The logistics industry gathered recently at the Journal of Commerce Inland Distribution Conference 2025 in Chicago, where sales strategy took center stage. We connected with Josh Lyles, Founder of Salesdash CRM, and industry expert Samantha to discuss the crucial internal processes, evolving technology, and fundamental approaches necessary for sales success in today’s competitive freight market.
For logistics sales teams, particularly freight brokerages, success often starts with internal discipline. Josh Lyles notes that teams frequently rotate systems, but true effectiveness begins with analyzing internal processes and planning the attack.
A common issue hindering performance is lead overload. Samantha confirms this challenge, noting that companies often either struggle to find data or have "way too much data and... too many leads". If an account is not currently transacting business, Samantha generally advocates keeping it open for prospecting rather than assigning it.
Josh Lyles points out the difficulty of having excessive leads assigned to a representative:
“One of the very common things I will say when we’re transitioning teams over from a different CRM in specifically, would just be they have too many leads in their name. Like it’s so so common.”
When reps are overwhelmed, they often don't know where to start, leading to lower activity. Salesdash CRM addresses this by allowing managers to set maximum account limits or use a "shot clock" feature that automatically moves a shipper out of a rep's name if they haven't been reached out to within a set number of days.
To manage lead data, many logistics companies utilize specialized data providers. The top three providers identified are Zoom Info, Seamless AI, and Apollo IO. Due diligence is required when selecting these systems, as effectiveness can vary widely based on cost, vendor focus (e.g., accuracy of mobile numbers versus emails), and the team’s specific needs. The contact data itself remains the most critical component of these platforms.
Regarding outreach, the debate over which channel works best is often "a lot of noise," according to Josh Lyles. The reality is that all channels—cold calls, cold emails, and social selling—can work; success depends on volume, consistency, and the seller’s skill set.
Samantha highlights the individual nature of success, emphasizing that sales managers must identify and exploit a seller’s unique strengths:
“It’s so dependent on the person and their skill set... So it’s really about trying to find what their thing is that they do really well and then helping to kind of, I guess, exploit that throughout their sales cycle and process.”
While emails offer comfort and ease due to automation and volume plays, Josh Lyles remains a strong advocate for calls, viewing them as the fastest way to accelerate the pipeline, learn about a prospect, and efficiently qualify or disqualify opportunities.
Furthermore, the practice of on-site, in-person visits has been reviving since the pandemic, making it an acceptable and expected form of prospecting again, especially as more workers return to office environments.
Sellers must tune out generalized sales advice, especially since selling into shippers is a uniquely difficult and highly competitive B2B environment. When prospecting, sellers are operating in single-digit percentages of success, as roughly 95% of prospects are not in an active buying cycle. A win might come after 99 "nos," which underscores the necessity of persistence and volume.
Insights gathered directly from shippers at the conference reveal critical feedback regarding sales efforts. One shipper reported receiving 10 to 15 calls and over 10 emails daily. The primary complaint was the reliance on automation:
“I get a bunch of automated emails... I could tell that it’s automated. It doesn’t feel like there’s any effort or, you know, that I’m just like another person in their sequence or whatever it may be.” (Josh Lyles relaying a shipper’s comments)
This suggests that informed buyers, who now use tools like ChatGPT for research, often prefer to receive information that allows them to make decisions independently, rather than being constantly told what to do by a salesperson.
The same shipper also noted that while desperation is high in a down market, they pay close attention to which sales teams make a conscious effort to reach out when the market is good, indicating a genuine long-term desire to earn their business.
Historically, CRMs focused heavily on brokers and shipper relationships, but asset carriers are increasingly developing formalized sales structures. Salesdash CRM has expanded to serve carriers, who are seeking organization and a way to move away from relying on spreadsheets.
For brokers, carrier relationship management is becoming critical. Samantha notes a persistent challenge: carriers' cold emailing brokers to sell their capacity often receive low response rates from carrier management or procurement teams. This gap highlights a structural issue within brokerages that must be addressed by leadership.
The solution requires brokers to view carriers as true customers and dedicate effort to understanding their needs. A dual-sided CRM helps the brokerage team capture essential data about their carriers—such as preferred lanes, equipment types, and fleet size—and keeps all that information in one place. This increases carrier utilization by making it easy for any rep to quickly find and offer loads to the right carrier.
Ultimately, Samantha suggests, the structure of many brokerages needs an overhaul, as many still see individual reps hoarding carrier capacity within their own book of business, preventing the full network from tapping into available trucks.
Despite these internal challenges, it is an optimal time to be a broker. Since the pandemic, broker market share has increased significantly (rising from under 20% to the 30% range), and predictions show continued growth. Shippers view brokers as a strategic partner to offload risks associated with insurance, legal liabilities, and the constant adaptation of technology.
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