years that I wanted to leave. And I knew a lot of their coworkers because we had all gone out were friends at that point and I just kind of, you know, I didn't really care what industry I was going to be in. I also didn't even care what city I was going to live in.
(04:20):
I just wanted to get out of Tesla at that point. Yeah. And so, yeah, I went and interviewed. It was one point logistics Andy Shields, who you've had on the show before and went into the office and man, just like you go onto the brokerage floor and like you're hearing everybody on the phone and all the activity people running desk to desk and stuff. It was, I don't know, I just love the energy. So, yeah, I came on site for a bunch of interviews. They were super skeptical of bringing on, you know, a sales manager. Cause I actually came on as a sales manager to oversee a team of 12 and we know with no freight experience, but after about a handful of interviews, was able to talk my way into it.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Dude, I love it, man. So what led you to starting Sales Dash here then?
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Yeah, I'd always wanted to start my own company. It was one of those things being at Tesla. I didn't want to continue to like, try to climb a ladder, go to a regional position. I wasn't, I got to, I got really good insight with my boss there. She was great and one of the best leaders I've worked for. And I just didn't really want to keep going up the ladder there and then I, I don't, you know, like, my dad's entrepreneurial. I've always wanted to start my own business. I'm just one of those people that if other people can build their own things and if you have the skills, then shoot, man, like I just bet on yourself, invest in yourself kind of person.
(05:31):
And so honestly, I mean, I just kind of like stepped back and I was like, if I was to start something, what would I want to do? And I know this sounds pretty crazy, but like, CRMs were super impactful for me in my career, both as a salesperson, as a manager. But to me they were just too complex. And when I would talk with my sales reps, work with sales reps, they're just, they don't really know where to start. And so I just felt like the workflows and everything and I just simp. I basically just thought simplicity was the big area of opportunity was really what I thought it was. I thought it was kind of bogus too, that you kind of had to hire somebody to like customize, build it out and that it was Just like, this crazy process.
(06:07):
It just didn't really make sense to me as a salesperson who's just like, hey, you got to move fast.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
And so that's really where it started, man. And so I originally, like, contracted two different developers to try to see, like, hey, can I even get it off the ground? And candidly, like, my first two years of the business did not go well because I just started off basically marketing it to any and everybody that was just a smaller business. It was a very lightweight, customizable CRM, which I do think has helped us out now at this point, because the customizing of sales dash is pretty solid, in my opinion. Like, you don't have to hire somebody to customize it. It's pretty easy. But that's really, ultimately where it started, was just, like, going for simplicity.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah. I mean, as somebody who appreciates simplicity, I'm. I'm, like, all about that. Right? Because, like, for. For me, it was, you know, I. I look at it, you know, as somebody who's bootstrapping everything is. Is like, how. How do you get the most bang for your buck out there when you're trying to develop business? You know what I mean? And when you're going out there, it's like, do I pay my rent or do I pay for technology? And I think, like, there's a time and a place for a lot of this stuff out there, Josh. There really is. When you can afford it, get all the tech in the world, right? But it's like, when you're kind of getting your business up and running, it's one of those things to me where it's like, all right, what can you do with less? Right?
(07:22):
And now I'm getting to a point in my business where, like, we're moving a lot more freight than we have in the past. We're reaching out to more companies, you know, than we need. Because, like, as you know, most startups are extremely fragile. You know, like, just to get the revenue to come in, to be able to even pay yourself as an owner, let alone hire a team around you to get out there and start building up around that. And, you know, I. I'm starting to realize. And it's funny, anytime I see people say, like, oh, cold calling's dead, and all this stuff doesn't work, I'm like, you're clearly not doing it, or you just don't know how to complete a sentence. And I get it. There's. There's a sales strategy for everybody out there.
(08:03):
But I'm like, man, We've been, all things considered, very successful on the phone in moving down the path, right? Because I think like, there's a massive misconception out there because if you call somebody, you're just entitled to their business, you know, And I break it down as like, hey, first couple of calls, you're just trying to get them to remember you at the end of the day. And then when you finally get the name of the decision maker, you know, how are you going to follow up with them? Or maybe you had a really good conversation with the decision maker and they said, hey, call them back in April. And you want to sit here and think like, oh, April, I'm going to do it no matter what, they're going to remember me.
