[GMAN]

Sales is an honorable profession. Both parties should get something out of a sale. The salesman will make money from his efforts by supplying a product or service that someone needs or wants. It is a win-win exchange. Something to keep in mind is that we don't have anything to haul until something is sold. :wink:

[merrick4]

Actually for me I didn't mean to malign salesmen. I just mean, I personally feel like I'm begging. It's just not my thing. You know I know in business you need to network and all that and I never did that.

As you can tell from my posts I am very honest; I will be the first one to put here that I made a mistake. Not saying that salesmen are dishonest but of course if you are trying to sell something you really aren't going to mention the negatives. I was talking with a friend recently about this other kid with whom we grew up with and I guess he's now out in California getting small little roles in movies. He has a website and he's got pictures with famous people. The thing was this kid was dumb as a wet bag of rocks but he always did know how to sell himself.

And honestly I know I don't know the person telling me "no" and in the big picture of things who cares but we are who we are and I don't like it.

I read once that this Rabbi use to send his students into hardware stores for example and ask for eggs. I mean obviously they would look at you like you're an idiot. I don't remember why he did it; maybe cause they were Hassidic and dress differently and wanted them to toughen up to that. I don't know why it just stuck in my head. Maybe I should do that; go into Home Depot and ask what aisle the eggs are in. Probably do that for a couple of weeks and then I'll be ready to get the sales thing going.

By the way just an edit, but my brother does the sales thing. I'm trying to get him into the brokering thing but in the end until people see you making money they don't want to do anything. They had a big thing in the Sunday paper the other day about the Seminole Indians who I guess 30 years ago were poverty sticken and now of coures are extremely wealthy. People are always coming to them now with investment ideas and wanting to work with them.

As soon as you make it there never lacks someone wanting to join, yet to build the thing up nobody wants to help with that.

[Kurbski]

merrick4 wrote: And honestly I know I don't know the person telling me "no" and in the big picture of things who cares but we are who we are and I don't like it.

I don't think anyone really does. I usually wait until Im in the right mindset to tackle the task. Never grumpy, distracted or first thing on Monday etc...

merrick4 wrote: As soon as you make it there never lacks someone wanting to join, yet to build the thing up nobody wants to help with that.

Everybody wants to be important and a winner jumping right on the bus. That was funny and good lesson about the eggs. Just ask where the .99 cent diesel pump is next time you fuel. :lol:

[LOAD IT]

Originally Posted by merrick4

I truly wish I could do this. I am still at home as I needed to take care of a bunch of stuff, well refinanced the truck. With some moving things around my payment is half of what it was. And so now I'm worrying about getting out.

I made one call and got a load; not the best paying but averaging with coming in not bad.

The last few days I have found many resources to locate shippers, brokers etc. I wondered why there wasn't a compilation of those things and apparently there is.

I still wonder what can a one truck operation offer with these shippers. Capacity is the key I believe. Maybe Loadit can elucidate that for us.

Me personally I don't like getting on the phone; I talk to people as I learn something. Calling up and making sales calls is totally another thing which is very very difficult for me. I am extremely self sufficient and am not used to asking people for things. Sure I come here asking a million questions and people have been nice enough to send me leads but I have never, nor would I, ask for those myself. In the end we need to do our own work and not expect others to do it for us. Sales in a way is asking for something; probably a bad way to look at it but I just don't like it.

Anyway I don't like making sales calls but I don't like this feeling of not knowing where my next load is coming from so I said f**k it and picked up the phone and called the logistics department of a large produce supplier don't here. I was going to ask for shipping but they had a prompt for logistics and so I chose that.

The guy was real cool and didn't blow me off. He told me to send over my packet and then they would contact me. As soon as I heard that I thought great there goes that but then he said I could also check back with him daily if I'd like.

I need to put together a nice packet. Not that hard really I've gotten packets from brokers so I'll just go off that. Hell I sued the state one time and had no clue what I was doing and when the State lawyers started filing motions and all that I just copied the format they used and filed counter motions that looked just as professionsal as theirs.

