Welcome to the Iron Desk
You've joined a global heavy-equipment trading floor. Your job: turn cold contacts into live deals on used CAT and Komatsu iron. This bootcamp gets you producing in 21 days — not someday.
What ATG actually does
Americans Trades Group buys, sells, and brokers used mining and construction equipment — dozers, excavators, articulated trucks, motor graders, underground loaders — and moves it across four regions. We source retiring fleets where they're cheap and reposition them where projects are hungry for iron.
The game you're playing
Every deal has two sides, and you work both: someone buying iron for a project, and someone selling a fleet they're retiring. Your weapon is LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Your map is the Global Command hub. This course teaches you exactly who to hunt, how to reach them without getting your account flagged, and the daily rhythm that fills a pipeline.
Activity is the only thing you fully control. You can't force a reply, but you can always send the work. Week 1 is judged purely on what you put in. Do the reps and the results follow.
The Theater
Two regions, two hubs, one playbook. Know where the iron flows before you touch the keyboard.
Latin America
Mining and construction demand across the Andes and the north coast. Project markets pulling iron in: Peru, Colombia, Guyana, Suriname. Supply markets retiring fleets: Chile, Brazil, Peru.
Africa
The copper–cobalt–iron–gold belt. Tier-1 demand: DRC, Zambia, Guinea, Ghana. South Africa runs as the buy-side acquisition engine, the way Brazil does in LATAM.
Your map: the Global Command hub
Before you prospect a country, open the hub. It tells you which markets are hot, what equipment they need, and the doctrine for each region. You don't guess where to fish — the hub tells you where the water is.
By end of week one you should be able to name the Tier-1 markets in both theaters from memory, and say what kind of iron each one buys. You'll be quizzed.
Who You Hunt
Most reps fail here — they spray everyone. You'll target two precise profiles, by title, industry, and geography.
The Buyers
Titles: Procurement / Purchasing / Supply Chain Manager, Fleet Manager, Equipment Manager, Maintenance Superintendent, Mine Manager, Heavy Equipment Manager.
Where: DRC, Zambia, Guinea, Ghana · Peru, Colombia, Guyana, Suriname.
The Sellers
Titles: the same list, plus Asset Manager / Asset Disposal, plus CAT & Komatsu dealers sitting on surplus.
Where: Chile, Brazil, Peru — mature markets retiring iron.
The filters that matter
- Industry: Mining & Metals, Construction, Machinery — nothing else.
- Seniority: Manager and above. You want people who sign or specify, not interns.
- Geography: pick one country per search. Pulling "all of Africa" at once gives you mush.
One country + one side = one search. Vague targeting is the #1 reason connection requests get ignored. Tight searches get accepted.
Mission Objectives
Six plays. Every request you send, every post you write, every call you book serves one of these. Know which play you're running before you reach out.
Priority ground: Guyana & Peru
Your first focus is recruiting collaborators in Guyana and Peru — local partners who feed deals and help close on the ground. Plant the flag here before you widen out.
The six plays
Recruit collaborators
Build a network in Guyana & Peru — local brokers, fleet owners, mechanics, freight & customs agents, site contacts. Pitch: "We have the global buyers and sellers, you have the local access — let's work together." → log as a Channel / Collaborator.
Source equipment to lead
Find used CAT/Komatsu units we can represent and broker. Get spec, hours, location, photos, price expectation, and whether they'll give us the lead. → log as a Seller / unit.
Offer the consignment program
Get owners to consign units to ATG to sell on their behalf — global reach, screened buyers, marketing, no upfront cost, they hold the unit until it sells. → log as a consignment deal.
Offer parts & components
Target maintenance & parts managers. Offer our Virtual Parts Department — surplus parts sourcing and obsolete-parts exchange. Capture what they need and what they're sitting on. → log as a parts lead.
Capture buyer-wanted requests
Ask every buyer: "What are you hunting for right now — class, size, budget, timeline?" Write it down. That's real demand we can source against. → log as a Buyer-Wanted request.
Everything goes in the database
No lead lives in your head or your inbox. Every collaborator, seller, buyer, and request is logged in the CRM the same day — that's how a lead becomes a deal.
One contact can feed several plays. A Peru fleet manager might be a collaborator, a seller, a consignment client, and a buyer all at once. Find out which, and log every angle.