(08:38):
And then you know what, life happens and you forgot to put something in your calendar or something came up during that time and then you just forgot about that opportunity. And then that opportunity has now gone to the wayside because contrary to what you want to think, nobody remembers you after you call them.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Even if you have a 20 plus minute conversation. I can't even remember how many times that's happened where you think, oh, I've just had this really long conversation with them, they're going to remember me forever. I think it's just one of the, I think once you've done enough of the reps and you've kind of gone through that scenario before, you know, enough times, you start to remember that, hey, like that's the reason why you have to constantly be calling and emailing and staying in front of people with the follow ups.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
So what do you think are some of the biggest threats to most sales reps out there and like their overall.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Growth just not doing enough activity? Like, I would just say it's just massive action, man. Like, I think that's it more than anything. And then sometimes I think stepping back and actually saying, hey, like what's actually working and what's not working? And it's like to me it's pretty simple. I think the bar for sales is a little bit lower than it's ever been because everybody's looking for shortcuts right now, you know, and there's also a lot of people that aren't, in my opinion, like sort of doing their work or you know, for example, just working to improve their skills like you mentioned, like, what's even the whole purpose of you calling? And if you're just constantly, you know, it's the definition of insanity. But if you're doing the same things over and over again and you're expecting different results.
(10:04):
Like, you have to be willing to switch things up and to try new things. And so to me, it always boils down to action. Because at the end of the day, like, I think human nature, when you're gonna make a cold call, you try and approach and you know, they give you an F, you or they just like hang up, click and all that kind of stuff. Like you feel that, right? It's almost like a punch that you feel and then you're gonna know next time. Like once you've felt that, to try something else, right? Like you gotta try some other sort of like one liner or intro or question, which I think questions are honestly typically the biggest thing that people need to go with.
(10:36):
And that's where I think ultimately, like with more action at the end of the day and more activity, things can go really well. But I think if you are not able to develop the thick skin and if you're not able to continue to push through, like, that's. Especially when it comes to freight brokerage, man. Like, that's the reason why it's such a cold call. Heavy industry, it's worked so well for a lot, you know, most of the largest ones in the space. And so I think that's, I don't know, to me, it's the biggest thing. Everybody's got their own approach to it. But I do think today it's one of those games where you do have to be willing to try and do a little bit of everything with, you know, with calls, with emails, with social content, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
I think that a lot of individuals are, they think they're doing a lot more than they really are, you know, and it is a numbers game at the end of the day. And you know, you're right, like, dude, you're gonna get hung up on. I have found. And again, I like, I want people to like, you know, rest assured here I, I cold call literally every single day. I don't remember any, like, extremely negative reaction from a cold call here. Over the last six months to a year, like at all, have there been people who are short with you on the phone? Of course, man. Like, you're literally interrupting their day. All right? At the end of the day, you're interrupting their day. They don't want to talk to you, whether it's the gatekeeper or the decision maker.
(11:53):
But if there's one word that comes to mind is cordial, people have been very cordial over the phone. They're not like, giving me their business, but they're not like telling me to pound sand or, you know, anything like that. And I boil it down to the fact that, like, I am very prepared when I call people, you know, like, I have their website up, I know exactly why I'm calling and I'm not looking to just bid on freight for the sake of bidding on freight. Like, we're very specialized in what we do and we want to stay inside of that. Right? Full truckload. That, that's pretty much it for new business development. Existing customers, if they come to me and say, hey, I have this issue with us, I really want you to attack this for us, that's a different conversation.
(12:36):
But from a new business development perspective, for me, it's about going after the exact same stuff, repeatable, scalable, have that exact same conversations. It's like, if you want to sound more confident on the phone, say the same stuff more and more, you know, get that, you know, that transition of a cold call going in your mind. But I think like, you know, every, like a lot of people want easier at the end of the day, Josh, they want like, oh yeah, send a DM and they're just going to give me all their business and all of that stuff. They want them, they want more with less output.