Merrick, you are on your way!!! Work with this shipper to have an idea of what his inbound and outbound lanes are. Do your homework on brokers moving this shippers freight and remember you are selling them SERVICE, not CAPACITY. You popped your cherry, I'm proud of ya!!!

[Jackrabbit379]

Originally Posted by GMAN

Sales is an honorable profession. Both parties should get something out of a sale. The salesman will make money from his efforts by supplying a product or service that someone needs or wants. It is a win-win exchange. Something to keep in mind is that we don't have anything to haul until something is sold. :wink:

I've thought about going into sales. Especially, at SYSCO. That would be a good career to get into, but I dont think that I am pushy enough. My mom also told me that I am too honest. :lol:

[rank]

Originally Posted by GMAN

Sales is an honorable profession. Both parties should get something out of a sale. The salesman will make money from his efforts by supplying a product or service that someone needs or wants. It is a win-win exchange. Something to keep in mind is that we don't have anything to haul until something is sold. :wink:

sounds like you've read Zig.

[merrick4]

Originally Posted by Kurbski

That was funny and good lesson about the eggs. Just ask where the .99 cent diesel pump is next time you fuel. :lol:

Oh that's even better, .99 cent fuel one week of that and I'd be ready to sell ice to the Eskimos

Originally Posted by LOAD IT

Merrick, you are on your way!!! Work with this shipper to have an idea of what his inbound and outbound lanes are. Do your homework on brokers moving this shippers freight and remember you are selling them SERVICE, not CAPACITY. You popped your cherry, I'm proud of ya!!!

Service not capacity, definitely great way of looking at it. I just wonder though, I mean sometimes when I'm getting offered a short run it sometimes seems not worth the pain in the a** to be signing up with new brokers. I kind of figured that these big shippers don't want to be signing up every one truck operation in town. But definitely if service is what they want then service is what they will get. Then maybe I can offer good service and two trucks etc..

Actually I was thinking for down the road of other things I could offer. I read that the temperature of the reefer can be tracked and sent out by email. I'm not sure how it works but later on down the road I could have a website (and actually I just bought the domain name of my company at least for now so I can use a proper email name. I always thought it was unprofessional to have things like ***[email protected]. I've even found actual government email address that ended with yahoo.com. It was of a South American country)

Anyway I could offer a login where they could actually see the temperature of the reefer. Anything to stand out from the crowd.

Originally Posted by Jackrabbit379

I've thought about going into sales. Especially, at SYSCO. That would be a good career to get into, but I dont think that I am pushy enough. My mom also told me that I am too honest. :lol:

I bet those salesmen at Sysco make very good money. I tried to get on with them right out of school. The drivers make good money and I personally don't mind the physical lifting of it as long as I'm in warm weather.

[LOAD IT]

Originally Posted by merrick4

Service not capacity, definitely great way of looking at it. I just wonder though, I mean sometimes when I'm getting offered a short run it sometimes seems not worth the pain in the a** to be signing up with new brokers. I kind of figured that these big shippers don't want to be signing up every one truck operation in town. But definitely if service is what they want then service is what they will get. Then maybe I can offer good service and two trucks etc..

Actually I was thinking for down the road of other things I could offer. I read that the temperature of the reefer can be tracked and sent out by email. Anyway I could offer a login where they could actually see the temperature of the reefer.

Anything to stand out from the crowd.

Every large trucking company is selling capacity to the shipper and preaching service to the driver. In your company you are the driver and you believe in service, so now sell it to the customer. As I type this I remembered you are bilingual. You should recruit some hispanics/cubans (whatever nationalities are in South Florida (i'm not trying to be racist)) who are drivers and offer them the opportunity to become owner operators under your authority and then you can sell service and more capacity. I have an O/O from south Georgia who speaks very little English. I've been using a program that converts english to spanish to communicate with this guy. I arrogantly tell him he has to improve his english, but really i could care less, he is safe and provides on-time service.

