There is a fleet of vans sitting in an upfitter’s shop in my memory that I have returned to more times than I can count. I did not know it at the time, but that tour early in my time at One Nexus would become the standard by which I measure what it actually means to solve an end-user problem in this industry.
The customer’s transported materials included steel pipes. Anyone who has driven with unsecured pipe in a van knows the sound: a relentless rattle that makes a long route feel like a concert you definitely did not want to attend. The upfitter’s solution was not complicated: they had engineered a tube fitted between the vehicle frame and the shelf unit, lined with a foam material that deadened the vibration at the source.
Simple and clever. And the product of someone who cared enough about a driver’s daily experience to actually think about it. Creative engineering? Sure… but really, that is empathy with a practical outcome.
Later on the same tour: a vehicle purpose-built for one of the most detail-oriented fast food brands in the country. A custom grease transport unit, spec’d to a standard that left no room for “close enough.” Every decision on that vehicle existed because someone had asked a precise question about what the end user actually needed, and stayed in the problem until the answer was right.
I left that upfitter thinking about what it means to be a true resource in fleet and commercial.
A Championship Connection
My mentor Karl Morris, one of the most respected performance coaches in sport, recently issued me a challenge: “Be a Person of Solutions.” Around the same time, he issued a parallel challenge to one of his other clients: “Ask What is Possible?” That client, Ryan Fox, just won The Open Championship, the most historic and important golf tournament in the world.
Different words. Same philosophy. When you tie both together, they put language to something I’ve been trying to succinctly articulate since that upfitter tour: the Person of Solutions does not wait for problems to surface… they walk in already asking what is possible, then create the conditions and actions to get it done.
The Time Audit
Recently, while presenting at a Truck Club event, I introduced a new One Nexus Dealer Training tool called the Time Audit. The concept is straightforward: map out everything in your day that pulls you away from selling, so you can see how few true selling hours you actually have, then build a plan around protecting them.
We were walking through it as a group when a hand went up. “You forgot customization,” the rep said.
He was not wrong in spirit, even if the category existed under a different label in the tool. What struck me was the instinct behind the comment. He wasn’t being difficult, or at least I didn’t take it that way. He was being precise. He was identifying a specific drain on his time that mattered to his reality, and he wanted to make sure the solution fit.
That is the Person of Solutions mindset declaring itself in a room full of peers who sell for a living. He was asking for accuracy, not a workaround. And that distinction, right there, is the difference between a simple vendor and a trusted resource.
My favorite word in this industry, as I mention often, is indeed resource. Not because it sounds professional, but because it means something. A “resource” anticipates problems or opportunities, shapes the conversation around them, and shows up with something useful before being asked.
Ask What Is Possible
The Person of Solutions operates from a question: “What does this customer actually need, and what is possible in service of that need?” Or even simpler, as we share in our Ultimate Boot Camps at near-mantra levels, simply, “What is best for the customer and their business?”
The questions sound simple, but we all know they aren’t. Answering either one requires setting aside the comfortable assumption that your standard offering is sufficient. It requires genuine curiosity about the specifics of someone else’s operation. And it requires the discipline to stay in the problem long enough to find the right solution rather than the fastest one.
The upfitter who lined a pipe rack with foam did not do that because it was in the manual. They did it because they were still asking the question when everyone else had already moved on.
The rep in the Truck Club who raised his hand about customization was doing the same thing: he was still in the problem.
Separate yourself from vendors who just sell products — become a true resource. Talent or tenure don’t earn this distinction. The willingness to keep asking what is possible, even when an answer is already on the table, does.
Be the Resource
Karl, a great mentor whose thinking has shaped more of my professional instincts than anyone this side of the great “Coach” Ken Taylor, issued me that challenge not long ago: be a Person of Solutions. That phrasing clicked and worked for me with nearly instantaneous results. It is possible for it to work for you, too…
Because this industry is full of talented and relentless people of every background, and the ones who build the most trust, earn the most loyalty, and create the most lasting impact are the ones who show up as a resource first and a salesperson second.
The pool noodle foam in the pipe rack, the custom grease unit built to the standard only befitting of the best burger chain in the world, and the rep who needed his specific reality reflected back at him accurately before he could trust the tool… Every one of those breakthroughs had a Person of Solutions at the center of it.
This industry relies on solving real-world problems that keep businesses moving. Look at the history of Work Truck Solutions and what that team has built over time. At the outset, founder Kathryn Schifferle asked what was possible for commercial vehicle inventory, establishing a culture that continues today. From the nationwide commercial marketplace to data intelligence tools that help industry partners formulate strategies, the company has grown into a collection of genuine “People of Solutions.”
When you focus on what is best for the customer, anticipate their needs, and stay in the problem long enough to find the right answer, you separate yourself from simple vendors and become an irreplaceable resource.
Ask what is possible, become a Person of Solutions, and get to work.
About the author: Will Brogan is the Strategist for the Commercial Truck Training Division at the One Nexus Group. Will has been a part of Ken Taylor & Associates since 2012, overseeing its transition to the One Nexus Group portfolio in 2024. Will has an excellent track record of developing and delivering training programs and building highly effective leadership collaborations with a variety of industry partners.