(13:05):
And I just look at it as like, man, if there's anything that I think is going to come from the absolute domination of AI across the board is the people who actually know how to have a conversation, whether it's in person or over the phone. Because I think, like, it's only a matter of time before people are going to, you know, put some prompts in there. How do you show that you're a real person? Yada, yada. I think it's only a matter of time and your ability to communicate. I mean, you'll never go hungry if you have the ability to communicate. Is it easy all the time? Absolutely not. It's not easy at all. But what is easy is your ability to prepare before you actually dial somebody. And if you do this enough, like, again, I preload five calls at a time.
(13:48):
My, my next five calls are already preloaded. I have their websites up. I know who I'm going to go in and I'm know what I'm going after and I'm not wasting their time. Because I think that's another thing too is people try and like, become best friends with these people, right? Away. It's like, I think that's a fatal error. We can build rapport in time, you know, like, but for the most part, just be direct. Let them know why you're calling. This is what I'm doing. And I, and I truly feel like that's why we've been able to like move along. The sales train here is it's like we just don't waste anybody's time when we're calling. Because I personally hate it when people waste my time. So I try and like put that out there when I'm calling people.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
So when you're calling people, I know you mentioned like the website and all that stuff. Is your approach normally to like try to get a quote as fast as possible or is it more so? No, I need to learn more about your business first.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Straight up. I want to know as much about their business as I possibly can. And I do not say anything other than the absolute truth when I'm calling. If they say, why are you calling? I say it's 100% a sales call. I'm just calling to introduce ourselves. This is what we do. And more times than not, people appreciate the nonsense approach to that.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
So you've been brokering for how many years now, dude?
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Close to 15, I'd say.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Do you, do you feel like when you. Because I remember, you know, I made cold calls to shippers and whatnot, you know, back in the day and stuff. And I can always kind of speak to it now, at least on the tech side, like when I call VP of sales or somebody in sweet suite C suite at a brokerage. But do you feel from like this time period now that people are actually either picking up more, at least a little bit more receptive to the calls than they were? Let's just say, I don't know, five, ten years ago. I would like, what's your feel on that?
Speaker 2 (15:27):
It's harder to develop business now because what the way it used to be, man, is if you had a couple of quality conversations with people, they're going to give you a prove it shipment. This is like pre2020, you know, you have a couple of decent conversations, they're going to be like, all right, man, hey, you know, you sound good enough, essentially. Like, let's give you a shot now. You can have all of those quality conversations. They just don't need you right now and they're not going to make a change. And so you kind of need to like be right place, right time with a lot of prospects. I don't think the sale is, like, either easier or harder. I just think, like, the cycle is longer than it once was. And I think, like, there's a.
(16:09):
I mean, I just blame the COVID era for that. Right. Because there was so much uncertainty that came along with it. You know, shipments sat for days on end. And then since it's kind of like, calm down in a sense where, like, freight's picking up on time, it's delivering on time, there's no need to change. So they're not going to change with that. It doesn't matter how much they like you. It doesn't matter how great you might sound on the phone and how great your services are. It's just a very challenging time to develop business because people don't need to make a change. I would say that's the only real discernible difference that. That. That comes along with it.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Yeah. That's interesting. So I'm curious from your. Because like I. I told you, I've listened to the show before, and I know you're. You've historically been a spreadsheets guy. What's. Yeah, and you kind of opened up like, hey, more open to CRMs. But I guess from more recent times in particular, like, what's made you actually more open to CRMs compared to the spreadsheets? Because I can understand. I can still understand the spreadsheets conversation. Like, we worked with so many people that use spreadsheets. Like you said, if you're bootstrapping type for cash and all that kind of stuff, it makes a lot of sense because it's just easy. It's name, email, phone number, notes, and all that kind of stuff. But what's actually made you a little bit more open to the CRMs, from.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
My perspective, it's an organization piece, right? Because I feel like at times I'm going after the wrong opportunities. I might be spending too much time going after accounts that I should be spending more time going after the ones that, like, I've already kind of started talking to. Right. Like, should I be following up with them more? And then, like, I've just. I've noticed that I've put notes in there. Hey, they said to call back at this time. I didn't upload it into my calendar. And then that was just a missed opportunity. And I've seen that kind of pop up more times than I'm even proud to admit out there. But I'm a human being. I'm going to make mistakes.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Everybody does it.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
I've seen it Enough now, Josh, where I'm like, I need to get more organized. And then from like a lead generation perspective as well, I'm looking for more of that one stop shop. Right. Like how do I partner with somebody that has lead generation software inside of their CRM where it's like If I download 100 companies, for example, it auto builds it inside of a CRM for me so I don't have to go and download a list from this one, you know, or maybe there's an integration already in place with like a seamless or you know, sales. I'm forgetting the really expensive one that's out there.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Zoom info.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Zoom info. Yeah. So it's like how do I do that instead of. And saving a step. Right. And then how do I set those alerts in there where if it's like, hey, I talked to Susie Today on the 6th of May, we had a really good conversation. She said calling back middle of June, where I can have that in the CRM and then have it send me a calendar invite or a calendar reminder or some notification that says, hey, call Susie today and that, or call Susie tomorrow. And then I can build up my outreach at that time based on that so I can stay in front of the right people as opposed to like trying to contact the masses.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Yeah. How big are you? Are you going after like smaller to medium sized shippers?
