Came back with a bank window down yelling now money anything hey oh got the foot on the gas pedal to the metal when I'm getting to the back hey Got the foot on the.
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Blame moving fast hey Let them all cross if they hate then let them made them make a bigger balls hey what is up ladies and gentlemen? We are back. We are live. It is a freight coach podcast, the top podcast in transportation coming to you guys every single weekday, 8:30am Pacific, 10:30 Central to break down some industry headlines. But most importantly, you guys provide some actual insight into what you can do with all of this information. If this is your first time tuning in, welcome. This is the real side of freight, ladies and gentlemen. And I say that before every single show.
And what I mean by that is I only speak with transportation professionals because at the end of the day, you guys, I want to talk to the right individuals who have done what you're looking to do or who are currently doing what you're trying to achieve. So you can take that information, apply it, utilize it and see a meaningful difference in your business and your life. Happy Wednesday everybody. We are about to jump right into this. I'm really looking forward to this conversation that we have today. It's another one of the instructors of the sales summit out there at the TIA Capital Ideas Conference. We're going to be talking about carrier relationships, just relationships in general inside of transportation, how to establish them, what do they mean and all of that. I'm going to bring her up here in just one quick second.
But it's Wednesday. You guys know what that means. Newsletter day. All right. Newsletter dropped this Wednesday. I don't auto sign anybody up for it. So if you want to receive our weekly newsletter that is just action packed with actual information that you can apply to your business, go to the freightcoach.com it will auto prompt you to register on there. I heard the audience loud and clear. Everybody hates it when people auto sign them up. So your boy will never do that with any of this content. Because I believe in a meritocracy, you guys. I want all the, I believe in earnings, all of that. So if you want to sign up, go to the website and check it out. But with that being said, you guys, I got a very special guest. I'm going to bring her up right now.
I have Eileen Dabrowski on the show. Eileen, thank you so much for joining me.
Thanks for having me, Chris. I'm pumped to be here now.
I'm looking forward to this you know, it was awesome when we first connected, and we ended up talking for, like, almost an hour. And it almost scared me how aligned were on, like, a lot of our strategies and a lot of what we do inside of this business. But I knew at that time, I'm like, we got to talk more. And it was, you know, it was really exciting to see that you're going to be a part of the sales summit as well as an instructor out there. So before we get into any of that fun stuff, though, Eileen, what brought you into the industry? How did you get your start in transportation?
So kind of like most people, either you're born into it, your family does it, and you know nothing else, or you fall into it very accidentally and unexpectedly. That's exactly what happened to me. I began my career in academia, so I worked at an institution of higher learning, did that for a decade, and was pretty burnt out, as you can imagine, dealing with federal, state, local budget cuts and. Right. It was just a lot. And then this company called Reed, TMS Logistics called me, and I was like, who are these people? How did they find me? Right? But it was the single best thing to ever happen to me. And I was brought in 2016 to build Reed's entire training program. So they wanted somebody who could learn it in the same way that a new employee or a green bean would.
Coming into the. And there's so much to learn, right? There's no guidebook. The hardest thing about this industry is when people come in, they're like, all right, if this happens, I do this, right? And I'm like, oh, no. We live in the Grand Canyon of gray. And. Right. There's no playbook. I can teach you kind of best practice and guiding principles. We can talk through scenarios. But a lot of what we do in trucking transportation, supply chain is pivot quickly, service the hell out of freight, and really situate ourselves as industry experts. So I fell in love. I do all sorts of training now, whether it be soft skills. Here's what transportation, trucking, modal specific training. But the favorite part of what I do is develop people in terms of being the best sellers they can be. Right?
So how can I capitalize on every phone call? How can I build up my book and create relationships at all levels? That's what really puts fire in my.
Yeah, no, I love that. And, you know, it's. It's one of those things training and development has out. Like, it's always been a passion of mine. Like, I ironically went to school or I was Going to become a teacher right away. And then like I lasted a semester and I'm like, this is not what I want to do. Like I'm not meant to do this. And you know, so. But I understand the value in going through quality training. And you know, that was one thing. And that was, I mean originally what we really connected about when we first talked is, you know, we, you know, and by we, I mean my business partner built out a training platform that we have for our company. So it's like when we're ready to hire people, we have processes, we have everything in place.
All your SOPs that you could imagine for almost most situations you're going to find yourself in to really get people up and running. Because I feel like it's such a major miss by some organizations where their training is go sit with that person, listen to them talk, and then you'll just kind of figure it out. And I feel like you're, it's such a major investment to bring on team members at all because like, and like, I think a lot of people are taking a risk on you as a company too, right? Like do you have your stuff together? And I feel like having a solid basis of like a training platform ready to go to get people plugged in and up and running.
