October 12, 2023 • 50 mins
This episode provides valuable insights for freight brokers on getting sales teams to adopt CRM. Josh Lyles, founder of Salesdash CRM, shares tips on customizing CRMs to fit freight workflows, involving managers to drive adoption, and using data to fuel marketing and sales initiatives. Listen to learn how CRM can boost broker productivity.
LINKS:
- Salesdash CRM Website: https://salesdashcrm.com/
- Josh's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshlyles/
- Salesdash CRM YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@salesdashcrm/videos
Feedback? Ideas for a future episode? Shoot us a text here to let us know.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Blythe Brumleve (00:05):
Welcome into another episode of Everything Is
Logistics, a podcast for thethinkers in freight.
We are proudly presented by SPILogistics and I am your host,
Blythe Brumleve, today.
I'm happy to welcome in JoshLyles.
He is the founder of SalesdashCRM and we are going to be
talking about how to get yourGodforsaken sales team to use a
CRM.
I'm a fan of my existence whenI worked at a brokerage, so I'm
(00:29):
excited for you to shed light onhow other fellow marketers can
help their sales team getestablished with a good process.
So, Josh, welcome into the show.
Josh Lyles (00:39):
Thanks, Blythe, great to be here and yeah,
that's the uphill battle that Iclimb every single week, so just
taking it step by step overhere.
Blythe Brumleve (00:46):
Yes, exactly Now, before we get into the CRM
part of the conversation, Iwanted to talk a little bit
about your background becauseit's actually really interesting
.
You used to work at Teslabefore you started working at a
freight brokerage and then youbecame a founder, but what was,
I guess, sort of the experiencelike working at Tesla?
Josh Lyles (01:08):
Oh, it was energy-packed all the time.
The one thing about theirculture that's just great is
that they're so mission-drivenand you get really bought into
that mission.
A lot of people say you'redrinking the Kool-Aid and
whatnot, but I think if you'rebuilding any company, any
culture, you want to make surethat you're doing things in a
positive way that are fulfillingand that you're just going
towards, I think, a greaterpurpose overall, and that's what
(01:30):
you felt every single day there.
The moment I walked in day one,I felt that I was around a lot
of talent.
I joined them back in 2016, andthere was a stat out there that
it was almost harder to get ajob at Tesla at that time than
to get into an Ivy League school.
It's not the case today, butback at that time and I felt
that when I first walked in, itwas just like with everybody
that was around me, and that's agood feeling when you come into
(01:52):
a place where you know thatyou're going to be sharpened by
every other team member that'son your team.
So, elon, overall I mean it'sjust constant push for growth,
problem solving.
A lot of people always ask meall the time what was it like?
I only got to be involved intwo conversations with him, but
ultimately, I think what madehim such a great leader is he's
(02:12):
just a problem solver.
He cut to all the differentnoise and he'd always just say
what's it going to take for usto deliver more cars and sell
more cars?
All the time.
That was just the conversation,and so it made everybody get
into this problem solvingmindset and I think that that's
really helped me throughout mycareer.
Blythe Brumleve (02:28):
That's awesome.
Yeah, I'm not an Elon stand butI am an Elon fan, so the stand
culture is a little strange tome.
For any person, I guess ofinfluence, but I always really
respect the work ethic that hehas and it sounds like it sort
of just bleeds into everythingthat he does.
What was so hard about gettingthe job there?
(02:49):
You mentioned that it wasextremely hard to get a job
there.
Is it like testing?
Josh Lyles (02:54):
Well, they were just smaller at that time.
So, for example, at that time Ithink they had two locations.
I was in Atlanta at that time.
I'm in Nashville now, but theyhad two locations all in Georgia
.
There wasn't that manylocations in the Southeast, they
were primarily just larger outin California but a lot of
people were applying for jobs atTesla.
At that time it was just areally popular up and coming
(03:14):
company just in the EV space andI guess with the volume of
applications and luckily andthat's the reason why I tell
people especially about theirLinkedIn I constantly will bring
this up anytime I talk abouthow I got to Tesla.
But I got there because theyfound me on LinkedIn and I was
one of the early ones back inthe day that always had my
(03:36):
LinkedIn profile built out, eventhat I didn't have the best
resume at that time.
But I was currently working atNew Balance when they had
reached out to me and I just hadstuff about sales skills and
marketing and all those kinds ofthings and luckily recruiter
found me and that's what got meto go through the job interviews
and did well enough in the jobinterviews to get a job.
So that's the reason why Ialways stressed the people,
because that changed my life alot for the better.
(03:57):
But having a LinkedIn profilejust built out, tell a simple
story, make it a little bitpersonable.
It's to me it's the modernresume now at this point.
I mean, back then it was, itwas like I mean there wasn't
that much adoption, butobviously now it's, it's, it's
picked up big time.
Blythe Brumleve (04:14):
Yeah, definitely, well said.
I mean, even if you don'tpublish to LinkedIn every day,
you can still make your profilesomething that people will want
to check out and just verifyyour existence, verify your
experience.
But that's really cool thatthey sought you out.
I was wondering if the processinvolved like you know what kind
of animal are you that you haveto answer in like interview
meetings or some crazy stufflike that.
Josh Lyles (04:36):
No, nothing like.
There was one manager therethat asked some very strange odd
interview questions that I'venever asked as a hiring manager
and wouldn't really think to ask.
But I guess that also kind ofis what made the culture unique
there as well.
Blythe Brumleve (04:49):
What, what, what were an example of one of
those questions that I don'tknow, if you're allowed to
reveal it.
Josh Lyles (04:54):
Honestly, I can't remember, but I just remember
them being very outlandish tothe point where I was like
taking mental note of what Iever want to ask these kinds of
questions in an interview toreally try to figure out about
somebody's personality.
The answer is no.
If they come to mind, I'lldefinitely be sure to bring them
out later on.
Blythe Brumleve (05:09):
For sure.
Now, going from Tesla, youdecided to join the world of
freight.
You had any kind of experiencein the world of logistics or you
just dived in?
Josh Lyles (05:21):
Just like most people, they just fall into it
somehow some way.
So when I first moved toNashville when I was working for
Tesla, I didn't know anybodywhen I moved here.
I moved here really fast,basically like within two weeks,
when I knew that I was going tobe Tesla's store manager for
their location here in Nashvilleand my first two friends
actually I knew through a friendof mine that I grew up with was
(05:43):
a really good friend of mineand they all went to college
together and so they were reallythe only connections that I
knew that lived here and weended up just hanging out,
became pretty good friends and Iknew what they were doing, but
not to a full extent.
You know they would try toexplain what freight brokerage
is.
They just like label it,logistics, like everybody does.
And you know how it is withfamily, relatives, spouses.
(06:04):
They don't fully know what goeson.
They just know like you're onthe phone all the time and
emails, and you know up early,sometimes staying up late and
all that stuff.
But they just got to a pointwhere I was at Tesla and I
wanted to look outside.
I didn't really care aboutstaying in Nashville, I didn't
really care about staying.
I was just really open to anyand all opportunities and they
were working at a company.
(06:25):
It was a really uniqueopportunity at the time.
There was one point logistics,who was owned by Keep Truckin,
and once I got to understand alittle bit more what freight
brokerage was but also why thatwas a unique opportunity, with
them being owned by an ELDcompany, that really stood out
to me as a unique differentiator.
And then, you know, just goinginto the office I had to go in
like four or five times foronsite interviews.
It took a long time for me toactually get approved for that
(06:46):
job, but luckily I was able toand it was awesome.
I got to build a team of 12from scratch.
I was a sales manager andthat's really how I got my start
into it.
Blythe Brumleve (06:56):
And so what was ?
I guess that while you wereworking there or did you, I
guess the company also gotbought out.
So was that the sort of thecatalyst that you were going to
become a founder?
How did you move from workingat a freight brokerage into
becoming founder led?
Josh Lyles (07:11):
Yeah, so no, they were actually.
So Keep Truckin had alreadybought them out before I joined,
but my long term goal hadalways just been to start my own
business.
Even when I was at Tesla,people would ask me like, hey,
do you want to keep climbing theladder?
Because I started at the veryentry level position as a
product specialist for them andthen got into a sales advisor
role and then assistant managerand then store manager and I
(07:31):
just I saw my Boston as aregional.
I didn't didn't really want todo that, but I always wanted to
just start my own business.
I've always been very interestedin entrepreneurship.
You know, for the things that Ilike to read and study outside
of work A lot of the timesthat's what it is.
So I just kind of knew thatthat was always going to be the
case.
And then when OPL was shut down, that was ultimately when I was
(07:53):
just trying to figure out, okay, what would be the thing that I
want to start?
Because people ask you that allthe time.
Right, if you do want to godown the route of
entrepreneurship is, what do youwant to start?
And I just didn't know.
But I just basically like thestory is super simple.
I literally just went to acoffee shop and I was like All
right, what do I feel that I'mvery strong at from a skill
standpoint?
Or what do I feel that I dobetter understand more than
(08:14):
other people?
And, as weird as it is, crmsoftware was the thing.
Blythe Brumleve (08:20):
Well, I guess I could sort of get it.
It makes me want to ask thenext question of what was
missing.
I guess, from like Salesforceor HubSpot, that you felt like
that you were missing, that youwanted to create a solution for.
Josh Lyles (08:33):
Simplicity is the easiest answer because everybody
wants something that's simpleand the tough part about that is
that, you know, when it comesto being simple, a lot of people
want the CRM to do so much workfor them.
But it's sales, right, and it'srelationships and there's
effort that goes intorelationships.
So you have to do effort whenit comes to your sales outreach
and, you know, when it comes tonotes and stuff, obviously you
(08:53):
have to be really good at that.
But I think I just had a reallygood way of like.
I don't I would always say Idon't think I was naturally like
the overall best sales person,but because my sales process was
pretty strong at Tesla, I hadpretty good results and that's
what kind of got me to startgetting promoted in a multitude
of different ways there.
So it was really just fromprocess and that's what got me
(09:14):
into management and I had somepretty good success in
management there.
And then also when I got intofreight brokerage, when it came
to onboarding new shippers, Ijust dove into it.
Like, even though I was amanager, I first started and
made my own cold calls and ranmy own pipeline, closed my own
customer, so I could get a goodfeel of what my account
executive is.
We're going to go through on aday and a day off basis and it's
really just like the flow.
(09:34):
It's such a good system.
I know people don't like dataentry.
I get it Like.
It's not necessarily my favoritething either, but when you,
when you see, I guess the outputcome back to you in terms of,
okay, great, I totally forgotabout this one company or this
one customer and they popped upon my calendar today, september
27th, and I talked to them four,five, six months ago.
(09:56):
Those were always things thatalways helped me in the sales
process and, I think, helpedanybody, because it's really
hard when you have that manyconversations, especially in
freight right, with how manyactivities that they're driven
to do on a day in and day outbasis.
Like 50 is a pretty extrememinimum.
Most people or companies thattypically wanted 75 to 150 of
activities.
It's hard to remember all thosedetails and those details are
(10:18):
what go a long way in buildingthose relationships and so I
think just finding a good mentalprocess and model in the CRM
and making it simple that wayyou understand it, your team
understands it and there's thatalignment, is really important,
but a lot of the times peopleuse it as a compliance tool to
say like I'm checking the boxand I got these activities done,
versus this is how it's helpingme in my sales process.
Blythe Brumleve (10:41):
Are you in freight sales with a book of
business looking for a new home?
Or perhaps you're a freightagent in need of a better
partnership?
These are the kinds ofconversations we're exploring in
our podcast interview seriescalled the freight agent
trenches, sponsored by SPIlogistics.
Now I can tell you all day thatSPI is one of the most
successful logistics firms inNorth America, who helps their
(11:02):
agents with back officeoperations such as admin,
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But I would much rather youhear it directly from SPI's
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I want better way to do thatthan by listening to the
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(11:23):
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And so, from what I understand,with sales dash's journey you
started off as kind of like aCRM for everybody before niching
down into freight.
Why the niche down?
Josh Lyles (11:41):
Things weren't working.
Simple enough, my go to marketstrategy was just bad and I'm
not scared to admit that and itwas just too wide.
It was casting a net too wide.
And I always say, like the sadpart is, I've read all the
entrepreneurship stories aboutniching down and starting very
small and then eventuallyscaling out and how Apple and
Amazon and all of them have donethat in the past and how they
(12:04):
got to success doing that.
But yeah, it was just toocomplicated, just reaching out
to a multitude of differentindustries.
I was focused more in the SMBspace and more so inside sales
teams and it just wasn't working.
And then I was just reallygetting to a point where I had
to figure stuff out.
But what I basically just saidokay, I want to focus more in
the logistics space.
This is literally back inFebruary of this year and I have
(12:25):
my best week on the phones,reaching out to companies and
getting some interest, gettingthem brought in, and then I just
basically kept that momentumgoing.