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Yeah, 100%. I essentially, if I see publicly traded on their website or a stock ticker on their website, I don't even call. And it's not that we can't move their freight right now. I just know those accounts have a very long sales cycle attached to it and I'm not chasing a quick buck, but I'm chasing revenue that I can get within like six months, not four years.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Gotcha. Yeah, I feel like one of, I mean, I think it depends on like the size, but even in my opinion at the smaller to medium size level, especially like closer to medium size for the shippers and stuff, I think one of the things that people discount or overlook a little bit is like how many, like the actual who all at the ship are you reaching out to? Right, yeah. Because to me, like sometimes you are sort of going at a higher level and then trying to work your way down or sometimes you're going more at the field level, you know, with just like down the main line then the extension and you know, trying to learn more about what they ship, how often they ship it and all that kind of stuff. And then like Work your way up to the decision maker.
(20:08):
But I think that's also one of the other things that some people don't think about is, like, It's a true B2B sales process. And so if you've got two, three, sometimes, you know, over five contacts, sometimes over 10 contacts that you're all reaching out to and you want to sort of track and say, hey, who all have I actually reached out to at the company? I think that's one of the bigger benefits of the CRM is to actually know what your approach has been and what's worked. Because truth be told, man, like, not every approach works for every company.
(20:34):
Like, sometimes you got to do go more at the bottom field level and then work your way up, or sometimes you got to go straight up to like the VP Director level, you know, and then, like, start there to actually get a conversation to open up. And I think that can be. It's just one of the things I think from being in it before and then, you know, still doing it, obviously again, like at the freight tech level to brokerages, it's a real thing that. That is not. Everybody thinks about, like, hey, shifting up the strategy there.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Yeah, I, you know, it. I see a lot of advice that comes across on. On social media, especially inside of the freight space, where it's like people who have been working with existing customers for years and they haven't necessarily developed business. Like, I don't know, I mean, some people, I can tell, they've never actually developed a book of business. They were handed one through attrition and stuff like that because it's like. And I say that because with what you just said there, Josh, there is no one size fits all for every single account that's out there. There is no. You can do this for every business out there and develop a book of business from. You have to be adaptable for a lot of companies that you're calling, you know, like.
(21:40):
And you also have to understand not every opportunity that you speak with is going to be the account that you think you can retire off of. And that's why I personally like talking to people on the phone, man, because, like, I want to sense. Do you guys actually know what you're talking about? You know, and. Or are you just somebody out there who's just doing that for a job? Like, you don't actually give a shit about those things. And, you know, I also want to find, like, I want to go after those shippers that have some volume attached to it, right? Like, hey, if you only do full truckload, that's phenomenal. But if you only have one full truckload a month, that's not going to move the needle for me. Again, I need to develop sustainability inside of my book of business.
(22:20):
And I also love the, just the approach that if you're going to tell me no, you're just going to tell me no right away and there's no passive aggressiveness that comes along with it or I'm just going to ignore you through email for a year and then I'm just going to block you. You know I hate that stuff, right? I could do it. If it's not a fit. Just tell me. And I want to get to that no or yes as fast as possible because there's tens of thousands, if not twenties of thousands of possible customers that are out there for you to develop and you really only need like four quality customers. If you think about it, that you can build a massive book of business off of and it just takes a very long time to get there.
