September 9, 2025 • 35 mins
In today’s episode, Cameron Pechia is back to talk about succeeding in freight sales and building a customer base from scratch!
Cam shares the reality of starting at zero, long hours, side hustles, and the grit it takes to keep pushing forward, why most sales reps fail, from lack of niche focus to missing systems, and how dialing in daily prospecting, clear business plans, and CRM tools can change the game.
We also hit on the size of the freight market, the power of niche and regional focus, and why building authority with prospects matters more than chasing everyone.
This episode is packed with strategies for freight brokers, carriers, and sales reps who want to stop winging it and start building sustainable, long-term success in the transportation industry!
About Cameron Pechia
Cameron is the founder of Valley Trucking Insurance, a leading Trucking Insurance Agency based in Spokane, Washington. With a deep passion for the trucking industry and a commitment to excellence, Cameron has become a trusted figure in the field. Cameron also is the host of Get A Load Of This Trucking Podcast and brings a ton of value to the Trucking Industry. Cameron is also a dedicated husband and father to his two beautiful girls…His daughters are his “WHY” and what makes him get up in the morning and try to win each and every day.
At Valley Trucking Insurance, Cameron oversees the provision of specialized insurance solutions tailored to the unique needs of trucking companies. The agency serves a diverse clientele, including local trucking companies, long-haul trucking companies, aggregate haulers, tow truck companies, hot shots, freight brokers, and other related risks. Cameron ensures that clients receive the highest level of customer service and comprehensive coverage through the agency’s proven process known as the "VTI Difference."
Under Cameron’s leadership, Valley Trucking Insurance has achieved significant growth and expansion across the county. The agency has built strong partnerships with renowned insurance providers such as Great West Casualty Company, Lancer Insurance Company, Progressive Insurance, Berkshire, and Canal. Additionally, Cameron also focuses on placing fleet-sized trucking companies into captive insurance programs, enhancing their risk management and financial stability.
Looking ahead, Cameron is focused on an ambitious goal of expanding the agency’s reach by looking to help over 10,000 Trucking Companies and Freight Brokerage operations within the next seven years. Adhering to the principles outlined in the book Traction by Geno Wickman, he is dedicated to creating world-class onboarding and customer service experience for his trucking clients. This initiative aims to foster a culture of excellence and continuous improvement, ensuring Valley Trucking Insurance remains at the forefront of the industry.
Connect with Cameron
- Website: https://www.valleytruckinginsurance.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cameron-pechia-49903072/
- Email: Cameron@alllinesinsure.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
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 boss hey.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
What is up, ladies and gentlemen?
We are back.
We are live.
It is the Fray Coach podcast, the top podcast in transportation, coming to you guys every single weekday, 8:30am 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.
(00:47):
And I do 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, 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, 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 today.
(01:09):
We're going to be talking about why people fail at prospecting.
But most importantly, you guys like where to start.
I think that, you know, when you're out on social media and this isn't just a freight thing, you only see a highlight reel.
You, you don't necessarily see the system that people follow day in and day out for sometimes years on end to build up a sustainable book of business.
(01:33):
And we are, we're going to kind of break that down.
But my team has also reminded me that I need to bring this stuff up at the beginning of the show as well as at the end of the show.
So if you get value in what you hear today, you guys, and you're not subscribed, subscribe to the show.
And if you're feeling really ambitious after this one, rank the show on itunes and Spotify.
Because if you see value, your network's going to see value as well.
All right?
(01:53):
With that being said, the man, the myth, the legend, my good brother Cam back on the show to break down.
We're talking about a completely different subject than what we normally do.
You're usually my go to for insurance, but you know, talking over these last couple of months, we've just been like, man, you know, because you've been self employed since 2007, Devin, you know, so it's like You've been out here, you've built a sales team, you're passionate about business development.
(02:20):
And I. I wanted to.
You know, we kind of came to the conclusion, like, dude, let's just start talking about the systems and the processes that we've both kind of utilized to build books of businesses over the years.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Yeah, absolutely, man.
And, yeah, I started, you know, I guess fortunate.
Looking back now, I don't know what I was thinking when I did it, but when I turned 20, I got into sales, and it was commission only.
So I've been commissioned only since 20 years old.
And so coming on.
What's that, man?
Almost 20 years now.
That's crazy.
(02:52):
Here in a couple.
In a couple short years.
But so for me, it's.
It's awesome.
And in the early stages, kind of ignorance was bliss.
And it was like, man, it was like Wolf of Wall Street.
Just pick up a phone and dial and find, you know, figure out who I needed to call, what I wanted to do, and then just start hammering the phones early on, because I didn't know any better.
(03:13):
And it was awes, man.
That kind of set the stage for that.
But, you know, as, you know, because you.
You've been commissioned only as well, early on.
Sucks, dude.
Like, it was a grind.
And you get wins.
Thank God I got some big wins early.
That's what hooked me.
But then you go through these valleys where it's like, dude, I'm never gonna land a client.
(03:35):
I'm never gonna get an appointment.
I'm broke.
Like, you know, your family's like, dude, you're working, you know, 80 hours a week, and you made 800 bucks for the month or what.
Whatever it was, you know, I. I'm just kind of talking.
But that's the real.
That's the realistic expectation and some of that.
So I ended up, you know, doing some construction jobs early on, because I did construction and through high school, and then I bartended probably until I was, I want to say, 24, 25, I think is when we had kiddos, and I was like, all right, I'm done.
(04:06):
Yeah.
You know, so.
Dude.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
And like, you know, same here, right?
Like, when.
When I started out, you know, in.
In my business.
And, you know, like, I say I'm.
I'm a glutton for punishment.
I really enjoy starting stuff when I have, like, no customers.
I think it's just fantastic.
I'm being highly sarcastic when I say that, but it.
But it's the truth, right?
All the businesses that I've started, I've done three of them now.
(04:29):
All of them had zero customers, zero revenue.
It was nothing but an idea.
And it's.
I got some exciting stuff to kind of say here in.
In.
In a few months.
But, like, as of right now, you know, when I started out, though, back in 2020, dude, like, I was, man, I delivered pizzas for the first, like, eight months that I was doing this because, like, I have a family to feed, you know, like.
(04:51):
And then furthermore, I needed to buy stuff for my business, and I didn't have any money.
I had a little bit of savings.
So it was like, it was one of those things where, you know, when you're starting out, I almost think it's easier to start out when you have nothing than when you have something, you know, out there.
Because, like, there's that comfort.
And now this.
(05:12):
This isn't for everybody.
And I'm not advocating you guys to, like, blow up your revenue streams or, like, blow up your business, you know, anything like that.
I'm just saying, like, there's a different mentality when you have nothing.
There's a different, like, drive that you possess that you're like, boom, I'm going out there.
And then you do experience a little bit of success, because if you are putting in that work, inevitably you're going to get customers, right?
(05:35):
Like, you're going to find some business.
But, you know, I want to talk about here, Cam.
Like, what is it?
Like, why do you think sales reps fail?
And then for those of you who can't see Cam on the screen here, he sells truck.
His company, his business.
They do trucking insurance and insurance of all walks.
So he's.
He's on a different side of the industry.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
But.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
But him and I always talk, you know, Cam's a good friend of mine.
We chat off.
Off the air a lot too.
And it's like, there's so many parallels between insurance sales and freight brokering, Correct?
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Yeah.
