Shownotes
In this episode, Justin Maines sits down with Josh Lyles, the founder of Sales Dash CRM. Josh shares his incredible journey from starting at the front desk at a gym, to climbing the ranks at Tesla, and eventually venturing into entrepreneurship to create Sales Dash. Our conversation covers the importance of timing in sales, the entrepreneurial mindset, and the importance of resilience. Josh also provides insights on optimizing LinkedIn profiles, overcoming challenges, and the power of effective listening. Tune in for an inspiring story of grit, passion, and innovation.
The Logistics & Leadership Podcast, powered by Veritas Logistics, redefines logistics and personal growth. Hosted by industry veterans and supply chain leaders Brian Hastings and Justin Maines, it shares their journey from humble beginnings to a $50 million company. Discover invaluable lessons in logistics, mental toughness, and embracing the entrepreneurial spirit. The show delves into personal and professional development, routine, and the power of betting on oneself. From inspiring stories to practical insights, this podcast is a must for aspiring entrepreneurs, logistics professionals, and anyone seeking to push limits and achieve success.
Timestamps:
(00:00) - Introduction to Josh Lyles and His Journey
(00:51) - The Cold Call That Started It All
(04:46) - Building Sales Dash CRM
(05:02) - Josh's Early Career and Sales Journey
(07:49) - Transition to Tesla and Rapid Growth
(10:21) - Challenges and Moving to Freight Brokerage
(13:27) - Facing Uncertainty: Job Loss and Frustration
(13:48) - Taking Control: From Frustration to Action
(15:40) - The Birth of a CRM Idea
(17:20) - Building a Better CRM
(18:22) - The Importance of Listening in Sales
(19:43) - Challenges and Successes in CRM Development
(22:17) - The Value of Simplified CRM Systems
(28:39) - Conclusion and Future Plans
Connect with Josh Lyles!
Connect with us!
▶️ Website | LinkedIn | Brian’s LinkedIn | Justin’s LinkedIn
▶️ Get our newsletter for more logistics insights
▶️ Send us your questions!! ask@go-veritas.com
Watch the pod on: YouTube
Transcripts
In this episode, I sit down with Josh Lyles, founder of Sales Dash CRM.
Host:He has an unbelievable story.
Host:Our relationship started with a cold call.
Host:He started at the front desk at a gym.
Host:He moved to Tesla where he climbed the ranks and he just wasn't fulfilled.
Host:So he started a company built around a CRM product.
Host:His story not only covers the entrepreneurial mindset required to build a company, but also grit and resilience along the way.
Host:Josh, how we doing?
Josh Lyles:Doing pretty well.
Josh Lyles:Good to be in Cincinnati for the first time.
Host:Oh, yeah.
Host:Well, that one cold call as turned into an awesome relationship we have with you and your team.
Host:So appreciate you making that call that day.
Host:Let's talk about the cold call.
Host:I think that's an awesome place to start.
Host:How do you find us?
Host:What made you make that call?
Host:And I believe you used your CRM.
Josh Lyles:Yeah, I did.
Host:Tell us about it.
Josh Lyles:Thanks for answering the call.
Josh Lyles:It's good to be here.
Josh Lyles:Now, third.
Host:I think I answered the third.
Josh Lyles:Yeah, it was the third one I came across your information on Apollo.
Josh Lyles:It's one of the Legion tools, contact database softwares that I was using just to find other freight brokerages that, that we were targeting for CRMs.
Josh Lyles:You're just on my list essentially in my CRM.
Josh Lyles:Right.
Josh Lyles:Of all my followups and everything that I'm supposed to do.
Josh Lyles:And so I think when I looked back at my first note when we were before recording this, I saw that your title is Supply Chain Leader, which threw me off a little bit because.
Host:Not Decision Maker.
Host:Yeah.
Josh Lyles:You know, you have no idea.
Host:Right.
Josh Lyles:I mean, Supply Chain Leader is such a broad title because Supply Chain's rather broad.
Josh Lyles:Yeah.
Josh Lyles:So I was just really trying to figure that out and then just, you know, just a couple notes of research and whatnot about Veritas and then the third one you picked up.
Josh Lyles:And I'm not going to say I can't even remember what the opening line was or anything of that nature.
Josh Lyles:But I think the biggest thing was just it was the perfect timing.
Josh Lyles:And that's one of the biggest things in sales is just the timing that you're reaching out to somebody.
Josh Lyles:It's not a skill necessarily that you can require.
Josh Lyles:It's just a fundamental, I would say, of just actually doing the follow up.
Josh Lyles:You don't know what time of day, you don't know what day of the week is going to be best.
Josh Lyles:Some of it is luck of you and Brian actually just having the conversation about CRM the day prior and me just strategically putting my follow up on that day.
Josh Lyles:And actually making the call.
Josh Lyles:So there's so many factors that can go into that, but at the end of the day, it's about making the call and just talking to you before beforehand or just emailing you back and forth prior to this is that's where it's worth making the calls.