(23:01):
And I think that in, you know, and especially inside of freight, the spray and pray methodology is like the chosen methodology to develop business. Hey, we'll do anything and everything. It does not matter. Just let us quote on your freight. And I'm just taking kind of the opposite approach. I don't want all of your freight. This is actually the only thing I'm calling for. If you're 85% LTL, you're not going to be a fit for me and I'm not going to be a fit for you. So I don't want to waste your time. And I, and I think about it a lot, Josh, from like the long term brand perspective, when people hear my name or my company's name, I want them to always think quality.
(23:35):
Realistically, they're not going to remember me, but if they do remember me, in the off chance that they do, I want them to be like, hey, those guys are respectful on the phone. And I feel like in today's day and age in business development when people are so pushy, they're so disrespectful on the phone. Not everybody, and I'm speaking in general terms here, it's a lot easier to stand out as like, hey, those guys actually listen, they actually paid attention to us. They did, they didn't push us, they weren't disrespectful, they didn't try and talk over us. I feel like at least this is what I'm convincing myself. My name's put into the we'll reach out to these guys if we actually need them bucket, as opposed to the we will never talk to that person or work with that company under any circumstances.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
And they probably told you like, oh yeah, we'll keep your name on file or yeah, exactly, something like that. Yeah, no, that's good. I mean, I, I think one thing that's kind of interesting, I mean, number one, I think with you being as honest as you are, people respect that, right? Because being the broker, I think that is talking to the shippers and says like, I can do anything and everything for you. I feel like a lot of them don't love to hear that could be wrong on that, but I feel like from a little bit, you know, from the experience for me, that's just not what a lot of people want to hear. They just want to hear what you're really good at, where you can help them.
(24:50):
And I think like you mentioned where it benefits you is you get to say, hey, great, with these other leads that I've got in my name, these are the ones that I can actually focus more time, attention and effort towards because disqualifying is just as important as qualifying, you know, and again, if they move one shipment every three months, like you should not be calling them every single week, it doesn't make sense. For you know, as the salesperson, I'm. One thing I'm kind of curious about for you, I'm assuming you probably have like, at a minimum for like you know, you mentioned four active customers moving all the time. Like what makes you continuously prospect?
(25:23):
Because that's one of the things for me, I would say, like, you know, on the sales dash side is, you know, sometimes we'll come across companies we work with mostly like growth driven brokerages and agencies and you know, some asset based companies. For us, we run into those companies where like, hey, we're just trying to maintain with what we've got, but I think that can actually hurt a lot of people because if you lose one of those customers and you're not trying to diversify your book, it can be an issue. But like, how, what's your mentality on that? Because you seem to be just like constant with it.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
I mean everything what you just said right there, man, I've been doing, I've been in business long enough to know that your customers today aren't guaranteed to work with you tomorrow. And you're never good in business, right? Like, I still have a mortgage to pay, Josh. And like until that's paid off like, I don't know, man, I got work to do. And I also look at it is this, you know, a really good friend of mine, you know Chris Brewer with River City Logistics, you know. Oh yeah, dude. I mean he's literally one of my best friends and you know, we talk a lot and he's helped align me a lot for how I'm going to be building my company out here.
(26:24):
And you know, from my perspective, man, the way that we, my business partner and I envision building out our company is we're going to, you know, the structure of it all, man. We're going to hire operations behind us and we're going to lead sales for the foreseeable future. And I want to hire, I want to grow, I want to scale, I want to, you know, ultimately build the best company I possibly can throughout the course of my career. You know, all like long term goal. I want to make C.H. Robinson look like a startup that's what I want to do over the longevity of my career. It might take me 30 years, 40 years to do it, but I'm working towards that.
(27:00):
I, I want to set the tone for when we hire people that like, dude, if you're going to work here, you're gonna bust your ass, you're gonna get, you're gonna be a part of something special. But like, we all work and we're never good enough. And that's just what has, I think kept me self employed now for over five years, Josh, is that I've never like drank my own Kool Aid and thought like, oh dude, I'm good. I can put my feet up. I can, you know, skate by like, no man, I'm like, I'm never in that spot and I'm just going to continue to push with that.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
Love it. Same same boat over here.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
So dude, you were saying? So like who is your guys's like target market? Like who are you guys really going after and who like who really needs a CRM at the end of the day?