The Arsenal
Sales Navigator is a precision rifle, not a shotgun. Set it up right and it works while you sleep.
Build your kit — day one
- Profile first. Your headline should read "I source & place used CAT/Komatsu mining equipment across LATAM & Africa" — not "Sales Rep." Buyers read your profile before they reply.
- 6–8 saved searches. One per country + side (buy/sell). Name them clearly.
- Lead lists. Feed each search into a named list so prospects live in one place.
- Turn on alerts. Sales Nav pings you when a saved lead changes jobs or posts — those are your warmest openings. Engage before you pitch.
InMail — your sniper rounds
You get 50 InMail credits a month, and you get the credit back if they reply within 90 days. Spend them on decision-makers you can't reach with a normal connection request. Don't waste them on people who'd accept a free invite anyway.
Engage → connect → converse → call. Like or comment on a prospect's post first. Then send the request with a note. When they accept, follow up leading with the market — never a hard pitch. Then move them to a call.
Rules of Engagement
Break these and LinkedIn restricts your account — and your whole month is dead. Read twice.
Sales Navigator does NOT raise the connection-request cap. Every account is limited to about 100 requests per rolling week. The subscription buys you search and InMail — not more invites.
The hard limits
| Action | Safe ceiling |
|---|---|
| Connection requests / week | ~100 |
| Connection requests / day | 20 MAX |
| Requests in a single hour | ≤ 10 |
| Pending (unanswered) requests | < 500 |
| InMail credits / month | 50 |
- Spread them out. Firing all 20 at 9 a.m. trips spam detection even though you're under the limit. Pace across the day.
- Always add a note. Blank requests get ignored and reported. A short, personal note lifts acceptance.
- Withdraw the dead. Pull unanswered requests after 2 weeks so your pending count stays clean — too many drops your trust score and shrinks your ceiling.
A restricted account can take 1–3 weeks to recover. There is no shortcut and support won't speed it up. Discipline here protects every other part of the plan.
The Approach
This is where most reps lose the deal — not on the list, on the message. Nobody replies to a pitch from a stranger. They reply to someone who clearly knows their world and wants nothing yet.
Three rules for every message
- Make it about them, not us. Open with their fleet, their project, their market — never with "I sell equipment."
- One idea, one ask. A wall of text gets ignored. Short, specific, easy to answer in ten seconds.
- Lead with value, ask later. First touches give a market insight. The pitch comes after they're talking, not before.
1 · The connection note
Sales Nav gives you 300 characters. Use them to show you did your homework. No pitch.
"Hi [Name] — following procurement teams in [Country] mining. We move used CAT & Komatsu iron into the region and I keep an eye on what's landing. Happy to connect and share what's moving."
"Hi [Name] — I work with operators repositioning retiring CAT/Komatsu fleets out of [Country]. Connecting in case you ever have units coming off the books — global buyers on our side."
2 · The follow-up (after they accept)
Within 24 hours. Lead with the market, not the catalog. Give before you ask.
"Thanks for connecting, [Name]. Seeing strong demand for D375-class dozers and large excavators across [Region] right now, and tight supply. Out of curiosity — how's your fleet plan looking for the next couple of quarters? Buying, holding, or retiring units?"
3 · The InMail (cold, out-of-network)
Slightly longer, but same discipline. A reason you're writing them, one concrete value point, one soft ask. Remember: you only get 50 a month, and the credit comes back if they reply — so make it worth a reply.
"Hi [Name] — saw you run equipment at [Company]. We source and place used CAT/Komatsu units across LATAM & Africa and currently have buyers/sellers active in [Country]. If you're ever moving iron in or out, worth a quick chat — no pressure either way. Open to a 15-min call next week?"
Run the conversation → book the call
Once they reply, your job is to qualify, not to dump a price list. Find out four things, then propose a call.
| Qualify for | Ask it like |
|---|---|
| Need / surplus | "What's your fleet plan — adding or retiring?" |
| Equipment + spec | "What classes are you running — CAT, Komatsu, what sizes?" |
| Timeline | "Is this this-quarter, or further out?" |
| Authority | "Are you the one who specs the buy, or is there a team?" |
When two of those land, move it: "Sounds like there's something here — worth a 15-minute call to walk through what we've got / what you're moving?"