Josh Lyles:You know, you just never know when the timing is going to be right.
Josh Lyles:If you have an idea of, hey, this could be the right kind of company to partner with, then great things can happen.
Host:It's funny, Josh, because yes, our relationship started with a cold call, but it has continued to grow.
Host:Josh, you're in Nashville, we're in Cincinnati.
Host:So it's not like we see each other often.
Host:But, you know, we do go back and forth a lot.
Host:We saw you at a conference out in Phoenix.
Host:We see more conferences in the future.
Host:But, you know, our relationship has grown.
Host:And yes, it started with a cold call and you were selling us a CRM, which we did buy.
Host:It's awesome.
Host:But it's grown into more than that.
Host:And that's why I thought when speaking with Brian, trying to figure out who would be awesome to bring on, you were one of the first people that came up.
Host:Not because you created a CRM, because of your story, your mindset.
Host:I think that is more impressive than simply going out and starting a CRM.
Host:So I do want to mention the cold call.
Host:If you're like me.
Host:I don't enjoy getting cold calls.
Host:I work in an industry where we're cold calling people every day.
Josh Lyles:Right.
Host:I get this cold call nine and a half times out of ten.
Host:I'm getting off the call like I'm in the middle of work.
Host:Our industry is crazy.
Host:It's nonstop.
Host:I'm getting off.
Host:I'm getting off the call.
Josh Lyles:So why do you take the call?
Host:You're opening?
Host:I knew you were a person.
Host:You weren't just going through a script.
Host:You had already done your research.
Host:I knew you did your research because you hit me with something.
Host:I want to say it was something like, Justin, Josh, with Sales Dash CRM, if you're like most companies that are your size, you're probably prospecting.
Host:Your sales team might be prospecting off Excel.
Host:I'm going to step into the conference room real quick.
Host:Josh, you're exactly right.
Host:You're with who?
Host:Sales CRM.
Host:And we go on.
Host:But you hit me off the bat where I knew you had done your research.
Host:You knew about Veritas.
Host:It made sense because we were talking about buying a CRM.
Host:Smaller companies.
Host:It's a struggle because it's, it's, it's clutter.
Host:Like you are operating off Excel.
Josh Lyles:Yeah.
Josh Lyles:You're trying to.
Host:You knew.
Josh Lyles:Yes.
Host:You knew our pain points.
Host:You had a product that you simply, you didn't want to.
Host:Major commitment.
Host:You just wanted to show it to us.
Host:And I think you asked for, you know, 10 minutes.
Josh Lyles:Yep.
Host:Yeah, absolutely.
Host:10 minutes.
Host:I already like it.
Host:You've done your legwork.
Host:I'll give you 10 minutes.
Host:You get on for 10 minutes and now that's where you seek your teeth in.
Host:It's funny because Josh shared his notes.
Host:He took notes.
Host:He housed them in the CRM.
Host:He sent me a screenshot of it.
Host:So it's awesome to know that other people are out there doing what we do and following the sales cycle.
Host:But the rest is pretty much history.
Host:I want to change course here.
Host:You started a company.
Host:How old is Sales dash at this point?
Josh Lyles:We've been building for four years.
Josh Lyles:We've been freight specific for a year.
Host:Okay, where did this idea start?
Host:Tell us a little bit more about your background.
Host:I'll get into some other, you know, mindset type stuff later.
Host:But how did you get to this point?
Host:Where did you start?
Host:Tell us more about that.
Josh Lyles:Yeah.
Josh Lyles:So I never saw sales as a profession that I would go down like growing up, I just played sports, played basketball as a walk on D2 basketball player.
Josh Lyles:Only lasted.
Josh Lyles:Where'd you play?
Josh Lyles:Augusta University, Augusta State.
Josh Lyles:At the time, I only stayed on a semester just because I just knew that it wasn't going to be my long term thing.
Josh Lyles:I wasn't going to be able to make money doing it.
Josh Lyles:5, 9, 5, 10 bad knees, you know?
Host:Yep.
Josh Lyles:Can't jump out the gym.
Josh Lyles:So it's, it was just not.
Josh Lyles:It didn't make sense.
Josh Lyles:So I moved back home to Atlanta, graduated from Georgia State, and then I was actually working at a gym, just front desk.
Josh Lyles:And then the general manager said something to me of like, hey man, you should be in sales.
Josh Lyles:Growing up as a quiet, just reserved, observant kid.
Josh Lyles:And that was never a thought in my head because I just didn't talk that much.
Josh Lyles:I typically would just listen.
Josh Lyles:That's just my demeanor that stuck out to me because it was really interesting.
Josh Lyles:I never.
Josh Lyles:And then I had two other people tell me that.
Josh Lyles:And I think it was just from I.
Josh Lyles:I started to pick it up as to why and it could be when I get passionate about topics, I think that that's when I can connect deeply with people, I guess.
Josh Lyles:Long story short, from that gym, I got a sales job at New Balance.
Josh Lyles:It was my first sales job that I had.
Josh Lyles:It was retail sweater shoes.