And actually it's funny because a lot of folks have tried to recruit me to come move freight and stuff too, just with connections.
And honestly, like, you get paid based on a book of business and reoccurring revenue via lanes and contracts customers.
So it's very similar.
And I've been, you know, obviously coming 20 years.
Like you had.
Glutton for punishment and a student of the game for sale.
(06:28):
So I've read every book.
What I do love to do.
I dropped out of school.
So to me, like, sales was the option.
It's like, what else am I gonna do at this point?
I'm very unemployable.
Like, nobody would ever hire me.
So it's like, all right, sales it is.
I'm on my own.
But, you know, a lot of that came naturally early on.
And I didn't realize it, but I had the ability to pick up the phone, be charismatic, have a lot of energy, be able to kind of mirror folks and stuff, like when you're doing col and that kind of thing.
(06:57):
And I didn't realize what I was doing because now I've read some books and I was like, oh, there's actually labels and terms and there's teachings for all this kind of stuff that I just naturally did.
But I think that plays a lot of it.
And the most valuable thing that I took early on because me and a buddy got into insurance and sales together.
(07:17):
Well, his cousin is who kind of introduced us, got us in.
She actually helped us get set up and in like a.
A situation where we can get contracts and stuff.
She was focused in niche clientele, which at the time was construction and contractors.
So for me, 0708, another was a terrible time for the economy, if you guys can think back, or those that remember.
(07:42):
And that's what I came into.
So I was trying to sell contractors construction insurance and actually trucking insurance, which is funny, but in the hardest time you could ever try to do that.
Like, people are shutting their doors.
Like, it was a terrible time to cold call.
But the beauty was I didn't know.
Like, I was like, I. I was too poor to know there was a recession going on.
Like, I had no idea anything was happening.
(08:02):
So I'm like, yeah, you know, kind of hammering.
But out of that, though, the most valuable thing I found was like finding a niche, right?
So, like establishing who your client is, what value you can bring to that.
So like, for my salespeople coming in, part of the process actually is you would create a business plan.
Doesn't have to be crazy one, two page business plan.
(08:25):
But in that there's a couple things I want identified.
And one is your ideal client, you know, or who you want to work with.
And I want to work with people I like.
You know, I don't want to just chase money or something like that.
Like, I'm working with an industry or folks that I truly and genuinely get along with.
And then second is like, why?
Right?
Like why?
What's your reason to do what you're doing every day?
(08:47):
Because without that man getting up and getting rejected, getting nose, getting cussed at, the door slammed in Your face getting, I mean just crazy things, right?
We all experience as door too cold calls or sales in general and the stigma that comes with it.
Like you have to persevere through that.
And so that those were super valuable things to me that I took from that early experience that kind of carried with to this point and now obviously there's, it's refined exponentially since then.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
But I, you know, I, I look at it as, you know, I, I talk about the niche often on this show and you know, especially inside of freight.
And I like, I understand everybody's methodology out there, right?
Like I get it in like the, oh, we need to go after everything.
You know, we're freight brokers, we move anything.
(09:40):
We move everything.
And that did work at one point in time, you know, early on in my career that what you could do that, right?
Because there wasn't as many freight brokers.
Yes, there's always been competition, but there wasn't as many freight brokers.
There wasn't as much information out there.
And you know, you could get a person on the phone, have a decent conversation and they'd give you like a prove it style shipment.
(10:03):
Not everywhere, right?
But like now selling post.
Excuse me, Covid.
It's been a lot different, man.
And it's like, and I, you know, having to restart my book of business from nothing, it was very telling right away.
Like I gotta be very hyper focused on one thing.
(10:26):
And you know, I chose open deck and heavy hall because that's where I have the most fun, right?
Like I have the most fun in that I am every letter, add, ocd, whatever the fuck you want to call it, type personality.
So like I need different, I get very bored and like I moved a lot of food and beverage early on in my career and it was all 20 pallets, you know, £40,000.
(10:49):
Like, don't get me wrong, as a business owner, I do just about anything for that freight right now.
But for like my ping pong ball brain, I need to be different.
But I go after that because like I've just noticed when I'm cold calling and prospecting people right now, my conversation's different because like I've gamified it in my head because I have insecurities and I have that goes wrong in my day just like everybody else.
(11:13):
But I've gamified it, right?
I gamified it where if I'm calling somebody and they reject me, but they didn't, like they don't use flatbeds for like the primarily method of shipping their freight.
No harm, no foul, right?
Like, I'm on to the next one.
But one thing that I'm looking back now, I wish I would have implemented a system like day one of like, hey, you're going to make 10 calls today no matter what.
(11:41):
Like, it does not matter because I think like when you're riding that emotional roller coaster early on, it's really easy to do when you're motivated.
But are you gonna show up when the last thing you want to do is pick up the phone and you've just been told no 100 straight times and stuff like that, right?
So it's like for me, it becomes more digestible.
Cam.
When I'm out there, I'm like, all right, I'm gonna make 40 cold calls today.
(12:05):
They're all going to be flatbed shippers or potentially flatbed shippers.
I have that conf.
Know, like I can execute this at a high level, but I gotta follow that, right?
Because it's like you also brought up a point earlier about like inevitably you get a little bit of success and then you stop, right?
Because it's that comfort.
Like we're creatures of comfort overall.
(12:25):
So it's like for me it's so important.
Choose one avenue and then you know what, scale it back a little bit further.
What region do you want to operate in?
I feel like a lot of individuals out there grossly underestimate how much opportunity is where they live and how much more effective it is to go out there and build a book of business around that.
Right.
(12:45):
Like we are extremely strong in the Western 11.
Right.
Like I'm located here in Arizona.
Our busiest shippers are in Arizona and Colorado.
We are very strong in that area.
And then we also operate in the Southeast.
And that was the first customer I onboarded as a broker out of my own here.
They were located in the Southeast.
So that's kind of our.
(13:06):
Are areas that we go after to develop business.
And ironically it matches up because if you've ever brokered freight on the west coast, you understand every single decision makers on the east coast, essentially, because everything out west is a satellite location.
But I, I look at it is as like I'm having the same conversation time and time again because like I need a system to follow most sales reps, whether you're prospecting, whatever that looks like.
(13:30):
You need a system to where it's like I got that cold call power hour and I do this every single morning from 7am Pacific to 8am Pacific.
I'm locked in and I'm just cold calling.
I can get like 30 dials rocked out in that hour every single time.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Yeah, I think for me a system is absolutely critical and it's something that you have to develop.
And I think one of the, or some of the key major things to consider when you guys or gals are looking at putting together a system, the business plan, the reasoning, that stuff's going to keep you motivated and keep you moving.
Identifying your ideal client.
(14:06):
Because you can spend a lot of time making calls for the sake of making calls just to do it and not getting anywhere.
Right.
Because you're not after your ideal 1, 2 is why are you making the calls?
Are you trying to get a close on the phone real time?
Are you trying to set appointments?
So if you're trying to set appointments, literally you're just trying to get on the phone to pick it up to decide if this person's a good fit to set the appointment because like they may or may not bite on that call.
(14:31):
For our world, it's, it's going to be similar where it might take 4, 5, 6, 12 conversations in person, whatever to get the deal closed.
Like I'm just trying to see if we're a good fit, get a chemistry going.
So that's another thing.
And then from that, yeah, tracking the things that are going to produce results versus like the outcome is huge.