[Orange Andy]

Merrick, I understand your loathing of the sales profession. Many people cannot stomach it. But if your product, service, or rate is something that can help your prospect, you should never feel like you are in a asking, or begging position. You are not. You are calling on them to see if you can help THEM and make THEM more money by using YOU.

Keep that as your perspective and your cold calling approach becomes a lot easier.

The best salesmen that I've seen in action are courteous, to the point, direct, clear, and ask for the business at the end of a short pitch, as they are busy professionals who must keep a schedule. If the person is interested, this is all they need, and will respond. If not, call on them later, and thank them.

Personally, I love challenges that seem impossible, and sales is a lot like hunting, and you will strike out many times, and win a few times. Plan on it, learn from it, and remember, even if 10 people say NO, you are not a failure, and will find an inner compelling motivation to get that next company to say YES.

Warning though, sales can become addictive and highly profitable.

[gbtrucker]

Originally Posted by Kurbski

gbtrucker wrote: I don't like Cold Calling either, I am like you, it is like begging for work but they call it sales.

I have worked in sales and don't consider cold calling " begging" and understand nobody likes rejection. BUT... How the heck are shippers suppose to find you if you don't let them know that you exist? So what if some jagoff blows you off over the phone. He can't see you and who cares what he thinks anyways. Move on to the next number. You might be surprised how many say YES because they are unhappy with their triple brokering broker who uses some yahoo that doesn't maintain his equipment or conduct business on a level that is expected.Be proud of your accompishments and build new bridges. I keep an index card with key terms and positive comments to help me during a brain fart to keep me on track. No need to trash the competetion..since some do a good job of it themselves. Stay Positive, Sell Quality, Service and Reliability.

As far as driving traffic to personal websites:
Traffic is driven to websites by paying google for key search words which you list in adwords.adsense is you posting google ads on your site and get paid for visitors who click and go visit the advertisers site. After a while your adwords will pay for your keywords so you should break even with the google expenses. BTW..Google is very knowledgable with click fraud and tracks the visitors ISP address which greatly reduces the chances of you getting screwed. Sometimes you end up advertising your competetion unless you specify who to omit.You can also advertise geographically to grab loads in your region only.

I look at the internet like it's a big fishnet..Some customers swim through..Some get caught. The main thing is to have alot of information listed in an easy to navigate format with dropdown windows,lists and neat gimmicks to keep them coming back to visit. Again reminding them that you exist. 8)


Cold Calling is a must...even if you attend a conference where numerous shippers gather.. you must call them and again to stay fresh in their minds due to the number of people they speak with. I also use my quickbooks ledger of past sales to remind me who to re call. :wink:

Manage your free time. Market yourselves accordingly and prosper from it. Now get calling........

I have used adwords before and still have some credit with them.
I get alot of traffic thru my many web sites where I sell stuff for the past 11 yrs

My problem with programming is I have not done any database applications for years and used the old boat anchor stuff like filepro, dbase, oracle and foxbase, I have to get modern and see what great stuff is available to me. I tried downloading a 90 day trial of MS Office 2007 but it kept bombing while trying to put in my name and address, some bug on their web site.

I will keep trying.

I bought my first computer in 1977 to interface with my Ham radio and then got a chance to get involved with computer projects while in Production Engineering, Then in 1994 Retired a GS 12 Computer Spec do to Base Closure, They made such a good offer and bought me out. Now don't know anything it feels like at times.

Used to go to Comdex and other showes every year, I always had a Govt Buyers Badge on and always came home with free goodies.

The technology is sure moving faster than before it seems.

I use email campaigns to sell my products to my customer base and also have a yahool group where more who visit my web sites sign up to get special announcements, Wish I could do something like that but most say you gotta call and beat the pavement and some say Cold Calling is a thing of the past. I have many idaeas and will try them all.

I wonder how many will get mad when I ask them to help me contact the Traffic Manager at their work if they have one. I been making them deals for years and provide good customer service.

Probably be considered as Spam and will loose a few off my list of hundreds.

New phone and new fax is connected tomorrow, never needed it before as everything was done with email and my cell phone.

This keeps me out of the bars 5 days a week anyway.

Thanks For your input.