And then this is the real story,but like going into April, was
the Capital Ideas Conference forTIA, and once I knew that that
conference was coming up, Iwould use that as I was
prospecting and reaching out tocompanies.
They'd be like, yeah, I'm goingto be there.
(12:46):
And then I built up a list ofpeople that I knew were going to
be there and then I eventuallyjust bought a ticket and that
was kind of the solidifyingmoment where I was like, all
right, this is full blown thepivot that we're going to do and
that's where we're headed now.
So everything with our productdevelopment for that we're doing
in the CRM is all FreightBrokerage and 3PL focused.
Blythe Brumleve (13:08):
Now that's a really cool story that you built
out your contact list, orbasically like your hit list,
before going to the conference,and then that was the motivation
to be like, okay, yeah, I'mdefinitely going to make this
conference worth it.
Because one thing that I don'tthink gets talked about enough
is that for a lot of likesoloists I experienced this
myself when you go to aconference it's very expensive,
(13:30):
somebody has to do the workwhile you're gone All of the pre
and the post work that isinvolved it.
But I imagine that maybe yourtool is helping you be a little
bit more successful at thebooking, the meetings and then
the following up afterwards,which is where, frankly, I
struggle with.
Josh Lyles (13:46):
Yes, it did help because I already kind of had
that list.
I was building that list and Ihad my notes for what I talked
with them about, what I knewabout them.
The hardest part of thoseconferences is when you're
talking to so many people, likethe Capital Ideas Conference at
TIA was challenging, becausethere's 1,900 people there and
you're just talking to oneperson after another after
another.
So really, what I did wasactually just build a list of
notes in my phone and theneventually, from the people that
(14:09):
I spoke with, so that way I canremember who I spoke with,
because I think I ended up with54 business cards and honestly,
there was like some digital onesand then just ones that we just
exchanged contact info.
So you lose track of all of it.
But I just kind of kept like areally small list of notes
because it's actually stuff thatI used to do at Tesla back in
the day, because I worked at amall when I worked for them and
we used to just have an iPad.
(14:29):
You'd be holding an iPad,almost like an Apple employee
that's how they kind of builttheir model and I would just do
abbreviated notes and if youread them it wouldn't really
make sense, but it's just like amental abbreviation of notes
and everything that I understandand then I can expand upon it
later, and so when I just gotback to my Airbnb every single
night, I would just recall okay,these are all the people, and
(14:49):
just make sure I set myfollow-ups with them.
Blythe Brumleve (14:51):
That's cool, and the notes app at conferences
, I think, is undefeated.
Josh Lyles (14:57):
If you're not using the notes app, what are you
doing?
Blythe Brumleve (15:00):
Yeah, exactly Now.
One thing I am curious about is, I guess, a fundamental way to
manage a CRM different forfreight brokers versus anyone
else.
Josh Lyles (15:12):
It's not that like the fundamentals, I guess, of
the frameworks.
It's more so just, I guess,like the language and the way
that they think about them.
So it's really interestingbecause, I mean, I still work
with freight brokers that aresmall to medium size and
sometimes it doesn't reallymatter the size of the company,
but some of them go with likevery basic sales processes and
strategies and then some of themdon't really have anything at
(15:34):
all, and it's still not uncommonfor me to come across somebody
that's still just usingspreadsheets.
They don't really know what'shappening.
And when I talk with them aboutsales process, so I just posted
about this and this is a smallexample, but and I'm sure you're
very like, used to this fromfrom your experience as well but
a lot of the times in salespeople just say, hey, this lead
(15:54):
or this opportunity is cold,warm or hot and realistically,
in a sales process it doesn'treally make a lot of sense
because what is cold to me couldbe hot to you or vice versa,
like literally could be the case.
I've coached plenty ofsalespeople where they'd be like
hey, josh, I've got a hot one,and then it's like hey, no,
there's honestly a lot moreinformation that we need this.
One's still actually cold orwarm, but here's a small example
(16:17):
of that.
So, like, we have a four stepsimple process and this is all
through customization.
Like this is wherecustomization goes a long way,
but people pay thousands andthousands and thousands of
dollars for this.
When it comes to HubSpot, salesforce and you can do it in
there, but, like, you have to begood at doing it.
Ours is just already basicallytemplated.
That gives you a really goodfoundation for sales process
profiling shippers, qualifyingshippers from day one.
(16:39):
But going from like the cold,warm, hot and example would be
okay.
As a free broker, you'rereaching out to a shipper.
We have four steps Discovery,pains, needs, pricing and then
set up paperwork.
So you're trying to think okay,instead of like calling them
and being like hey wanted to seeif you're ready to follow.
You know, like, gotten afraidall this kind of stuff.
There's basically alwayscertain steps that you're trying
(16:59):
to align and make sure thatthey're the best fit for you as
a free broker, with the servicesthat you provide, the carrier
network that you have.
So discovery would be generalinformation of equipment types,
their volume, what kind of modesyou know between full truckload
LTL.
Do they do spotter, contract,project freight, that kind of
stuff, right?
Align on that, does it fitwithin what you provide?
And then, from a pains andneeds standpoint, what's the
(17:21):
reason they're going to bringyou on as a carrier?
They get reached out to all thetime Like are you actually
going to help them out when itcomes to, like, mis-pickups or
wrong equipment types being sentin or just pricing, whatever it
may be?
And then the third step would bepricing.
You need to price out lanes tomake sure that your pricing
lines up.
And the fourth step is youexchange some paperwork whether
it's your credit app or theysend you a contract, and then
that's typically how you getlined up right.
(17:43):
So it's not that it always goesin that flow, but that's a
common flow from overseeing twodifferent teams and brokerage
that I found.
So that way, instead of justthinking like, hey, what do we
need to do next year?
This is our process that wetypically do and we want to
follow this.
And so when we know where eachone is in each step and we click
like, okay, here's theopportunities that are in
pricing, we know that this iswhat we're striving to do right
now with these specific shippersthat are in that bucket.
Blythe Brumleve (18:06):
Now, with the process that you're talking
about, how common is thatprocess being established at
freight brokerages?
Because when I worked at afreight brokerage, it was
essentially like we're going topluck you out of the nearest
college, we're going to sit youdown at the phones and you're
just going to make a hundredcold calls a day.
That was the process.
What should I guess withrespect to what you're talking
(18:27):
about?
What should I guess a modernsales process look like at a
freight brokerage?
Josh Lyles (18:31):
Well, I think if you talk about a college kid coming
into it, this is an easier wayto streamline your sales process
, to say hey, instead of, likeme, having to kind of coach you
through it.
The system is going to helpguide you through it in terms of
the information that you'reseeing in front of you.
So, if you have those specificitems because a lot of all right
.
So, if you take a Salesforce ora HubSpot, not to like name
them, but like the generic CRMsout of the box and I hear this
(18:52):
from freight brokerages monthlybut they'll say like it really
feels that they're built forSaaS or software companies when
you take them out of the box andfor them, they just need really
simple stuff.
There's certain things thatthey want to know about each
shipper, and so we want to givethem the ability to just kind of
customize it that way.
But what I would say is and thisis really the easiest way I
always frame it is like takeyour best sales person in their
(19:14):
process, right, what would theywant to always ask a shipper to
understand?
And you can cook that into theCRM and it's not that it's a
call script, but it's going tobe in front of you every single
time when you jump into eachshipper and each account.
That's in the system and thenthat information is always in
front of you and then you knowthat, okay, I need to be asking
or learning about thisinformation every time that I'm
reaching out to somebody.
(19:35):
So I think that that's where,even if you are a college kid,
it's this information is infront of you.
If you don't understand what itis, then obviously they'll ask
their teammates to try tounderstand that, but at least
that's already kind of cookedinto the system so that way they
could be better guided, versusjust like, okay, I'm just
picking up the phone and I'mjust giving them a shout.
Blythe Brumleve (19:53):
Yeah, I mean you raise a lot of really
important truths because I thinkfor a lot of folks, especially
like when it comes to likemarketing versus sales, like
marketing is typically, in myexperience, going to be making
the decision on like what kindof software they use, what kind
of CRM that they use, and maybethat is the gap between
marketing and sales of like.
This software doesn't reallywork for sales unless it's
(20:14):
highly customized, and it's alsoto your point that you made
earlier, husband is veryexpensive.
You can get like the base level, you know quote unquote free
CRM for you know like 30 bucks amonth, but that bill will
quickly tick up.
If you want, you know someadditional features that are
kind of standard on a lot ofdifferent platforms.
So I guess for a lot ofbrokerages out there, what does
(20:37):
so you suggest you know learningfrom your best salesman,
establishing those differentprocesses and then using your
tool, they're essentially ableto enter in like the equipment,
the lane, the commodity, thingslike that directly into the CRM,
if I understand you correctly.
Josh Lyles (20:53):
Correct For each shipper that they're talking to,
and then you know they canbuild it out.
And then, when it comes toqualifying opportunities with,
like pipeline management, that'swhere you can even take it a
step further.
When it comes to qualifying, theopportunity of kind of going
back to some of those similarthings, is it a project,
contract, spot opportunity, minibit, rfp, you know, maybe
(21:14):
figuring out seasonality,documenting what those months
are, so you have that forreporting and then you can, like
we even have it to where webuild out, especially when we do
implementations with companiesto really help them.
You know, try to understandthese opportunities Like a
couple of examples would be howdo they measure carrier
performance?
And asking them that, how manycarriers are they working with
for that specific opportunity?
(21:35):
It could be a location or, youknow, it could be just in
general, just for their spotfree, but just those kinds of
different questions tounderstand the scope of the
opportunity, competitivenessaround it, those items.
You can.
You can basically build thatinto those, let's just say, like
deal opportunity forms in thesystem and we already have a
foundation of it with some likestarter ones, and then they can
(21:55):
build on it from there.
Blythe Brumleve (21:58):
And so with does your company help with,
like a, you know, implementation, integration?
It kind of sounds like you do.
So if you're helping with that,what are maybe some of those
keys to success?
Not just implementing it, butusing it on an ongoing basis.
Josh Lyles (22:13):
Yeah.
So I think it really starts inthe customizing of it, because
you wanted to just show theinformation that you talk about
on a daily basis.
You want that to be in thesystem, right, because if it's
not there and it's not it'sthat's not going to be something
that people leverage toactually enter in.
So that's the first thing, likejust as simple as us having
equipment types and modes andcontractor spot for you already
(22:35):
in our template inversion.
There's already people that sayit's just great to be able to
see that stuff in there.
And you know certain reports ontheir dashboard that are like
my active shipper leads orshippers that haven't been
contacted in 14 days, likepeople already just love the
fact that it's talking theirlanguage and just in that in
itself.
But you know, I guess, sorry,go back to the what was the
(22:56):
question again.
Blythe Brumleve (22:58):
It sounds like you're creating those light bulb
moments for them from the jumpto help them to keep using it,
Because that was always thestruggle that I had is like I
can show them the technology andthey'll say, yeah, that's great
, but for them to actuallycontinue to use it on an ongoing
basis was where I struggledwith the most with working with
the sales team.
So I would imagine that seeingthose light bulb moments like
(23:19):
what you're talking about helpsthem to use it more regularly.
Where they're almost likegetting those signals, I would
imagine there's reporting andthings like that that can
further highlight that kind ofdata.
Josh Lyles (23:28):
Correct.
So, for example, like withHubSpot, their custom reporting
and everything is on theirlargest package, which gets
really expensive.
We already have customreporting that's built into it.
But what yes, going back toyour initial question with this
is a lot of it, actually, Iwould say, in a lot of success
does is driven from salesmanagers and the people that are
overseeing it.
And again, it's not, it's notalways about just like hey,
(23:50):
we're just trying to hit aspecific number.
We're trying to do these things.
You're trying to help your teamwork towards better behaviors
that drive more shipper, newshipper relationships and expand
the existing relationships thatyou have and opportunities that
you have with them.
And so the things that they see, you know, for example, just on
their dashboard like I getreally technical when it comes
to this and even just the designand how we've templated this
(24:11):
out but even from the firstthings that you see, from like
the first part of the screen andworking left to right, top, top
to bottom, to me is reallyimportant, because if there's a
certain metric and I always justsay, like what gets measured,
gets managed, but if that's noton your dashboard as a sales
manager or even as a salesperson, then you're going to forget
about it because you're not,you're not, you're not measuring
(24:31):
it, it's not something that'sconsistently on your radar.
But that's what I often foundwith those the other CRMs out of
the box was.
I would build out all thosedashboards to make sure like
every one of those specificthings was on it.
But if it's not on your radar,then it's easy for that stuff to
fall by the wayside.
But it's honestly, if it's juston your dashboard, it's such an
easier way to basically build alot more momentum and better
(24:52):
behaviors.
And then I just know it for afact.
But, like, once you start tosee that and you start to get
more success and you're startingto close more customers, you're
staying in front of them, thosebehaviors are driving better
results than at that point ithonestly just becomes part of
your process.
You're like these are thethings that I know that lead me
to success.
Blythe Brumleve (25:09):
So a lot of it is approached by leadership and
I would imagine so I wouldimagine that you're the data and
the insights that you'regetting from that you can
actually see which kinds ofcustomers, what kinds of
equipment, lanes, that kind ofthing, are closing more at a
higher rate, which I wouldimagine would also help the
marketing department be able tomake some content or, you know,
(25:29):
make some different campaignsthat could complement those high
success rates.
Is that fair to say?
Josh Lyles (25:34):
I think it's, of course, yeah, because, like so,
I only worked with the marketingdepartment and it was smaller
at my first brokerage and then Ihelped with some of that at the
last one that I was at over atSilo.
But it can, like marketing cantake a lot of things that
they're seeing from notesbecause, for example, like
talking about marketing and likeI'll even just talk about how I
use marketing when it comes toSales dash, but I look at all
(25:57):
the notes, like, for example, Irun a quick report.
So anytime that somebody showsup to one of my meetings and my
demos, I mark that as a meetingshow in my CRM and so what I
know is that I can pull a reportof all those activities and
these are all the demos thatI've had with people.
And I am a crazy note takerbecause for me, like, attention
to detail is important and Iwant to make sure that if
they're really interested in theCRM, I can actively progress
(26:17):
the sale.
But even just the small piecesof that I will use what they
tell me to fuel a lot of mymarketing for Sales dash, for
example, right.
And then same thing as a freebroker, if a shipper is telling
you specific things are likeeither challenges or things that
they care about.
Those are really good questions.
Then, to ask other shippers,because if they care about it,
chances are the other shipperscare about it, or if they don't
(26:38):
know, it's a really good thingto put on their radar.
So, yes, when it comes tomarketing and messaging and what
you specialize in, I thinkthat's important.
But also, even just like thesmallest thing, for example, of
your close customers, like whatare the characteristics, what
industry, what's their employeesize, what's their approximated
annual revenue, you can pullthose things from having the
list of them, seeing thatreporting, and then you can find
(26:59):
out to help you further refineyour ICP for the kinds of
shippers that you're going after, because you may think that,
hey, we specialize with thesekinds of companies, but then
sometimes when you look at it,you're like, oh wait, these are
the ones that are actuallybringing in the most revenue for
us right now, the most profit.
Blythe Brumleve (27:16):
Yeah, absolutely.
Data tells a lot more storiesthan just going off of
affirmations or feelings or gutfeelings or things like that.
Exactly, it's important to havethat data to back it up as well
.
Now, I'm surprised that we madeit almost 30 minutes in this
conversation and the topic of AIhas not been brought up yet, so
I'm going to use this as anopportunity to bring it up now.
How do you think about AI?
(27:38):
Is it plans to incorporatethese kinds of, I guess,
technology, large languagemodels, things like that into
the CRM?
I mean not to bring up HubSpotagain, but I know that they have
their chat platform thatthey're fine-tuning, still very
much in its infancy phase.
Based on the tests that I'verun, any thoughts on how you can
(27:59):
incorporate AI into your salesprocess?
Josh Lyles (28:01):
Yeah.
So I think it's inevitable thatAI is going to be incorporated
no matter what, and I thinkthere will be a multitude of
different ways.
We're going to start to exploreit more next year because we're
finishing out some new productdevelopment right now, that we
just really want to become oneof the strongest CRM platforms
really the strongest CRMplatform for freight brokerages
and 3PLs to manage our shipperand carrier relationships.
(28:22):
But I think a multitude ofdifferent ways.
I think the way that a lot ofpeople are using it is for email
copy.
I think that's huge right nowand it makes a lot of sense and
people can always write betteremails, but it's really good for
that.
I think it can be really goodwhen it does come to some just
creative ideas, when it doescome to marketing or even just
like your emails and your salesoutreach or let's just say, if
(28:43):
you're building a one pager forthose things, I think it's going
to become really important forreporting personally in CRM in
terms of, hey, I want to see allmy shippers that are out of
this specific city, thisspecific state in this industry
and just like a really quicktext chat so that way they don't
have to do typical filters inthe CRM.
(29:04):
I think that that's going to bea big opportunity.
Notes, obviously, will bereally important in terms of
scraping what's already in thesystem.
And then I think there can besome further things on the
analytical side, when it comesto observing your deals that are
in the system, what's been won,what's been lost, to try to
pull some specific insights outof those.
So there's more on top of it,but I think, specifically, if
(29:27):
you talk about the use cases forCRM, those will be a good
amount of them.
And then I'm just seeing otherthings like cold calling.
I'm seeing AI cold callersright now, which is really
interesting.
I don't know about that.
I'm so much bigger on thepersonalization side than
automation.
I don't know how you feel aboutit, but it's freight too.
Freight is a relationshipdriven business and I just don't
(29:49):
think you can automaterelationships fully, like
there's always got to be thathuman element, but at the same
time, there's still things thatAI can help to knock out some of
the tedious, you know, manualtasks.
Blythe Brumleve (30:02):
If a company used an AI voice calling
whatever function to cold calledme, I would instantly block
them.
There you go.
I wouldn't even think about it,I would never even look at
their company name.
It was just instant block, moveon.
That's how I feel about that.
But I'm right there with you.
I think that AI can be used inincreasing administrative things
, administrative processes, andhelping to kind of shine a light
(30:24):
on areas that you might missyourself.
Hopefully it will evolve intosomething it looks like it's
getting there to be able to lookat your website analytics or
look at CRM analytics and beable to decipher and create some
takeaways for you.
So I think that that's thelogical sort of next step that
(30:45):
I've been using ChatGPT for.
So I haven't used any othertool because I want to use my
own data in order to extrapolatethat feedback.
But I'm right there with you ithas to, I think, fuel your
processes in order to havebetter conversations that are
built on the back of thosein-person relationships, but
also those personal touches too,which is, I think, where the
(31:08):
CRM just really plays a vitalrole in being able to just keep
track of all of those nodes.
Now you mentioned a productroadmap.
What does that, whatever youcan share with us?
What does sort of the productroadmap or releases look like
for Sales dash for the rest ofthe year?
Josh Lyles (31:24):
Yeah, so most CRMs really just focus on shippers
and just shipper management andshipper relationship management,
and so really right now whatwe're working on and we plan on
demoing at Technovations when wepresent Shark.
Blythe Brumleve (31:36):
Tank.
That's right, that's right.
Josh Lyles (31:39):
What we plan on presenting is really our carrier
side.
So you're going to be able tocapture, import your carriers.
We have found brokerages.
We'll store them inspreadsheets as well Good old
spreadsheets will never, ever goaway in our lifetime probably
but we're going to be showingbasically that functionality,
how it's going to becomplimenting the shipper
(32:01):
information that's already inour system.
And then lane capturing as well.
So some Google integration thatcomes into that with the lane
capturing, but capturing lanesfor shippers, capturing lanes
for carriers, to really try tomake it a really strong sales
engine for freight brokeragesoutside of just the shippers
that are.
Typically they'll see in theirCRM.
We want to give them fuelessentially to be reengaging
(32:24):
with their shippers in a waythat's a little bit more unique,
but also to deepen carrierrelationships, not make them so
transactional.
We hear this commonly, it'swhat a lot of people promote,
but honestly, most people dojust or I would say most
brokerages a lot of those timesdo just have transactional
relationships with theircarriers and we want to have the
CRM to where not only like itdepends on the model that you
(32:44):
are between, cradle to grave,split model, that kind of stuff.
So there's some considerationsthat go into it when it does
come to that.
But we want to make it a reallyeasy place that you can access,
run really quick reports.
But our reporting is alsofeeding really good insights to
the shippers sales team, alsoback to the carrier sales team
to help deepen the relationshipsthat live in the system.
Blythe Brumleve (33:04):
Yeah, that makes a ton of sense because if
you're spending all this timeand energy trying to get
shippers and then you have acrappy carrier on that first
load, then you probably all thathard work was for nothing.
So that's really interesting.
About the Shark Tank at TIAwhat was sort of the process
that made you want to apply forsomething like that?
I mean obviously exposure, butRight.
Josh Lyles (33:26):
Yeah, I mean definitely exposure, because
we're just trying to get ourname out there.
I mean a lot of what I do whenit comes to marketing and all
that stuff is that if CRM getsbrought up in conversation and
meetings and the people areevaluating CRMs for their
brokerage, we just want to beconsidered, we want to have a
conversation.
We're not going to win them all.
I do feel that we have reallygood conversations with people,
but we're actively building inthe space.
(33:47):
Everything that we build fromhere on out is going to be
specifically in the space.
I think when it came to that, Iwas actually not going to do it.
And then, when I knew that wewere going to be in a decent
spot for building the productdevelopment that we're working
on right now in the carrier andlane side that's ultimately when
I made the decision I was likelet's just get up there and go
(34:08):
do it and honestly to me, I lookat it as an opportunity that
there's a bunch of decisionmakers that are in the room.
Why not get in front of them?
Obviously not going to closeall of them, and it's okay, but
just even establish thatrelationship.
And it's the same thing If CRMgets brought up.
That's really the biggest thingis just.
We just want to be inconsideration.
That's what it comes down to.
Blythe Brumleve (34:27):
Yeah, heck.
Yeah, I'm an avid Shark Tankwatcher.
I just watched the marathonthat comes on every Tuesday.
I watched it yesterday.
So I'm wondering who's going tobe the Mr Wonderful of the
group.
That's going to be kind of thenot the mean one, maybe more the
more realistic one.
So that'll be interesting towatch, and so we'll have to
definitely keep the audienceupdated on the performance there
(34:48):
and how it all turned out.
But as we sort of round out theconversation, I like to come to
one of my favorite segments now, and it's these recurring
questions I call it therelatable eight that I ask, or
I'm starting to ask, eachinterview guest on the show.
So I think you are about thefifth or sixth person that we've
asked these questions to.
So let's get started.
(35:09):
We kind of already talked alittle bit about this, but how
do you think about marketingwhen it comes to you versus your
brand?
Is it kind of collaborative oris it kind of you keep them
independent?
Josh Lyles (35:21):
No, I think it's fully collaborative because, at
the end of the day, people makeup your company and your brand.
So I think that's reallyimportant.
I think there's a lot ofopportunity, too, for more
people in logistics.
I think you're seeing moreactivity, for example, on
LinkedIn, on Twitter or X, evenon TikTok and whatnot, but
you're seeing a lot moreactivity where they're starting
to speak up and that does go along way because so much of it
(35:41):
is just people knowing who youare.
That's a lot of the objectiveof marketing is getting
attention and people knowing whoyou are.
And if they don't, then when itcomes to just recruiting or
other kinds of partnerships,potentially even customers where
people can refer you in theright direction, that's not
going to be had.
So it's honestly kind of just asimple thing of, instead of
(36:04):
consuming content I'd rather bea creator and people also, I
guess just watching andconsuming my content.
It's free distribution.
I mean the fact that you canjust build a post for free and
thousands of people can see it.
Why would you not do that?
That's just sure.
Some of it may come off ascringe at times, some of it may
flop, but at the end of the day,just another touch point where
(36:25):
your face and your name is outthere can go a long way if you
can stay consistent with it.
So it's not the easiest thingto do, but I just think staying
out in front is really important.
And then for me, when it comesto the marketing mentioned it
earlier but really utilizingwhat customers tell me, whether
it's feedback or things thatthey like or don't like, even if
it comes to our product roadmapand they can help build that
(36:46):
out, but really using customersto help fuel.
That is really the stage thatwe're in when it comes to our
messaging and our positioningand what I know.
That again, just like we'retalking about, but if they care
about it, there's a very goodchance that other brokerages are
going to care about it as well.
Blythe Brumleve (37:01):
Yeah, preach, I am always just baffled by the
companies that don't pursue somekind of founder-driven
marketing that they should have.
You have their founder oncamera, whether it's Long Form
Video or Short Form Video,talking about the solutions that
they have for their targetaudience.
And speaking of Short FormVideo, this isn't actually
(37:22):
related to the relatable eightset of questions, but you do a
lot of Short Form Videomarketing over on YouTube Shorts
.
Was that a conscious effort ordid you just see the opportunity
there to get brand awareness?
Josh Lyles (37:34):
Yeah, so, funny enough, I actually do more of it
on TikTok.
The YouTube Shorts is probablylike a fraction of what I have,
but yeah, I just saw a bigopportunity in it I wanted to
leverage.
A lot of people think it's justyoung kids dancing on TikTok
and whatnot, but TikTok isrealistic.
It's a really great area to be.
There's actually more people intrucking that are on TikTok
(37:57):
than you would probably be awareof.
But the thing I love aboutShort Form in general is that
the fact that it's Short Formit's really hard to get your
messaging right in a, let's justsay, 15 to 30 second clip.
It's hard For anybody that'stried it.
It's really tough because youcan just go on for minutes and
minutes.
So honestly, I do it as almostlike practice for myself to try
(38:19):
to figure out how can I try tocapture somebody's attention or
provide a really good message inthe shortest period of time,
just because all of ourattention spans are going down
year by year.
Blythe Brumleve (38:29):
Yeah, it's definitely.
I hated it when Twitter slashex removed the.
They bumped it up from 140characters like 240, which was
okay, but now you can write like1000, yes, like 1000 word blog
articles on Twitter.
I'm like this is not what thiswas for.
I liked the conciseness and theimpact that you could have with
(38:49):
saying something with lesswords.
But I'm right there with you,it's very challenging, which is
why I use interviews like thisto be able to cut it down into
digestible clips.
That's much more easier to goback in the editing process or
to just use AI like Opus and beable to plug a video like this
right into Opus and have thesoftware pick a good clip for
(39:10):
you and do a lot of like 80% ofthe legwork.
So great tips on that.
But I guess I kind of know theanswer to this next question
what's your favorite socialmedia platform and why it is
going to be?
Josh Lyles (39:23):
it is going to be.
I know it's so weird.
It's going to be a TikTok, andthe main reason it's going to be
TikTok is because I can justlearn things the fastest there.
It's really as simple as that.
If for you to be able to builda video that's actually
effective, you have to be ableto teach something super fast,
super simple, and that's thereason why I love it.
It's going to be a Tik Tok orYouTube, because if I need to
get really deep, then I'mobviously going to YouTube, but
if I need something super quick,I'm not even going to TikTok,
(39:47):
but I use it all the time tolearn things as fast as I can.
Blythe Brumleve (39:51):
Yeah, for sure, it's definitely on that
platform.
I either laugh or I learn.
With every other platform itfeels like there's I mean,
tiktok has a lot of drama too,but it feels like every other
platform just has too much dramaof like the people I don't want
to or the people that Iregularly see with TikTok.
I don't know any of thesepeople that show up on my feed,
which is great.
Josh Lyles (40:09):
Yeah.
Blythe Brumleve (40:10):
So it's just a totally different experience.
Okay, next question what's yourfavorite SaaS tool that you use
every day and can't livewithout, but it's not your own.
Josh Lyles (40:19):
Google workspace super basic fundamental answer
that I can't.
Blythe Brumleve (40:23):
I can't, I can't live without it.
Josh Lyles (40:25):
It's super boring, I know.
If I was to say a backup orlike, let's just say, alright,
that's gonna be one a, but if Ihad to say 1v1c, canva is super
important when it comes tomarketing.
It can make anybody a marketer.
That's, that's what's soawesome about it.
It's such a simple tool andjust getting the practice with
it helps.
And then this one's probablyunique, but clean shot X.
(40:45):
So clean shot X is like helpswith screenshots and with
recording, like screen grabs andall that kind of stuff.
So a lot of times, if you see,you know any specific screen
grabs of like our software oreven just like little things
that I do Most of the time.
That's actually what I use.
It is the easiest thing.
I use it.
It's firm, I think it's.
I don't know if it's just forMac, but you know, I know
(41:05):
there's like snipping tool, butit's.
I use it like loom or something.
Blythe Brumleve (41:09):
Is it exactly I ?
Josh Lyles (41:10):
can I, instead of using loom, I could just use
that and record a specific spot,spot of the screen and it can
take all the audio video,everything from it.
Or I can like be in my CRM and,you know, have myself just like
loom, have myself as a littlecircle in it.
Blythe Brumleve (41:22):
So oh, that's cool.
Yeah, it probably makes forgreat like product demos, quick
product demos.
Okay, next question is afavorite freight business that
is in your own?
Josh Lyles (41:33):
Oh, Any freight brokers that use the Sales dash
is easily my favorite.
I love talking to them andsometimes I get a lot of
questions, but honestly I loveit.
But that Is my answer.
Blythe Brumleve (41:46):
That's a little .
That's kind of cheating.
Josh Lyles (41:48):
I'll come back to that one.
I'll come back to that one.
Blythe Brumleve (41:50):
Okay, next one.
What's one task in your currentjob that you can't stand doing?
Josh Lyles (41:55):
editing content.
Blythe Brumleve (41:57):
Yeah.
Josh Lyles (41:57):
I need.
I need a.
I heard you saying AI tool.
I'm taking a note.
I need.
I need a.
Yeah, opus.
Blythe Brumleve (42:02):
I'm gonna look at opus clips is a God said,
because they just released abutton not to.
They don't pay me for any ofthis, but they just released a
major update in the month ofAugust where it like auto frames
and you can select, you know,highlight key words.
So if you're only looking forlike, maybe like AI, in one
conversation, it will justisolate that part of the
conversation that you talkedabout AI it's.
I mean, I cannot speak enoughhigh.
(42:24):
You know better things aboutthat platform.
Okay, next one if you didn'thave to worry about money, what
would you want to do for therest of your life?
Josh Lyles (42:31):
I would want to be a GM for an NBA team.
I would love it.
I would love it.
I love basketball, I lovesports, but basketball and NBA
has always been my favorite.
Leadership is one of thebiggest things I've always just
kind of studied and you know,assembling a team and all that
kind of stuff.
I just think it would be a lotof fun.
That's yeah, so that that'sprobably I would.
I would enjoy that.
(42:52):
I know it'd be stressful, forsure.
I know this.
I know the stress does thatcome into it.
But that's, that's what I wouldsign up for, for sure.
But what's the organizationthat you're?
Blythe Brumleve (42:58):
gonna pick?
I guess I'll pick the AtlantaHawks, just because.
Josh Lyles (43:01):
I'm from Atlanta.
You know they probably did.
They still have a lot of workto do.
They have a lot of work to do.
Blythe Brumleve (43:06):
And, honestly, I would want to take a project.
I would, I would, I would notwant to go to one of the
established.
Josh Lyles (43:09):
Like I wouldn't want to put you know, be at the
Lakers or for the Celtics, oryou know one of the historic
teams like the Bulls, I, I wantto take a full-blown project.
Yeah, yeah, I'm not smallmarket teams deserve love too.
Blythe Brumleve (43:23):
Yeah, you know like I know a lot of people be
like.
Josh Lyles (43:26):
Oh, I just kicked my feet up at the beach and like
that would be fun if I didn'thave.
But like that I have to bedoing something.
Like I enjoy work.
And even that other questionyou asked about like what tasks
I Honestly enjoy them, like evenediting content.
I don't necessarily like loveit, but I'm still gonna do it
Because I know how much, howimportant it is.
Like I I'm Thankfully like outof spot where I really enjoy
(43:47):
what I do.
And you know, like work is, youcan make work fun.
Blythe Brumleve (43:49):
Yeah, it's, it's definitely like the 80 20
rule if you enjoy 80% of yourjob, then you can do it.
You enjoy 80% of your job, thenthe other 20% is worth dealing
with In order to enjoy that.
The rest of that 80%, okay,next one what is something you
believe in that most peopledon't?
Josh Lyles (44:07):
Sales can be fun.
I Believe that I literallythink it's as simple as this and
this is like.
This is my easy flip of it,because Growing up I was a big
introvert, didn't talk that much, I was just like a big listener
, observer, all that stuff.
But to me it's like flippingyour mindset that you're not
selling that and you're justhelping.
You're helping others.
Blythe Brumleve (44:26):
Yeah, 100%.
I struggle with Because we'reboth part of an eight shoots
founder group and withinlogistics, and so that's one
thing that I have confessed isthat I am terrible without bound
sales, but it is something thatI want to get better at, so
actively trying to improve thatprocess.
Inbound sales is great.
Outbound sales is whatterrifies me.
Josh Lyles (44:47):
But even in that, like I think about it, for what
you do, you have a huge reach.
You know you have one of themost established podcasts in the
logistics space, right likethank you.
Just in that in itself, anybodythat has a product or has you
know needs to get in touch withthe logistics community and the
logistics network.
It makes so much sense for themto look at a sponsorship for
the podcast.
You know so.
(45:10):
It does it makes a ton of sense.
So that's reason why I'm sayingit's like you would be helping
somebody out, because the ROIShould be there for them, that
this is where their audience isand they're listening, and for
those that are really interestedin it, they're listening to
this.
Somebody that's in the.
You know, a random industrylike this is logistics focus.
It's in the name.
Blythe Brumleve (45:27):
Well, I'm gonna cut that clip and that's gonna
be up on a sale.
Thank you for that.
All right and last one what isyour favorite supply chain or
logistics fact?
Josh Lyles (45:38):
I Think it's really interesting.
But if you consider the amountof miles that an average like
just truck driver, heavy truckdriver, drives every single day,
I think the average is aroundlike 500 miles.
And if you take basically allthe truck drivers globally, they
basically do they basicallydrive about a fifth of a light
year.
(45:58):
Or if you were to actually dothe amount of trips to the sun,
it's about 6,000 times To theSun and back is that every day,
or is that?
Every like over their lifetime,yearly oh.
Blythe Brumleve (46:09):
Wow, yeah, that's crazy nice fact.
Yeah, all right.
Josh Lyles (46:13):
I was like, wow, that's, and you don't realize.
Like I mean obviously, likeeverything has to be moved.
Typically, you know, most stuffis moved via over the road
truckload and all that kind ofstuff, but and I know there's a
lot of ocean air freight and allthat but when you consider,
like how many miles are drivenjust to Get stuff from point A
to point B, like yeah, you don'tthink about it globally because
, like for us, for us, you know,canada, mexico, but just that's
(46:36):
, it's a lot.
I thought it was impressive.
Blythe Brumleve (46:39):
Yeah, for sure.
There's a former podcast guest.
He's actually gonna be anotherrecurring guest in the future
Brian Glick.
He said that it is absolutely,with all the crap we talk about
with you know, logistics andsupply chain crisis and things
like that it is remarkable thatwe can get something shipped
from one part of the globe tothe other part of the globe a
(46:59):
lot of times within a week.
Josh Lyles (47:01):
I would rather less than that.
Blythe Brumleve (47:02):
That's incredible.
Josh Lyles (47:04):
It's fun space that we live in.
Blythe Brumleve (47:07):
Yeah, it definitely is.
It's filled with problems.
It's filled with people who arewilling to get creative and
solve those problems.
So, josh, we appreciate yourtime and insight on this topic.
Where can folks follow more ofyour work?
Get signed up for a demo overat Salesd ash all that good
stuff.
Josh Lyles (47:24):
Yeah, so easy way to get connected with me is on
LinkedIn.
You can find me at Josh Lyles,l-y-l-e-s.
And then our website for ourCRM for Salesd ash crm.
com.
Dash is spelled out D-A-S-H,but you can always schedule a
demo.
If you schedule a demo, I'll bethe one to host it and talk
with you.
It's a pretty short demo forthe most part because it is a
fairly simple system, but that'salways going to be the easiest
(47:48):
way.
And then you can always start a14-day free trial.
If you're somebody that justlikes to get your hands dirty,
and just take it for a test run.
Blythe Brumleve (47:55):
Heck.
Yes, so we will make sure toinclude all of those links in
the show notes just to make iteasy for folks.
But, Josh, this was an awesomediscussion.
We'll have to have you back onin the future in order to talk
about how the Shark Tank episodewent.
But again, thank you forsharing your insight and
hopefully some marketers andsales reps out there got a
little bit better today afterlistening.
Josh Lyles (48:14):
Hopefully.
Thanks for having me on Blimey,I really enjoyed it.
Blythe Brumleve (48:21):
I hope you enjoyed this episode of
Everything is Logistics, apodcast for the thinkers in
freight, telling the storiesbehind how your favorite stuff
and people get from point A to B.
Subscribe to the show, sign upfor our newsletter and follow
our socials over ateverythingislogisticscom.
And in addition to the podcast,I also wanted to let y'all know
about another company I operate, and that's Digital Dispatch,
(48:42):
where we help you build a betterwebsite.
Now, a lot of the times, wehand this task of building a new
website or refreshing a currentone off to a co-worker's child,
a neighbor down the street or astranger around the world,
where you probably spend moretime explaining the freight
industry than it takes toactually build the dang website.
Well, that doesn't happen atDigital Dispatch.
(49:04):
We've been building online since2009, but we're also early
adopters of AI, automation andother website tactics that help
your company to be a centralplace to pull in all of your
social media posts, recruit newemployees and give potential
customers a glimpse into how youoperate your business.
Our new website builds start aslow as $1,500, along with
(49:25):
ongoing website management,maintenance and updates starting
at $90 a month, plus some bonus, freight marketing and sales
content similar to what you hearon the podcast.
You can watch a quick explainervideo over on digitaldispatchio
.