(14:53):
So for me, correct.
I'm going to set some time blocks, I'm going to break it back down.
However, I need to think of it, to quantify it.
But it's going to be like for me, okay, I need hey, five good conversations today.
Like that's going to be the metric.
So that might take five calls, that might take 50 calls, that might take this.
But whatever I'm going to do, that's going to be priorities because as a salesperson you're, you make money on revenue generating things.
(15:19):
Sales primarily.
Right.
Obviously ongoing relationships and referrals and networking and that kind of stuff are up there we're talking about.
Correct.
But like right when you start, you make money on those things.
That should take 80, 90% of your time and it's going to take a lot more than you think it's going to take.
So when you start in sales, at least from my experience, you know you're working almost two jobs to make part time money.
(15:46):
It's crazy.
People look at you and they're like, dude, what are you doing?
But the reality is it takes that to get the momentum, to get the skillset, to get built, to get you to where you can actually close.
I kind of look at it and this is a, I guess like analogy I would use.
Think of like hunters, right?
When you first start hunting, you have no experience, no skill, you're starving, you're just going to eat bark and beetles and bugs and mud and whatever you can to find nourishment because you have no skill set.
(16:10):
You see the animals but you can't get them.
Then as you get more skilled, you step over the small game and the things you don't want and you start going after bigger game that's nourishing, you're a little bit more skilled.
And then obviously onto trophy hunting or whatever it is, you're going to take that as.
But that all comes from skills reps, at bat learning, review of what you've done with a system and a process.
(16:33):
So if you follow that process, you follow a discipline schedule and you can track exactly what you're doing, whether that's, you know, emails, cold calls, LinkedIn messages, sending video messages via LinkedIn, getting introductions, trying to find referral partners.
You're trying to do social media, establish yourself as an expert with the show and put out content to educate and help people.
(16:54):
Right.
The way you get reciprocal reciprocation is you help others.
So anything you can do going into that to help others and you're not self serving there, people will reciprocate.
And the cool thing is successful people want to help other people.
Typically, you know, so if you ask somebody, I call my buddy, you know, let's call freight coach.
Hey dude, I have a opportunity I can bring on a new customer.
(17:18):
Here's what I'm looking for.
Do you have anybody that you think that you can introduce me to?
Chris would, I'm guessing you'd be like, absolutely, dude, I got you.
Let me introduce.
If you had it, you're gonna try to help me.
So thinking of like all those things to work into a schedule that's been the biggest difference maker for me is like action, consistency and discipline.
(17:38):
With block scheduling, having a process, having the ideal client, sorry, kids going to school, it has been the biggest kind of separator for me that I've seen consistently because I, you know, I, I, I was on my own in sales.
Then I joined a firm, got in there and I was consistently the top producer, right.
(18:01):
I sold the most, I did that and I kind of looked at what others were doing well and a lot of the times And I look at competition or I look kind of look around, you know, they either don't know what to do or they sit there and aggressively wait for the phone to ring because they kind of maybe got lazy or whatever this issue was where it's like, oh, I just sit here and I, you know, they take pride and not prospect.
(18:21):
It's really funny to me.
I don't cold call.
I don't have to do any of that.
And they, and they think it's kind of a badge to them.
And I guess to them it is.
I mean, I, you know, I don't think that way.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
But yeah, I, I don't either.
I don't, I don't wait because.
And it's like.
And I feel like there's a lot of individuals out there who do, right?
They're like, oh, I, I like they're gonna wait for opportunities to fall into their lap and it just does not exist.
Right?
Like you have to create every single opportunity.
And you know, for those of you who have made it this far in the episode and you're in the freight space, for example, particularly inside of freight brokerage, here's just some rough numbers that are at, that are publicly available.
(18:59):
All right?
And this is why again, you, like, this is another reason why I say choose a niche and go after it.
Because drive in, for example, there's $200 billion of available freight to freight brokers just in.
Drive in alone, refrigerated, estimated between 60 and 80 billion.
Okay.
Flatbed and specialized, between 50 and 70 billion.
(19:21):
Okay?
So if you're looking at that, why is there a need to go after anything else, right?
And like if you built a hundred million dollar business, which is massive, all right, like, no matter what anybody says, it's massive, that's 0.2% of the flatbed market right there, right?
Like that's not even 1%.
(19:41):
So it's like again, the opportunities that are out there.
This is why I'm all about just really choosing that one thing and going after.
And especially when you're starting out because it's like you need to be having that same conversation because you need that confidence to come through.
And especially if you've never moved freight before or you've never sold whatever product you are now hired to sell, you need to build that system around it.
(20:06):
And that's why, like, dude, I'm such a massive proponent and like small incremental bumps to your action and productivity to build that system out.
Because I feel like again, most organizations like you need to make a hundred cold calls a day.
And if we're going back and it's like, and you've never made cold calls before, you'll do it for a few days, but then eventually you're going to be like, you know that, that lack of confidence is going to come through and you're going to not want to do it, right?
(20:32):
So it's like for me, when you're starting out the real track of progress, when you're starting From0, make 25 cold calls and track how long it takes you to make.
All right?
If it took you two hours, because I don't care what anybody says, that phone to most people is like a hundred pound cinder block.
All right?
They do not want to pick it up and start making that outreach.
(20:54):
Right.
Do that and then measure that.
All right, so do 25 cold calls in a day and see how long it takes.
And then once you eventually get into that system, all right, it's going to take you 30 minutes or 45 minutes to make a, to make those 25 cold calls.
Right.
When you get really effective.
But I, all I'm saying is if it takes you three hours, once it gets down to two hours and you have no business, add five, all right?
(21:17):
Then go up to 30 and then build that up and ratchet that up.
Because before you know it, as a sales rep, you should be making and you have, when you have no business, no less than 50 to 60 cold calls in a day.
And they're.
And then as long as they're in your target market.
All right, because I would rather have my team making 60 cold calls to flatbed prospects every single day, all day, then make 100 dials and like 30 of them don't even move freight and shit like that.
(21:46):
Like we're wasting dials.
Because every rep is important and especially when you're building because we all are on that clock cam that you brought up.
Especially if you don't have any money coming in, you're on a clock of when are you going to say fuck it and go and get a W2 or go out and get a salary somewhere.
So it's like, that's my thing where it's like you got to go out there and choose that number and then just solely throw everything at that 25, 30 calls a day, whatever it is.
(22:12):
And then if it takes you three hours, when that progress inevitably hits and you're down to two, then ratchet that up and then go after it.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Yeah.
Or more I don't think a lot of people know what a good grind actually looks like now.
There's killers out there.
I. I work with them every day and I see them.
But like, a lot of people think they made five calls, had three conversations, and they're like, that was a good day.
And it's like, no, it's not, because that doesn't mean anything.
But I think let's get past kind of the cold calls because I think, like, obviously they should be motivated to pick up a phone.
(22:41):
You should be working to get better, hone your skills, maybe take a little education, read, never split the difference.
It's a great book.
It's not directly sales, but it's negotiation.
It'll help you in communication.
But for me also, the organization piece is going to be key.
So a simple CRM, you can go to fricking HubSpot and get a free CRM.
You can use an Excel sheet.
I don't care what you do, organization is going to be key.
(23:03):
So you have your ideal clients.
You load them in there.
Like, let's just.
The way the analogy I look at, and early on it's much looser, but as you get bigger and evolve, it's like a round table approach.
