An Interview With Chad Silverstein
Never stop learning. We oftentimes think that while we are knowledgeable, we already know enough. False! It is important to never stop learning about the latest trends in the industry in terms of products, services, and resources to make sure no one falls behind, improving teams’ skillset in marketing, virtual communication, and technology utilization, and embracing feedback to bring areas for improvement into visibility.
The global pandemic has forever altered the landscape of sales, propelling us into the era of remote selling. Today, businesses and sales professionals face the challenge of connecting with clients and closing deals without the traditional in-person interactions. Mastering the art of remote selling has become not just an advantage but a necessity. From leveraging technology and digital tools to building trust and rapport over virtual platforms, the skills required for effective remote selling are evolving. I had the pleasure of interviewing Ramon Khan.
Ramon has more than ten years of digital marketing experience. He has been featured in places such as Yahoo Finance, CIO, Oracle and Fiverr to name a few. Currently, he’s operating as the head of marketing for a fast-growing startup called The Alloy Market and also serves as a freelance writer for Ahfers.
Thank you for joining us. To start, could you share your “origin story” with our readers? How did you begin your career? What challenges did you face in the early days? How did you overcome them?
I started my career as a SaaS Marketing Assistant in the Business Development aspect of the Green Business Bureau, a leading national organization that helps businesses with a roadmap on becoming eco-friendly. After working in GBB for 3 years and 5 months, I became the Digital Marketing Director of National Air Warehouse which is one of the nation’s leading online suppliers for HVAC products and accessories, lasting for about 7 years and 11 months. I then began working as SEO Manager of the CEO group from February to November 2022, became the CMO and Cofounder of Alloy by March 2023 and continued to be a Freelance Marketing Consultant since December 2020.
One of the greatest challenges during my early days especially as a Marketing Assistant was managing the teams to be able to deliver strategic growth. For a company under the green industry to be successful, it really requires a lot of effort to help the teams involved to become a skilled workforce that are able to contribute in the development, operation, and maintenance of sustainable technologies. There are also higher risks in this industry (even at the moment) than doing the conventional ones due to uncertain returns, fluctuations in the market, and probable obsolescence. However, it was also an opportunity for me to exemplify my then-skills and improve them as I moved to become a Digital Marketing Director in project management. This job was tedious yet fun especially the utilization of paid media, organic SEO/digital marketing, content development, CRO, and eCommerce, among others.
During my early years, I have planned to stay afloat by applying my expertise in strategizing to increase yearly sales, landing page optimization, lead conversion, and launching several vertical markets resulting in partnerships. I was also able to overcome these challenges by observing the target markets and their preferences through eCommerce theme redesigning according to usability and appeal, strategic PR and blogger outreach to reach a wider audience, and overall result to better sales and increase in organic conversion in a perfectly curated amount of time.
I always make sure to observe the current market trends, curate a roadmap including possible resorts for unexpected circumstances, introduce it to the company and the team involved, adjust accordingly, and making sure that all are done according to plan. This never failed me until now.
Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
A particular book that made an impact on me is authored by Philip Kotler and Sidney Levy entitled Broadening the Marketing Concept, stating that, “Marketing is the creative use of truth.” This stuck with me because I am a firm believer that the masses deserve being knowledgeable about the products that they are interested in. Building their trust will help them purchase the products introduced to them and gain rapport among others that are also interested in it through providing helpful reviews on the internet. Being truthful about the products will help in setting their expectations which will become their basis for their satisfaction and leave room for complaints due to false marketing. With authenticity and confidence on the marketing of products, we are able to reach the subconscious of the audience in a convincing and effective manner.
Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life or your work?
Whenever I am faced with uncertainties in life, I always remember the quote, “In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.” This helped me become more assertive whenever things do not go as planned, and be objective enough to identify the pros and cons of a situation I am in. Especially in the marketing industry where everything is usually undetermined, I make sure that I am the most determined one in the room to help carve doors of opportunities if there are no doors to open through. As this industry goes through changes, so do I as a marketing expert, and I am aware that this requires not only my expertise, but my flexibility to realize my lapses and curate the best options.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
Marketing is an aspect that has significance in shaping how people perceive those that they can consume, ranging from products to services. As a marketing expert of over 10 years, I believe that my craft has helped shape the mindset of those not only in the business lineage but also in the consumer aspect. I am confident that I am someone who has been able to provide countless advice to people on effective marketing that reach its audience in an authentic manner. On top of that, I have imparted my knowledge on making better financial decisions both on the producer and consumer side, to utilize what they can with sustainability and profitability. This will help prevent unnecessary debts and purchases that may accumulate in the long run and harm the society as a whole. I believe that there is a need to balance economic activity as a whole to benefit all members of the society, and I know I have been providing contribution to that.
