From Generic to Genuine: Transforming Your Sales Approach | Ep 29
In this episode, we dive deep into the challenges of standing out in sales, particularly in the logistics sector. Learn practical strategies to differentiate yourself from the competition, from getting past gatekeepers to connecting directly with decision-makers. Discover innovative tactics such as handwritten letters, personalized gifts, and leveraging digital tools like LinkedIn. Understand the importance of preparation, empathy, and value in the sales process. We also highlight key resources and influential sales trainers that can help you sharpen your skills and enhance your prospecting efforts.
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: The Challenge of Timing in a Soft Market
(00:23) - Standing Out in Sales Calls
(00:54) - Navigating Gatekeepers
(01:13) - Strategies for Direct Contact
(02:17) - Creative Approaches to Reach Prospects
(03:12) - Adding Value and Personal Touches
(03:38) - Practicing and Preparing for Sales Success
(04:22) - Listening and Timing in Sales Conversations
(05:08) - Thinking Outside the Box in Marketing
(06:30) - Building Genuine Connections
(08:29) - Resources for Sales Professionals
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
Transcript
Timing is always going to be an issue, especially in a soft market where not many shippers are onboarding new carriers.
Speaker A:But how do you expedite that waiting game?
Speaker A:The Average shipper gets 20 to 30 sales calls or solicitations a day.
Speaker A:If you're in sales, specifically to logistics, if you're One of those 30, how are you going to separate yourself from the other 30?
Speaker B:I think about it this way, man.
Speaker B:Like if you're, if you have a canned script or if you're saying the same thing over and over again and you're not bringing any value, I think it's going to be a hard time.
Speaker B:It's going to be a hard time developing that relationship and standing out.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:When you're asking the very vanilla questions that they've heard over and over, you get the auto response.
Speaker A:You know, you call gatekeepers.
Speaker A:Gatekeepers.
Speaker A:The person that answers the phone and says, no, they're not available or they're in a meeting and get you off the phone as fast as possible.
Speaker A:When you call them, you know damn well that they are reading off a script.
Speaker B:Correct.
Speaker A:If they say transportation or ask for so and so, this is what you say.
Speaker A:How are you getting around that?
Speaker A:How are you going to get the opportunity to set up a conversation and actually learn more about their operations or their sales process or onboarding process, whatever it may be.
Speaker A:What can you do to get in direct contact with them?
Speaker A:What are some ways.
Speaker B:Yeah, so I think a couple things.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:I think we need to ask, you know, when you, when you said, okay, we call the gatekeeper, the gatekeeper says, no, John's not available, you know, trying to find out more information about John or about the company.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And we might know a little bit.
Speaker B:We might be on their website prior to that.
Speaker B:I think that's a, that's something that people don't dig in on.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:What does it hurt to ask for his direct extension or his cell phone number?
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Why not ask?
Speaker B:We already don't have it.
Speaker B:She might say, like, oh, well, we don't really give that out.
Speaker B:No problem.
Speaker B:What about an email address?
Speaker B:Can I.
Speaker B:I just want to shoot him a quick email to let them know.
Speaker B:Let them know that I'm here.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And you just mentioned it.
Speaker B:But direct contact is what we're looking for.
Speaker B:How many times can we get directly to the decision maker without having to call Judy the gatekeeper?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And what other ways are there to get a hold of someone?
Speaker A:We talked to our sales team and some of the newer employees were like, we're writing handwritten letters to your prospect and they're like, what?
Speaker A:Cursive?
Speaker B:I don't know how to write some of the things, we have the stamps over by our desk and some of the times we see some of those letters, man, I don't know if some of the kids, I call them kids, some of the folks know how to address an envelope.
Speaker B:Like again, I love them, but you know, we got, we got a little bit of work to do on our side.
Speaker A:Yeah, I don't teach that anymore.
Speaker A:But, but, but seriously, like email, LinkedIn, social media, handwritten cards, whatever it may be, there's other avenues to get a hold and in contact with some of these people.
Speaker A:If you're just going through the motions and calling at 12pm every Tuesday, good luck, it's probably not going to work out.
Speaker A:So you get a hold of them, you piqued their interest, you're prepared, you've done your homework, you know a few facts about them.
Speaker A:Or let's just say you're working with one of their, one of their vendors or one of their clients.
Speaker A:So there's mutual interest there, right?
Speaker A:How do you pique their interest enough to actually get an opportunity?
Speaker B:If you're listening to this and you're in the sales industry and you're looking to figure out ways to stand out, it's value, how do I bring value, how do I prepare?
Speaker B:What am I going to say?
Speaker B:I mean, maybe it's practicing in the mirror.
Speaker B:You know, one thing that I love and I still do this today, anytime that I'm going to present or speak, like I do it on my car ride, right.
Speaker B:I want to rehearse.
Speaker B:Oh, that didn't sound good enough.
Speaker B:Okay, I want to pause here.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:Or how do I say this right?
Speaker B:So if you're a salesperson, use the car ride to your advantage.
Speaker B:You know, if you're going into an office and it's a 15 to 20 minute commute, use that time.
Speaker B:You know, one thing I want you to hit on.
Speaker B:Like when you talk about, you know, setting yourself apart, right?
Speaker B:And you're in that conversation, do you push for the closer at that moment or what do you do?
Speaker A:No, no, never.