I feel like, yeah, it takes time to develop, but especially in today's day and age right now with AI and everything out there. Like we use AI for my podcast for example, right. So we take the audio or the video of this, we drop it into AI and it inscripts the entire episode line by line. So it's like you have time just walk around with our camera and record yourself talking throughout the day. Drop that into an AI and then it'll spit everything out for you.
I, I love AI and I use it every day. And you know, Chris, you said some things that really like resonate in my soul, right. When we think about carrier and customer relationships because in my opinion they're equally as important. You can have all freight in the world and if you don't have sound carriers and drivers to haul that freight, then it's a short term plan. Right. And it's really not a hard business model. Right. Our goal is how do we create value and grow our customers business, provide top notch service, situate ourselves as industry experts and support them whatever they need. We're a 247 industry. So how do I leverage automation, process structure to do that? And then on the carrier side, how am I developing and growing my carriers as well?
Because I want my carriers to be as successful as I am. And if you don't take care of both sides, it's a short term plan. And in that process, that structure, that documentation helps gaps when there's turnover and attrition and changing of jobs or new accounts landed right or after hours coverage or. Right. Vacation, sort of an interesting thing in this world. Are we ever really on vacation? But it's much easier to be on vacation if you actually have sound process and like documentation that your team can follow so you can actually be with your family and do things that matter to you. So I'm really big on accountability. And if you don't have process, it's hard to hold people accountable to. Well, that's what Joe showed me. But then I sat with Carl and he showed me something different.
So I just do something in the middle. No. Right. Not gonna work.
No. And that's exactly it. Right. Like it's that repeatable scalable process that people need to follow every single time. Like there is no. We do this with this one way and this with another. I've tried that in my career and it never worked out long term. Right. And I've just found that, you know, if I was to deduce it down, you know, the number one core principle that every customer and carrier need is actual communication. Now I'm not saying we post about communication out there, but it's actual communication. Pick up the phone, call them, verify load details, make sure all of that stuff is sound before you even send a truck in there. So your drivers are set up for success. And you can't just do that every other loader.
There's never a point where you're like, oh, we're good enough, we have to stop doing that. And it's like, because for my, like, I want to deliver the highest level of consistency across the board to my carriers and my customers, where it does not matter if we are doing one shipment a month with this person or a thousand shipments in a month with this person. They, if they sat in a room, they would be like, no, I get that, I get that. And there's no difference between the like, the response that they get from us. And I think that, you know, again, it's just, it's a gross oversight by a lot of people. And I don't even think people let it get that far.
I think a lot of individuals are like, oh, I got the build it up, post it out, send in a truck. Did you call and verify Is the load ready? I don't know. Did you, I don't know. Just send them in? And that's like, that's kind of like the way that people work. I just don't get it.
Same, same here. And look, you hit two things that just my soul is like, yes. Right. We are a communication company. At the end of the day, that's what we get paid for to provide communication, updates status. Right. Inform them of market conditions, seasonality, fluctuations, load to truck ratios. Right. All of the things that go into kind of D price and demand. Right. Supply and demand. But also beyond that, we have to keep track of these relationships and it's in the details. So I want to know that Cindy at XYZ Shipper is obsessed with her dog and loves football and takes her kid to T ball. Right. Because the more I know about these individuals that kind of work within larger supply chain at every level, the more I create that rapport. And in our business, relationships are everything.
And if you don't know the humans working with, you're no different than any of the other kind of competitors out there. So for me, it's in those details.
So the word relationship, I think is thrown out there as much as anything. What does the word relationship actually mean to you?
So my entire goal when I'm thinking about how to develop and coach and mentor and create educational aha moments for humans is how do I create something called equal business stature. And at the end of the day, I don't want to be reliant on my shippers. I want them to be as reliant on me and the service that I provide as I am on them giving me business. Right. And the same goes for my carriers. I want my carriers, my truck drivers, my team to rely on me as much as I need them. And if you create that equal business stature on both sides of the street, respectfully, you are going to situate yourself for long term success. Because then if the market changes, which we know, right. Coming out of 23, 24 January, right. It's been a journey. We'll just call it that.
Right. It's been a, a journey or like a bit of a ride that you just cannot get off of. Right. And it has lots of steep turns and flips. But I do feel that it, we're moving in a positive direction. But I think it's the, the human element that at the end of the day connects us all. So how, I'm not saying capitalize on that and leverage being a Good human and do crappy things with it, right? Because at the end of the day we have to go to with ourselves at night. And if you don't live with an integrity and you don't move forward in a way that you understand that yes, I need them and they're helping me, but also I want to do the same for them when that market turns.
