Fear, Failure & Freight: The Truth About Logistics | Ep 54

Justin: 00:00:00

Welcome back to Logistics and Leadership. Today Brian and I are going to discuss why people in logistics fail. Brian, safe to say you've found success in logistics.

You've also seen plenty of other successes and probably more so plenty of failures.

Brian: 00:00:27

We were just talking about this off camera, but our industry has a pretty high turnover rate. I think from a sales perspective it's somewhere in the 80 to 90% range on the sales side.

And I think that's a lot of it has to do with I think the first two years. So the zero to two year range, when people first get into it, it's challenging. It is a hard profession, it's hard work.

I think a lot of folks, they're not willing to do the work, they're not willing to put in the effort to, to do those sort of things. So like you start with a bigger brokerage or you start with a larger brokerage, kind of like we did.

And I think one thing that we did, I had a front row seat to it because you know, we were in the same office in Lexington. But seeing you come in and work your butt off every single day, that's what it takes.

And for me, I know that I wasn't the best salesperson, I wasn't the best communicator probably, but I was willing to put in that work on the front end to get some of that stuff or lay the foundation for other customers. The real reason why people fail, I, I, I think it's they're just not willing to do the work.

Hard conversations, tough industry, blue collar, those sorts of things.

Justin: 00:01:32

I think that's it. What it boils down to is the work ethic. I think it has to start there.

There are people that have found success that, you know, I, I've worked with and I've, I've seen them succeed, that they weren't the hardest workers, but they had a lot of other stronger attributes that replaced the work ethic. It kind of offset it.

Brian: 00:01:51

Yeah.

Justin: 00:01:52

And I was similar to you where I wasn't the best communicator, I wasn't the most savvy sales rep. I was just a grunt, like I just wanted to put in the work.

I knew I had some buddies that were at, and I don't think this is a secret by now, but you and I both started in logistics at tql, right. I had some buddies there that were working at the headquarters. They told me exactly how it is and what to expect.

So I knew going into it what to expect. So the hours and the failures and the no's the hangups, getting cussed out. Like none of that stuff fazed me because I knew what was going to happen.

Brian: 00:02:31

You knew more of the expectations on the front end.

Justin: 00:02:34

Correct.

Brian: 00:02:34

And I think that has a lot to do with it. I mean, our industry, I love it and I think it's such a blue collar industry where it doesn't stop moving.

Monday through Friday, Saturday, Sunday nights, evenings, weekends. That's one thing that I think a lot of people get burnt out with is like they don't want to handle nights and evenings or weekends or whatever it is.

And it is hard every single day coming in and doing those things. That's the hard part. And I think people, this industry is not a 40 hour a week industry, especially at the start. Right.

Maybe later on in your career, tenure, that might be the case. But early on, I think that's why a lot, lot of folks that get into logistics, they don't see it through.

Because I also think this day and age, people are, I don't know, hesitant to have hard conversations or deliver bad information to clients. Where, you know, we have a.

And I'm not going to stereotype our entire society, but I feel like with the invention of the iPhone and with social media, you can be a keyboard warrior where you can go in, you can type a message and there's nothing back. Right. You can go in and type a message and there's not a, not a response.

Justin: 00:03:44

Oh, that felt good.

Brian: 00:03:44

Yeah, yeah. And you can, you can have, you can, you have the ability or you have the freedom to put your phone down. Right.

You send a nasty text message to somebody and then you just put your phone down and you don't even have to hear what they have to say as opposed to having a verbal phone call over the phone. Hey, this driver's late. I'm very sorry. Here's what's going on. The customer's obviously going to be pissed and come back at you.

And I think that's another reason why I think people fail in logistics is because they're not willing to have those hard conversations, which. Shit. I think we have them every other day, if not every day. Whether that's on the customer side, carrier side. Hell with an employee sometimes. Right.

Those are the things that I think set successful people apart in logistics.

Justin: 00:04:28

I completely agree. But I would also take a different spin on it. And I would say it comes down to fear.

Brian: 00:04:33

Sure.

Justin: 00:04:33

Where they fear the conflict or the tough conversation or they feel failing themselves.

Brian: 00:04:39

Yeah.

Justin: 00:04:40

A parent, a loved one, a friend, a client, a carrier, whatever. It May be they fear that failure, and it's easier for someone to take that other job as opposed to, you know, facing their fears and overcoming them.

Brian: 00:04:53

I love that part about the fear side of it. And I think in our job, it's challenging because we don't have a lot of control over what happens.

And we try to be the intermediary as much as possible and be the middle person where, you know, structuring the shipper and the receiver and the driver and the customer and everybody else in between. Right. So I think those are the challenges sometimes where we, you know, if you're in that role, you have to make sure all parties are happy.

One thing that somebody told me this a while ago, and I love the analogy because I'm a baseball guy, but being a good freight broker is kind of like being a good umpire. If you're not really talked about and you're not really, you know, there's not a whole lot said about you, it means you're doing a good job.

Where I think that we think about that from an umpire perspective or a referee perspective, if you don't really talk about the refs, they're probably doing a pretty good job. Right. So I think you do have to relinquish that control. And it is a hard job. It is something that a lot of people fail at.

Hell, 80, 90% from the last time that we looked at some data. So, yeah, it's definitely something that is not for the mentally weak.

Justin: 00:05:58

Yeah.