You got a round table, 10 chairs.
Nine of the chairs are filled with your best customers.
The person that you're talking to, do they deserve a seat at that table and deserve your time, resources, energy, and what you bring.
(23:24):
Because if you don't bring the.
That, that confidence and swagger like Conor McGregor, where you're an equal to these people, they puppy you, right?
Like, that's a lot of salespeople, they want to say.
And they want to kind of bend to whatever to get the sale, but people don't respect that.
People respect value and you being equal and being that authority figure.
So I think knowing what you bring to the table, the value you offer, how you can best serve this person.
(23:50):
Because when you get somebody, okay, let's say Chris, I'm new.
I start, I make the calls.
I get someone that says, I'm interested.
Well, now, if I wasn't prepared on what I was going to say, what are you going to do?
You're going to fucking fumble over your words.
And I'm, you know, I got a website, you know, we got.
You say all this stuff because your brain's like, oh, like somebody's talking to me.
And you freak out.
(24:11):
Like.
So I think just having those things in play, understanding role playing is huge.
It's kind of Corny.
And I know a lot of people don't like it, but you wouldn't get into professional basketball game and not practice unless you're Allen Iverson.
But, like, then you get in the game.
Like, you rep for that thing.
The other thing I think with the analogy of sports is if you have a system, you can use a dialer, you can use a VoIP phone, you can use whatever, you can record those calls.
(24:37):
I highly recommend you do, hell, record yourself on a loom video or whatever as you're doing it, Smiling, standing up, having energy, getting motivated to do it.
Go a long way because it comes through the phone.
But like, most importantly, and this is where the most value can come from, is listen to your calls.
Go back and listen, Stop and reflect for a moment, man.
(24:57):
What did I say?
What went wrong?
What could I have done different if I said this?
Because all it is open loop, questioning, having a conversation, figuring out if potentially we're a good fit and not trying to vomit a ton of value on the person.
Because if I just come to you and I'm pushing and vomit and da, da, da, you're gonna back away like a.
It seems needy.
You seem super clingy.
(25:17):
Like, I'm like, dude, what?
Like, you know what I mean?
Like, you know a good salesperson when you hear one.
You really do.
So, like, that is a developed skill for most.
So you work on that, you refine that, you reflect on that, you study.
You know, like, you got to take time to get better and invest in yourself.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
So I, I agree, man.
And I think, like, that, like, the underlying factor that hits most individuals is their willingness to deal with the pain of rejection that comes along with developing a book of business and putting in the necessary reps, right?
Like, I think, like, that's.
That's a very big deterrent out there.
And especially when it looks like, you know, the majority of people who post about sales, they have a really fancy camera kind of like this one.
(25:59):
They have a really fancy mic kind of like this one.
And.
But like, they're trying to put a facade out there that it's not challenging, right?
Like, it's been very challenging for me.
This has been the hardest thing I've ever done in my entire life is build a couple of businesses from scratch with.
With nothing, right?
And my vision, my direction has changed with taking action because it's like, I'm getting out there and I'm getting those reps that you're talking about.
(26:24):
Cam that, hey, I got the prospect on the phone.
I fumbled it.
Well, did I fumble it?
Because I was calling a food shipper one, and then I went to.
And all of a sudden, this guy's a flatbed shipper.
And then I fumbled it because, like, I had lost my cadence, right?
So it's like, you got to study that stuff out there and really listen to it because again, like, ultimately, you guys, to deduce it down to is as simple of form when you're getting a business off the ground.
(26:47):
It's a volume game, all right?
It is the amount of outputs you are willing to.
To give before you get that first.
Yes.
That comes along with it.
And.
And I'm trying to help expedite this for you guys out there who are in the freight game and listening to this.
The more conversations you have on a singular focus, early on, that confidence is going to come through.
(27:10):
Those conversations that Cam brought up are the ability to like or like.
The.
The.
The fumbling aspect of it is going to be severely reduced when that.
That the back of your brain kicks in.
You're like, fuck, I've been here before.
Boom.
I said this last time.
Now I'm going to say this.
It's just that rep that comes along with it.
So it's like, to me, this is why the majority of sales reps will fail at prospecting.
(27:31):
They're way too scattered.
They're all over the board.
And then inevitably that.
That rejection bug gets to them and they say, fuck it, and they walk away like it is such a.
An endurance sport early on in building up something that I think a lot of people, they see the end results of some and they think that only took, like you said, Cam, five calls.
(27:55):
A lot of the most successful people that I know have been working in this industry and doing this job for 15, 20 years.
And a lot of them, it took 10 years to get those core customers that they have now worked with for the past five or so years, but it took a very long time to develop that.
All right?
So it's like when you're starting out with nothing, all right?
(28:18):
You need a singular focus.
You need consistent, similar conversations day in and day out, because inevitably that leads to that confidence, right?
Like now do.
When I get hung up on dude, that doesn't throw me off at all.
I. I actually start laughing.
Like, if I, like, my little old cold call ruined your day, where you're like, we're not talking on it can then click.
(28:40):
I will literally start laughing.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Like, dude, I actually, I would call back and be like, hey, dude, we got disconnected is what I would do.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
I don't do that, man.
I. I laugh, but I'm like, damn, dude, I hope whatever this guy's going through, they get over it, because they can't be that miserable.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
No, I mean.
And you can break it up with humor.
There's so many things that you can do within.
But I think the most important is.
Is, like, if you have to have value, you got to believe in what you're bringing to the table.
You got to believe that you're different, better offer a solution, can make their life easier.
You can make them more money, put yourself in their shoes.
How can I help them?
And, you know, which ultimately is obviously move freight for them, their customer, for the.
(29:24):
Whatever the situation is in this case.
So I, you know, it's kind of keeping all those things, putting it together, and then it works.
And then, like you said, once it works, you've done it.
Once you saw the ball go in the hoop, you're like, oh, I've done that before.
Great.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
I can do it again, you know, and it's hard.
It is hard.
Rejection sucks.
And, like, if someone tells you that it's easy, which I think sometimes, like, people say that to themselves to kind of psych themselves out, but it's hard.
Nobody likes getting rejected.
Like, it's an emotional response.
It triggers something in you.
Like, you feel it when it happens.
Like, something rushes over you.
(29:59):
And like, my.
You know, like, you.
My response is either laugh, which probably internally, you're like, dude, you.
You don't want to work with me.
Like, really, like.
But at the same time, like, if you didn't laugh, it's like, on to the next.
Next opportunity as.
As they say, for no.
But you don't want to look for no either.
I. I feel like some people in sales do that.
They get through the calls just to get through the calls, to check it off and say, dude, I got through the calls.
(30:21):
I couldn't get it.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
And then, you know what I mean?
There's a mentality thing there.
So that's why I like actions based on conversations and things that actually drive you towards what the goal is or what you're trying to accomplish over saying, hey, I'm gonna make 10 calls or I'm gonna do this.
No, I want to have five conversations.
I don't care how I get them, but that's what, like, I gotta focus on.
And who do I have to become?
(30:43):
What do I have to do in order to do it?
How can I get there?
Who can I help to help me get there or whatever that looks like, right?
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Yeah.
No, I agree, man.
So if you guys made it this far, our.
Our big thing for you guys to follow.
Choose an ideal customer, all right?
Who do you want to go after?
Have a system, a set number of calls that you're going to get every single day, and then have that conversation.
