How Morgan Ingram Sells: Have Fun Solving Puzzles For People You Care About
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Morgan Ingram’s “love for the hustle” began the same way most people’s do – at a basketball game, in middle school, holding a binder full of Pokemon cards.?
Another student saw one of the cards in Morgan’s collection and asked him to buy it. The offer – $50.??
“That was like millionaire-status as a 13-year-old,” he said.?
With that, inspiration struck. Morgan began buying Pokemon cards directly from Asia, and then selling to his classmates for a mark-up. Soon, he began recruiting new salespeople, and having them sell as well. A year in, business was booming… until the principal found out about it and put a stop to it.??
So, that business died, but the love for selling and marketing didn’t. Since then, Morgan has focused his professional life on branding and selling, being named a three-time LinkedIn Top Voice in sales, amassing 144k+ LinkedIn followers, creating the?1UP Formula Podcast, and now serving as vice president of GTM talent and development for?Sales Impact Academy.?
It’s been quite a run. What has Morgan learned in his quick ascent up the sales ladder? Dive into our latest edition of How I Sell to find out:?
1. What do you love most about selling???
It's a puzzle.?
I've said this a couple times — sales is a massive puzzle and you have to identify the right puzzle pieces to put it all together. And, if you think about every puzzle, you start with the same four things — the corner pieces. You start with those first, and then you build from there to figure out how to build your masterpiece.???
Sales, ultimately, is a framework that you can follow pretty consistently. Then you implement your own style and personality to it. And that's why I love sales because it is a framework and a process that you follow, but also it’s becoming one with yourself and really understanding how your personality fits into all of this. And really understanding humans, as selling is what we all do on a day-to-day basis.??
I always love solving puzzles. So that's what I always loved about sales.?
2. What’s your sales philosophy??
The way that I think about sales is something that my mentor?John Barrows?taught me early in my career. I say this exactly how he would say it. Typically, I don't curse, but he'd always say, “you need to give a (crap) and then have fun with it.”??
So, that is exactly my sales philosophy: you need to give a (crap), but you should also have fun with it. And most people, when they go into sales, they don't have fun with it. It's a grind. It's hard.?
But, I think if you have a give-a-(crap) factor about yourself and your buyers, you generally are asking great questions and you're having fun.?Really care about the people that we're talking to and solve their problems, but also make the buyer experience fun for them, so they want to work with you.??
3. Is there anything that makes your sales process unique???
I'll go into a little bit more detail about this because a lot of people probably do this, but I would say my process is unique based on how I incorporate video. I use video of all different types in all different ways: screen shares, walking people through certain topics, or giving more information.?
It's thorough. And I've gotten good feedback from it because I'm able to articulate things via video well. So, I would say that's what makes my sales process unique.??
And yeah, I have frameworks and I have tactics I use that are also unique. But I would say adding that video component is key.?
4. What research do you do to prepare for a sales call??
Pre-research is critical. If you have a high volume of calls, then maybe you're not doing this as much. But I still believe that this is one of the most important things that you need to nail down.??
Before I hop on the call, I look at?Crystal Knows. If you're not familiar with that site, essentially what it does is it allows you to see people's DISC profiles, how they would prefer to communicate, what you need to say in the conversations. That sets you up to understand the profile you're about to talk to.??
So that’s number-one. Number-two is I look at the prospect company’s website for things like: do they have product updates? Who are they hiring? How are they scaling? What are they looking to do? These are things that I look at across the board.??
Then the third thing is I look at their LinkedIn profile and I see if they recently joined their job. Or, if not, how long have they been at the company? What roles have they done in the past and what companies have they worked in the past? I like to understand that as well.???
And then the fourth thing – and I think a lot of people don't do this enough – is understanding what I want to get out of this call with this person. I need to know, at the end of the call, what is the outcome I'm looking for. Then I know, if I don't get that outcome that I messed up, and I can learn from it.??
So those are the things that I do to make sure that I'm putting myself in the right spot.?
5. What’s your favorite discovery question??
What happens if you don't make this decision??
Because, if they tell you that if they don't make this decision everything is going to be fine, that means I didn't do enough discovery. But if they say, “if we don't get this done, I'm going to get fired,” then I know there’s a need.??
So, this helps me prioritize my book and lets me know how well I’ve done my discovery to that point.?
6. Is there any habit outside of work you have that you believe helps you sell better???
The habit that I really have been diving into is the infrared sauna. I go once a week and it just allows me to really get at ease.??
A lot of the things that we do in a sales cycle is about focus and listening and asking the right questions. The sauna allows me to just sweat more toxins out and reconnect with myself, which helps me become a better listener and improves my focus.???
So that’s something I do to keep myself in a good composure.?
7. How do you use LinkedIn when selling??
The way that I go about it is I use content to sell.??
So, with my content on LinkedIn, I get a lot of inbound leads. But I also engage with people who engage with my content. And I’ve found that’s a great way to start a conversation.?
My content typically relates to the services or products that I represent. But it’s not aggressively pitching my product. I'm not connecting and then pitching. Instead, my posts create a warm connection with someone, who I might be able to sell to in the long term.???
Plus, with content, over time, if someone is seeing you over and over, your brand awareness will continuously increase.??
8. What has been your biggest failure in sales and how did that experience transform you???
It’s recent. And I'm over it now, but I was pretty bummed about it for probably two months.??
So, at?JB Sales, there was a deal that I was working on and, if it were to close, it would have been the biggest deal in company history. And I had been working on it for a good ten months.??
As you probably guessed, it didn’t close, and I was upset by it because we were right at the finish line. I was assured that everything was good-to-go, and then, at the last minute, it got pulled. So that was just an extremely devastating thing to happen.???
What I learned is that you can't – and I knew this – but you can’t get excited until the contract has been signed. And, also, you must continuously build new relationships to have more insurance in your deals.?
For example, you must have legal on your side. You have to get multiple decision-makers involved and make sure that everyone's aligned, not just one person.??
You can guard against that by asking yourself questions like – “What would blow this deal up? What are the things I don’t know?”.??
These were the things I didn’t do because I got really excited and I had the happiest of ears. I thought I was good because people told me it was fine. But I should have pushed a few different angles to get that deal done.?
It’s a painful lesson but one I’ll remember.?
Agent with New York Life helping families and business owners develop a sound financial strategy
2 年Tremendous