Speaker 3 (27:47):
So obviously anybody is trying to grow their book of business and freight, you know. So like the majority of our customer base, we work with close to 200 teams right now, primarily brokerages, some agencies, and then also some asset based companies that can have, you know, like a brokerage division or arm. But really I would say anybody that's very focused on shipper prospecting. Shipper prospecting is primarily what people and teams use sales dash for. Just a, you know, very simple system. We have certain things in the system to help qualify profile shippers that's kind of already templated out. You know, you can basically build out lane profiles and log quotes also for shippers that you're talking to, we have like very easy searching aspects in the system.
(28:26):
If you're like, hey, I'm looking for my flatbed shippers, you know, within 75 miles of Houston, Texas. Like if you have all the lanes and quotes and everything in there, we've got really easy functionality for that stuff. But really I would just like in general, I'd say growth driven brokerages and you know, sales teams and freight and logistics is really the biggest thing. If you're not really prospecting and stuff. Like it's probably, it may not make the most sense if anything, but we've primarily worked with smaller teams. But this year we've started to work with some larger teams, you know, working on more integrations, API connectivity and that kind of stuff's been a really big focus for us this year. We're doing some pretty cool stuff.
(29:03):
And basically I would say integrations, APIs and even the carrier side to our system have kind of been the main focus for us this year.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
So if there's somebody who's historically operated off of Google documents and Excel spreadsheets, is there a way to drop all that shit into your CRM and it auto populates and builds it.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
It's super easy. Yeah. It would take you less than four minutes. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
No man, I love it. Right? And it is, I like, I look at it where, you know, eventually everybody gets that point where you are busy enough to where you need. You realize that organization and structure is really what you need to focus on. I think like, you know, and I'm actually, I'm going to talk about this on tomorrow's show. I'm going to be doing a solo episode on, you know, because I just passed five years of being self employed now like once a year.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Congrats man, that's huge.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
I appreciate that. And you know, I like to once a year do a show kind of based on like, hey, this is what I learned over this last year. And you know, selfishly, 30 years from now I want to be able to look back on a lot of those episodes and listen to them and be like, dude, you had no idea. But like in 15 days your life changed and you know, and all of that stuff and I just want that journey and you know, a lot of the entrepreneurs that I follow out there on social media and listen to their podcast they all say they're like, man, I wish I would have started documenting the journey earlier on. And I'm in a unique position because, like, I've literally documented everything since day one, since I was in my bedroom.
(30:28):
So it's like I really want to build up a lot of that. But I feel like one of the biggest things that I've learned over this last year is about that organization and structure to like operate inside of and like that system. Because I feel like when you start anything, you're overwhelmed. You might be working 12 hours a day, but you're not effective at all. You're there, you're not really moving the needle. And then eventually through a bunch of refinement and organization, you're like, damn. And I, I truly feel this way now, man. I get more done in eight hours than most people do in a week, you know, and it's because I am regimented on every minute of my day is accounted for from when I wake up to when I go to bed. And it's always about moving that needle forward.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
I believe that too, man, because I do think there's a lot of people that are, they think they're being productive, you know, they're online and all that kind of stuff, but they're like, I label them as RGAs. I've got this little vision document that I keep in front of me. It's just like revenue generating activities and I'm just like, what are. Like just to keep a list of all the things that I can do, you know, externally, from a marketing sales aspect, from a product aspect, working with my team, you know, from like sales guy, developers and everything. Like what actually generates revenue for us because it's easy to get caught with certain, like, there's so many distractions these days. I think is one of the biggest issues.