Josh Lyles:It was a little bit more white glove because we would actually like, tie people's shoes.
Josh Lyles:We'd watch them walk, we'd scan their feet.
Josh Lyles:We were solving more issues for them.
Josh Lyles:And then from there, I got recruited From Tesla on LinkedIn, which is why I always tell people that I think that their LinkedIn profile should be just somewhat buttoned up because it changed my life.
Josh Lyles:I mean, that got me into Tesla at an early part of their timeline.
Host:I'll just stop right there and then I will continue.
Host:But what do you mean by buttoned up?
Josh Lyles:Tell a personal story.
Josh Lyles:Don't just be one of those people that's like proficient in Microsoft Excel and all this kind of stuff.
Host:It's pretty common.
Josh Lyles:Yeah, it's so common.
Josh Lyles:Right.
Josh Lyles:And we're all proficient in that stuff.
Josh Lyles:But it's like, tell your story.
Josh Lyles:Who are you?
Josh Lyles:Like, throw some personality into it.
Josh Lyles:And then on top of that, I think the simple way to think about it is if you're trying to get a sales job or an operations job or whatever job job title that it may be, there's always skills that are required underneath that job.
Josh Lyles:And you need to ensure that those are on your profile.
Josh Lyles:Because when recruiters are searching for you on LinkedIn, they're looking for people with those skills or with those keywords in their descriptions.
Josh Lyles:And so it's just simply a way to get found.
Josh Lyles:But it's also not be robotic, like, throw personality into it, because you're a hiring manager.
Josh Lyles:I've been hiring manager at a multitude of companies.
Josh Lyles:Like, you're not looking for somebody that's robotic, especially when it comes to sales.
Josh Lyles:You want somebody that's going to be themselves instead of a resume.
Josh Lyles:It's just bullet points of general information.
Josh Lyles:You want to find somebody that's actually interesting.
Host:Love that.
Host:And it's spot on.
Host:And I think that's often overlooked, especially for those, those individuals who are looking for something more, who do want to, you know, pursue a different opportunity to pursue their passion.
Host:If you do want to work for a company as opposed to starting your own company, like those things matter at the end of the day.
Host:Like that's where people are getting recruited and that's where talent is, is being pulled from.
Josh Lyles:So I love that.
Host:I know I cut you off.
Host:So Tesla recruits you from LinkedIn.
Host:Where'd you go from there?
Josh Lyles:They actually were recruiting me to be a sales advisor, but I actually ended up going the step below.
Josh Lyles:I was finishing out school in my last semester and truth be told, not a car person couldn't give a damn about cars really.
Josh Lyles:And but funny enough there was actually, they were actually one of my first college presentations that I did in my communications class.
Josh Lyles:So it was a kind of a cool come around story for me.
Josh Lyles:I was really intrigued by the whole electric vehicle movement and with what they were doing with what Elon was doing.
Josh Lyles:And so I started off on the ground floor.
Josh Lyles:They told me that I could get promoted six to 12 months.
Josh Lyles:And I was like, all right, six months.
Josh Lyles:I like that's when I want to get promoted because that's just my nature.
Josh Lyles:I was probably the first, I'll say this like humbly person in that position to actually get promoted within six months.
Josh Lyles:It was actually on my six month mark day.
Host:Why you would it, what were you doing differently?
Josh Lyles:Simply put in the way that I always kind of position it to others is I was doing the things that that role required.
Josh Lyles:So I was doing things that sales advisors do.
Josh Lyles:So it was technically closing deals so I would close deals for them.
Josh Lyles:I didn't get paid commission on it, didn't fully, you know, I got a somewhat credit but certain somebody else is actually getting the full credit for it.
Josh Lyles:I didn't care about that.
Josh Lyles:I just wanted to prove to them that I'm already built to be in this position.
Josh Lyles:And so it was, let me display that I can just do those things.
Josh Lyles:And yeah, it happened naturally where I was starting to close more deals than those that were already in that position not doing what they were doing.
Josh Lyles:So I wanted to just make it a no brainer for them to put me in that position.
Host:Awesome.
Host:Where'd you go from there?
Josh Lyles:Got into a sales advisor role for them, did pretty well.
Josh Lyles:I was surrounded by, I eventually got surrounded by two guys that we were all at one point or another top 10 global salespeople for Tesla out of 400 plus sales advisors.
Josh Lyles:And I learned a lot from, from those two but they helped sharpen me.
Josh Lyles:I was the youngest out of all of them.
Josh Lyles:We did really well.
Josh Lyles:And then I was only one that was really probably molded for leadership.
Josh Lyles:The other two, they were just true sales guys.
Josh Lyles:Yeah, I was kind of the one out of the three of us that was appointed to get into leadership and I wanted to go that path.
Josh Lyles:I just didn't know the timing but I figured why not?
Josh Lyles:And So I was 23 at the time and I was like why not?
Josh Lyles:At this point if I can grow my career and accelerate it, I want to go for it.