Speaker A:And I think, I think listening.
Speaker B:Do some people, do some people do that?
Speaker B:They push for the close right away.
Speaker B:Gotta listen, man.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:So when you're in a conversation, communicating back to them, as you know, it sounds like my timing is slightly off, but when would you be more inclined to have this type of conversation?
Speaker A:Or when would be a better time to follow up on this, this, and this.
Speaker A:So, you know, acknowledging that you hear them, but also still getting those smaller commitments to progress them through the sales cycle is so important.
Speaker A:And, you know, timing is always going to be an issue, you know, especially in a soft market where not many shippers are onboarding new carriers.
Speaker A:But how do you expedite that, that waiting game?
Speaker A:And I think there's a number of things you can do, whether, you know, it's marketing and standing out, you know, the outside the box thinking.
Speaker A:When it comes to marketing it, it's imperative.
Speaker B:So when you're, when you talk about, like outside the box thinking, man, like, what are some things that you can do as a broker, as a salesperson that's different than the 20 other people that have maybe called them or emailed them on a daily basis?
Speaker A:I'll give you a couple of examples.
Speaker A:You know, I'm huge on virtual calls.
Speaker A:Virtual calls.
Speaker A:When you're face to face.
Speaker A:You know, some of these shippers that we're working with are all over the country, so we're not going to fly out and see every single person.
Speaker A:But we set up a lot of virtual calls and paying attention to their shirt, their hat, their background.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:You know, if they're working from home.
Speaker A:The kid that runs, you know, I'll give you a couple examples, had a kid run up, ask his mom for, to ask her if she could play with Legos.
Speaker A:Well, she was on a call, so she's like, no, I will a little bit.
Speaker A:But sending a gift, a thank you card for the time and a gift for her kid with a mini Lego set.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Which Lego set costs what, 20 bucks?
Speaker A:They're very expensive.
Speaker B:Well, now I got a small.
Speaker B:You got the mini one?
Speaker B:I'm not talking about the big dog.
Speaker B:Like, yeah, police station, fire station.
Speaker B:Yeah, I'm just the mini one.
Speaker A:But it's little things like that.
Speaker A:Another client down in Austin, Texas.
Speaker A:Early on, we're, we're having conversations.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:His pit bull walks through, he pats it, says his name, wrote a handwritten car, bottle of bourbon.
Speaker A:He's familiar with Kentucky bourbon, which is where we're from.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker A:Right on the background.
Speaker A:You know, this, this, this contact had a lot on his plate.
Speaker A:Here's some Kentucky medicine for those days that get tough.
Speaker A:We always, we always have your back.
Speaker A:Team Veritas.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Include a massive bone in there for, for his pit bull and, you know, thank him for his time.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Because those are the things that you notice as a sales rep that not many people notice because they're so Focused on business.
Speaker A:Business.
Speaker B:Closing the sale.
Speaker B:Closing the sale.
Speaker B:Dude, I love that.
Speaker B:And the thing is like the reason I mentioned the price on the, the, the LEGO set is what is that?
Speaker B:$20 with a handwritten card.
Speaker B:So I don't even know what stamps are these days, like 70 cents or something.
Speaker B:So you're talking about like 25 bucks with shipping and everything included to try to, you know, land a customer and set yourself outside the box.
Speaker B:Even with like the, the thing of Woodford.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So what's that?
Speaker B:25 bucks plus a handwritten card plus a dog bone.
Speaker B:That's another 10.
Speaker B:I don't even know what dogs bones cost.
Speaker B:But you know, 40 bucks to land a massive account that could produce, you know, millions of dollars in our top account.
Speaker B:Yeah, millions of dollars in potential gross sales.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So like I think we look about, look at it that way, like do those small things.
Speaker B:It doesn't have to cost a fortune.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:We don't need to fly, fly a private jet down to these people and take them to courtside seats in an NBA.
Speaker B:You don't need to do that.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:But showing them that you care and.
Speaker A:You'Re a real person.
Speaker B:Yeah, 100%.
Speaker B:And you know, getting to connect with them.
Speaker B:I, you know, two areas that people in any sales profession out there don't do enough.
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker A:So next time you catch yourself going through the motions or sending that generic template, delete it.
Speaker A:Think outside the box, catch yourself and be a real person.
Speaker A:I guarantee you that you'll have a lot more success.
Speaker B:Love it, man.
Speaker B:That's, that's a differentiator right there.
Speaker B:I do want to, you know, call out a couple of different resources that we, we love.
Speaker B:You know, here at Veritas, there's a couple sales leaders, a couple sales training companies.
Speaker B:Jeb Blunt, his company is called Sales Gravy.
Speaker B:He has a book out called Fanatical Prospecting.
Speaker B:And I swear every time I read that book, I get so energized in the sales process because he breaks it down where, you know, into bite sized pieces where everybody can understand, you know, more of that sales process.
Speaker B:There is Anthony Iannorino as well as Andy Elliott.
Speaker B:Those are all people on LinkedIn, Instagram to go out there and learn things from, on the sales process to stand out and be a little bit different.
Speaker A:If you're also trying to identify potential prospects or opportunities that you want to start relationships with, you need to do a little bit of work prior to going down there.
Speaker A:So you're not just blindsiding people, especially at a conference where there's a lot of competition and it's a bit of a feeding frenzy down there.
