The Power of Spec Samples and Product Knowledge: How Morgan Fancher and Alex Scaramucci’s Confidence Boosted After Completing Electrifi

As a member of the Facilisgroup Community, our Distributor Partners have the opportunity to enroll in our Amplifi courses, which provide tips and training on how to become a successful rep in the promotional products industry. One of those courses is Electrifi, a comprehensive onboarding and sales development program designed to accelerate success for new promotional products sales reps. They spend five months sharpening their sales skills with help from our Director of Professional Development and Professional Best Friend, Terri Harland.

In our series, Amplifi Highlights, we caught up with Morgan Fancher and Alex Scaramucci, Account Managers for The Specialty Company and recent Electrifi graduates. They both were new to the promotional products industry when they started the course but quickly gained insight into how the industry functions and the skills needed to be successful. We learned about their biggest wins from the course, the aha moment that made everything fall into place, and what this program has taught them.

The Folio: What do you think is the biggest win that you have had this past year that you can connect or attribute to your time with Electrifi and your group?

Morgan Fancher: So, I have had a lot of wins, and narrowing it down was kind of what I was thinking about. What would I say is my number one or my biggest? I think that would be that my book of business is up 48% over last year. Which kind of encompasses a little bit of all my smaller wins along the way. Because I brought on a new client that was a big one for me. And then I’ve had some of my biggest sales recently that I think Amplifi kind of helped me get there.

So, lots of little wins leading up to what I’d call a really strong year — one worth reflecting on. Structuring my day, learning those kinds of ins and outs so that I’m not just stuck in the rut and in my inbox, as we say, was huge for me because before the training, that’s kind of how I was going about my day. There wasn’t a lot of proactivity as opposed to reactivity.

And then also, what do I want my own brand to look like when I’m communicating with clients?

Alex Scaramucci: Yeah, so the word that jumped out to me in that number one line item was confidence. Attending the course in Salt Lake City and really starting to understand how this whole industry works together, and what I mean by that is seeing our role as a distributor.

But also, the role of our suppliers, obviously with SnugZ being there and actually being able to see and understand how that entire process works, what our role is as a distributor. What’s the role of the supplier and/or decorator? And then how does that get into the hands of our customer? That was something that I came in with zero knowledge of. Zero. Because I have never been in this industry. After attending and going through the course, and visiting onsite with Snugz, it all came together. When I left and came back, I was extremely confident in how we were presenting our products and our solutions.

It also created a lot of loyalty to SnugZ and their products, but also understanding how to position them, i.e., production time and setting the right expectation with the client. Understanding, hey, these are the decoration methods for this specific product. This is what it’s going to look like. This is the proof. This is why we go through this process of building out a timeline. So, all of those are very fundamental. Industry knowledge items, I think, are my biggest wins from that. Now, that’s obviously translated into very large wins, but also a lot of smaller wins that have helped with retention and retaining.

The Folio: Was there a moment for both of you where it just clicked? What was that turning point or that tool that made you go “Yeah, this is going to help me?

Alex Scaramucci: I know that sounds strange, but spec samples. I just did not really understand the power of it. And I know it was said many times: specs write checks and all that. I really didn’t fully understand the power of it until I started to do them. And that was the light bulb moment for me: getting these products in the hands of these customers. It helps make the entire process so much easier.

So yes, there’s definitely the benefit of what I would call deal velocity. Getting deals moving faster, but it’s also… where I felt like the aha moment, that’s where I really started to change from just being an order taker to, “Hey, let’s have a bigger discussion around this. Let’s make sure that we’re meeting your expectations. Let’s make sure that we’re taking the right amount of time to get you exactly what you want.” So that was big. It almost forced me to change my approach. So that was my aha moment.

Morgan Fancher: It wasn’t one big moment, but a ton of little ones that kind of build on each other. And along with what Alex said, and it’s funny he says that. I’m literally waiting on what colors a person wants so that I can send samples. Beforehand, I don’t know that I would have pushed him to take the samples, but I know that it’s going to be a large order and I want him to be happy. You just build trustworthiness when they get to choose out of two or three items versus, “Oh, this is what it looks like on the screen. I hope I like it.” So, I would agree with that. And along with that, I would say too, just virtual samples and getting lookbooks and mockups sent. I used to think that was almost like a backhand thing. It was kind of like after I knew there was a project, let’s work on mockups. I’m getting in front of it a lot more, and I’m almost using that as a reach-out rather than on the back. That’s something that for sure I have incorporated into the way that I work.

I would also say, and this is just a really technical thing, but learning the things that we learned in proposals and quotes has helped a lot. Just being able to build on that knowledge. If someone reaches out to me and says, “Hey, we just need key chains for an event.” You know, a year ago, that would have taken me so long. And some of it is just industry knowledge that you learn over time, but also some of it is working in Syncore, getting to know your products and knowing the ins and outs of Syncore and pricing so that you can get it done really quickly. But no, I would say it was just a lot of small moments that I’ve been able to build on each other rather than just one aha.

The Folio: Where do you feel more confident now than at the beginning of Electrifi?

Morgan Fancher: I would say confidence is one of the biggest takeaways for me, for sure. Product knowledge is a big one. We’re lucky that we have a sales cloud with other team members, and so we share products a lot and get ideas from each other, which we also did in Electrifi with our teams, which was helpful. For me, especially, I would say my confidence has grown a lot in outreach, discovery, the front-end side of projects, and working with clients. And for sure, a big one for me would be prospecting, using LinkedIn, and other tools like that.  We touched on that a little at TSC when we were training, but there was a lot that I took away from Electrifi. The prospecting side of things helped my confidence and just taught me a lot.

Alex Scaramucci: Pricing. Pricing, pricing, pricing. Yeah, I mean, we’ll stay on the apparel train here. Just the complexity of decoration costs and understanding. I mean, my goodness. One decorator calls it a screen print. The other one just calls it an imprint. Some have under base, some have flash. They’re separate charges for some. They’re bundled together for others. And just understanding how to price something out and the margin side of things as well, really diving into facilities pricing, for example, and our cost and what that meant. Like, okay, what’s the difference between preferred vendor and non-preferred? Okay, we get a better margin. All of those dynamics of who Facilisgroup is, why it’s important, what does that community actually mean, and how do we then price the product out? With all of the decoration fees added in and still maintaining a very competitive price point that we can pass on to the client, just that whole process. And then I would say just practicing and meeting with the decorators repeatedly. And looking at historical jobs and knowing how to do that, thanks to the Syncore training. Really, really helpful.

The Folio: And final question, finish this phrase: “Because of Amplifi, I realized _____”

Morgan Fancher: Mine might be a little corny, but my potential. I came out of it with so much more knowledge and confidence to feel like I can do this and I can be good at it.

Alex Scaramucci: I would say inspired. Amplifi has helped me understand. I just immediately went back to one of the very first courses that I took, understanding how big this industry is, how much money is actually behind it that’s driving this industry. I had no idea, and as I went through Amplifi and the training, went on site to SnugZ and saw some of our colleagues from different distributors, there was real energy in that. And it got me fired up. It got me really inspired by the decision I made to come into this industry.