Welcome to Adapter’s Advantage: Breakthrough Moments that Lead to Success. In this episode, sales strategist Ami Tully Lotka shares how financial services teams can pivot to a virtual world and retain the power of face-to-face connections.

Financial services products are now the ultimate relationship sale in which the only differentiator is the seller. Salespeople have to step up to deepen client connections and make deals break their way—especially in a virtual world. Ami Tully Lotka, a leading sales and management consultant, describes how to empower sales teams, build rapport with an audience, and deliver effective training when you can’t be there in person. Listen now to learn the impact of a hybrid model and lessons from the NFL combine.

Episode 5: Making Better Virtual Sales Connections | Ami Tully Lotka

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“We’ve come into a place where we don’t have product features or benefits that are differentiators. The differentiator is the sales person that represents them. It’s the ultimate relationship sale. Sales people have to understand that because they’re professional tiebreakers.” — Ami Tully Lotka

About Ami Tully Lotka

Ami Tully Lotka is the owner and president of Maximum Impact Partners, Inc., a sales distribution and marketing strategy consulting firm that works exclusively with financial services companies in North America and Southeast Asia. Ami holds the CFP and CIMA designations and was a founder and first President of the 1,700+ member Women in Pensions Network. Ami has worked with over 100 leading firms including Columbia Threadneedle Investments, AIG, Sun Life, Prudential U.K., Manulife, John Hancock Funds, AXA Japan, and Pacific Life. Her strong belief in human potential for success sets the tone and drives enduring client relationships at Maximum Impact Partners.

From This Episode

Host Mark Magnacca: “What is the biggest challenge you’ve had to adapt to since the start of COVID-19?”

Ami Tully Lotka: “One challenge is that there’s a lot of hurt out there. There’s a lot of fear. The biggest challenge has been stepping up in a way that can help our clients through this. So much of what we do is a face-to-face connection and converting a face-to-face connection to be equally valid and have an equal amount of power but not be in the same room as each other—the shift to virtual—is the biggest change.

“Another challenge, though, is the same as it was before we had COVID-19. I can always seem to get 15 pounds of sugar into a 10-pound bag. It’s just over commitment. And now you don’t have travel time, which was the time that I took to regroup and think about what’s next. I literally now will look at my calendar and think, ‘Oh, my gosh, that next meeting starts in two minutes.’

“I think that we’ve never put enough emphasis on our thinking time. This has caused me now to go back, after all these weeks, and think about a way of scheduling things to allow myself both not only to be prepared from a content standpoint, but to be prepared from an energy standpoint.”

“The ride up the elevator and the walk through the airport was time to breathe in and breathe out and to anticipate the next client that you were working with. Now I have to put that time in. I think that there’s probably a lot of people like that who would be listening to this Podcast.”

About Adapter’s Advantage

Our podcast features leaders from sales, training, and industry who share their personal journeys of transformation and how they are adapting to an ever-changing environment. Your host Mark Magnacca will introduce you to some of the most interesting and inspiring people he’s met over the last twenty years.

The conversions dive into the ups and downs of their journey. Our guests focus on inflection points—the aha moments that, in retrospect, had a critical impact on their success. These interviews will leave you with practical, real-world advice that you can apply to your life.

Our world is in constant change. The podcast helps sales training, enablement, or learning and development professionals gain valuable insights to help themselves and their organizations adapt to this time of tremendous upheaval.

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