Podcast: Trey Griggs on Building a Successful Business in Transportation

You don’t have to look far in our industry to find someone who grew up surrounded by trucking. For many of us, it really is in our DNA. 

In this episode of Freight Nation: A Trucking Podcast, host Brent Hutto is joined by Trey Griggs, Founder and CEO of BETA Consulting Group. Together, they explore Trey’s journey through sales and freight brokerage to founding his own company and his advice and strategies on turning customers into fans to create a successful business in transportation. 

The road less traveled

In the late eighties, Trey spent his childhood in his dad’s truck, traveling the roads of Kansas City. While his dad made deliveries, Trey would play catch against the walls of the loading bays.

At seven years old, he’d often be fast asleep in the cab. But Trey remembers fondly how 10 am would mean sausage muffin time at the local gas station – plus chocolate milk if his Dad was having a good week. By the time he was a teenager, he was already backing up the trucks. 

“I just remember listening to eighties music. I mean, that was basically from 1986 to about ‘90, ‘91 was the era in which every summer I would go and I’d ride around with him. Whenever eighties music comes on, it puts me right back in the cab of that truck.“

Despite the fond memories, Trey didn’t find his way to transportation until much later. Along the way, he had several jobs, including high school physics teacher, youth minister, and door-to-door salesman. When he unexpectedly hit his stride in sales, he landed a job in transportation, specifically helping carriers and brokers. Sales also taught him the power of marketing and, more importantly, the weight of words and how they impact the process, which eventually led him to found BETA Consulting Group. 

Turning words into action

Being in sales led Trey to see a gap in the industry’s approach to sales and marketing. While people value sales and often hire sales teams for quick revenue gains, this strategy doesn’t build long-term brand recognition or a sustainable growth engine. Focusing only on sales forces salespeople to handle marketing tasks, which isn’t efficient. Marketing is essential for creating awareness, generating curiosity, and educating the market. Without dedicated marketing efforts, sales teams end up doing marketing, which slows them down. 

Trey really understands the importance of words and how people perceive value in the words you choose. Excellent customer service turns customers into fans, and great marketing gains those customers.

“Because everything you do in sales and marketing starts with the words. You know, people make buying decisions based upon what they read or what they hear. It’s the words that matter, and so it’s really important to get those right, and it’s important to position yourself correctly.”

Why you want customers as fans

If you get your marketing right, you find customers. If you then get your product or service right, they become fans. 

“Well, you know a lot of, uh, businesses. When I talk about this, they say, I don’t want to think of my customers as fans and I say, Why not? Because what is a fan do? A fan pays full price, a fan keeps coming back, and a fan tells everybody about their experience. That’s what every business ultimately wants. Our fans. We just think it’s kind of weird to talk about it like that. And so when we think about not only our customers and how can we make them fans of be consulting group, it all goes to the experience. It all goes to the experience that they have with you, uh, the value that they’re getting out of you. Great marketing gets you in the door, but a great product or service keeps you in the door and really develops fans.”

And with trucking, it’s no different. Carriers are the customers of brokers and vice versa. And to maintain those long-term trusted relationships, especially in a business where time is money and reliable networking is key, good customer service and having “fans” can make or break your business.

To learn more about Trey and BETA Consulting, tune into this episode of Freight Nation: A Trucking Podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform.