Enhancing Fleet Safety and Efficiency with AI Solutions | Shelby Noakes from GPS Track It

Ernesto Quezada: Pathmonk is the intelligent tool for website lead generation. With increasing online competition, over 98% of website visitors don’t convert. The ability to successfully show your value proposition and support visitors in their buying journey separates you from the competition online. Pathmonk qualifies and converts leads on your website by figuring out where they are in the buying journey and influencing them in key decision moments. With relevant micro experiences like case studies, intro videos, and much more, stay relevant to your visitors and increase conversions by 50%. Add Pathmonk to your website in seconds. Let the AI do all the work and get access to 50% more qualified leads while you keep doing marketing and sales as usual. Check us on pathmonk.com. Welcome to today’s episode. Let’s talk about today’s guest. We have Shelby from GPS Track It, CRO with them. How are you doing today, Shelby?

Shelby Noakes: Doing fantastic. Glad to be here.

Ernesto: It’s great to have you on, and, well, I’m sure our listeners are tuning in, wondering what GPS Track It is all about. So let’s kick it off with that. In your own words, can you tell us a little bit more, Shelby?

Shelby: Yeah, it’s given away in the name of the company, GPS Track It. We sell commercial fleet solutions focused on routes for commercial fleets, location, and really, most importantly, driver safety, with a number of different ways we do that with our hardware and software. We’re all about connecting the trucks that you see on the roads, doing all the work, and making sure that the fleet managers and companies have all the data they need to protect their drivers and optimize the driving behavior. Then that’s in addition to asset tracking as well. Anything related to a fleet, whether it be a field service or whether it be in the cab, is where we’re focused.

Ernesto: All right, awesome. Great to hear that. And so that way, our listeners who are listening could get a good understanding of your company. What are some key problems you solve for clients?

Shelby: Selling into the commercial fleet space, which, to define that for our listeners, is everything from a Ford F-150 that belongs to a landscaping company to an Amazon or a delivery truck with UPS to large 18-wheelers. That’s the type of customers we’re selling into, with a big focus on SMB. The major problems in this industry that are solved with GPS Track It are, first, the risk mitigation you have if there are accidents. Poor driving behavior leads to a lot of increased costs. It could be high insurance rates, replacing the tires, servicing the vehicles, or just flat-out, of course, in the case of an accident. We are driven by our video solutions. We install a camera that faces the road, faces the in-cabin, and then we use auxiliary cameras that go outside the fleet as well. That provides the peace of mind that these SMB customers—up to large clients—need in the event there are issues, and it helps prevent those issues.

The second thing we help solve is companies with anywhere from four or five to thousands of trucks in the field being able to know where they are, how they’re being used, and really optimize the routes to maximize time. Trucks that are just sitting, waiting for direction or late for an appointment, aren’t being utilized the right way. So there are really those two sides of the problems we solve: full visibility into how your fleet is behaving and then risk mitigation for the drivers and the companies to reduce their costs.

Ernesto: Awesome. So then, would it be fair to say that your ideal ICP is fleet-only companies, or is there another vertical segment that you guys like to go for?

Shelby: Yeah, it’s pretty vertical agnostic in terms of the types of companies that have fleets. The difference in verticals comes down to the types of vehicles more so than the vertical that they’re used in. We’ve got different solutions spanning the verticals, mostly in terms of what customers might buy from us. Cameras are really important for all customers, but route optimization might not be as important and might not be something you want to pay for if you’re a customer serving a local market with a small team. So, that’s probably the best way to answer that.

Ernesto: Okay, awesome. Great. And so how would somebody usually find out about you guys? What would you say is your top client acquisition channel?

Shelby: The great thing about GPS Track It—and this is key for any company with your namesake—is SEO. What we do is implied in the name, so it allows us to have a really good rank and makes it easy to find us on the web. We’ve got a strong ranking to find us on Google. But, of course, that’s just to get folks to your site. The primary means we use are paid search campaigns. So we’re on Google Search, display ads, and we do social media campaigns and work with influencers. We’re primarily targeting buyers with account-based marketing and other tools, bringing them in and linking them up with a sales team.

The second means for us is using indirect partners, companies that collect valuable data from people searching on the web. We grab that data from them and call those potential customers quickly. That model is about someone searching online for this service. We’re not always going to catch them on our website, so we partner with companies that capture that data. They then feed that potential customer data to five other companies. So, when you talk about marketing, for me as a Chief Revenue Officer, it’s about bridging the team so our marketing and sales teams are completely aligned. For example, when we get a lead that maybe four other companies also have—whether it’s through this indirect channel or a lead we’ve purchased—we have to have a team standing by that can call them quickly and often. Then, we follow up with great marketing content about our solution. The quicker we do that, the higher we convert every single time.

Ernesto: All right, awesome. Great to hear that. And, as you mentioned conversions, so that way our listeners who are tuning in can check you out at gpstrackit.com. What role does the website play for client acquisition?

Shelby: It’s super important. It’s our voice. It’s where we gather information on our customers and where they learn about us. We use a lot of the typical tools you’re seeing now, like live chat features, which have proven to be extremely valuable. We use both AI-generated responses and real people. We make it really easy to connect with a real person. In some B2C businesses, that’s probably not as important. But when you’re selling a complex solution like ours, it’s crucial. Our industry has been around for about 20 years, but these are still complex solutions because every fleet and company has different needs. Being able to speak with someone live in our business is super important.

So, getting someone on the website to consume as much data as quickly and concisely as possible is fantastic. Then, giving them the ability to connect with a human being is critical, especially in a complex selling environment. I think we’re moving toward more AI in this area, but today, connecting leads to actual people is still incredibly valuable.

Ernesto: All right, awesome to hear that from you guys. But let’s switch gears a little bit, Shelby, and let’s talk about you being the leader at GPS Track It. You’re the CRO. What are some key tasks you focus on in your day-to-day work?

Shelby: Oh, man. Client acquisition is our number one priority—right, what we just talked about. Then, the efficiency in which we move clients through the funnel while maintaining what we call the “Batman and Robin approach.” We view our clients as the superhero, and we’re here to help them. To make that one cohesive approach, there’s a lot of internal work I do daily to maximize the process—from when someone learns about us to when they purchase and receive their first invoice. There’s quite a bit involved, from marketing and website clarity to how we acquire leads and the language we use. It’s something we’re constantly tweaking.

Ernesto: All right, awesome. Awesome to hear that. Well, let’s jump into our next section here, Shelby, which is our rapid-fire question round. You ready?

Shelby: All right, let’s do it.

Ernesto: First off, what is the last book you read?

Shelby: The last book I read was The Four Disciplines of Execution. It’s a phenomenal book for anyone looking for the “how” and not just the “why” of strategy. So many books are written on why strategy is important and how to develop it, but this book focuses on how to actually execute it. Joining this company seven months ago, we had to make a lot of changes early on. This book helped us pull everyone together to stay focused on the one major thing that would help us achieve our goals versus getting caught up in the minutiae. Highly recommend The Four Disciplines of Execution.

Ernesto: All right, awesome. Great read there for our listeners. Next, what is one single thing your company is focused on the most at the moment?

Shelby: Massive investments in AI. We’re now using AI to cold call potential customers—well, warmer leads that we’ve nurtured through different marketing tools. AI makes those calls and schedules appointments with sales reps. We’re also investing heavily in AI within our platform to act as the fleet manager for our customers. It uses algorithms to make decisions on behalf of our customers to manage their fleets better. On top of that, all our content is AI-generated. AI is a huge focus for us, and we see it not as a replacement for jobs but as a way to enhance our business and drive more opportunities for hiring experts to manage this technology.

Ernesto: Awesome. Great insights there. Next up, if there were no boundaries in technology, what would be the one thing you’d want to fix for your role today?

Shelby: If I could have complete consumer understanding of buying behavior—if I could completely know what’s in a buyer’s mind and how they perceive us—it would allow us to make changes faster. We do a lot with customer surveys to gather insights, but if technology could give us a faster and deeper understanding of buyer needs and demands, we could react in seconds.

Ernesto: Definitely agree with you on that. Lastly, Shelby, you’ve got a wealth of experience already, but what’s one piece of advice you’d give yourself if you were to restart your journey as a marketer today?

Shelby: Don’t be a follower; be a challenger. It’s fine to observe what your competition is doing, but if I could go back, I’d focus more on being a challenger in the space—showing customers how and why we’re different and why that matters to them. It’s about focusing on your unique strengths rather than trying to simply match what others are doing. That’s the advice I’d give my younger self.

Ernesto: Great advice there, Shelby. Well, thanks a lot for being on the show today. I do want to give you the last word. If someone forgets everything about the interview, what’s the one thing they should remember about your company?

Shelby: That we are one of the leaders in this space because we focus on safety and efficiency for drivers. While we have many features, our core value is genuinely caring about drivers and the people they impact. We’re proud to play a role in making the roads safer for everyone while helping our customers optimize their operations.

Ernesto: Awesome. Great to hear that from you guys. Well, Shelby, thank you so much for being on today’s episode. To our listeners, thank you so much for tuning in. Check them out at gpstrackit.com, and we’re looking forward to our next episode on Pathmonk Presents. Thanks a lot, Shelby.

Shelby: Thanks, Ernesto. Appreciate it.