Just check out the pricing pageonce you arrive and you can see
how we can build your digitalecosystem on a strong foundation
(49:48):
.
Until then, I hope you enjoyedthis episode.
I'll see you all real soon andgo.
Jags MUSIC.
Welcome into another episode of Everything Is
Logistics, a podcast for thethinkers in freight.
We are proudly presented by SPILogistics and I am your host,
Blythe Brumleve, today.
I'm happy to welcome in JoshLyles.
He is the founder of SalesdashCRM and we are going to be
talking about how to get yourGodforsaken sales team to use a
CRM.
I'm a fan of my existence whenI worked at a brokerage, so I'm
(00:29):
excited for you to shed light onhow other fellow marketers can
help their sales team getestablished with a good process.
So, Josh, welcome into the show.
Josh Lyles (00:39):
Thanks, Blythe, great to be here and yeah,
that's the uphill battle that Iclimb every single week, so just
taking it step by step overhere.
Blythe Brumleve (00:46):
Yes, exactly Now, before we get into the CRM
part of the conversation, Iwanted to talk a little bit
about your background becauseit's actually really interesting
.
You used to work at Teslabefore you started working at a
freight brokerage and then youbecame a founder, but what was,
I guess, sort of the experiencelike working at Tesla?
Josh Lyles (01:08):
Oh, it was energy-packed all the time.
The one thing about theirculture that's just great is
that they're so mission-drivenand you get really bought into
that mission.
A lot of people say you'redrinking the Kool-Aid and
whatnot, but I think if you'rebuilding any company, any
culture, you want to make surethat you're doing things in a
positive way that are fulfillingand that you're just going
towards, I think, a greaterpurpose overall, and that's what
(01:30):
you felt every single day there.
The moment I walked in day one,I felt that I was around a lot
of talent.
I joined them back in 2016, andthere was a stat out there that
it was almost harder to get ajob at Tesla at that time than
to get into an Ivy League school.
It's not the case today, butback at that time and I felt
that when I first walked in, itwas just like with everybody
that was around me, and that's agood feeling when you come into
(01:52):
a place where you know thatyou're going to be sharpened by
every other team member that'son your team.
So, elon, overall I mean it'sjust constant push for growth,
problem solving.
A lot of people always ask meall the time what was it like?
I only got to be involved intwo conversations with him, but
ultimately, I think what madehim such a great leader is he's
(02:12):
just a problem solver.
He cut to all the differentnoise and he'd always just say
what's it going to take for usto deliver more cars and sell
more cars?
All the time.
That was just the conversation,and so it made everybody get
into this problem solvingmindset and I think that that's
really helped me throughout mycareer.
Blythe Brumleve (02:28):
That's awesome.
Yeah, I'm not an Elon stand butI am an Elon fan, so the stand
culture is a little strange tome.
For any person, I guess ofinfluence, but I always really
respect the work ethic that hehas and it sounds like it sort
of just bleeds into everythingthat he does.
What was so hard about gettingthe job there?
(02:49):
You mentioned that it wasextremely hard to get a job
there.
Is it like testing?
Josh Lyles (02:54):
Well, they were just smaller at that time.
So, for example, at that time Ithink they had two locations.
I was in Atlanta at that time.
I'm in Nashville now, but theyhad two locations all in Georgia
.
There wasn't that manylocations in the Southeast, they
were primarily just larger outin California but a lot of
people were applying for jobs atTesla.
At that time it was just areally popular up and coming
(03:14):
company just in the EV space andI guess with the volume of
applications and luckily andthat's the reason why I tell
people especially about theirLinkedIn I constantly will bring
this up anytime I talk abouthow I got to Tesla.
But I got there because theyfound me on LinkedIn and I was
one of the early ones back inthe day that always had my
(03:36):
LinkedIn profile built out, eventhat I didn't have the best
resume at that time.
But I was currently working atNew Balance when they had
reached out to me and I just hadstuff about sales skills and
marketing and all those kinds ofthings and luckily recruiter
found me and that's what got meto go through the job interviews
and did well enough in the jobinterviews to get a job.
So that's the reason why Ialways stressed the people,
because that changed my life alot for the better.
(03:57):
But having a LinkedIn profilejust built out, tell a simple
story, make it a little bitpersonable.
It's to me it's the modernresume now at this point.
I mean, back then it was, itwas like I mean there wasn't
that much adoption, butobviously now it's, it's, it's
picked up big time.
Blythe Brumleve (04:14):
Yeah, definitely, well said.
I mean, even if you don'tpublish to LinkedIn every day,
you can still make your profilesomething that people will want
to check out and just verifyyour existence, verify your
experience.
But that's really cool thatthey sought you out.
I was wondering if the processinvolved like you know what kind
of animal are you that you haveto answer in like interview
meetings or some crazy stufflike that.
Josh Lyles (04:36):
No, nothing like.
There was one manager therethat asked some very strange odd
interview questions that I'venever asked as a hiring manager
and wouldn't really think to ask.
But I guess that also kind ofis what made the culture unique
there as well.
Blythe Brumleve (04:49):
What, what, what were an example of one of
those questions that I don'tknow, if you're allowed to
reveal it.
Josh Lyles (04:54):
Honestly, I can't remember, but I just remember
them being very outlandish tothe point where I was like
taking mental note of what Iever want to ask these kinds of
questions in an interview toreally try to figure out about
somebody's personality.
The answer is no.
If they come to mind, I'lldefinitely be sure to bring them
out later on.
Blythe Brumleve (05:09):
For sure.
Now, going from Tesla, youdecided to join the world of
freight.
You had any kind of experiencein the world of logistics or you
just dived in?
Josh Lyles (05:21):
Just like most people, they just fall into it
somehow some way.
So when I first moved toNashville when I was working for
Tesla, I didn't know anybodywhen I moved here.
I moved here really fast,basically like within two weeks,
when I knew that I was going tobe Tesla's store manager for
their location here in Nashvilleand my first two friends
actually I knew through a friendof mine that I grew up with was
(05:43):
a really good friend of mineand they all went to college
together and so they were reallythe only connections that I
knew that lived here and weended up just hanging out,
became pretty good friends and Iknew what they were doing, but
not to a full extent.
You know they would try toexplain what freight brokerage
is.
They just like label it,logistics, like everybody does.
And you know how it is withfamily, relatives, spouses.
(06:04):
They don't fully know what goeson.
They just know like you're onthe phone all the time and
emails, and you know up early,sometimes staying up late and
all that stuff.
But they just got to a pointwhere I was at Tesla and I
wanted to look outside.
I didn't really care aboutstaying in Nashville, I didn't
really care about staying.
I was just really open to anyand all opportunities and they
were working at a company.
(06:25):
It was a really uniqueopportunity at the time.
There was one point logistics,who was owned by Keep Truckin,
and once I got to understand alittle bit more what freight
brokerage was but also why thatwas a unique opportunity, with
them being owned by an ELDcompany, that really stood out
to me as a unique differentiator.
And then, you know, just goinginto the office I had to go in
like four or five times foronsite interviews.
It took a long time for me toactually get approved for that
(06:46):
job, but luckily I was able toand it was awesome.
I got to build a team of 12from scratch.
I was a sales manager andthat's really how I got my start
into it.
Blythe Brumleve (06:56):
And so what was ?
I guess that while you wereworking there or did you, I
guess the company also gotbought out.
So was that the sort of thecatalyst that you were going to
become a founder?
How did you move from workingat a freight brokerage into
becoming founder led?
Josh Lyles (07:11):
Yeah, so no, they were actually.
So Keep Truckin had alreadybought them out before I joined,
but my long term goal hadalways just been to start my own
business.
Even when I was at Tesla,people would ask me like, hey,
do you want to keep climbing theladder?
Because I started at the veryentry level position as a
product specialist for them andthen got into a sales advisor
role and then assistant managerand then store manager and I
(07:31):
just I saw my Boston as aregional.
I didn't didn't really want todo that, but I always wanted to
just start my own business.
I've always been very interestedin entrepreneurship.
You know, for the things that Ilike to read and study outside
of work A lot of the timesthat's what it is.
So I just kind of knew thatthat was always going to be the
case.
And then when OPL was shut down, that was ultimately when I was
(07:53):
just trying to figure out, okay, what would be the thing that I
want to start?
Because people ask you that allthe time.
Right, if you do want to godown the route of
entrepreneurship is, what do youwant to start?
And I just didn't know.
But I just basically like thestory is super simple.
I literally just went to acoffee shop and I was like All
right, what do I feel that I'mvery strong at from a skill
standpoint?
Or what do I feel that I dobetter understand more than
(08:14):
other people?
And, as weird as it is, crmsoftware was the thing.
Blythe Brumleve (08:20):
Well, I guess I could sort of get it.
It makes me want to ask thenext question of what was
missing.
I guess, from like Salesforceor HubSpot, that you felt like
that you were missing, that youwanted to create a solution for.
Josh Lyles (08:33):
Simplicity is the easiest answer because everybody
wants something that's simpleand the tough part about that is
that, you know, when it comesto being simple, a lot of people
want the CRM to do so much workfor them.
But it's sales, right, and it'srelationships and there's
effort that goes intorelationships.
So you have to do effort whenit comes to your sales outreach
and, you know, when it comes tonotes and stuff, obviously you
(08:53):
have to be really good at that.
But I think I just had a reallygood way of like.
I don't I would always say Idon't think I was naturally like
the overall best sales person,but because my sales process was
pretty strong at Tesla, I hadpretty good results and that's
what kind of got me to startgetting promoted in a multitude
of different ways there.
So it was really just fromprocess and that's what got me
(09:14):
into management and I had somepretty good success in
management there.
And then also when I got intofreight brokerage, when it came
to onboarding new shippers, Ijust dove into it.
Like, even though I was amanager, I first started and
made my own cold calls and ranmy own pipeline, closed my own
customer, so I could get a goodfeel of what my account
executive is.
We're going to go through on aday and a day off basis and it's
really just like the flow.
(09:34):
It's such a good system.
I know people don't like dataentry.
I get it Like.
It's not necessarily my favoritething either, but when you,
when you see, I guess the outputcome back to you in terms of,
okay, great, I totally forgotabout this one company or this
one customer and they popped upon my calendar today, september
27th, and I talked to them four,five, six months ago.
(09:56):
Those were always things thatalways helped me in the sales
process and, I think, helpedanybody, because it's really
hard when you have that manyconversations, especially in
freight right, with how manyactivities that they're driven
to do on a day in and day outbasis.
Like 50 is a pretty extrememinimum.
Most people or companies thattypically wanted 75 to 150 of
activities.
It's hard to remember all thosedetails and those details are
(10:18):
what go a long way in buildingthose relationships and so I
think just finding a good mentalprocess and model in the CRM
and making it simple that wayyou understand it, your team
understands it and there's thatalignment, is really important,
but a lot of the times peopleuse it as a compliance tool to
say like I'm checking the boxand I got these activities done,
versus this is how it's helpingme in my sales process.
Blythe Brumleve (10:41):
Are you in freight sales with a book of
business looking for a new home?
Or perhaps you're a freightagent in need of a better
partnership?
These are the kinds ofconversations we're exploring in
our podcast interview seriescalled the freight agent
trenches, sponsored by SPIlogistics.
Now I can tell you all day thatSPI is one of the most
successful logistics firms inNorth America, who helps their
(11:02):
agents with back officeoperations such as admin,
finance, it and sales.
But I would much rather youhear it directly from SPI's
freight agents themselves.
I want better way to do thatthan by listening to the
experienced freight agents telltheir stories behind the how and
the why they joined SPI.
Hit the freight agent link inour show notes to listen to
(11:23):
these conversations or, ifyou're ready to make the jump,
visit SPI3PLcom.
And so, from what I understand,with sales dash's journey you
started off as kind of like aCRM for everybody before niching
down into freight.
Why the niche down?
Josh Lyles (11:41):
Things weren't working.
Simple enough, my go to marketstrategy was just bad and I'm
not scared to admit that and itwas just too wide.
It was casting a net too wide.
And I always say, like the sadpart is, I've read all the
entrepreneurship stories aboutniching down and starting very
small and then eventuallyscaling out and how Apple and
Amazon and all of them have donethat in the past and how they
(12:04):
got to success doing that.
But yeah, it was just toocomplicated, just reaching out
to a multitude of differentindustries.
I was focused more in the SMBspace and more so inside sales
teams and it just wasn't working.
And then I was just reallygetting to a point where I had
to figure stuff out.
But what I basically just saidokay, I want to focus more in
the logistics space.
This is literally back inFebruary of this year and I have
(12:25):
my best week on the phones,reaching out to companies and
getting some interest, gettingthem brought in, and then I just
basically kept that momentumgoing.
And then this is the real story,but like going into April, was
the Capital Ideas Conference forTIA, and once I knew that that
conference was coming up, Iwould use that as I was
prospecting and reaching out tocompanies.