And again, your reps are your progress, all right?
More conversations you have, the more confidence you're going to gain out there and do that.
(31:12):
And Cam, I think the next time you.
Come on, dude, I'll have to have you on next month.
Let's talk about deep selling.
Once you win the business, right?
Like, how do you navigate that crucial, like, beginning stages of, hey, we've onboarded the customer now what?
So I think that'd be a good topic and following up on this, man.
But, Cam, how does anybody reach out to you to find out more about what you got going on?
Speaker 3 (31:32):
I think usually they just call you.
They do.
You know, cameron@valley truckinginsurance.com or find me on LinkedIn or the website or whatever.
And I'm happy to chat, too.
Like anyone wants to chop it up on business process systems, SOPs, sales, like, anything, dude.
Like, don't call me for just insurance, dude.
(31:53):
I'm happy to help any way I can.
So I'm here.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
So appreciate it, man.
If you guys can't find Cam, hit me up.
I'll gladly put you guys in contact with him, but that's going to be it for today, ladies and gentlemen.
As always, if you got value in what you heard, subscribe to the show.
You guys.
And if you're feeling really ambitious after this one, rank the show on itunes and Spotify.
Because if you see 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.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
Across.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
If they hate them, let them hate them.
Make a bigger boss a.
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 boss hey.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
What is up, ladies and gentlemen?
We are back.
We are live.
It is the Fray Coach podcast, the top podcast in transportation, coming to you guys every single weekday, 8:30am 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.
(00:47):
And I do 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, 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, 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 today.
(01:09):
We're going to be talking about why people fail at prospecting.
But most importantly, you guys like where to start.
I think that, you know, when you're out on social media and this isn't just a freight thing, you only see a highlight reel.
You, you don't necessarily see the system that people follow day in and day out for sometimes years on end to build up a sustainable book of business.
(01:33):
And we are, we're going to kind of break that down.
But my team has also reminded me that I need to bring this stuff up at the beginning of the show as well as at the end of the show.
So if you get value in what you hear today, you guys, and you're not subscribed, subscribe to the show.
And if you're feeling really ambitious after this one, rank the show on itunes and Spotify.
Because if you see value, your network's going to see value as well.
All right?
(01:53):
With that being said, the man, the myth, the legend, my good brother Cam back on the show to break down.
We're talking about a completely different subject than what we normally do.
You're usually my go to for insurance, but you know, talking over these last couple of months, we've just been like, man, you know, because you've been self employed since 2007, Devin, you know, so it's like You've been out here, you've built a sales team, you're passionate about business development.
(02:20):
And I. I wanted to.
You know, we kind of came to the conclusion, like, dude, let's just start talking about the systems and the processes that we've both kind of utilized to build books of businesses over the years.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Yeah, absolutely, man.
And, yeah, I started, you know, I guess fortunate.
Looking back now, I don't know what I was thinking when I did it, but when I turned 20, I got into sales, and it was commission only.
So I've been commissioned only since 20 years old.
And so coming on.
What's that, man?
Almost 20 years now.
That's crazy.
(02:52):
Here in a couple.
In a couple short years.
But so for me, it's.
It's awesome.
And in the early stages, kind of ignorance was bliss.
And it was like, man, it was like Wolf of Wall Street.
Just pick up a phone and dial and find, you know, figure out who I needed to call, what I wanted to do, and then just start hammering the phones early on, because I didn't know any better.
(03:13):
And it was awes, man.
That kind of set the stage for that.
But, you know, as, you know, because you.
You've been commissioned only as well, early on.
Sucks, dude.
Like, it was a grind.
And you get wins.
Thank God I got some big wins early.
That's what hooked me.
But then you go through these valleys where it's like, dude, I'm never gonna land a client.
(03:35):
I'm never gonna get an appointment.
I'm broke.
Like, you know, your family's like, dude, you're working, you know, 80 hours a week, and you made 800 bucks for the month or what.
Whatever it was, you know, I. I'm just kind of talking.
But that's the real.
That's the realistic expectation and some of that.
So I ended up, you know, doing some construction jobs early on, because I did construction and through high school, and then I bartended probably until I was, I want to say, 24, 25, I think is when we had kiddos, and I was like, all right, I'm done.
(04:06):
Yeah.
You know, so.
Dude.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
And like, you know, same here, right?
Like, when.
When I started out, you know, in.
In my business.
And, you know, like, I say I'm.
I'm a glutton for punishment.
I really enjoy starting stuff when I have, like, no customers.
I think it's just fantastic.
I'm being highly sarcastic when I say that, but it.
But it's the truth, right?
All the businesses that I've started, I've done three of them now.
(04:29):
All of them had zero customers, zero revenue.
It was nothing but an idea.
And it's.
I got some exciting stuff to kind of say here in.
In.
In a few months.
But, like, as of right now, you know, when I started out, though, back in 2020, dude, like, I was, man, I delivered pizzas for the first, like, eight months that I was doing this because, like, I have a family to feed, you know, like.
(04:51):
And then furthermore, I needed to buy stuff for my business, and I didn't have any money.
I had a little bit of savings.
So it was like, it was one of those things where, you know, when you're starting out, I almost think it's easier to start out when you have nothing than when you have something, you know, out there.
Because, like, there's that comfort.
And now this.
(05:12):
This isn't for everybody.
And I'm not advocating you guys to, like, blow up your revenue streams or, like, blow up your business, you know, anything like that.
I'm just saying, like, there's a different mentality when you have nothing.
There's a different, like, drive that you possess that you're like, boom, I'm going out there.
And then you do experience a little bit of success, because if you are putting in that work, inevitably you're going to get customers, right?
(05:35):
Like, you're going to find some business.
But, you know, I want to talk about here, Cam.
Like, what is it?
Like, why do you think sales reps fail?
And then for those of you who can't see Cam on the screen here, he sells truck.
His company, his business.
They do trucking insurance and insurance of all walks.
So he's.
He's on a different side of the industry.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
But.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
But him and I always talk, you know, Cam's a good friend of mine.
We chat off.
Off the air a lot too.
And it's like, there's so many parallels between insurance sales and freight brokering, Correct?
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Yeah.
And actually it's funny because a lot of folks have tried to recruit me to come move freight and stuff too, just with connections.
And honestly, like, you get paid based on a book of business and reoccurring revenue via lanes and contracts customers.
So it's very similar.
And I've been, you know, obviously coming 20 years.
Like you had.
Glutton for punishment and a student of the game for sale.
(06:28):
So I've read every book.
What I do love to do.
I dropped out of school.
So to me, like, sales was the option.
It's like, what else am I gonna do at this point?
I'm very unemployable.
Like, nobody would ever hire me.
So it's like, all right, sales it is.
I'm on my own.
But, you know, a lot of that came naturally early on.
And I didn't realize it, but I had the ability to pick up the phone, be charismatic, have a lot of energy, be able to kind of mirror folks and stuff, like when you're doing col and that kind of thing.
(06:57):
And I didn't realize what I was doing because now I've read some books and I was like, oh, there's actually labels and terms and there's teachings for all this kind of stuff that I just naturally did.
But I think that plays a lot of it.
And the most valuable thing that I took early on because me and a buddy got into insurance and sales together.
(07:17):
Well, his cousin is who kind of introduced us, got us in.
She actually helped us get set up and in like a.
A situation where we can get contracts and stuff.
She was focused in niche clientele, which at the time was construction and contractors.
