I am a Salesman

I sell freight brokerage services and I sell education. Both are services in high demand. After years of being in the transportation industry I had the idea to start a freight broker and freight broker agent training program. I had been very successful and wanted to pay it forward by teaching others how to be successful in this industry. Along the way I met Gatlin, the online education Guru. I first asked him if he would work with me to turn our live course into an online course to be marketed through his system. He said yes and we wrote the online course (actually my wife spent a year of her life writing the online version of our course). His courses are all marketed through universities across the country. I asked if I could have a website to market all his courses directly to interested students. He said yes again. Our online freight broker courses is one of his top sellers along with medical billing. Thus the birth of PajamaLearning.biz – the elearning center.

A few years ago Ed2Go bought Gatlin and built on their excellent system and reputation.

ed2go is the industry leader in online learning for adults. They provide the highest-quality online continuing education courses that are affordable and easy to use through a network of over 1,800 top colleges and universities and at Pajamalearning .biz.

The variety of courses is impressive. Some courses get you credit toward a higher degree and some (like mine) are direct career training. Anyone can take a course through pajama learning whether you are working on a degree, want a new career, want to learn something to further your career or you simply want to learn something new. Most courses are taught by the guy that wrote the course. The instructors are available for questions and discussion. I enjoy conversing with our students. Learners have the most creative minds. Learning is never wasted. Peruse our courses and see what you’d enjoy learning.

Moving forward,

Jeff Roach
www.brooketraining.com
www.justintimefreight.com
www.pajamalearning.biz

Website Musts

Used to be, I thought producing a website for my business was a once in a while thing. Kind of like a brochure. You spend a lot of time producing a brochure, print a million copies and pass those puppies out to everyone. You make a new brochure when you run out of the old one. I looked at my website in the old days as an online brochure of my services. Now I see my website as a continually changing thing, linked to lots of other helpful information. We make changes to our website many times a month. That is one of the beauties of being online, it is much more dynamic than the printed world. So I continually look for information on how to keep my website and social media at the top of the game. I recently read this blog that talks about must features. Since many of my graduates go on to start their own freight brokerage they are going to need a website. Read through these tips from ten golden rules blog and refer to this blog for more ideas.


After you have your brilliant idea and are bringing it to the web, there are some critical factors that your website must feature to help you, the search engines and the visitors.

1) Analytics Tracking – It doesn’t matter if you have Google Analytics, Omniture or any other tracking tool. You want to understand where your visitors are coming from, and what actions they are taking when they are on your website.

2) HTML Site Map – This is an HTML page that simply lists all the pages on your website. This helps the search engines know about all of the pages on your site including the URLs that may not be discovered when the bots spider your site.

3) Keyword Research – Make sure you are adding the words people are searching for on the correct pages of your website. Keyword research will help you understand what search phrases are likely to bring the visitors who will take action on your website.

4) Test multiple browsers – Not all visitors will be using one browser. Make sure your website is seen how you want it to in all browsers possible.

5) Monitor errors – Run spider simulators on your website. This will tell you what information is wrong, what links are broken, and notify you of any issues the search engines may have.

Moving forward,

Jeff Roach
www.brooketraining.com
www.transportationtraining.com
www.pajamalearning.biz

Slow Down

We live in a rushed world. Quickly learned is quickly forgotten. Learn to be a freight broker in a classroom in a week…or take your time learning on line. Sounds quick but the key is to taking the time to really internalize the teaching. We stick with our students way after the course to support them in the set up of their new venture. All our courses teach you all you need to know to be a freight broker but as in anything in life, you get out of it what you put into it. And the sooner you start practicing what you learn the better you’ll succeed. It is like swimming. My niece is an incredible swimmer. One summer when she was about 7 I challenged her to a race across the pool. I thought, “I’m twice as long as this skinny little girl, I’ll beat her easily… yeah right, she beat me easily. Well she learned to swim in swimming lessons…but she became a champ on swim team by doing what she learned for hours every day and honing her strokes. Same with freight brokering. Learn how to do it in class then get out there, hone your skills and keep at it… you will succeed.

I see too many come into this wanting to find the short cut. I tell all my students to save 6 months worth of living expenses before you embark on this career. Give yourself time to build the business before you start making good money.

When you dig down into just about any “get rich story” you’ll find that the rich guy put in a lot of time finding his niche, building his empire and growing a support team before they found wealth.

I recently received an email from a student rushing through our online course. He didn’t think he was rushing but he was, he was anxious to become a broker. Here is my advice to him:


John (not his real name),

My goal is to get you working as a successful freight broker agent.

I will tell you the truth, based on my experiences both good and bad. I will do what is best for you. (You Are My Customer).

That's how you treat your customers. You have to find a way to give more than you take.

Before you can succeed you have to know all you can inside and out about this business. Have you memorized all of the procedures of accounts payable, claims, accounts receivable, collections, sales, advertising, computers and phone systems, carrier relations, dispatching, prospect development, IT, Home office, legal entities, and creative marketing? Do you know how to work in the information age?