Ok, let’s now turn to the central part of our interview. In your experience, how has the transition to remote selling altered the traditional sales cycle, and what strategies have proven most effective in closing deals virtually?
From my viewpoint, the transition to remote selling has truly altered the traditional sales cycle mostly rooting from the fact that the pandemic has forced people to stay in their homes and be on their gadgets scrolling the whole time, may it be for leisure or for purchasing products and services. For those that are not involved in the remote selling virtually in the first place, it may have been challenging to transition from the face-to-face interactions to the virtual interactions both within the team and with clients. It posed a challenge on building rapport remotely as well as the usage of digital communication tools usually undermined pre-pandemic. However, it is undeniable that the processes in remote selling have always been aligned towards its efficiency and automation to reduce the hassle on the teams handling the business and the consumers themselves.
It is also seen that the strategies focused on customer services have truly been most effective in closing deals virtually. When we started investing in the personalization of our website containing almost all the necessary information that a client may need, and a responsive customer service for personal or excluded questions in the FAQs, they become more openminded talking about these deals and closing them eventually. Being transparent about the whole process and guiding the clients all throughout helped in the gains of the company. This open line in communication between both sides has opened the successful lines for the business.
In what ways do you believe technology will continue to shape the future of remote selling, and what tools should sales professionals be focusing on?
In my observation, as technology continued to improve over the years, the more opportunities for remote selling has occurred. Due to the fact that technological innovations have enhanced every aspect of the sales process, from forming better personalization on the platforms used to display products and services to its delivery to the audience using better communication and customer service approaches, it will continue to change the aspect of remote selling in a radical manner.
What we found worked well for us is investing in website personalization for remote selling that will make our target audience interested to view our products and/or services. In Alloy, as a company focused in the gold buying industry, we make sure that upon opening our website, our customers can have a grasp on our services and be convinced enough to be entrusting towards us. We have made sure to be unique and transparent, with the highest payouts and without hidden charges, which helped build a loyal following of satisfied customers across the United States.
It is also important to build a satisfactory customer service for customers to ask their queries from that were not included in the “Frequently-Asked Questions” section of the website. In a business requiring a significant amount of trust due to the value of gold, silver, and platinum jewelry, we make sure to be particular with having ensuring a pre-paid, pre-labeled, and fully-insured parcel included in our free appraisal kit.
Of course, this is not only applied to businesses such as ours, this applies to companies that aim to establish their name into publicity. As business owners, we have to make sure that whatever we put out in the digital world is plausible enough to prove our reliability and overall safety of our consumers for exponential returns.
How can sales teams maintain and build rapport with clients in a fully remote environment, especially when face-to-face interactions are limited?
Building rapport with clients in a fully remote environment requires a lot of modifications as compared to the traditional face-to-face interactions. From our experience, it really helps to identify the target audience and their preferences to know how to approach them. It is very important to make a good impression through inflecting a tone that is both appealing and respectful. Although done remotely, one’s authenticity can still be felt through the screen, thus, the importance of a reliable online presence.
On top of that, we shall always be available to answer the queries of our customers. Our lines shall remain open for questions that are unusual but still relevant to the products or services being inquired. This will help them gain a sense of trust, and of course, a sense of responsibility to the team to respond accordingly. A great customer service helps shape the takeaways of clients, and the better it is, the more a client becomes convinced to purchase these products or services.
Finally, we shall always remain calm if ever there are instances that the relationship on both ends become ineffective in the long run. Instead, actively look for ways to prevent these things from happening in the future. After all, what’s important is to have a communication that is clear and precise to build and reach the expectations of our customers.
Can you share a story of a challenge you faced in adapting to remote selling, and how you overcame it?
One of the greatest challenges we faced when adapting to remote selling is the difference between traditional and virtual or remote selling. In traditional selling, we are usually required to be face-to-face with the clients and be able to make a great first impression through the sense of being human. However, in virtual or remote selling, the Internet is the only way to make an impression out of the innovations available.
In my 10 years of experience in digital marketing, it also remains a challenge to determine what interests our customers and be able to communicate it effectively to our sales team. It also requires a different strategy when it comes to persuasion of customers through digital channels. This is where a certain skillset in writing is definite, where one realizes how the writing approach sounds on the other side of the screen without sounding rude or displeasing to the customer. We must make sure that the communication and selling online does not feel impersonal nor less interactive than it actually is, rather, toggle it in a way that helps a buyer hold their interest. For example, in the gold buying industry, it is important that we establish the right amount of trust towards our clients and let our services of prioritizing the safety of their packages from us to theirs (vice versa) be proof enough of this claim.