4 · Email — once you have the address
When a contact moves off LinkedIn, or a collaborator hands you an email, keep the same discipline: short, about them, one ask.
Subject: Used CAT/Komatsu — buyers & sellers active in [Country]
"Hi [Name], I'm with Americans Trades Group — we source, sell, and broker used mining & construction iron across LATAM & Africa. We've got buyers and sellers active in [Country] right now. If you're moving units in or out — or sitting on surplus parts — it's worth a quick call. Open for 15 minutes this week? — [You], ATG"
5 · Post on LinkedIn — pull them to you
Outreach is push; posting is pull. Post 2–3 times a week so buyers and sellers come to you. Four post types that work:
"AVAILABLE — 2018 CAT [model], [hours] hrs, [location]. Inspected, ready to move. DM for specs & price. #miningequipment #CAT"
"BUYER LOOKING — client needs [class/size] for a project in [Country]. Have one coming off fleet? Let's talk. #Komatsu #heavyequipment"
"Idle iron on your yard? We sell it for you — global screened buyers, no upfront cost, you hold the unit till it sells. Ask me about consignment."
"Surplus parts gathering dust? Need an obsolete component? Our parts desk moves CAT/Komatsu parts worldwide. Send your list."
Every post ends with one clear action — DM me, send your list, ask about consignment. A post with no ask is noise. And every reply goes straight into the CRM.
When they push back
"All good — mind if I check back next quarter when fleet budgets reset?" Keep the door open, move on.
"Happy to — quick question so I send the right thing: buying or retiring, and which classes?" Turn it into qualification.
One follow-up after 4–5 days with a different market angle. Then leave it and let the alerts re-warm them.
No spray-and-pray, no copy-paste blasts, no full inventory in a cold message. One generic message to fifty people beats nothing — but five tailored ones beat all fifty.
The Daily Drill
Same reps, every day. This is the engine. Miss days and the pipeline goes cold.
| Task | Target |
|---|---|
| Connection requests (with a note) | 15–20 / day |
| Prospects added to lead lists | 15–20 / day |
| Collaborators reached — Guyana / Peru | 1+ / day |
| Buyer-wanted requests captured | every buyer |
| New contacts logged in the CRM | same day |
| InMails (from Week 2) | 2 / day |
| LinkedIn posts | 2–3 / week |
| End-of-day numbers to manager | every day |
Today's checklist
Use this as your daily template — it's a habit-builder, not graded.
Send your numbers every evening. Requests sent, prospects saved, conversations going. What gets measured gets done — and it's how your manager spots a problem in days, not weeks.
The 21-Day Campaign
Three weeks, three gears: build the network, run the plays at volume, then convert.
Rewrite your profile. Learn the hub and the six plays cold. Build lead lists and start recruiting collaborators in Guyana & Peru. Put up your first LinkedIn post.
► GOAL: 200+ prospects · 3+ collaborators contacted · first post live
Full outreach. Start sourcing equipment to lead, pitch the consignment program and parts desk, and ask every buyer what they're hunting for. Post 2–3×. Log everything same-day.
► GOAL: 8+ conversations · buyer-wanted logged · units being sourced
Keep the funnel full. Push warm conversations to calls. Lock in collaborators, get units listed or consigned, and match buyer-wanted requests to supply.
► GOAL: 5+ qualified opps · 2+ units sourced/consigned · 3+ calls booked
Where you stand at Day 21
The Scorecard
Every Friday, 15 minutes, three numbers — in this order. It tells everyone exactly what to fix.
Activity
Did you hit the daily reps — requests sent, prospects saved? If not, it's an effort problem. Fix it immediately.
Acceptance
Below ~20% acceptance means your targeting or your note is off. We adjust the filters and the message.
Conversion
Conversations but no qualified deals means positioning. We coach the pitch and the qualification.
Week 1 is judged on activity — the inputs you control. Weeks 2 and 3 shift to results. Hit the reps daily and the numbers are very reachable.
Field Exam
Eight questions. Score 7 of 8 and you're cleared for deployment. Take it once you've worked every module.
Cleared for Deployment
You know the theater, the targets, the limits, and the daily drill. The pipeline doesn't build itself — go put the reps in.