So for me, 0708, another was a terrible time for the economy, if you guys can think back, or those that remember.
(07:42):
And that's what I came into.
So I was trying to sell contractors construction insurance and actually trucking insurance, which is funny, but in the hardest time you could ever try to do that.
Like, people are shutting their doors.
Like, it was a terrible time to cold call.
But the beauty was I didn't know.
Like, I was like, I. I was too poor to know there was a recession going on.
Like, I had no idea anything was happening.
(08:02):
So I'm like, yeah, you know, kind of hammering.
But out of that, though, the most valuable thing I found was like finding a niche, right?
So, like establishing who your client is, what value you can bring to that.
So like, for my salespeople coming in, part of the process actually is you would create a business plan.
Doesn't have to be crazy one, two page business plan.
(08:25):
But in that there's a couple things I want identified.
And one is your ideal client, you know, or who you want to work with.
And I want to work with people I like.
You know, I don't want to just chase money or something like that.
Like, I'm working with an industry or folks that I truly and genuinely get along with.
And then second is like, why?
Right?
Like why?
What's your reason to do what you're doing every day?
(08:47):
Because without that man getting up and getting rejected, getting nose, getting cussed at, the door slammed in Your face getting, I mean just crazy things, right?
We all experience as door too cold calls or sales in general and the stigma that comes with it.
Like you have to persevere through that.
And so that those were super valuable things to me that I took from that early experience that kind of carried with to this point and now obviously there's, it's refined exponentially since then.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
But I, you know, I, I look at it as, you know, I, I talk about the niche often on this show and you know, especially inside of freight.
And I like, I understand everybody's methodology out there, right?
Like I get it in like the, oh, we need to go after everything.
You know, we're freight brokers, we move anything.
(09:40):
We move everything.
And that did work at one point in time, you know, early on in my career that what you could do that, right?
Because there wasn't as many freight brokers.
Yes, there's always been competition, but there wasn't as many freight brokers.
There wasn't as much information out there.
And you know, you could get a person on the phone, have a decent conversation and they'd give you like a prove it style shipment.
(10:03):
Not everywhere, right?
But like now selling post.
Excuse me, Covid.
It's been a lot different, man.
And it's like, and I, you know, having to restart my book of business from nothing, it was very telling right away.
Like I gotta be very hyper focused on one thing.
(10:26):
And you know, I chose open deck and heavy hall because that's where I have the most fun, right?
Like I have the most fun in that I am every letter, add, ocd, whatever the fuck you want to call it, type personality.
So like I need different, I get very bored and like I moved a lot of food and beverage early on in my career and it was all 20 pallets, you know, £40,000.
(10:49):
Like, don't get me wrong, as a business owner, I do just about anything for that freight right now.
But for like my ping pong ball brain, I need to be different.
But I go after that because like I've just noticed when I'm cold calling and prospecting people right now, my conversation's different because like I've gamified it in my head because I have insecurities and I have that goes wrong in my day just like everybody else.
(11:13):
But I've gamified it, right?
I gamified it where if I'm calling somebody and they reject me, but they didn't, like they don't use flatbeds for like the primarily method of shipping their freight.
No harm, no foul, right?
Like, I'm on to the next one.
But one thing that I'm looking back now, I wish I would have implemented a system like day one of like, hey, you're going to make 10 calls today no matter what.
(11:41):
Like, it does not matter because I think like when you're riding that emotional roller coaster early on, it's really easy to do when you're motivated.
But are you gonna show up when the last thing you want to do is pick up the phone and you've just been told no 100 straight times and stuff like that, right?
So it's like for me, it becomes more digestible.
Cam.
When I'm out there, I'm like, all right, I'm gonna make 40 cold calls today.
(12:05):
They're all going to be flatbed shippers or potentially flatbed shippers.
I have that conf.
Know, like I can execute this at a high level, but I gotta follow that, right?
Because it's like you also brought up a point earlier about like inevitably you get a little bit of success and then you stop, right?
Because it's that comfort.
Like we're creatures of comfort overall.
(12:25):
So it's like for me it's so important.
Choose one avenue and then you know what, scale it back a little bit further.
What region do you want to operate in?
I feel like a lot of individuals out there grossly underestimate how much opportunity is where they live and how much more effective it is to go out there and build a book of business around that.
Right.
(12:45):
Like we are extremely strong in the Western 11.
Right.
Like I'm located here in Arizona.
Our busiest shippers are in Arizona and Colorado.
We are very strong in that area.
And then we also operate in the Southeast.
And that was the first customer I onboarded as a broker out of my own here.
They were located in the Southeast.
So that's kind of our.
(13:06):
Are areas that we go after to develop business.
And ironically it matches up because if you've ever brokered freight on the west coast, you understand every single decision makers on the east coast, essentially, because everything out west is a satellite location.
But I, I look at it is as like I'm having the same conversation time and time again because like I need a system to follow most sales reps, whether you're prospecting, whatever that looks like.
(13:30):
You need a system to where it's like I got that cold call power hour and I do this every single morning from 7am Pacific to 8am Pacific.
I'm locked in and I'm just cold calling.
I can get like 30 dials rocked out in that hour every single time.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Yeah, I think for me a system is absolutely critical and it's something that you have to develop.
And I think one of the, or some of the key major things to consider when you guys or gals are looking at putting together a system, the business plan, the reasoning, that stuff's going to keep you motivated and keep you moving.
Identifying your ideal client.
(14:06):
Because you can spend a lot of time making calls for the sake of making calls just to do it and not getting anywhere.
Right.
Because you're not after your ideal 1, 2 is why are you making the calls?
Are you trying to get a close on the phone real time?
Are you trying to set appointments?
So if you're trying to set appointments, literally you're just trying to get on the phone to pick it up to decide if this person's a good fit to set the appointment because like they may or may not bite on that call.
(14:31):
For our world, it's, it's going to be similar where it might take 4, 5, 6, 12 conversations in person, whatever to get the deal closed.
Like I'm just trying to see if we're a good fit, get a chemistry going.
So that's another thing.
And then from that, yeah, tracking the things that are going to produce results versus like the outcome is huge.
(14:53):
So for me, correct.
I'm going to set some time blocks, I'm going to break it back down.
However, I need to think of it, to quantify it.
But it's going to be like for me, okay, I need hey, five good conversations today.
Like that's going to be the metric.
So that might take five calls, that might take 50 calls, that might take this.
But whatever I'm going to do, that's going to be priorities because as a salesperson you're, you make money on revenue generating things.
(15:19):
Sales primarily.
Right.
Obviously ongoing relationships and referrals and networking and that kind of stuff are up there we're talking about.
Correct.
But like right when you start, you make money on those things.
That should take 80, 90% of your time and it's going to take a lot more than you think it's going to take.
So when you start in sales, at least from my experience, you know you're working almost two jobs to make part time money.
(15:46):
It's crazy.
People look at you and they're like, dude, what are you doing?
But the reality is it takes that to get the momentum, to get the skillset, to get built, to get you to where you can actually close.
I kind of look at it and this is a, I guess like analogy I would use.
Think of like hunters, right?
When you first start hunting, you have no experience, no skill, you're starving, you're just going to eat bark and beetles and bugs and mud and whatever you can to find nourishment because you have no skill set.
(16:10):
You see the animals but you can't get them.