Josh Lyles:And so they gave me an opportunity to move to our lower volume store in Atlanta.
Josh Lyles:And then once I went well and I onboarded the new manager there, they moved me back onboarded the manager there.
Josh Lyles:And then after both those went pretty successfully, that's when they moved me up to Nashville.
Josh Lyles:And I was their store manager for their only location in Tennessee at that time.
Host:What year is this?
Josh Lyles:2016 through 19.
Josh Lyles:I made my transition from Atlanta to Nashville in 17 or 18.
Host:So you're.
Host:You're experiencing a ton of success early in your career.
Host:Speaks volumes about you.
Host:Where'd you move from?
Host:Tesla.
Host:When's the sales?
Host:Is that roughly when sales dash started to.
Josh Lyles:I got into freight brokerage.
Host:Oh, boy.
Josh Lyles:Yeah.
Host:Started Broken Freight.
Josh Lyles:Yeah.
Josh Lyles:My two first friends that I met in Nashville, they were working for a company in logistics.
Josh Lyles:Didn't know what in the world.
Josh Lyles:It was a strange thing because they were just always hanging out with their coworkers.
Josh Lyles:So if I'd meet out to go out and get drinks with them or go out and grab food or whatever, it may, maybe they were always hanging out with their coworkers.
Josh Lyles:And it was just odd because I never hung out with my Tesla coworkers outside of work, really.
Josh Lyles:And so.
Josh Lyles:But it spoke volumes to me about their culture.
Josh Lyles:Once I actually, I.
Josh Lyles:There was a time period where I just got to a point where I said, I'm going to look for opportunities outside of Tesla.
Josh Lyles:There's just things shaking internally.
Josh Lyles:Want to get out.
Josh Lyles:And I was talking with them and letting them know I don't, I don't care what state I land in, I don't care what industry.
Josh Lyles:I just want to do something new.
Host:Things were sh.
Host:Shaky internally.
Host:There's.
Host:I'm sure the, you know, the future was a little unknown.
Host:Was a job becoming easy for you.
Josh Lyles:It was becoming really routine.
Josh Lyles:But I wasn't able to backfill my staff.
Josh Lyles:And so there's a few things that went into it, but one, I wasn't able to backfill my staff.
Josh Lyles:So.
Josh Lyles:Perspective.
Josh Lyles:I came in there with 13 salespeople left before and I couldn't backfill.
Josh Lyles:I'm working six, seven days a week, which I honestly typically was, but six, seven days a week at the store.
Josh Lyles:And it got to a point where, you know, if I only have four sales guys, salespeople, there's days where one to two of them are there and I've got to go buy them lunch.
Josh Lyles:So like, and they'll take breaks and we just don't leave the store.
Josh Lyles:It was tough, but that was just Kind of the gritty nature of that, of that environment.
Josh Lyles:And.
Josh Lyles:And there was a couple other things where they were going to merge sales and operations again as one function.
Josh Lyles:We had already done that and it just.
Josh Lyles:To me it didn't work.
Josh Lyles:That also semi attributes to like a little bit of stuff in freight.
Josh Lyles:Right.
Josh Lyles:With cradle to grave split model, everybody sort of got their own opinions on, on what helps grow and scale and in that environment, at least at Tesla, for me, like if you were to label it a split model, that was the one that made the most sense.
Josh Lyles:The fact that they were going to be merging those again, it was going to shake some stuff up.
Josh Lyles:It got to a point where, yes, it got routine and I felt that I needed another challenge.
Host:You love the culture.
Host:You mentioned the culture.
Host:You go to the freight brokerage, you love the culture.
Host:It was different.
Host:Started to hang out with people outside of work.
Host:That was different for you.
Host:Is this your first introduction, like what a culture should look like or tell us more about?
Josh Lyles:No, not necessarily what it should look like, but when I went on site for the interviews, there was just definitely a really interesting buzz and I felt, I also felt the talent that was in that building when I, when I was interviewing.
Josh Lyles:So they were actually owned by an ELD company.
Josh Lyles:And that was the one thing that was kind of an interesting difference maker for them as a freight brokerage was what could that relationship look like for them if they're owned by an ELD company that has 250,000 plus trucks in their network.
Josh Lyles:So that never came to fruition and eventually was shut down.
Josh Lyles:And that shutdown is actually what led me to build sales dash because my whole.
Josh Lyles:And even when I was at Tesla, I would tell people, they would ask me, hey, are you trying to climb the ladder here and just keep going up, up and up.
Josh Lyles:And my answer was actually no.
Host:Where.
Host:Why?
Josh Lyles:I just wanted to build my own stuff.
Josh Lyles:I wanted to be an entrepreneur.
Josh Lyles:My dad's an entrepreneur.
Josh Lyles:He was just like a basically solo consultant in the radio business.
Josh Lyles:I just studied business and entrepreneurs.
Josh Lyles:And for me it's one of those things that if other people can do it, then I feel that.
Host:I completely agree.
Host:But I want to still focus on why.
Josh Lyles:I see.