If I've taken care of our carriers and our customers, they're going to take care of me if I ask for a rate increase or on the flip side, hey, can you help me out with this load? I know it sucks, right? But if you do this, I'm going to hook you up with some other opportunities in the future, right? So that transparency, realness and like you said, conversations, communication, talk to the people in your life that give you business.
I think a lot, you know, you're 100% right on what you're saying there. I think a lot of people get lost in the word relationship when they're not benefiting anymore. Then they want to start crying foul, right? They were like, oh, where's the relationship? Where's the relationship? Well, it's not one sided, you know, like it is really carving out that mutually beneficial across the board. Carriers got to win, customer has to win, you have to win. You have to find that synergy that's out there because otherwise you are just another provider that they're going to recycle through on the next RFP or the next bid cycle, whatever that looks like. They're just going to find somebody else if you're not doing anything.
And now I'm not naive and I'm not going to sit up here and say that there are not customers who legitimately just look for the cheapest cost on every single they're out there, so be it. That's actually your job as a sales rep is to find those customers and then make sure that nobody in your business actually goes after them because they're out there, right? I'm not here to knock anybody's hustle. That's just not the way I like to roll though, long term. And same thing with the carriers, right? There are carriers out there who, you know what, they want to make as much money as possible on every single shipment, more power to them. Do not let that affect you and how you operate.
I have just found throughout my career, and maybe it's because I'm just a little bit older now, that if I hold myself to a higher standard and if I operate the exact same way, no matter what good Things tend to come that way as opposed to going out there and penny pinching and looking how can I cut somebody else out at the knees? Because just like you, Eileen, I've been in this industry for a while. I've seen multiple market shifts. I've seen about as many market swings as you can imagine in my career. And I know that what goes up must come down and vice versa. And I, what does not change as a broker is your ability to actually find trucks. All right?
And again, I'm still waiting for that brokerage to come to me with a business plan where they can pick up freight and deliver it without a truck. And I'm yet to see that one. So.
Weird. Yeah, weird that does not exist. Let me know if anybody comes to that comes to you with that because I'll be very intrigued in their psychic magical abilities. Because there's no way around that. I, I think at the end of the day it's about, and I think, you know, thinking about the term relationship. There's different types of relationships and transport, you know, transportation. When you think about, let's look at carriers even, right? There's transactional level carriers, which is how most things start. You've never worked with them before. You pick up the phone, they're able to take the freight. It's a good, you know, you match on rate, you know, whatever, right. They've vetted and cleared your carrier call process, which we could talk probably for an entire six days on carrier call process and why that's important.
But, but I think if you get through that, it's maximizing on those tractional transactional opportunities. Does somebody provide top service? Why are we not using them again? So I think we need to think about things. Relationships are not a one size fits all. How we, how we cultivate and kind of nurture transactional relationships with carriers and shippers are very different than how our true contracted long term, kind of like marriage equivalent of relationships with. But guess what? Both need work. And if you don't work at any of these relationships, that's when you get yourself into trouble.
How, how do you work through or how do you work with people? And you might be covering this in your session as well at the tia because you like when I think of the term partnership and you know, you brought up, you know, like there's going to be an inevit, difficult conversation, right? Maybe it's your core carrier coming to you saying we need hypothetical 100 extra dollars a load and you're now taken aback because you thought you had this perfect system. Everything was great, but the honeymoon phase has officially ended and now the real work starts. How do you work with people through that scenario?
So I think step number one is making sure the team is educated and understands the true cost of hire. Right. So, so what analytics, what data did you analyze the lane? Did you look at a comparable lane? I, I mentioned loads of truck ratios. What type of environment is the carrier picking up in and where are they delivering to? Because if you don't know load to truck ratios at both, you're most likely going to get the wrong rate if you're not looking at your historical buys. So if I believe that there is always a truck, it just might not be at the rate you want. Right. Like you could, we can find a truck, but the goal is the best truck at the right rate. Right. That, that's kind of the goal here. Right.
And I think if you don't understand market seasonality fluctuations, right. We have this lovely Hallmark holiday coming up which many people know happens on February 14th that really starts produce, the produce kind of market and cycle for the year. Right. Because those flowers coming into the ports in Florida then supply chain goes up and out across the domestic United States. So if you follow that seasonality, you're going to understand load to truck ratios and it's teaching the team to do that. And also. Right. It's not just about the rate, it's what other value can I add? And maybe that's accessorials. Maybe that's right. Reloads. In my opinion, booking a single load at a time with any type of carrier is a miss unless I'm dealing with a fall off situation or something. That. Right. Requires instant kind of scotch tape, band aid.