Then as you get more skilled, you step over the small game and the things you don't want and you start going after bigger game that's nourishing, you're a little bit more skilled.
And then obviously onto trophy hunting or whatever it is, you're going to take that as.
But that all comes from skills reps, at bat learning, review of what you've done with a system and a process.
(16:33):
So if you follow that process, you follow a discipline schedule and you can track exactly what you're doing, whether that's, you know, emails, cold calls, LinkedIn messages, sending video messages via LinkedIn, getting introductions, trying to find referral partners.
You're trying to do social media, establish yourself as an expert with the show and put out content to educate and help people.
(16:54):
Right.
The way you get reciprocal reciprocation is you help others.
So anything you can do going into that to help others and you're not self serving there, people will reciprocate.
And the cool thing is successful people want to help other people.
Typically, you know, so if you ask somebody, I call my buddy, you know, let's call freight coach.
Hey dude, I have a opportunity I can bring on a new customer.
(17:18):
Here's what I'm looking for.
Do you have anybody that you think that you can introduce me to?
Chris would, I'm guessing you'd be like, absolutely, dude, I got you.
Let me introduce.
If you had it, you're gonna try to help me.
So thinking of like all those things to work into a schedule that's been the biggest difference maker for me is like action, consistency and discipline.
(17:38):
With block scheduling, having a process, having the ideal client, sorry, kids going to school, it has been the biggest kind of separator for me that I've seen consistently because I, you know, I, I, I was on my own in sales.
Then I joined a firm, got in there and I was consistently the top producer, right.
(18:01):
I sold the most, I did that and I kind of looked at what others were doing well and a lot of the times And I look at competition or I look kind of look around, you know, they either don't know what to do or they sit there and aggressively wait for the phone to ring because they kind of maybe got lazy or whatever this issue was where it's like, oh, I just sit here and I, you know, they take pride and not prospect.
(18:21):
It's really funny to me.
I don't cold call.
I don't have to do any of that.
And they, and they think it's kind of a badge to them.
And I guess to them it is.
I mean, I, you know, I don't think that way.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
But yeah, I, I don't either.
I don't, I don't wait because.
And it's like.
And I feel like there's a lot of individuals out there who do, right?
They're like, oh, I, I like they're gonna wait for opportunities to fall into their lap and it just does not exist.
Right?
Like you have to create every single opportunity.
And you know, for those of you who have made it this far in the episode and you're in the freight space, for example, particularly inside of freight brokerage, here's just some rough numbers that are at, that are publicly available.
(18:59):
All right?
And this is why again, you, like, this is another reason why I say choose a niche and go after it.
Because drive in, for example, there's $200 billion of available freight to freight brokers just in.
Drive in alone, refrigerated, estimated between 60 and 80 billion.
Okay.
Flatbed and specialized, between 50 and 70 billion.
(19:21):
Okay?
So if you're looking at that, why is there a need to go after anything else, right?
And like if you built a hundred million dollar business, which is massive, all right, like, no matter what anybody says, it's massive, that's 0.2% of the flatbed market right there, right?
Like that's not even 1%.
(19:41):
So it's like again, the opportunities that are out there.
This is why I'm all about just really choosing that one thing and going after.
And especially when you're starting out because it's like you need to be having that same conversation because you need that confidence to come through.
And especially if you've never moved freight before or you've never sold whatever product you are now hired to sell, you need to build that system around it.
(20:06):
And that's why, like, dude, I'm such a massive proponent and like small incremental bumps to your action and productivity to build that system out.
Because I feel like again, most organizations like you need to make a hundred cold calls a day.
And if we're going back and it's like, and you've never made cold calls before, you'll do it for a few days, but then eventually you're going to be like, you know that, that lack of confidence is going to come through and you're going to not want to do it, right?
(20:32):
So it's like for me, when you're starting out the real track of progress, when you're starting From0, make 25 cold calls and track how long it takes you to make.
All right?
If it took you two hours, because I don't care what anybody says, that phone to most people is like a hundred pound cinder block.
All right?
They do not want to pick it up and start making that outreach.
(20:54):
Right.
Do that and then measure that.
All right, so do 25 cold calls in a day and see how long it takes.
And then once you eventually get into that system, all right, it's going to take you 30 minutes or 45 minutes to make a, to make those 25 cold calls.
Right.
When you get really effective.
But I, all I'm saying is if it takes you three hours, once it gets down to two hours and you have no business, add five, all right?
(21:17):
Then go up to 30 and then build that up and ratchet that up.
Because before you know it, as a sales rep, you should be making and you have, when you have no business, no less than 50 to 60 cold calls in a day.
And they're.
And then as long as they're in your target market.
All right, because I would rather have my team making 60 cold calls to flatbed prospects every single day, all day, then make 100 dials and like 30 of them don't even move freight and shit like that.
(21:46):
Like we're wasting dials.
Because every rep is important and especially when you're building because we all are on that clock cam that you brought up.
Especially if you don't have any money coming in, you're on a clock of when are you going to say fuck it and go and get a W2 or go out and get a salary somewhere.
So it's like, that's my thing where it's like you got to go out there and choose that number and then just solely throw everything at that 25, 30 calls a day, whatever it is.
(22:12):
And then if it takes you three hours, when that progress inevitably hits and you're down to two, then ratchet that up and then go after it.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Yeah.
Or more I don't think a lot of people know what a good grind actually looks like now.
There's killers out there.
I. I work with them every day and I see them.
But like, a lot of people think they made five calls, had three conversations, and they're like, that was a good day.
And it's like, no, it's not, because that doesn't mean anything.
But I think let's get past kind of the cold calls because I think, like, obviously they should be motivated to pick up a phone.
(22:41):
You should be working to get better, hone your skills, maybe take a little education, read, never split the difference.
It's a great book.
It's not directly sales, but it's negotiation.
It'll help you in communication.
But for me also, the organization piece is going to be key.
So a simple CRM, you can go to fricking HubSpot and get a free CRM.
You can use an Excel sheet.
I don't care what you do, organization is going to be key.
(23:03):
So you have your ideal clients.
You load them in there.
Like, let's just.
The way the analogy I look at, and early on it's much looser, but as you get bigger and evolve, it's like a round table approach.
You got a round table, 10 chairs.
Nine of the chairs are filled with your best customers.
The person that you're talking to, do they deserve a seat at that table and deserve your time, resources, energy, and what you bring.
(23:24):
Because if you don't bring the.
That, that confidence and swagger like Conor McGregor, where you're an equal to these people, they puppy you, right?
Like, that's a lot of salespeople, they want to say.
And they want to kind of bend to whatever to get the sale, but people don't respect that.
People respect value and you being equal and being that authority figure.
So I think knowing what you bring to the table, the value you offer, how you can best serve this person.
(23:50):
Because when you get somebody, okay, let's say Chris, I'm new.
I start, I make the calls.
I get someone that says, I'm interested.
Well, now, if I wasn't prepared on what I was going to say, what are you going to do?
You're going to fucking fumble over your words.
And I'm, you know, I got a website, you know, we got.
You say all this stuff because your brain's like, oh, like somebody's talking to me.
And you freak out.
(24:11):
Like.
So I think just having those things in play, understanding role playing is huge.
It's kind of Corny.
And I know a lot of people don't like it, but you wouldn't get into professional basketball game and not practice unless you're Allen Iverson.
But, like, then you get in the game.
Like, you rep for that thing.