Host:No, that also Josh, but this is like.
Josh Lyles: Was this: Josh Lyles:2020.
Host:2020, yeah.
Josh Lyles:So this three weeks before COVID probably.
Host:Okay, what are you thinking at this time?
Host:Did you already leave the company?
Host:Did they cut?
Josh Lyles:You know, there was 270.
Josh Lyles:They kept 20 of us.
Josh Lyles:I was one, luckily one of the 20.
Josh Lyles:And it was Lucky.
Josh Lyles:I will say I was fortunate at the time because Covid literally happened two, three weeks where everything shut down.
Josh Lyles:After that, then getting jobs is already harder.
Josh Lyles:But they retain me to go to the parent company, which is Keep Trucking, who now goes by motive.
Josh Lyles:But I will say I was.
Josh Lyles:I was honestly just.
Josh Lyles:There was a day of hard frustration and I just kind of sat in with myself and I said, I can't just, like, sit here and be frustrated like goat pound beers or drinks at the bar and sulk and all that stuff.
Josh Lyles:That's not.
Josh Lyles:It's not.
Host:Throw yourself a pity party.
Josh Lyles:No.
Josh Lyles:Maybe for like two hours.
Host:That's fine.
Host:That's acceptable.
Josh Lyles:Yeah, maybe.
Josh Lyles:I was just so frustrated because I love my team.
Josh Lyles:I oversaw a team of 13 executives, account managers, one SDR, and we were having really good success.
Josh Lyles:And I was really excited about my growth that was going to be at that company.
Josh Lyles:And what I felt from being brand new into it and what I felt my impact was with my team.
Josh Lyles:And just the camaraderie that my team had was really special.
Josh Lyles:I was just so frustrated about that being gone.
Josh Lyles:But at the end of the day, it's business and this stuff happens.
Josh Lyles:And so it was just selling back into that, but getting to a period where it's, hey, how can I try to control these situations?
Josh Lyles:So if Tesla's having situations where investors are pushing them one way.
Josh Lyles:Right.
Josh Lyles:This company had a similar situation where it says, hey, go back to focusing on our core product and don't worry about this other freight brokerage arm.
Josh Lyles:It just got to a point where I said, this could just keep happening to me, you know, and I may keep having that frustration, but I felt that I had the skillset, the leadership capabilities, everything.
Josh Lyles:I felt like I had the tools in the toolbox.
Josh Lyles:It's still going to be more that I have to sharpen up.
Josh Lyles:I knew I want to go try something because I had made good money at a young age, I had saved up, I wasn't financially stupid, so I was able to take a risk.
Josh Lyles:And I always just knew in the back of my mind that if I failed, I could go back to being a sales manager or a VP of sales, and I'd be okay.
Host:So we were telling me is you were in a situation where you could have easily just folded your cars, pouted, go found the next job.
Host:You've been right back where you originally were.
Josh Lyles:Yeah.
Host:Instead, you create a plan.
Host:You had a passion to do something, and it was more.
Host:So just invest in yourself.
Host:You want to start a company because that's, that's that burn that you had inside of you.
Host:You want to go pursue that.
Host:Why a CRM?
Josh Lyles:Basically what I did was I told myself during the week, the following weekend, I just told myself, hey, I'm going to lock myself in a coffee shop until I figure out what I want to do.
Josh Lyles:Because I never knew what I really wanted to do.
Josh Lyles:But that was my mentality.
Josh Lyles:And this is also the scary part is I figured it out within an hour of what I wanted to do and I really just sat there and was just like typing stuff out.
Josh Lyles:And the biggest thing was what do I feel are my strengths and what do I feel that I know or do better than others?
Josh Lyles:It's very strange to say CRM, but that was the one thing that when it carried over from going from Tesla to the freight brokerage world and where I felt that I saw success was the management of that and how I got it to work for me.
Josh Lyles:I felt that it's what made me a really good sales advisor when I was at Tesla, felt that it's what got me Into Management at 23, 24 years old, high performing sales manager at that, and then getting into freight brokerage.
Josh Lyles:My team is onboarding the most shippers at the highest volume and most of my team actually came from outside the industry.
Josh Lyles:So in like the VP of sales one day comes hits me up and he's like, what are you doing?
Josh Lyles:Like what's your, what's your special sauce?
Josh Lyles:I'm like, it's, there's no special sauce.
Josh Lyles:It's sales.
Josh Lyles:It's.
Josh Lyles:You make the calls, you take the notes, you do the follow ups.
Josh Lyles:And as a sales manager I'm just proactive and jumping into their pipelines, helping them with next steps, helping them prevent missed things.
Josh Lyles:I'm more engaged on the floor with my team I think than the others because of how I like I was only manage small things, right?
Josh Lyles:But I was, I was the only manager that did bi weekly meetings with my team versus weekly.
Josh Lyles:And for me I just felt that I didn't need to do weekly ones because I was like, I want to be on top of this stuff to where I thought the sales process moved a little bit too slow in freight where you can just have a week where it's just no answers.