Well, I would say that the fear and the inability to relinquish control is definitely a huge contributor to why people either phase out, step back, step away, whatever it is, quit. I think that's probably the number one. And then when you break it down from there, there's a lot of other factors that come into play there.

I remember Maven Rich, our producer, that we're talking about this either a month ago, a couple months ago, about control. And it's when you're so focused on the uncontrollables, you lose control of the controllables.

And that's something we do discuss a lot with our team, is they get so caught up on the small things that are completely out of their control. Instead of your huge advocate of the two controllables, effort and attitude, you talk about it all the time.

Control those, and the rest will run its course.

But when your driver falls out or a prospect hangs up on you and you want to spend an hour or two pouting and throwing in the towel, it's like, that's completely out of your control. Either you bomb the opening or the person's having a bad day.

Brian: 00:07:40

Right before we got on this, I got, was on a call with one of our employees and the shipper's forklift went down. Right. So what are we going to do? How are we going to handle it?

And it's like those are the challenges that we have to, you know, resolve, especially in our business. How do you handle that? Do you let that, you know, bog you down? It's 9:30 in the morning. Are we gonna, you know, get pissed off the entire day?

Are we gonna turn that around and try to figure something out and, you know, make something good out of it?

Justin: 00:08:04

Exactly. I think there's a lot to be said around the interview process and bringing in the right people. I think that's, that's common knowledge.

Yeah, but one thing that, that you and I, I think we do pretty well is when we're interviewing candidates we look for in their past experiences where they've ex, you know, ran into adversity.

Brian: 00:08:23

Sure.

Justin: 00:08:23

They have some resilience. They've shown signs of being mentally tough. Because if you have that, a lot of what we face in day to day, in logistics.

Brian: 00:08:31

Yeah.

Justin: 00:08:32

I mean, it's just adversity.

Brian: 00:08:33

Right.

Justin: 00:08:33

Issues, it's solving problems and people that haven't faced adversity and, and you know, they're not very resilient. Yeah, they come in here, it's like, oh, like we can tell them to. We're blue in the face. Hey, sure, this job is tough.

You make a lot of phone calls, you're going to fail, people are going to hang up on you. It's, oh, I got that. I just want to make a lot of money. But they don't know how to handle adversity.

So then when they start actually facing those things, they crumble.

Brian: 00:08:57

Yeah, I think, you know, one of the things that we just interviewed a guy recently and he's been great so far. He's only been with us for about six months.

So he goes through that training phase and then he, you know, just started in sales and he's doing, you know, pretty well so far. He's not like a successful broker status yet, but I know, you know, I love him, you love him. He's a guy.

And even going through his interview process and you know, kind of, kind of a green flag for us and he just even mentioned the adversity was he played college baseball and he told us in the interview process that he was benched his senior year. He did great. He was all conference, all league or whatever. The first couple years.

Justin: 00:09:32

Killer.

Brian: 00:09:32

Yeah. And then his senior year, new coach came in and he got benched, and it was like, oh, my God. Like that, to me, is the resilience.

Like, okay, how'd you overcome that? How is that something that. You spent three years there. You did really well. New coach comes in, and now you're dealing with this adversity.

I love that side of it. I know you loved it, too.

Justin: 00:09:50

Oh, yeah.

Brian: 00:09:50

During the interview process. But that's something that, you know, to look out for, especially for folks that are listening. Okay, let's. Let's hone in on the interview process.

Challenge the people to really focus on the adversity or when did you overcome anything that was, you know, challenging in your life?

Justin: 00:10:05

But, yeah, I think we looked for each other after that interview.

Brian: 00:10:08

Yeah.

Justin: 00:10:08

I don't even know if we say anything. We're just not. We just nodded like, yeah, do we.

Brian: 00:10:11

Did we offer them on the spot? I think we probably. Probably did. But is anything else that you.

Any other things that we're not thinking about that why people fail or why people fail? In our industry, our space, in the first several years, it starts with work.

Justin: 00:10:27

Ethic and, I guess, faith in themselves. But when you break that down a little bit more on why people fail or why people succeed, I think there's a handful of things.

The big ones for me are the consistency, the discipline, and the confidence.

I think if the confidence is rarely there unless they have previous experience or they've succeeded in other sales roles, so we can help them build that confidence. But the discipline, the organization, the consistency, that's on them.

I say this to every single person we bring in, but the moment I start feeling like I care more about their success than they care about it themselves, I'm out. I'm done.

Because if they don't have the discipline to do the small fundamentals that are required to succeed and they can't be consistent with it and they can't stay organized with their sales pipeline or operations, they're going to fizzle out. Because at the end of the day, it's discipline and consistency.

Those are the two things that are required to continue building a book of business and find success in logistics, in my opinion.

Brian: 00:11:32

I think, you know, with the consistency part that builds momentum, it's just like exercise or sticking to a habit or. I mean, hell, we're right around the New Year's resolution phase. We're a month in, and folks are setting those New Year's resolutions.

I forget the stat. I know it's crazy, but so many people fall off on January 13th or whatever the day, I don't know the day.

But staying consistent, that creates more momentum for you and the opportunity to set up a new client, making sure that you're servicing that client on a daily basis. So I think with consistency builds momentum. And I think a lot of people, they don't stay consistent.

They don't have that discipline that you're talking about to get to the next level. So if you're a listener today, please ask questions. Please drop a note in the comments below on YouTube.

Would love to hear some questions that you guys have on hiring practices, what to look for, how to manage and run a sales team, because we do have that experience and we'd love to help out in any way.