Can you share a success story of a remote sale that exemplified innovative tactics or approaches in the post-pandemic world?
From our experience in the online jewelry industry, one of our strategies is refining our platform to become more appealing to modern customers that prefer to search independently on the products they are interested in. We made sure that our website was personalized according to what we intend it to be, a platform for an authentic and trustworthy gold buying industry. From here, we aimed to establish consumer rapport that our platform provides sufficient information on the products to make them engaged and convinced enough for them to purchase. Upon opening our website, it can be seen that we are “easy, risk-free, no-obligation process” and that we are a BBB-Accredited business. Through this, clients will feel more at ease scrolling through our website. We made sure that the information provided is enough for our clients, with our “Frequently-Asked Questions” section available at hand.
A higher efficiency in providing products and aiding the needs of the customers is indeed one of the triumphs of remote selling as the internet provides a lot of leads that help reach the audience. Higher sales are reached due to more allotted time refining skills and using the right digital tools to understand the customers’ preferences continuously evolving even in the post-pandemic world, and this is why we are a fast-growing startup without neglecting the needs of our consumers!
Here is our main question. Could you list and briefly explain “5 Key Strategies for Mastering the Art of Remote Selling” based on your experiences and insights? If you can, please share a story or example for each.
1 . Build a trustworthy and capable team. Everything starts with the right team where everyone works effectively and sufficiently. Increase connection among team members to carry out tasks involved in providing satisfaction to its clients. They are capable to identifying qualifying needs that will help build customer relationships nurturing customer loyalty, retention, and therefore, higher profit.
2 . Know your products/services. Before marketing them online, it is important that you are confident about your products before you can encourage confidence towards the masses. Customers, even virtually (especially virtually) are very particular with how a product appears on their screens and having little to no knowledge about it will contribute to a customer losing interest to the products/services entirely. As business owners, you must have a sound understanding and knowledge about your products and services to establish their value to your consumers.
3 . Keep track of your progress and stagnancies. Both of these are unavoidable. However, just be mindful enough of your progress yet never be discouraged by your stagnancies. Even the littlest progress will help you recognize the areas that require more attention and improvement; stagnation provides an opportunity to rest and observe to be prepared for the next course of action in the business. Do not be discouraged, be willing to have a sound decision on things that require objectiveness and calculated response.
4 . Embrace the “now” of technology. In remote selling, it is important that businesses are knowledgeable enough to apply technological innovations into the platforms that are utilized for marketing. This helps enhance the productivity and efficiency of the products and services being delivered. This includes the utilization of the Internet of Things (IoT) for collecting real-time data about the preferences of consumers to gain a deeper insight, Artificial Intelligence (AI) for assistance in writing marketing content and personalization of content based on customers’ preferences, and blockchain technology for personalized campaigns and fraud prevention, among many others.
5 . Never stop learning. We oftentimes think that while we are knowledgeable, we already know enough. False! It is important to never stop learning about the latest trends in the industry in terms of products, services, and resources to make sure no one falls behind, improving teams’ skillset in marketing, virtual communication, and technology utilization, and embracing feedback to bring areas for improvement into visibility.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
It is important to invest in businesses, especially digital marketing, as early as now. As the world is rapidly changing, and we can see it already in the marketing aspect, we shall always be prepared for what’s next! Invest in products and services that are worthwhile, especially concerning sustainability and research. Not only will we be able to contribute to increase in profits, we can also contribute to the overall area of knowledge.
As we wrap up, how can our readers follow your work?
They can see more of my works through my LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/khanramon wherein my skills in strategic planning, project management, and data analysis can be seen. This link also contains my complete resume and achievements from the beginning of my journey as a marketing expert until the present, as well as my works and publications.
If you are interested our fast-growing startup on the gold buying industry, Alloy, you can view our website through this link: https://thealloymarket.com
Thank you for offering such valuable insights into the art of remote selling. We wish you continued success.
About the interviewer: Chad Silverstein is a seasoned entrepreneur and thought-leader. With over 25 years of business experience, Chad’s entire career has been dedicated to creating a positive social impact in all of his enterprises. His entrepreneurial journey began while in college at The Ohio State University, where he founded Choice Recovery, Inc., which earned national recognition and was twice ranked as the #1 company to work for in Central Ohio. Chad is now a strategic advisor for Authority Magazine’s thought-leader incubator and an Executive Leadership Coach with Built to Lead, where he recently launched an online community for leadership development.
To learn more and connect with Chad, visit www.chadsilverstein.io
Ramon Khan Of The Alloy Market On Mastering the Art of Remote Selling in a Post-Pandemic World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.