Josh Lyles:So there's at that point to me there was just no reason to continue to meet.
Josh Lyles:So I was just trying to really optimize how I can be as efficient as I can with my team.
Josh Lyles:And so it was those things.
Josh Lyles:But with the CRM in particular, it was their clunky.
Josh Lyles:People didn't understand them, salespeople didn't understand them, and managers didn't understand them.
Josh Lyles:So when I saw that across the board, I felt that it was the fact that you got to go hire teams of people, pay them thousands of dollars and go through this whole thing just to get them to understand the system, to help them generate more revenue was bogus.
Josh Lyles:And it was just to figure out how to simplify it.
Josh Lyles:And my steps were write it down on paper.
Josh Lyles:How would I want this to look if I was a salesperson but also as a manager?
Josh Lyles:So I was really looking at it from both seats and I just, I knew there was opportunity there with how people didn't fully use these systems to their maximum potential.
Host:So if you're listening and wondering when we're talking about the CRM, Brian and I met Josh.
Host:We just, we liked him.
Host:You know, we like being around you, we like talking to you.
Host:Likewise, we're not, you're not here because we want to plug a CRM.
Host:We're massive fans of the CRM.
Host:You're here because we want to surround ourselves with people like you.
Host:I'm hoping that's mutual.
Host:But Brian, I want you to come on because I think your story is very impressive.
Host:Ryan, I talk a lot about these things when it comes to investing in yourselves and taking your risk and surrounding yourself with a strong, tight knit inner circle.
Host:But also you said something early on.
Host:You didn't just get to this point because you took a risk.
Host:You said, when I was younger I would just listen.
Host:And I caught that.
Host:But that is one of the most important things for a sales rep to do is effective listening.
Host:You got, and you've always, it sounds like you've always been really good at listening.
Host:And then you started to compound all these other characteristics.
Host:You started managing people, you started slinging shoes, the sales skills.
Host:You're listening to people like throughout all of this, you're always listening.
Host:That's the most under discussed attribute for successful reps.
Host:You listened when I talked to you originally and I immediately went out to Brian and I was just like, Brian, like I don' know this guy, just talked to him.
Host:But his products sound exactly like what we need.
Host:We needed something simple.
Host:We needed something industry specific.
Host:Easy use, like change is often difficult for companies to begin with.
Host:But you, you checked all these boxes and we didn't want to just go to the big box providers and say like sign us up and then go through implementation, have no idea how to use it like, you still walk us through different things.
Host:Our reps still reach out to you.
Host:And I know that's not going to be the case long term, but we appreciate you appreciate your partnership.
Host:If you're listening, I hope you got a lot out of Josh's story.
Host:Where are you taking this next?
Josh Lyles:So I think to back up on that, though, I was excited after meeting with both of you guys just because of the way that you guys carried yourselves.
Josh Lyles:And, like, I knew that you guys were obviously growing, and I, I just.
Josh Lyles:Without you guys, police, I say this about you guys all the time.
Josh Lyles:Like, I feel like you guys are very humble and I know that you guys have accomplished a lot, and there was things that I found from others that I would talk to and that they knew you guys of what you guys have done in the industry at the big box brokerages and whatnot.
Josh Lyles:But the one thing I will say that is a challenge is like a software seller for you guys.
Josh Lyles:As, you know, buyers of software was, you guys.
Josh Lyles:One didn't just take, I guess, references from others.
Josh Lyles:You guys also were just willing to actually bet on somebody that was also growing.
Josh Lyles:And that's sometimes tough, right?
Josh Lyles:Like, I'm sure there's times where you guys, in the early days when you guys are growing your brokerage and people are like, we're looking for somebody maybe a little bit more established or that can handle more operations and maybe not willing to bet on, like, a smaller company.
Josh Lyles:That was one of the things that I picked up on very fast from both of you, you and Brian and always really appreciate.
Josh Lyles:And that's.
Josh Lyles:There's one of those things, like, as a salesperson, you talk to certain people, you're like, man, I really want to work with those people.
Josh Lyles:But you guys were easily one of those people earlier on in my journey.
Josh Lyles:So I really appreciate that because I was stoked about it.
Josh Lyles:And, you know, I knew it was going to take some time to kind of work through implementation and get.
Josh Lyles:Get the team onboarded.
Josh Lyles:But that was one of the things that I kind of recall early on was just like your willingness to actually sit there and say, hey, you guys are building something in this space.
Josh Lyles:But I like, you have some commonalities.
Josh Lyles:Like, I think we had talked about sports, we had talked about mindset, and, you know, we've talked about some of that stuff with some of the trips that you guys have been on for those things.
Josh Lyles:And so I felt that there was sort of that alignment going through that process of working with you guys.
Josh Lyles:So, yeah, it's been like we're just getting started too, at the same time.
Host:Yeah, no, no, it's awesome because mistakes are going to happen.
Host:Like you're going to.
Host:You're going to buy or people are going to buy from people that they want to work with.
Josh Lyles:Yeah.