They'd be like, yeah, I'm goingto be there.
(12:46):
And then I built up a list ofpeople that I knew were going to
be there and then I eventuallyjust bought a ticket and that
was kind of the solidifyingmoment where I was like, all
right, this is full blown thepivot that we're going to do and
that's where we're headed now.
So everything with our productdevelopment for that we're doing
in the CRM is all FreightBrokerage and 3PL focused.
Blythe Brumleve (13:08):
Now that's a really cool story that you built
out your contact list, orbasically like your hit list,
before going to the conference,and then that was the motivation
to be like, okay, yeah, I'mdefinitely going to make this
conference worth it.
Because one thing that I don'tthink gets talked about enough
is that for a lot of likesoloists I experienced this
myself when you go to aconference it's very expensive,
(13:30):
somebody has to do the workwhile you're gone All of the pre
and the post work that isinvolved it.
But I imagine that maybe yourtool is helping you be a little
bit more successful at thebooking, the meetings and then
the following up afterwards,which is where, frankly, I
struggle with.
Josh Lyles (13:46):
Yes, it did help because I already kind of had
that list.
I was building that list and Ihad my notes for what I talked
with them about, what I knewabout them.
The hardest part of thoseconferences is when you're
talking to so many people, likethe Capital Ideas Conference at
TIA was challenging, becausethere's 1,900 people there and
you're just talking to oneperson after another after
another.
So really, what I did wasactually just build a list of
notes in my phone and theneventually, from the people that
(14:09):
I spoke with, so that way I canremember who I spoke with,
because I think I ended up with54 business cards and honestly,
there was like some digital onesand then just ones that we just
exchanged contact info.
So you lose track of all of it.
But I just kind of kept like areally small list of notes
because it's actually stuff thatI used to do at Tesla back in
the day, because I worked at amall when I worked for them and
we used to just have an iPad.
(14:29):
You'd be holding an iPad,almost like an Apple employee
that's how they kind of builttheir model and I would just do
abbreviated notes and if youread them it wouldn't really
make sense, but it's just like amental abbreviation of notes
and everything that I understandand then I can expand upon it
later, and so when I just gotback to my Airbnb every single
night, I would just recall okay,these are all the people, and
(14:49):
just make sure I set myfollow-ups with them.
Blythe Brumleve (14:51):
That's cool, and the notes app at conferences
, I think, is undefeated.
Josh Lyles (14:57):
If you're not using the notes app, what are you
doing?
Blythe Brumleve (15:00):
Yeah, exactly Now.
One thing I am curious about is, I guess, a fundamental way to
manage a CRM different forfreight brokers versus anyone
else.
Josh Lyles (15:12):
It's not that like the fundamentals, I guess, of
the frameworks.
It's more so just, I guess,like the language and the way
that they think about them.
So it's really interestingbecause, I mean, I still work
with freight brokers that aresmall to medium size and
sometimes it doesn't reallymatter the size of the company,
but some of them go with likevery basic sales processes and
strategies and then some of themdon't really have anything at
(15:34):
all, and it's still not uncommonfor me to come across somebody
that's still just usingspreadsheets.
They don't really know what'shappening.
And when I talk with them aboutsales process, so I just posted
about this and this is a smallexample, but and I'm sure you're
very like, used to this fromfrom your experience as well but
a lot of the times in salespeople just say, hey, this lead
(15:54):
or this opportunity is cold,warm or hot and realistically,
in a sales process it doesn'treally make a lot of sense
because what is cold to me couldbe hot to you or vice versa,
like literally could be the case.
I've coached plenty ofsalespeople where they'd be like
hey, josh, I've got a hot one,and then it's like hey, no,
there's honestly a lot moreinformation that we need this.
One's still actually cold orwarm, but here's a small example
(16:17):
of that.
So, like, we have a four stepsimple process and this is all
through customization.
Like this is wherecustomization goes a long way,
but people pay thousands andthousands and thousands of
dollars for this.
When it comes to HubSpot, salesforce and you can do it in
there, but, like, you have to begood at doing it.
Ours is just already basicallytemplated.
That gives you a really goodfoundation for sales process
profiling shippers, qualifyingshippers from day one.
(16:39):
But going from like the cold,warm, hot and example would be
okay.
As a free broker, you'rereaching out to a shipper.
We have four steps Discovery,pains, needs, pricing and then
set up paperwork.
So you're trying to think okay,instead of like calling them
and being like hey wanted to seeif you're ready to follow.
You know, like, gotten afraidall this kind of stuff.
There's basically alwayscertain steps that you're trying
(16:59):
to align and make sure thatthey're the best fit for you as
a free broker, with the servicesthat you provide, the carrier
network that you have.
So discovery would be generalinformation of equipment types,
their volume, what kind of modesyou know between full truckload
LTL.
Do they do spotter, contract,project freight, that kind of
stuff, right?
Align on that, does it fitwithin what you provide?
And then, from a pains andneeds standpoint, what's the
(17:21):
reason they're going to bringyou on as a carrier?
They get reached out to all thetime Like are you actually
going to help them out when itcomes to, like, mis-pickups or
wrong equipment types being sentin or just pricing, whatever it
may be?
And then the third step would bepricing.
You need to price out lanes tomake sure that your pricing
lines up.
And the fourth step is youexchange some paperwork whether
it's your credit app or theysend you a contract, and then
that's typically how you getlined up right.
(17:43):
So it's not that it always goesin that flow, but that's a
common flow from overseeing twodifferent teams and brokerage
that I found.
So that way, instead of justthinking like, hey, what do we
need to do next year?
This is our process that wetypically do and we want to
follow this.
And so when we know where eachone is in each step and we click
like, okay, here's theopportunities that are in
pricing, we know that this iswhat we're striving to do right
now with these specific shippersthat are in that bucket.
Blythe Brumleve (18:06):
Now, with the process that you're talking
about, how common is thatprocess being established at
freight brokerages?
Because when I worked at afreight brokerage, it was
essentially like we're going topluck you out of the nearest
college, we're going to sit youdown at the phones and you're
just going to make a hundredcold calls a day.
That was the process.
What should I guess withrespect to what you're talking
(18:27):
about?
What should I guess a modernsales process look like at a
freight brokerage?
Josh Lyles (18:31):
Well, I think if you talk about a college kid coming
into it, this is an easier wayto streamline your sales process
, to say hey, instead of, likeme, having to kind of coach you
through it.
The system is going to helpguide you through it in terms of
the information that you'reseeing in front of you.
So, if you have those specificitems because a lot of all right
.
So, if you take a Salesforce ora HubSpot, not to like name
them, but like the generic CRMsout of the box and I hear this
(18:52):
from freight brokerages monthlybut they'll say like it really
feels that they're built forSaaS or software companies when
you take them out of the box andfor them, they just need really
simple stuff.
There's certain things thatthey want to know about each
shipper, and so we want to givethem the ability to just kind of
customize it that way.
But what I would say is and thisis really the easiest way I
always frame it is like takeyour best sales person in their
(19:14):
process, right, what would theywant to always ask a shipper to
understand?
And you can cook that into theCRM and it's not that it's a
call script, but it's going tobe in front of you every single
time when you jump into eachshipper and each account.
That's in the system and thenthat information is always in
front of you and then you knowthat, okay, I need to be asking
or learning about thisinformation every time that I'm
reaching out to somebody.
(19:35):
So I think that that's where,even if you are a college kid,
it's this information is infront of you.
If you don't understand what itis, then obviously they'll ask
their teammates to try tounderstand that, but at least
that's already kind of cookedinto the system so that way they
could be better guided, versusjust like, okay, I'm just
picking up the phone and I'mjust giving them a shout.
Blythe Brumleve (19:53):
Yeah, I mean you raise a lot of really
important truths because I thinkfor a lot of folks, especially
like when it comes to likemarketing versus sales, like
marketing is typically, in myexperience, going to be making
the decision on like what kindof software they use, what kind
of CRM that they use, and maybethat is the gap between
marketing and sales of like.
This software doesn't reallywork for sales unless it's
(20:14):
highly customized, and it's alsoto your point that you made
earlier, husband is veryexpensive.
You can get like the base level, you know quote unquote free
CRM for you know like 30 bucks amonth, but that bill will
quickly tick up.
If you want, you know someadditional features that are
kind of standard on a lot ofdifferent platforms.
So I guess for a lot ofbrokerages out there, what does
(20:37):
so you suggest you know learningfrom your best salesman,
establishing those differentprocesses and then using your
tool, they're essentially ableto enter in like the equipment,
the lane, the commodity, thingslike that directly into the CRM,
if I understand you correctly.
Josh Lyles (20:53):
Correct For each shipper that they're talking to,
and then you know they canbuild it out.
And then, when it comes toqualifying opportunities with,
like pipeline management, that'swhere you can even take it a
step further.
When it comes to qualifying, theopportunity of kind of going
back to some of those similarthings, is it a project,
contract, spot opportunity, minibit, rfp, you know, maybe
(21:14):
figuring out seasonality,documenting what those months
are, so you have that forreporting and then you can, like
we even have it to where webuild out, especially when we do
implementations with companiesto really help them.
You know, try to understandthese opportunities Like a
couple of examples would be howdo they measure carrier
performance?
And asking them that, how manycarriers are they working with
for that specific opportunity?
(21:35):
It could be a location or, youknow, it could be just in
general, just for their spotfree, but just those kinds of
different questions tounderstand the scope of the
opportunity, competitivenessaround it, those items.
You can.
You can basically build thatinto those, let's just say, like
deal opportunity forms in thesystem and we already have a
foundation of it with some likestarter ones, and then they can
(21:55):
build on it from there.
Blythe Brumleve (21:58):
And so with does your company help with,
like a, you know, implementation, integration?
It kind of sounds like you do.
So if you're helping with that,what are maybe some of those
keys to success?
Not just implementing it, butusing it on an ongoing basis.
Josh Lyles (22:13):
Yeah.
So I think it really starts inthe customizing of it, because
you wanted to just show theinformation that you talk about
on a daily basis.
You want that to be in thesystem, right, because if it's
not there and it's not it'sthat's not going to be something
that people leverage toactually enter in.
So that's the first thing, likejust as simple as us having
equipment types and modes andcontractor spot for you already
(22:35):
in our template inversion.
There's already people that sayit's just great to be able to
see that stuff in there.
And you know certain reports ontheir dashboard that are like
my active shipper leads orshippers that haven't been
contacted in 14 days, likepeople already just love the
fact that it's talking theirlanguage and just in that in
itself.
But you know, I guess, sorry,go back to the what was the
(22:56):
question again.
Blythe Brumleve (22:58):
It sounds like you're creating those light bulb
moments for them from the jumpto help them to keep using it,
Because that was always thestruggle that I had is like I
can show them the technology andthey'll say, yeah, that's great
, but for them to actuallycontinue to use it on an ongoing
basis was where I struggledwith the most with working with
the sales team.
So I would imagine that seeingthose light bulb moments like
(23:19):
what you're talking about helpsthem to use it more regularly.
Where they're almost likegetting those signals, I would
imagine there's reporting andthings like that that can
further highlight that kind ofdata.
Josh Lyles (23:28):
Correct.
So, for example, like withHubSpot, their custom reporting
and everything is on theirlargest package, which gets
really expensive.
We already have customreporting that's built into it.
But what yes, going back toyour initial question with this
is a lot of it, actually, Iwould say, in a lot of success
does is driven from salesmanagers and the people that are
overseeing it.
And again, it's not, it's notalways about just like hey,
(23:50):
we're just trying to hit aspecific number.
We're trying to do these things.
You're trying to help your teamwork towards better behaviors
that drive more shipper, newshipper relationships and expand
the existing relationships thatyou have and opportunities that
you have with them.
And so the things that they see, you know, for example, just on
their dashboard like I getreally technical when it comes
to this and even just the designand how we've templated this
(24:11):
out but even from the firstthings that you see, from like
the first part of the screen andworking left to right, top, top
to bottom, to me is reallyimportant, because if there's a
certain metric and I always justsay, like what gets measured,
gets managed, but if that's noton your dashboard as a sales
manager or even as a salesperson, then you're going to forget
about it because you're not,you're not, you're not measuring
(24:31):
it, it's not something that'sconsistently on your radar.
But that's what I often foundwith those the other CRMs out of
the box was.
I would build out all thosedashboards to make sure like
every one of those specificthings was on it.
But if it's not on your radar,then it's easy for that stuff to
fall by the wayside.
But it's honestly, if it's juston your dashboard, it's such an
easier way to basically build alot more momentum and better
(24:52):
behaviors.
And then I just know it for afact.
But, like, once you start tosee that and you start to get
more success and you're startingto close more customers, you're
staying in front of them, thosebehaviors are driving better
results than at that point ithonestly just becomes part of
your process.
You're like these are thethings that I know that lead me
to success.