The other thing I think with the analogy of sports is if you have a system, you can use a dialer, you can use a VoIP phone, you can use whatever, you can record those calls.
(24:37):
I highly recommend you do, hell, record yourself on a loom video or whatever as you're doing it, Smiling, standing up, having energy, getting motivated to do it.
Go a long way because it comes through the phone.
But like, most importantly, and this is where the most value can come from, is listen to your calls.
Go back and listen, Stop and reflect for a moment, man.
(24:57):
What did I say?
What went wrong?
What could I have done different if I said this?
Because all it is open loop, questioning, having a conversation, figuring out if potentially we're a good fit and not trying to vomit a ton of value on the person.
Because if I just come to you and I'm pushing and vomit and da, da, da, you're gonna back away like a.
It seems needy.
You seem super clingy.
(25:17):
Like, I'm like, dude, what?
Like, you know what I mean?
Like, you know a good salesperson when you hear one.
You really do.
So, like, that is a developed skill for most.
So you work on that, you refine that, you reflect on that, you study.
You know, like, you got to take time to get better and invest in yourself.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
So I, I agree, man.
And I think, like, that, like, the underlying factor that hits most individuals is their willingness to deal with the pain of rejection that comes along with developing a book of business and putting in the necessary reps, right?
Like, I think, like, that's.
That's a very big deterrent out there.
And especially when it looks like, you know, the majority of people who post about sales, they have a really fancy camera kind of like this one.
(25:59):
They have a really fancy mic kind of like this one.
And.
But like, they're trying to put a facade out there that it's not challenging, right?
Like, it's been very challenging for me.
This has been the hardest thing I've ever done in my entire life is build a couple of businesses from scratch with.
With nothing, right?
And my vision, my direction has changed with taking action because it's like, I'm getting out there and I'm getting those reps that you're talking about.
(26:24):
Cam that, hey, I got the prospect on the phone.
I fumbled it.
Well, did I fumble it?
Because I was calling a food shipper one, and then I went to.
And all of a sudden, this guy's a flatbed shipper.
And then I fumbled it because, like, I had lost my cadence, right?
So it's like, you got to study that stuff out there and really listen to it because again, like, ultimately, you guys, to deduce it down to is as simple of form when you're getting a business off the ground.
(26:47):
It's a volume game, all right?
It is the amount of outputs you are willing to.
To give before you get that first.
Yes.
That comes along with it.
And.
And I'm trying to help expedite this for you guys out there who are in the freight game and listening to this.
The more conversations you have on a singular focus, early on, that confidence is going to come through.
(27:10):
Those conversations that Cam brought up are the ability to like or like.
The.
The.
The fumbling aspect of it is going to be severely reduced when that.
That the back of your brain kicks in.
You're like, fuck, I've been here before.
Boom.
I said this last time.
Now I'm going to say this.
It's just that rep that comes along with it.
So it's like, to me, this is why the majority of sales reps will fail at prospecting.
(27:31):
They're way too scattered.
They're all over the board.
And then inevitably that.
That rejection bug gets to them and they say, fuck it, and they walk away like it is such a.
An endurance sport early on in building up something that I think a lot of people, they see the end results of some and they think that only took, like you said, Cam, five calls.
(27:55):
A lot of the most successful people that I know have been working in this industry and doing this job for 15, 20 years.
And a lot of them, it took 10 years to get those core customers that they have now worked with for the past five or so years, but it took a very long time to develop that.
All right?
So it's like when you're starting out with nothing, all right?
(28:18):
You need a singular focus.
You need consistent, similar conversations day in and day out, because inevitably that leads to that confidence, right?
Like now do.
When I get hung up on dude, that doesn't throw me off at all.
I. I actually start laughing.
Like, if I, like, my little old cold call ruined your day, where you're like, we're not talking on it can then click.
(28:40):
I will literally start laughing.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Like, dude, I actually, I would call back and be like, hey, dude, we got disconnected is what I would do.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
I don't do that, man.
I. I laugh, but I'm like, damn, dude, I hope whatever this guy's going through, they get over it, because they can't be that miserable.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
No, I mean.
And you can break it up with humor.
There's so many things that you can do within.
But I think the most important is.
Is, like, if you have to have value, you got to believe in what you're bringing to the table.
You got to believe that you're different, better offer a solution, can make their life easier.
You can make them more money, put yourself in their shoes.
How can I help them?
And, you know, which ultimately is obviously move freight for them, their customer, for the.
(29:24):
Whatever the situation is in this case.
So I, you know, it's kind of keeping all those things, putting it together, and then it works.
And then, like you said, once it works, you've done it.
Once you saw the ball go in the hoop, you're like, oh, I've done that before.
Great.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
I can do it again, you know, and it's hard.
It is hard.
Rejection sucks.
And, like, if someone tells you that it's easy, which I think sometimes, like, people say that to themselves to kind of psych themselves out, but it's hard.
Nobody likes getting rejected.
Like, it's an emotional response.
It triggers something in you.
Like, you feel it when it happens.
Like, something rushes over you.
(29:59):
And like, my.
You know, like, you.
My response is either laugh, which probably internally, you're like, dude, you.
You don't want to work with me.
Like, really, like.
But at the same time, like, if you didn't laugh, it's like, on to the next.
Next opportunity as.
As they say, for no.
But you don't want to look for no either.
I. I feel like some people in sales do that.
They get through the calls just to get through the calls, to check it off and say, dude, I got through the calls.
(30:21):
I couldn't get it.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
And then, you know what I mean?
There's a mentality thing there.
So that's why I like actions based on conversations and things that actually drive you towards what the goal is or what you're trying to accomplish over saying, hey, I'm gonna make 10 calls or I'm gonna do this.
No, I want to have five conversations.
I don't care how I get them, but that's what, like, I gotta focus on.
And who do I have to become?
(30:43):
What do I have to do in order to do it?
How can I get there?
Who can I help to help me get there or whatever that looks like, right?
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Yeah.
No, I agree, man.
So if you guys made it this far, our.
Our big thing for you guys to follow.
Choose an ideal customer, all right?
Who do you want to go after?
Have a system, a set number of calls that you're going to get every single day, and then have that conversation.
And again, your reps are your progress, all right?
More conversations you have, the more confidence you're going to gain out there and do that.
(31:12):
And Cam, I think the next time you.
Come on, dude, I'll have to have you on next month.
Let's talk about deep selling.
Once you win the business, right?
Like, how do you navigate that crucial, like, beginning stages of, hey, we've onboarded the customer now what?
So I think that'd be a good topic and following up on this, man.
But, Cam, how does anybody reach out to you to find out more about what you got going on?
Speaker 3 (31:32):
I think usually they just call you.
They do.
You know, cameron@valley truckinginsurance.com or find me on LinkedIn or the website or whatever.
And I'm happy to chat, too.
Like anyone wants to chop it up on business process systems, SOPs, sales, like, anything, dude.
Like, don't call me for just insurance, dude.
(31:53):
I'm happy to help any way I can.
So I'm here.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
So appreciate it, man.
If you guys can't find Cam, hit me up.
I'll gladly put you guys in contact with him, but that's going to be it for today, ladies and gentlemen.
As always, if you got value in what you heard, subscribe to the show.
You guys.
And if you're feeling really ambitious after this one, rank the show on itunes and Spotify.
Because if you see 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.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
Across.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
If they hate them, let them hate them.
Make a bigger boss a.
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