7 Minutes to better Selling Podcast Ep. 12

Welcome to the 7 Minutes to Better Selling podcast. I'm your host, Colin Lake

President and Founder of Developing the Next Leaders. So I'm going to jump right into it

and welcome Mark Magnacca with us. And so I'm real happy to have Mark join us

who is the President and Co-Founder of OLEGO. So Mark, thanks for being here

Happy to be here, Colin. Good to see you. Yes, good to see you, my friend. Well, again, welcome. So Mark, if you would

share with the listeners your journey and how you get to the president and founder of

an amazing technology firm that I happen to use, believe in, and talk about often

Well, Colin, it is kind of an interesting story because for many of your listeners in financial

services, I grew up in financial services. I'm a former financial advisor. I actually got my

Series 7 when I was 19. And fast forward, about 10 years later, I wrote a book called The Product

is You, all about helping advisors create a personal brand. And some of the asset management

and insurance companies that I worked with decided that they would license the content of the book

And so long story short, it began, my journey to this new business began with certifying a group

of wholesalers in the content from that book and realizing how hard it was to do that. We had to

fly everybody into the home office. We had to have all the management team there and listen to them

And the company had just provided iPads for everybody. So the epiphany that hit me was

well, wait a minute. What if we just had everybody record their presentation on the iPad and then

share it so that myself and their manager could watch the video and be able to either certify them

or deny them and tell them you have to do it again. You should build a software company rather

rather than just try to build an app. And I said to him, well I don really know anything about the software business because I from financial services And he said well I do And that the genesis of how a Lego happened And I tell people Colin it a little bit like starting a band with Paul McCartney

It doesn't mean you're going to succeed, but you have a huge advantage up front for me having Yu Chun-Li as my partner

Mark, by the way, I was a big Family Ties fan. How close does the original software that you were talking about look like today's

You know, the answer is, interestingly, there's a couple components of it that, believe it or not, are similar

But it is as different as the first flip phone you ever owned and your latest iPhone

Like they are what it can do, what it's capable of. The evolution from the original idea is really enormous, but they're still little kernels of the core thing that those folks at the very first company back in 2013 would recognize

Yes. You know, like I mentioned, I've used the software a number of times and over the years I've used it for like for similar stuff

But the evolution that I've seen has been impressive. So congratulations on that

And by the way, for everyone else on the phone, wholesalers just use that term interchangeably for salespeople or sales executive if you're not in the financial services industry

OK, Mark. So second question or second thought from like your experience and you've had a lot of experience

And I'll use air quotes around this selling because you always had this consultative approach or people just were drawn to what you were talking about

but but but from like a selling perspective what would you say is the greatest lesson

or opportunity sales people have in today's world like like 2021 almost 2022 with us living in this

hybrid or virtual world like there so much happening what would you suggest would be the best lesson or opportunity for folks to consider The word is orchestration And it not just me saying it And it not just because our book is called Mastering Virtual Selling

Orchestrating Sales Success. Colin, everyone's saying it. McKinsey, the consulting firm. Forrester, the research firm

They call it orchestrating omni-channel. And what they mean by that is the ability for a great seller

to pivot between being in a virtual realm, being able to move to in-person, being able to use text

being able to use email, being able to use all of the different channels of communication

one of which is meeting platforms like this, another of which is in-person meetings

But those people who can orchestrate and move from one part of the process to the other

recognizing that different people have different communication preferences, and at different times of the sales process, you need to be good at different things

So the old school folks who are thinking, I'm just going to hold my breath and see if it goes

back to all in person. I'm telling you that is likely to end up the way that many of the radio

stars ended up when television came in. They missed the mark because something better came

along. It doesn't mean radio went away. We still have radio today, but radio is not the same medium

as television. So it required a different skill set. That's what's happening in sales right now

And that's the number one thing we see that salespeople need to change. That's awesome

So I love the thought. I have two questions. The second question, so I just have you marinate on

that, is how do we get a hold of that book? Because I'm sure many would be interested or

are already interested in getting a hold of that book. That's the second question. My first question

is this, Mark, how does the seller know the buyer's preference? Like how do they know like the difference between someone who wants to meet live wants to meet virtually Yeah it a great question So two things Colin first of all for any of your listeners all they have to do is send you an email and say I want a copy of Mastering Virtual Selling

And Colin, we will make the PDF copy of the book available to any of your listeners at no charge

And it's $19.99 on Amazon. That's number one. Yeah. And then remind me, number two is..

How do you know like what the best channel is to approach your client

and like they may say i want virtual but actually the best way to settle them is personal so they

don't you know they don't always tell us early on in the sales process what the best way so like

do you have any tips tricks strategies to figure that out yeah the first one is to ask the question

right um the the question the very simple question which is what's your preferred communication style

and and um sometimes colin we have a bias and the bias that we have is we are more comfortable in

one arena versus the other. So the takeaway column is this, it doesn't mean in person isn't important

in building rapport and building relationships and maintaining them. The question is how much

of the business stuff can you do this way so that when you are in person, you can be doing things

that are more focused on building the relationship rather than using that time to do stuff that could

easily be done, like walk through a Morningstar report or some other type of collateral

Oh, that's great. That is really good. And, you know, our firm has this training called the well asked question

And your point about like, you just have to ask and we have to ask in as sincere a way and as open a way as we can so that they are forthcoming

You do share. You know, I prefer a mix. I prefer pure virtual. And, you know, and then execute on that

So that was great. So email me. You heard that wonderful offer by Mark Magnacca, an early holiday present for all of you out there

So, Mark, thanks again for joining us and everyone else. Continue good selling and enjoy the holiday season