But how can I sell multiple loads at a time? How can I. Right. Keep that carrier moving? And, and that's what my presentation is called, the Art of Controlling the truck. Yeah, that's what it's about. Carriers want to talk to less brokers. So if we do our jobs really well, we can help them.
Yeah. And I feel like, you know, there's a lot of synergies there because you know, there's a lot of people who listen to this show or who are in this industry that they're doing both. Right. It's that cradle to grave model. And I think that what you just said there is like the, one of the most accurate statements ever. Customers want to talk to less brokers, carriers want to talk to less brokers. They want to work with a couple of core people time and time again. And that's where it's like, you really gotta, you got, you really gotta ask yourself, you know, like that the cost of acquisition, what does it actually cost your company? Because like, I think I talk about this probably more than anything.
The amount of people who are willing to pull somebody off to save 50 bucks and then recover that load seven times and now it is now a net 500 loss when you put everybody's time associated with recovering that load. And then ultimately for if you've ever developed a book of business and anything, you know how hard it actually is to get customers. Right? Like contrary to what the Internet says, you don't just snap your fingers, have an LLC and all of a sudden you're a millionaire. All right? That does not exist. Yeah.
No, I'm just kidding. But you're not wrong. People think it's that easy. And, and I'm so glad you brought that up because if you're not cross training your team until you've understood the blood, sweat and tears that go into prospecting a transportation customer or shipper in this industry, especially in a really difficult market, who maybe has a lot of really strict customer requirements, until you've tried to service that account at the desk level, it's really easy to sit on the other side of the street and you know, if you book freight for a living, well, why is your freight crappy? Right? And on the flip side, it's easy for the customer facing team to go, well, why can't you find a truck? Well, because you're asking me to go into a really difficult shipper in crappy weather in a congested area.
There's not going to be a reload option for them. Right. So they're going to have to deadhead. It starts, right? So you have to think about, we are solution engineers. That's what we do in this industry. So how can I look at a pain point that a customer is having and find the most efficient transportation system solution? That's my goal.
Yeah. No, and that right there is it. You know, I think like one thing, you know, you brought up the, the carrier reps have no idea what it's like to get a customer. Most customer reps have no idea what it is to actually cover. They just see lanes and then they're like, well, I bid, you know, a dollar, am I not going to say a dollar a mile? I'll get chastised for that. But we Bid X Y is not moving, yada yada. And it's like if you've never done both rules or if you can't see it from somebody else's perspective, that is, I think it's a massive miss by a lot of people and cross training people out there. I think that that's why, you know, like when I first came into the industry, you know we, I started off as a carrier app.
For like the first four years that's all I did. But then it was then I transitioned over and I started doing customer sales and it was like a whole new ball game. But like the benefit was, is like I was the backup for the customer rep on the table that I worked in. So I had a little bit of an idea. I know how hard we worked to keep those accounts running, but. And that's why it's like, for me, like the model that you're working inside of your office is very crucial. Like I love the pod model or the cradle to grave model because you have some skin in the game. You actually know what's going on.
As opposed to the split model where carrier reps are on the second floor and customer reps are on the first floor and there is no communication that goes on out there. And I think like as you build and scale your operation, you need to look in to some of those things where it's just like I can't tell you. You know, again, I fancy myself as somebody who knows a little bit about trucking. At the end of the day, I think I know a little bit about this industry. I know how hard I work to get new business right now. The amount like I, I have made as of this show, I've made already made 35 cold calls today. All right, I got two people on the phone.
Two people actually answered the phone today, all right, and one of them, hey, we're not working with brokers right now. Remove us from your list. Second one, I'm about to walk into a meeting. Call me later. Okay, perfect. But again, we're out here making that effort day in and day out, just for crumbs at the end of the day because that's where you're going to start. You're never going to walk into a hey, there's a thousand load RFP that we're going to award you every single month. It's all the same. That just does not happen. There is a buildup phase that comes along with it. To get to that level, it takes years of preparation to get up there.
Yep. I could not agree more. And one of the things that, like, probably one of my favorite training moments I've had at RETMS and now at Warner is, you know, creating kind of tailored programs that allow especially new or transitioning employees to sit in multiple seats. Right. To know what it is to deal with load tender acceptance and scheduling and. Right. And then to track because it's really easy to hate on tracking. Guess what? If you're not getting updates on your loads, how can you provide service to your customer? Right. And, and to sit in every seat. There's so much value in that, even if it's for a short amount of time.