My girls tell me Artist are the Smartest and Readers are Leaders. I agree. Slow Down.

To get you working with a company as a Freight Broker Agent, you have to know your stuff.

You, as my student, have to get after it or these big brokers will not recruit from me anymore. LOL. Memorize that course on-line and do your part my friend.

Keep at it for six months. You are going too fast. I have that same problem myself. I get going fast, I want quick turn around from every one and everything.

Go get em! This is going to be a good year. Anyone working with me, please realize I have refused to take part in the recession. We have a choice; I have chosen not to
participate with the economic crybabies. I choose to use my abilities. God says if he gives talents to you and you don't use them then shame on you. We all got em. I promise.

Believe me, If I can do this, so can you. I am a little crazy, have ADHD and didn't graduate from high school. I own an on-line school and a live school and a freight broker agency.... GO FIGURE?

I did graduate from Abilene Christian University a few years later. I am telling you it weren't easy, I kept taking the same old algebra class until I memorized it. It took four times. If I'm lying, I'm dying. That's how I met my bride, Janis. She was my beautiful tutor in college. No wonder it took me seven years to get out. She was a great tutor but her looks were a bit distracting. LOL

Anyway, you are going to be fine. I appreciate your awesome attitude. So will the brokers I introduce to you.

Between your experience and our course – you’re going to be great in this industry. You will also learn about dispatching, how to run the back office of a brokerage,
Claims management, Legal issues. I assure you we only allow the best brokers to recruit agents from Brooke Transportation Training courses. I swear to them that I am going to give them serious agents. So my job is to make sure each one of my customers/students are really ready to succeed, make me proud and be an incredible addition to the freight brokerages that bring them on board.

I’m an agent for a large trucking company myself. I know what it takes because I live it every day.


God Bless you and your family.

Best Regards,

JR

Follow me on Facebook, twitter and MySpace
www.brooketraining.com
www.transportationtraining.com
www.pajamalearning.biz

Need loads?

We’ve been working hard adding new features to our website. We’ve added an “available loads link”. Log on everyday to find loads that need to be moved.

Plus I am looking for hard working owner operators that want dedicated freight out of the midwest to Florida. If you are based out of the southeast or have customers there call me NOW: 817-897-0681. I would like to qualify you for a huge special project.

The great thing about transporting goods. No matter the state of the economy people need stuff. Companies need to get that stuff from their manufacturing plant to the distribution centers and to the stores or showrooms. That is where a freight broker comes in to save the day.

Gotta get back to work.

Moving forward,

Jeff Roach
www.brooketraining.com
www.transportationtraining.com
www.pajamalearning.biz

Get Caught Doing Good

Do you believe what goes around comes around…you get what you give…you reap what you sow… I sure do and see evidence of that all around.

Something else I’ve come to know as truth is: the greatest things in life get handed to you when you are minding your own business doing something worthwhile.

Attitude is everything
Perseverance is a close second
Focus on progress not perfection.
Just show up for work and be grateful for the opportunity of each day.

If you are not working, then volunteer somewhere that you would work if money weren’t a factor.
I know an industrious guy named Ed who is in his 70's. He became “Head of Volunteers of America” after working with gusto in a volunteer position. He volunteers somewhere and the next time I talk with him, he has a great job there....

I found my oldest daughter while shoveling hay. I was volunteering in a barn at Christ Haven Children's Home. Working just as hard as me was a clever blond 8 year old named Brandi. While working she was telling me how she had lost her foster parents and was really sad. Well, that jerked at my heart a bit. This little girl had been in the children’s home most all of her life. We decided to be her “mentor” family but became much more than that. She is my special pride and joy. She is 20 years now and just gave me my first grand baby.

She sells insurance. She is a great sales person. Not because of some training or having me as a father. She is great in sales because she knows people everywhere we go. She has a great attitude. She is beautiful both inside and out and loves people. People just know she is out for their best interest. Brandi would never do a deal with anyone unless it was good for them

In this day and time, in any business, especially a service business we have to realize that not all people in the company have sales titles but all have a part in the sales process. A salesman might secure the account but anyone can lose a customer. Remember they are called customers for a reason. They need a service that we provide. They pay our bills and make our stock go up. Every moment with the customer by anyone is a moment of truth. Do we value this relationship enough to treat them the way we want to be treated? Have you walked out of the store when they had the product you wanted but the service and communication was horrible? I sure have.

In the world of selling, the best listeners make the best sales people. Remember to be
sincere in your interest. There is nothing more valuable to someone else's self-esteem than a sincere compliment and nothing more hurtful than false flattery. Say what you mean and mean what you say. Honesty matters.

Moving forward,
Jeff Roach
www.brooketraining.com
www.justintimefreight.com
www.pajamalearning.biz

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