Blythe Brumleve (25:09):
So a lot of it is approached by leadership and
I would imagine so I wouldimagine that you're the data and
the insights that you'regetting from that you can
actually see which kinds ofcustomers, what kinds of
equipment, lanes, that kind ofthing, are closing more at a
higher rate, which I wouldimagine would also help the
marketing department be able tomake some content or, you know,
(25:29):
make some different campaignsthat could complement those high
success rates.
Is that fair to say?
Josh Lyles (25:34):
I think it's, of course, yeah, because, like so,
I only worked with the marketingdepartment and it was smaller
at my first brokerage and then Ihelped with some of that at the
last one that I was at over atSilo.
But it can, like marketing cantake a lot of things that
they're seeing from notesbecause, for example, like
talking about marketing and likeI'll even just talk about how I
use marketing when it comes toSales dash, but I look at all
(25:57):
the notes, like, for example, Irun a quick report.
So anytime that somebody showsup to one of my meetings and my
demos, I mark that as a meetingshow in my CRM and so what I
know is that I can pull a reportof all those activities and
these are all the demos thatI've had with people.
And I am a crazy note takerbecause for me, like, attention
to detail is important and Iwant to make sure that if
they're really interested in theCRM, I can actively progress
(26:17):
the sale.
But even just the small piecesof that I will use what they
tell me to fuel a lot of mymarketing for Sales dash, for
example, right.
And then same thing as a freebroker, if a shipper is telling
you specific things are likeeither challenges or things that
they care about.
Those are really good questions.
Then, to ask other shippers,because if they care about it,
chances are the other shipperscare about it, or if they don't
(26:38):
know, it's a really good thingto put on their radar.
So, yes, when it comes tomarketing and messaging and what
you specialize in, I thinkthat's important.
But also, even just like thesmallest thing, for example, of
your close customers, like whatare the characteristics, what
industry, what's their employeesize, what's their approximated
annual revenue, you can pullthose things from having the
list of them, seeing thatreporting, and then you can find
(26:59):
out to help you further refineyour ICP for the kinds of
shippers that you're going after, because you may think that,
hey, we specialize with thesekinds of companies, but then
sometimes when you look at it,you're like, oh wait, these are
the ones that are actuallybringing in the most revenue for
us right now, the most profit.
Blythe Brumleve (27:16):
Yeah, absolutely.
Data tells a lot more storiesthan just going off of
affirmations or feelings or gutfeelings or things like that.
Exactly, it's important to havethat data to back it up as well
.
Now, I'm surprised that we madeit almost 30 minutes in this
conversation and the topic of AIhas not been brought up yet, so
I'm going to use this as anopportunity to bring it up now.
How do you think about AI?
(27:38):
Is it plans to incorporatethese kinds of, I guess,
technology, large languagemodels, things like that into
the CRM?
I mean not to bring up HubSpotagain, but I know that they have
their chat platform thatthey're fine-tuning, still very
much in its infancy phase.
Based on the tests that I'verun, any thoughts on how you can
(27:59):
incorporate AI into your salesprocess?
Josh Lyles (28:01):
Yeah.
So I think it's inevitable thatAI is going to be incorporated
no matter what, and I thinkthere will be a multitude of
different ways.
We're going to start to exploreit more next year because we're
finishing out some new productdevelopment right now, that we
just really want to become oneof the strongest CRM platforms
really the strongest CRMplatform for freight brokerages
and 3PLs to manage our shipperand carrier relationships.
(28:22):
But I think a multitude ofdifferent ways.
I think the way that a lot ofpeople are using it is for email
copy.
I think that's huge right nowand it makes a lot of sense and
people can always write betteremails, but it's really good for
that.
I think it can be really goodwhen it does come to some just
creative ideas, when it doescome to marketing or even just
like your emails and your salesoutreach or let's just say, if
(28:43):
you're building a one pager forthose things, I think it's going
to become really important forreporting personally in CRM in
terms of, hey, I want to see allmy shippers that are out of
this specific city, thisspecific state in this industry
and just like a really quicktext chat so that way they don't
have to do typical filters inthe CRM.
(29:04):
I think that that's going to bea big opportunity.
Notes, obviously, will bereally important in terms of
scraping what's already in thesystem.
And then I think there can besome further things on the
analytical side, when it comesto observing your deals that are
in the system, what's been won,what's been lost, to try to
pull some specific insights outof those.
So there's more on top of it,but I think, specifically, if
(29:27):
you talk about the use cases forCRM, those will be a good
amount of them.
And then I'm just seeing otherthings like cold calling.
I'm seeing AI cold callersright now, which is really
interesting.
I don't know about that.
I'm so much bigger on thepersonalization side than
automation.
I don't know how you feel aboutit, but it's freight too.
Freight is a relationshipdriven business and I just don't
(29:49):
think you can automaterelationships fully, like
there's always got to be thathuman element, but at the same
time, there's still things thatAI can help to knock out some of
the tedious, you know, manualtasks.
Blythe Brumleve (30:02):
If a company used an AI voice calling
whatever function to cold calledme, I would instantly block
them.
There you go.
I wouldn't even think about it,I would never even look at
their company name.
It was just instant block, moveon.
That's how I feel about that.
But I'm right there with you.
I think that AI can be used inincreasing administrative things
, administrative processes, andhelping to kind of shine a light
(30:24):
on areas that you might missyourself.
Hopefully it will evolve intosomething it looks like it's
getting there to be able to lookat your website analytics or
look at CRM analytics and beable to decipher and create some
takeaways for you.
So I think that that's thelogical sort of next step that
(30:45):
I've been using ChatGPT for.
So I haven't used any othertool because I want to use my
own data in order to extrapolatethat feedback.
But I'm right there with you ithas to, I think, fuel your
processes in order to havebetter conversations that are
built on the back of thosein-person relationships, but
also those personal touches too,which is, I think, where the
(31:08):
CRM just really plays a vitalrole in being able to just keep
track of all of those nodes.
Now you mentioned a productroadmap.
What does that, whatever youcan share with us?
What does sort of the productroadmap or releases look like
for Sales dash for the rest ofthe year?
Josh Lyles (31:24):
Yeah, so most CRMs really just focus on shippers
and just shipper management andshipper relationship management,
and so really right now whatwe're working on and we plan on
demoing at Technovations when wepresent Shark.
Blythe Brumleve (31:36):
Tank.
That's right, that's right.
Josh Lyles (31:39):
What we plan on presenting is really our carrier
side.
So you're going to be able tocapture, import your carriers.
We have found brokerages.
We'll store them inspreadsheets as well Good old
spreadsheets will never, ever goaway in our lifetime probably
but we're going to be showingbasically that functionality,
how it's going to becomplimenting the shipper
(32:01):
information that's already inour system.
And then lane capturing as well.
So some Google integration thatcomes into that with the lane
capturing, but capturing lanesfor shippers, capturing lanes
for carriers, to really try tomake it a really strong sales
engine for freight brokeragesoutside of just the shippers
that are.
Typically they'll see in theirCRM.
We want to give them fuelessentially to be reengaging
(32:24):
with their shippers in a waythat's a little bit more unique,
but also to deepen carrierrelationships, not make them so
transactional.
We hear this commonly, it'swhat a lot of people promote,
but honestly, most people dojust or I would say most
brokerages a lot of those timesdo just have transactional
relationships with theircarriers and we want to have the
CRM to where not only like itdepends on the model that you
(32:44):
are between, cradle to grave,split model, that kind of stuff.
So there's some considerationsthat go into it when it does
come to that.
But we want to make it a reallyeasy place that you can access,
run really quick reports.
But our reporting is alsofeeding really good insights to
the shippers sales team, alsoback to the carrier sales team
to help deepen the relationshipsthat live in the system.
Blythe Brumleve (33:04):
Yeah, that makes a ton of sense because if
you're spending all this timeand energy trying to get
shippers and then you have acrappy carrier on that first
load, then you probably all thathard work was for nothing.
So that's really interesting.
About the Shark Tank at TIAwhat was sort of the process
that made you want to apply forsomething like that?
I mean obviously exposure, butRight.
Josh Lyles (33:26):
Yeah, I mean definitely exposure, because
we're just trying to get ourname out there.
I mean a lot of what I do whenit comes to marketing and all
that stuff is that if CRM getsbrought up in conversation and
meetings and the people areevaluating CRMs for their
brokerage, we just want to beconsidered, we want to have a
conversation.
We're not going to win them all.
I do feel that we have reallygood conversations with people,
but we're actively building inthe space.
(33:47):
Everything that we build fromhere on out is going to be
specifically in the space.
I think when it came to that, Iwas actually not going to do it.
And then, when I knew that wewere going to be in a decent
spot for building the productdevelopment that we're working
on right now in the carrier andlane side that's ultimately when
I made the decision I was likelet's just get up there and go
(34:08):
do it and honestly to me, I lookat it as an opportunity that
there's a bunch of decisionmakers that are in the room.
Why not get in front of them?
Obviously not going to closeall of them, and it's okay, but
just even establish thatrelationship.
And it's the same thing If CRMgets brought up.
That's really the biggest thingis just.
We just want to be inconsideration.
That's what it comes down to.
Blythe Brumleve (34:27):
Yeah, heck.
Yeah, I'm an avid Shark Tankwatcher.
I just watched the marathonthat comes on every Tuesday.
I watched it yesterday.
So I'm wondering who's going tobe the Mr Wonderful of the
group.
That's going to be kind of thenot the mean one, maybe more the
more realistic one.
So that'll be interesting towatch, and so we'll have to
definitely keep the audienceupdated on the performance there
(34:48):
and how it all turned out.
But as we sort of round out theconversation, I like to come to
one of my favorite segments now, and it's these recurring
questions I call it therelatable eight that I ask, or
I'm starting to ask, eachinterview guest on the show.
So I think you are about thefifth or sixth person that we've
asked these questions to.
So let's get started.
(35:09):
We kind of already talked alittle bit about this, but how
do you think about marketingwhen it comes to you versus your
brand?
Is it kind of collaborative oris it kind of you keep them
independent?
Josh Lyles (35:21):
No, I think it's fully collaborative because, at
the end of the day, people makeup your company and your brand.
So I think that's reallyimportant.
I think there's a lot ofopportunity, too, for more
people in logistics.
I think you're seeing moreactivity, for example, on
LinkedIn, on Twitter or X, evenon TikTok and whatnot, but
you're seeing a lot moreactivity where they're starting
to speak up and that does go along way because so much of it
(35:41):
is just people knowing who youare.
That's a lot of the objectiveof marketing is getting
attention and people knowing whoyou are.
And if they don't, then when itcomes to just recruiting or
other kinds of partnerships,potentially even customers where
people can refer you in theright direction, that's not
going to be had.
So it's honestly kind of just asimple thing of, instead of
(36:04):
consuming content I'd rather bea creator and people also, I
guess just watching andconsuming my content.
It's free distribution.
I mean the fact that you canjust build a post for free and
thousands of people can see it.
Why would you not do that?
That's just sure.
Some of it may come off ascringe at times, some of it may
flop, but at the end of the day,just another touch point where
(36:25):
your face and your name is outthere can go a long way if you
can stay consistent with it.
So it's not the easiest thingto do, but I just think staying
out in front is really important.
And then for me, when it comesto the marketing mentioned it
earlier but really utilizingwhat customers tell me, whether
it's feedback or things thatthey like or don't like, even if
it comes to our product roadmapand they can help build that
(36:46):
out, but really using customersto help fuel.
That is really the stage thatwe're in when it comes to our
messaging and our positioningand what I know.
That again, just like we'retalking about, but if they care
about it, there's a very goodchance that other brokerages are
going to care about it as well.
Blythe Brumleve (37:01):
Yeah, preach, I am always just baffled by the
companies that don't pursue somekind of founder-driven
marketing that they should have.
You have their founder oncamera, whether it's Long Form
Video or Short Form Video,talking about the solutions that
they have for their targetaudience.
And speaking of Short FormVideo, this isn't actually
(37:22):
related to the relatable eightset of questions, but you do a
lot of Short Form Videomarketing over on YouTube Shorts
.
Was that a conscious effort ordid you just see the opportunity
there to get brand awareness?
Josh Lyles (37:34):
Yeah, so, funny enough, I actually do more of it
on TikTok.
The YouTube Shorts is probablylike a fraction of what I have,
but yeah, I just saw a bigopportunity in it I wanted to
leverage.
A lot of people think it's justyoung kids dancing on TikTok
and whatnot, but TikTok isrealistic.
It's a really great area to be.
There's actually more people intrucking that are on TikTok
(37:57):
than you would probably be awareof.
But the thing I love aboutShort Form in general is that
the fact that it's Short Formit's really hard to get your
messaging right in a, let's justsay, 15 to 30 second clip.
It's hard For anybody that'stried it.
It's really tough because youcan just go on for minutes and
minutes.