Host:We could tell early on that you're passionate about your product.
Host:You had a good product to begin with, which obviously helps.
Host:But we knew going into it that there were going to be mistakes and there are going to be glitches and kinks that we'd have to work through.
Host:But the difference is you cared a lot and your service was just amazing.
Host:So you were always responsive.
Host:And if you didn't have that answer, you would let us know, hey, this is working on this next rollout.
Host:Here's a temporary workaround when you relate that to just sales in general, or let's just say logistics.
Host:If you have a fallout out or something happens, those things are overlooked because your level of service and communication, the relationship is so high that when the mistakes do pop up, these are swept under the rug because you know the track record of that individual and you trust that person.
Host:So props to you.
Host:You've built something awesome thus far.
Host:I know it's going to keep growing.
Host:You had this idea to do a CRM.
Host:Tell the listeners what you built.
Host:What does it do?
Host:What is a CRM?
Josh Lyles:A CRM is a customer relationship management tool.
Josh Lyles:And essentially, simply put, it is almost like a notebook, a digital notebook of all your.
Josh Lyles:Your friends that you have in business.
Josh Lyles:Right.
Josh Lyles:Or the people that you want to reach out to.
Josh Lyles:And so it's your contacts, the companies that you're reaching out to, and for people that are in B2B or business to business sales.
Josh Lyles:It can be a complex sale, right, because you have a company, but there may be multiple people that you have to talk about, talk to at the company that gets find a decision maker.
Josh Lyles:You may want to find influencers, people that have the information or can get you to the right person.
Josh Lyles:Timing is a big factor, you know, just like in calling you and also just making sure that there's alignment with the challenges that they may be having internally.
Josh Lyles:So the tool essentially is just a record log of that.
Josh Lyles:A lot of people will always start in spreadsheets and say, this is the name of this person, this is their email, this is their phone number, notes.
Josh Lyles:And that's normally as simple as it.
Host:Always a note column, less always.
Josh Lyles:So with that, I'll just say that once.
Josh Lyles:You typically get probably above the 20, 30, 40 contacts part.
Josh Lyles:If you're in an area or in a business where follow ups are really important and you need to make multiple calls, multiple emails to make a sale.
Josh Lyles:That's where CRMs are really effective.
Josh Lyles:It allows you to track back all your steps.
Josh Lyles:When did you make your calls, when did you make your emails?
Josh Lyles:When are you following up with them?
Josh Lyles:And to me, follow up is the biggest fundamental that you have to have and I think it helps with that.
Josh Lyles:And so, so many of them from my experience were just so complex.
Josh Lyles:When I was at Tesla and jumping into the CRM that they had used, there was all these fields that we would never fill out.
Josh Lyles:And I remember when I first got into it, it was just the most confusing thing ever.
Host:The bells and whistles.
Josh Lyles:Yeah, just like all of them.
Josh Lyles:And it's just unnecessary.
Josh Lyles:Right.
Josh Lyles:And you know, you spending money for those bells and whistles that you're not using.
Josh Lyles:And so for me it was just simplify it down.
Josh Lyles:Right.
Josh Lyles:And from being a salesperson and a sales manager is okay.
Josh Lyles:If I'm working through this, the screen, top to bottom, left to right, like how a human, you know, analyzes things, how can I just make it to where the majority of the stuff that I want to see is in the screen and it is going to give me the information and I can make my calls and then I can just move to the next thing and I can just move to the next one.
Josh Lyles:That's what sales is.
Josh Lyles:And so it was just simplify the notes and the follows piece.
Josh Lyles:Find a couple of things that I felt that were missing from the other systems.
Josh Lyles:When it came to notes and follow ups of like not having to jump from tap to tab for your notes or hey, if I forget to set a follow up, which is super common, how do I make sure that that's going to still be on my radar?
Josh Lyles:It was just those simple things that I felt were missing.
Josh Lyles:And then I also knew that the cost was high for the systems.
Josh Lyles:I had heard some of the price points that some of these companies pay for them.
Josh Lyles:I just never understood why that needed to be a thing.
Josh Lyles:So that's really where it kind of sparked of wanting to actually see if I can get into that space.
Josh Lyles:I actually knew it was a crowded space.
Josh Lyles:From my research that I did, I knew it was a crowded space.
Josh Lyles:But quickly in my journey, my go to market strategy sucked.
Josh Lyles:I'm very upfront about that of I targeted a multitude of different industries.
Josh Lyles:I didn't think about the kinds of people I'm reaching out to and their pain points within their company.
Josh Lyles:It was last year, actually, when I really got to a point where I really had to figure it out.
Josh Lyles:And I hate admitting this, but it's just.
Josh Lyles:My truth is I've read all the books and the entrepreneur stories where they say start with one product and one service and then grow it out from there and.
Josh Lyles:Or one industry and like one Persona, and I just ignored it.
Josh Lyles:I felt that I could just tackle the world and it was just stupid.
Josh Lyles:There's just.
Josh Lyles:There's just no reason to do that.