(31:45):
And of course, like everybody has their lulls and all that kind of stuff, but if you can keep that stuff in front of you constantly and like build the discipline and the consistency, man, like it, that stuff just piles up and you just get better more and more as time goes on and all that kind of stuff. I'll give you a lot of props too, man, because I try to post a good amount of content. Content has really helped us out. And I think I've seen a stat out there that, you know, less than 1% of podcasts make it past like 10 episodes. And the fact that you're over a thousand freaking is insane, man. So kudos to you for that, dude.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
And here's the thing, Josh, is it. It's. It boils down to a system, man. Like I've developed a system over the years where now it's just like, you know, early on it was tough to get guests, not now I'm like, dude, I can send out 20 texts and have the next month booked up in like an hour. You know what I mean? So it's a lot different now. And now do we have system that we operate off of? Right. Like, you know, Christian on my team from behind the scenes, like he does all pre episode and post episode production. At this point he distributes everything for me. I don't really do a lot from that perspective anymore, but I did it for the first four years, man. Like I edited everything on my own, I scheduled all the postings, I did all of that.
(32:58):
And now I'm fortunately at a point where I got somebody to help me out and it's just helping us elevate our game and you know, like the desire for reality is still there. And that's what kind of shocks me after five years of doing all this, man, is it's just like the relevancy of this show is still at an all time high. And I get that every time I'm out in public and talking to the amount of people at all of these shows. And it's just like, man, it's just like we have to keep delivering that real value out there for people from people who are actually doing the jobs that they're talking about as opposed to just posting about it.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Well, there's thousands of people doing the job, you know, and not many people are got a freight broker show, you know, to talk about sales and growth and the challenges, the good, the bad and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, I mean, I think that's what's cool about it. And you know, you take a no BS approach, which is authentic. And a lot of people, I think it resonates with a lot of people. So, dude, it's cool to watch, man. Like, I definitely try to emulate some of it and whatnot. And yeah, I mean, I think the other thing too is it's like you probably get to talk to some. Yeah, I mean, not even probably, but you get to talk to some big leaders in the industry and you know, unique people in all kinds of aspects.
(34:05):
Whether it's like that are in brokerage, within tech or yeah, you know, insurance, the financial side, like all that kind of stuff and that can, you know, having those connections and stuff's very powerful too.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
No, it is man. Right. And ultimately at the end of the day, I just want to create a platform that people can come in, listen to get value out of what they hear and then go back and apply it to their business and like see meaningful difference out there, you know, Like, I feel like social media can be the greatest tool in history of man if utilized properly. And I am just taking the approach of trying my best to put my best foot forward, to just put content out there that people can get benefit from because it's like I could take the opposite approach, man, and that self fulfilling content and just chase vanity metrics out there. But I don't think my show would have been around for five years if that's the approach that I had taken at the end of the day.
(34:56):
And I feel like that's why it's just as strong, if not stronger and growing month over month is because of the approach that I take with it. And I'm gonna stick with it, man. I, I just, there's no reason to.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
Change for sure, man. I mean, I think the hardest part for most people is just like showing up, you know, to show up over a thousand times, just not the easiest thing for most people. Like it's just, it's easy to just stop and be like, oh, I've gotten to a good, you know, a certain level, you know, I'm making money now and whatever and I'm good until Joe.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Rogan is unseated as number one. I got a lot of work to do, man. And that's my approach with this. That's what I'm going after. I'm not going after number one in just transportation. I'm going after number one in the world because like I'm not doing this just for shits and giggles, man. I'm doing this to change the world. So.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
Hell yeah, man. Respect, dude.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Well, hey Josh, I appreciate your time today, man. How does anybody reach out to you guys to find out more about what you got going on with you guys?
Speaker 3 (35:49):
Yeah, you can go to our website, sales-CRM.com we've got everything about what we do, features, pricing, all that kind of stuff on there. And you can always reach out to me directly on LinkedIn. Josh Lyles l Y L E S I try to be as responsive as I can. I, I would say like emails, calls, all that kind of stuff. I normally respond to all of them, so pretty easy to reach from there too.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
Perfect, Josh. I appreciate it man. And that's going to be it for today, ladies and gentlemen, as always, if you got value in what you heard, which I know you did, and you're not subscribed, subscribe to the show. You guys, if you're feeling really ambitious after this one, which you should be, rank the show on itunes and Spotify, because if you saw value, your network's going to see value as well. I appreciate you guys. I love you guys, and we'll be talking to you soon. We just end the stream, bro.
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