The Driving Force Behind Magenic’s Success

Every company wants to be great.

But a select few companies have what it takes, or more importantly, are willing to do what it takes to truly achieve greatness.

Matt Lockhart, Executive Vice President at Magenic, is one of those people and works for one of those companies.

On this episode of the B2B Revenue Executive Experience, we sat down with Matt and talked about some of the successes that Magenic has had over the past 12-18 months. What’s working? What would he recommend for other executives? And what’s the one piece of advice he’d give to someone else?

It’s The Same Answer Every Time

When you ask Matt what he’s most proud of over the last 12 to 18 months, his answer is easy. In fact, he’s been with Magenic for 20+ years, and he says his answer has been the same every time anybody has asked him that question.

“It’s the distinct opportunity to be looked at as a partner, by a customer.”

MATT LOCKHART,

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, MAGENIC

Matt states that he likes to enable companies to look at their products and customers differently. He encourages companies to really think about how they could be different in their marketplace.

Recently, Matt had a team member pass on an email to him where the customer said simply, “I view you guys as a partner in my organization; as part of our team.”

For Matt and his team at Magenic, that’s what it’s all about; to see the customer’s eyes go wide with delight – that’s worth it all.

So what’s just one of the ways they achieve that?

Win/Loss Feedback

How many companies are talking to the customers that they’ve retained, or better yet, the customers they’ve lost, to see what they can learn?

In Matt’s own words, ‘not enough of them.’ And though Magenic does it, he admits that they probably do not perform a win/loss feedback exercise as regularly as they should be.

When was the last time you engaged an outside, unbiased third-party, and had them conduct interviews with your current customers, as well as those that have moved on from your services?

“It’s important to get an outsider involved. Someone who is unbiased and can offer independent feedback.”

MATT LOCKHART,

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, MAGENIC

We all could do better and independent feedback can prove to be very beneficial since it is unbiased. It does not mean that what you are doing right now is bad, but there is always room to approach your customers in a different fashion.

A caveat is that if you do not create a culture of openness, negative feedback, no matter where it originated, can turn ugly quickly, which is counter-productive from the learning lessons you are attempting to accomplish with a win/loss feedback exercise. For optimal results, be sure to create a culture of open communication prior to introducing this exercise.

Relationships Are Everything

One of the only ways to develop a culture of true openness is to make sure that you are investing time and energy into relationships.

As salespeople, we become extremely skilled at putting on ‘filters’; some may weigh on the side of avoidance of deep relationships.

But when a friend or a colleague has the courage and the confidence to approach you with, “hey, this is something you should be paying attention to,” or “this is something you could be doing ‘better’ or differently.” These are the conversations that may be challenging to have at times, but in retrospect, these conversations may matter most and leave the largest impact on the individual receiving the feedback.

Finding a path forward towards a relationship is what it’s all about!

1 Piece of Advice

So, what is Matt’s one piece of advice? What is the one thing he would want listeners to takeaway from this episode?

“Read something new everyday.”

MATT LOCKHART,

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, MAGENIC

Start every single day by reading something new. Something that you’ve never read before. Something that is out of your comfort zone.

Maybe you don’t read financial pieces. Or sports pieces. Or you don’t read ‘fill in the blank.’

Start the day reading something new and then write a note or two about it. All of a sudden, after a while, it becomes a part of you and your process.

You become the kind of person that people want to spend more time with because by diversifying the content consumed, you may come across as more interesting and open-minded to new ideas and consider new perspectives produced by reading divergent subject matter.

This post is based on an interview with Matt Lockhart, Executive Vice President at Magenic. To hear this episode, and many more like it, subscribe to the B2B Revenue Executive Experience.

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