Josh Lyles:And so when I did focus it in freight, and the reason why I did that is because I understood freight.
Josh Lyles:I understood what went into the sale.
Josh Lyles:I knew how complex it could be.
Josh Lyles:I knew about the sales cycle, I knew about the challenges people had in it, but also how they didn't really know how to maybe structure and streamline their sales process, that if it was templated for when they signed up on day one, that stuff's already there that they'd go pay somebody thousands of dollars to do.
Josh Lyles:And they'd have to also teach them what a freight broker does, that there's great opportunity.
Josh Lyles:And then when I went to the TIA conference last year and I was going around, everybody was building tmss and nobody had CRM.
Josh Lyles:So to me, it was just kind of a perfect fit and right time and just to go for it.
Josh Lyles:And I'm really glad we did.
Josh Lyles:My team's been grateful about it.
Josh Lyles:I gave my developers a crash course on freight.
Josh Lyles:Real they'll never probably use, but it's really helped them in the development process to actually understand why we're doing certain things and why we're developing things a certain way.
Josh Lyles:And from the user standpoint, not ours as a development team, you didn't create.
Host:Something that didn't exist necessarily.
Host:You found a void in our space, mostly with CRM providers.
Host:You build a product better specific to an industry that you could grow and elaborate on.
Host:So, you know, if you're listening, I know Josh would recommend locking yourself in for 24 hours straight to find out your next step.
Host:But you don't have to reinvent the wheel.
Host:Josh didn't reinvent the wheel, Brian.
Host:I didn't start a brokerage as the first brokerage ever.
Host:Like there are thousands and thousands of brokerages.
Host:You had to find, you know, something that you're passionate about, pursue it.
Host:I'm sure you're not necessarily passionate about technology and CRMs in general, but you are passionate about providing value, building relationships, you know, listen to people's needs.
Host:Like, is that.
Host:Would you agree with that where are we at there?
Josh Lyles:That's a great point.
Josh Lyles:Yeah.
Josh Lyles:Because it's not necessarily fully the technology.
Josh Lyles:I love what the CRM can do for people because of what.
Josh Lyles:What it did for me, it changed my sales career.
Josh Lyles:For the salespeople I managed, some of them came when I first hired them.
Josh Lyles:Not in great financial positions, in debt.
Josh Lyles:All that stuff got them out of that, put their families in much better situations.
Josh Lyles:So that's the reason why I love sales, is because one, all businesses need it.
Josh Lyles:I think sales always gets a bad rep.
Josh Lyles:But at the end of the day, your company, everybody's company, has salespeople and has people that are selling.
Josh Lyles:And so that's the reason why I do love it is because you have to have those people on your team.
Josh Lyles:Typically, you know, if you want to be as efficient as you can, they need a good system in place and a good process in place to be able to execute and get to that point.
Josh Lyles:And so that's what's fun for me is when I get to hear the stories.
Josh Lyles:Talking with guys on your team about record new shipper months and others that I'm working with.
Josh Lyles:That's what's probably the most fulfilling for me is when I do get to hear that stuff because it's not me that's doing it right.
Josh Lyles:They still have to do the work.
Josh Lyles:The system helps them work to get to achieve that.
Josh Lyles:But that's.
Josh Lyles:That ultimately is what's most fulfilling for me about it.
Josh Lyles:And it's just.
Josh Lyles:And it all spurred more.
Josh Lyles:So not that I'm a true, like CRM nerd technology nerd.
Josh Lyles:It's just more so.
Josh Lyles:Hey, this was a tool that really helped me, but may have had too many bells and whistles that were on it that actually less can be more and more effective for you.
Josh Lyles:But you got to get to that.
Josh Lyles:That spot where you realize like, hey, I just don't really need all those things to get the job done with the fundamentals.
Host:Well, we love it.
Host:We appreciate you.
Host:I know our employees find a ton of value in it.
Host:So if people were to look you up or want to learn more about sales, sales-CRM where they find you.
Josh Lyles:Sales-CRM.com would be the best.
Josh Lyles:Just for general information about us.
Josh Lyles:And then you guys can always add me on LinkedIn.
Josh Lyles:Josh Lyles.
Josh Lyles:L Y L E S.
Josh Lyles:Feel free to shoot me a message.
Josh Lyles:Happy to call, text, email, whatever it may be.
Host:Last question.
Host:I have ever thought about getting back in brokerage.
Josh Lyles:Absolutely.
Host:Sorry.
Host:Sorry, Brian.
Josh Lyles:You already asked me this twice.
Host:I'm persistent.
Host:But, Josh, we appreciate you.
Host:Thank you for coming on.
Josh Lyles:Thanks, Justin.
Host:I asked my wife to leave me.
Host:Yeah.
Host:It's because I lost my self worth.
Host:I felt like I had no value.
Host:I got fired.
Host:I had another kid on the way.
Host:We had nowhere to move in Cincinnati.
Host:We were stuck in Austin Tech.
Host:Majority of people have been there.