So honestly, I do it as almostlike practice for myself to try
(38:19):
to figure out how can I try tocapture somebody's attention or
provide a really good message inthe shortest period of time,
just because all of ourattention spans are going down
year by year.
Blythe Brumleve (38:29):
Yeah, it's definitely.
I hated it when Twitter slashex removed the.
They bumped it up from 140characters like 240, which was
okay, but now you can write like1000, yes, like 1000 word blog
articles on Twitter.
I'm like this is not what thiswas for.
I liked the conciseness and theimpact that you could have with
(38:49):
saying something with lesswords.
But I'm right there with you,it's very challenging, which is
why I use interviews like thisto be able to cut it down into
digestible clips.
That's much more easier to goback in the editing process or
to just use AI like Opus and beable to plug a video like this
right into Opus and have thesoftware pick a good clip for
(39:10):
you and do a lot of like 80% ofthe legwork.
So great tips on that.
But I guess I kind of know theanswer to this next question
what's your favorite socialmedia platform and why it is
going to be?
Josh Lyles (39:23):
it is going to be.
I know it's so weird.
It's going to be a TikTok, andthe main reason it's going to be
TikTok is because I can justlearn things the fastest there.
It's really as simple as that.
If for you to be able to builda video that's actually
effective, you have to be ableto teach something super fast,
super simple, and that's thereason why I love it.
It's going to be a Tik Tok orYouTube, because if I need to
get really deep, then I'mobviously going to YouTube, but
if I need something super quick,I'm not even going to TikTok,
(39:47):
but I use it all the time tolearn things as fast as I can.
Blythe Brumleve (39:51):
Yeah, for sure, it's definitely on that
platform.
I either laugh or I learn.
With every other platform itfeels like there's I mean,
tiktok has a lot of drama too,but it feels like every other
platform just has too much dramaof like the people I don't want
to or the people that Iregularly see with TikTok.
I don't know any of thesepeople that show up on my feed,
which is great.
Josh Lyles (40:09):
Yeah.
Blythe Brumleve (40:10):
So it's just a totally different experience.
Okay, next question what's yourfavorite SaaS tool that you use
every day and can't livewithout, but it's not your own.
Josh Lyles (40:19):
Google workspace super basic fundamental answer
that I can't.
Blythe Brumleve (40:23):
I can't, I can't live without it.
Josh Lyles (40:25):
It's super boring, I know.
If I was to say a backup orlike, let's just say, alright,
that's gonna be one a, but if Ihad to say 1v1c, canva is super
important when it comes tomarketing.
It can make anybody a marketer.
That's, that's what's soawesome about it.
It's such a simple tool andjust getting the practice with
it helps.
And then this one's probablyunique, but clean shot X.
(40:45):
So clean shot X is like helpswith screenshots and with
recording, like screen grabs andall that kind of stuff.
So a lot of times, if you see,you know any specific screen
grabs of like our software oreven just like little things
that I do Most of the time.
That's actually what I use.
It is the easiest thing.
I use it.
It's firm, I think it's.
I don't know if it's just forMac, but you know, I know
(41:05):
there's like snipping tool, butit's.
I use it like loom or something.
Blythe Brumleve (41:09):
Is it exactly I ?
Josh Lyles (41:10):
can I, instead of using loom, I could just use
that and record a specific spot,spot of the screen and it can
take all the audio video,everything from it.
Or I can like be in my CRM and,you know, have myself just like
loom, have myself as a littlecircle in it.
Blythe Brumleve (41:22):
So oh, that's cool.
Yeah, it probably makes forgreat like product demos, quick
product demos.
Okay, next question is afavorite freight business that
is in your own?
Josh Lyles (41:33):
Oh, Any freight brokers that use the Sales dash
is easily my favorite.
I love talking to them andsometimes I get a lot of
questions, but honestly I loveit.
But that Is my answer.
Blythe Brumleve (41:46):
That's a little .
That's kind of cheating.
Josh Lyles (41:48):
I'll come back to that one.
I'll come back to that one.
Blythe Brumleve (41:50):
Okay, next one.
What's one task in your currentjob that you can't stand doing?
Josh Lyles (41:55):
editing content.
Blythe Brumleve (41:57):
Yeah.
Josh Lyles (41:57):
I need.
I need a.
I heard you saying AI tool.
I'm taking a note.
I need.
I need a.
Yeah, opus.
Blythe Brumleve (42:02):
I'm gonna look at opus clips is a God said,
because they just released abutton not to.
They don't pay me for any ofthis, but they just released a
major update in the month ofAugust where it like auto frames
and you can select, you know,highlight key words.
So if you're only looking forlike, maybe like AI, in one
conversation, it will justisolate that part of the
conversation that you talkedabout AI it's.
I mean, I cannot speak enoughhigh.
(42:24):
You know better things aboutthat platform.
Okay, next one if you didn'thave to worry about money, what
would you want to do for therest of your life?
Josh Lyles (42:31):
I would want to be a GM for an NBA team.
I would love it.
I would love it.
I love basketball, I lovesports, but basketball and NBA
has always been my favorite.
Leadership is one of thebiggest things I've always just
kind of studied and you know,assembling a team and all that
kind of stuff.
I just think it would be a lotof fun.
That's yeah, so that that'sprobably I would.
I would enjoy that.
(42:52):
I know it'd be stressful, forsure.
I know this.
I know the stress does thatcome into it.
But that's, that's what I wouldsign up for, for sure.
But what's the organizationthat you're?
Blythe Brumleve (42:58):
gonna pick?
I guess I'll pick the AtlantaHawks, just because.
Josh Lyles (43:01):
I'm from Atlanta.
You know they probably did.
They still have a lot of workto do.
They have a lot of work to do.
Blythe Brumleve (43:06):
And, honestly, I would want to take a project.
I would, I would, I would notwant to go to one of the
established.
Josh Lyles (43:09):
Like I wouldn't want to put you know, be at the
Lakers or for the Celtics, oryou know one of the historic
teams like the Bulls, I, I wantto take a full-blown project.
Yeah, yeah, I'm not smallmarket teams deserve love too.
Blythe Brumleve (43:23):
Yeah, you know like I know a lot of people be
like.
Josh Lyles (43:26):
Oh, I just kicked my feet up at the beach and like
that would be fun if I didn'thave.
But like that I have to bedoing something.
Like I enjoy work.
And even that other questionyou asked about like what tasks
I Honestly enjoy them, like evenediting content.
I don't necessarily like loveit, but I'm still gonna do it
Because I know how much, howimportant it is.
Like I I'm Thankfully like outof spot where I really enjoy
(43:47):
what I do.
And you know, like work is, youcan make work fun.
Blythe Brumleve (43:49):
Yeah, it's, it's definitely like the 80 20
rule if you enjoy 80% of yourjob, then you can do it.
You enjoy 80% of your job, thenthe other 20% is worth dealing
with In order to enjoy that.
The rest of that 80%, okay,next one what is something you
believe in that most peopledon't?
Josh Lyles (44:07):
Sales can be fun.
I Believe that I literallythink it's as simple as this and
this is like.
This is my easy flip of it,because Growing up I was a big
introvert, didn't talk that much, I was just like a big listener
, observer, all that stuff.
But to me it's like flippingyour mindset that you're not
selling that and you're justhelping.
You're helping others.
Blythe Brumleve (44:26):
Yeah, 100%.
I struggle with Because we'reboth part of an eight shoots
founder group and withinlogistics, and so that's one
thing that I have confessed isthat I am terrible without bound
sales, but it is something thatI want to get better at, so
actively trying to improve thatprocess.
Inbound sales is great.
Outbound sales is whatterrifies me.
Josh Lyles (44:47):
But even in that, like I think about it, for what
you do, you have a huge reach.
You know you have one of themost established podcasts in the
logistics space, right likethank you.
Just in that in itself, anybodythat has a product or has you
know needs to get in touch withthe logistics community and the
logistics network.
It makes so much sense for themto look at a sponsorship for
the podcast.
You know so.
(45:10):
It does it makes a ton of sense.
So that's reason why I'm sayingit's like you would be helping
somebody out, because the ROIShould be there for them, that
this is where their audience isand they're listening, and for
those that are really interestedin it, they're listening to
this.
Somebody that's in the.
You know, a random industrylike this is logistics focus.
It's in the name.
Blythe Brumleve (45:27):
Well, I'm gonna cut that clip and that's gonna
be up on a sale.
Thank you for that.
All right and last one what isyour favorite supply chain or
logistics fact?
Josh Lyles (45:38):
I Think it's really interesting.
But if you consider the amountof miles that an average like
just truck driver, heavy truckdriver, drives every single day,
I think the average is aroundlike 500 miles.
And if you take basically allthe truck drivers globally, they
basically do they basicallydrive about a fifth of a light
year.
(45:58):
Or if you were to actually dothe amount of trips to the sun,
it's about 6,000 times To theSun and back is that every day,
or is that?
Every like over their lifetime,yearly oh.
Blythe Brumleve (46:09):
Wow, yeah, that's crazy nice fact.
Yeah, all right.
Josh Lyles (46:13):
I was like, wow, that's, and you don't realize.
Like I mean obviously, likeeverything has to be moved.
Typically, you know, most stuffis moved via over the road
truckload and all that kind ofstuff, but and I know there's a
lot of ocean air freight and allthat but when you consider,
like how many miles are drivenjust to Get stuff from point A
to point B, like yeah, you don'tthink about it globally because
, like for us, for us, you know,canada, mexico, but just that's
(46:36):
, it's a lot.
I thought it was impressive.
Blythe Brumleve (46:39):
Yeah, for sure.
There's a former podcast guest.
He's actually gonna be anotherrecurring guest in the future
Brian Glick.
He said that it is absolutely,with all the crap we talk about
with you know, logistics andsupply chain crisis and things
like that it is remarkable thatwe can get something shipped
from one part of the globe tothe other part of the globe a
(46:59):
lot of times within a week.
Josh Lyles (47:01):
I would rather less than that.
Blythe Brumleve (47:02):
That's incredible.
Josh Lyles (47:04):
It's fun space that we live in.
Blythe Brumleve (47:07):
Yeah, it definitely is.
It's filled with problems.
It's filled with people who arewilling to get creative and
solve those problems.
So, josh, we appreciate yourtime and insight on this topic.
Where can folks follow more ofyour work?
Get signed up for a demo overat Salesd ash all that good
stuff.
Josh Lyles (47:24):
Yeah, so easy way to get connected with me is on
LinkedIn.
You can find me at Josh Lyles,l-y-l-e-s.
And then our website for ourCRM for Salesd ash crm.
com.
Dash is spelled out D-A-S-H,but you can always schedule a
demo.
If you schedule a demo, I'll bethe one to host it and talk
with you.
It's a pretty short demo forthe most part because it is a
fairly simple system, but that'salways going to be the easiest
(47:48):
way.
And then you can always start a14-day free trial.
If you're somebody that justlikes to get your hands dirty,
and just take it for a test run.
Blythe Brumleve (47:55):
Heck.
Yes, so we will make sure toinclude all of those links in
the show notes just to make iteasy for folks.
But, Josh, this was an awesomediscussion.
We'll have to have you back onin the future in order to talk
about how the Shark Tank episodewent.
But again, thank you forsharing your insight and
hopefully some marketers andsales reps out there got a
little bit better today afterlistening.
Josh Lyles (48:14):
Hopefully.
Thanks for having me on Blimey,I really enjoyed it.
Blythe Brumleve (48:21):
I hope you enjoyed this episode of
Everything is Logistics, apodcast for the thinkers in
freight, telling the storiesbehind how your favorite stuff
and people get from point A to B.
Subscribe to the show, sign upfor our newsletter and follow
our socials over ateverythingislogisticscom.
And in addition to the podcast,I also wanted to let y'all know
about another company I operate, and that's Digital Dispatch,
(48:42):
where we help you build a betterwebsite.
Now, a lot of the times, wehand this task of building a new
website or refreshing a currentone off to a co-worker's child,
a neighbor down the street or astranger around the world,
where you probably spend moretime explaining the freight
industry than it takes toactually build the dang website.
Well, that doesn't happen atDigital Dispatch.
(49:04):
We've been building online since2009, but we're also early
adopters of AI, automation andother website tactics that help
your company to be a centralplace to pull in all of your
social media posts, recruit newemployees and give potential
customers a glimpse into how youoperate your business.
Our new website builds start aslow as $1,500, along with
(49:25):
ongoing website management,maintenance and updates starting
at $90 a month, plus some bonus, freight marketing and sales
content similar to what you hearon the podcast.
You can watch a quick explainervideo over on digitaldispatchio
.
Just check out the pricing pageonce you arrive and you can see
how we can build your digitalecosystem on a strong foundation
(49:48):
.
Until then, I hope you enjoyedthis episode.
I'll see you all real soon andgo.
Jags MUSIC.
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