And what I find when people end up in whatever their kind of more semi permanent role is going to be, they at least have an understanding and appreciation of the steps that come before and after them. And it's much easier for them to be like, oh, it is a crappy lane or oh, this customer is challenging. Doesn't mean we're not going to do it. But kind of going into it with that lens of understanding is everything.
Yeah. I think that there needs to be more of a comprehensive approach, kind of across the board with a lot of this. And, you know, it's one of those things I'm really looking forward to learning from all the instructors at the sales summit. Right. Because there's going to be some really good topics out there. And you know, again, I've been doing this for a long time. I know you've been doing this for a long time. One thing that I know for sure is I don't know shit. And I can always learn from somebody else. Like I'm constantly looking to how do I improve, how do I get better? There's no way that anybody in their right mind could sit back and say, I've got it all figured out.
I am very fortunate to know some very successful people that are not Internet successful, like actual verifiable successful. You can Google their net worth everything and they have that exact same approach. A lot of the books that I read listen to on audio. They all say the same. They're constantly learning. They're always looking for a better way to do things. And I feel like that is the next iteration of where the industry is kind of trending. I think it's going to silo a little bit here. And I'm seeing just based on the data from my outreach, I think that customers are looking for more subject matter experts in specific styles of freight than the spray and pray methodology that has Worked out there.
Maybe some of the larger providers are having different success, but I know of what's going on inside of my organization, what trips their interest is that comes along.
Yeah. And the second any of us think we know it all about transportation, supply chain, freight rate, customer service, we need to be walked out the door because there's no such thing. I start my day every day by reading and I end my day every day by reading or listening to a podcast or an audit. Right. Because things change. What we paid for a third party carrier at 8 this morning, it's a very different number now. Right. So, so understanding what am I coming into and kind of blocking your calendar in the morning? I use my drive into the office, right. To listen to something. What's going on in the industry.
And no matter what your role is within your organization, if you're not doing that and you're not mindful of what other people are saying or the trends or fluctuations or pain points or then you're not going to be able to provide top notch service. Because it's our job to stay on top of that. And honestly it's a full time job in itself. Staying on top of like industry trends and. Right. But it matters.
Yeah. And it is graduating because like every relationship starts off as a transaction, every partnership starts as a transaction. It's graduating into loyalty is where a lot of work comes in and you need to stay ahead of it. You need to be bringing what is best for the group forward thinking that comes along with it. Right. Because more times than not saving money for somebody, which I know is like a big priority for a lot of people because you know, in the real world, you guys, there's actual P Ls that you have to operate off of. Saving them money sometimes is not on a rate per mile basis. It is this the most effective.
Way to move operational efficiency? Can I save a revenue generator? Clicks Can I automate a process that is very manual nps the team also hates that to me is the bread and butter. And what I love about the sales success summit, right. It was the first time TA is doing something like this. You have a group of humans who all specialize in a different aspect of sales, right. And human development. And I could not be more pumped. And I gotta be honest with you, I'm sort of excited that I'm presenting so that I also get to attend and learn from. Right. All the people who maybe do things a little bit different or focus on a different facet of. Of kind of the business than I Do so. So I'm pumped.
Yeah, same here. I'm really looking forward to it. Eileen, I can't thank you enough for your time. I mean, everybody who listens to this show has a day job, so we gotta. We gotta kind of wrap up here and get this rolling. But how does anybody reach out to you to find out more? Maybe people just have questions or like, hey, Eileen, I really like your. Your thought process on, you know, developing processes and everything. How do they reach out to you?
Yeah, so, absolutely. LinkedIn's probably the best way. Feel free to shoot me a connection or a note. A. I'm part of the Warner Enterprises learning and development team, so you can also ping me at Warner. I'm always happy to assist. And there's a pretty fantastic team of humans that I get to work with that if I'm not the best fit. I know one of them also has the back because one person can't do it. All right, So I think it's how can we find the areas that we add value? But, yeah, I hope to see you all at the sales success summit. You're gonna be stuck with Chris and I a little bit longer if you go, but otherwise, I hope to connect with you on LinkedIn.
Now. I appreciate it, Eileen, and if for some reason you guys can't find Eileen, hit me up. I will gladly put you guys in direct contact with her. You need to talk to her, all right? She knows what the hell she's doing, you guys. It's very evident if you've been listening to this show at all. But with that being said, you guys, that's going to be it for today. As always, if you guys got value, which I know you did, subscribe to the show. If you're feeling really ambitious, though, you guys rank the show on itunes and Spotify, because that kicks it out there into the little algorithm, spits it out to your known connections as well. Because if you saw value, that's how they're going to see value as well. I appreciate you guys.
I love you guys and we'll be talking to you soon.
Bye, everyone.
Now, we just.