Alberto Voltolina, CEO/President MGG North America, American/Italian company that went from $0 to $1.5 million in one year. They are a worldwide leading equipment manufacturer and supplier for paint brush & paint roller manufacturers like Sherwin Williams, Baer, and more.
It was fascinating to learn how high ticket manufacturing equipment is sold at this level. However, the lessons I learned in this episode apply to the sales process at any established company or startup.
Show Notes
- Alberto Voltolina on LinkedIn
- MGG North America website: https://www.mggmeccanica.com/
Topics
- Cold Calling
- In Person Sales
- Sales Dinners
- Event Networking
- High Ticket Sales
- Supply Chain
- Manufacturing Industry
Show Transcript
paris_vega (00:00.96)
welcome to the first customers podcast today we have alberto voltalina the c e o and president of m g g north america an american italian company that is a world wide leading equipment supplier for paint brush and paint roller manufacturers like sherwin williams bear and more they went from zero to about one and a half million dollars in about one year alberto welcome to the show
alberto_voltolina (00:27.228)
thank you parents nice to meet you is a pleasure to be here with you today and i will be glad to share my experience with you and all the other days
paris_vega (00:37.46)
thank you for being here um how did you get your very first customers for m g g north america
alberto_voltolina (00:44.668)
so let me tell you the story as you can listen from my accent i’m not from new jersey i am italian so as you can imagine you have already said that mgzis an italian company born in nineteen eighty nine in near by venice and they have been working actively in as a supplier for paint brushes and rollers kibben and they supply everywhere in united states india china
paris_vega (00:46.68)
okay
alberto_voltolina (01:14.628)
so for so one year ago they decided to open an american company because they are trusting we still trust a lot in the american market i actually i was working for a different company in a different sect of like in the steel business and they i have been approached by m d g and i joined them as a partner as well for the north america and we started with the
historical business of m j g so just a few customer in united states just to mention a few like serving williams and is one of the mature customer actually for us in north america so i started really from stretch the case department in italy provided me for with with a list health correct half not so much and we started with like the idea was to have in united states
paris_vega (01:57.24)
yeah
alberto_voltolina (02:14.608)
like twenty twenty five supply customers but we were not so much correct actually the paint brush market is very interesting like in seventies united states would count like seventy producers but then the production has been so to china okay of set to china and right now in the market we just have like i would say to have no more than twelve
paris_vega (02:36.4)
okay
alberto_voltolina (02:44.608)
players big and small players like serving williams expanded a lot through mergent acquisition so we started with this kind of list but at the end of the day we supply as i told you paint brush and roller acivment so we cannot supply a kipment to the people that want to produce brushes and mops this is not our business so this list included a lot of knives for brushes and mops so i started literally with a list
paris_vega (03:11.6)
okay
alberto_voltolina (03:14.528)
leaning cold calls okay sitting on a table and tried to catch as much as business is possible started from the major relationship that we had at that time still have is shavin william so i implemented the relationship with them and i tried to find the other customer all around the united states so this is was the first the first approach and i think that after one year i mean the sas activity was practice
paris_vega (03:17.64)
wow
alberto_voltolina (03:44.588)
cessful because as you said we were used to sell fifty thousand dollars before opening emdesinnorth america and right now we’re heating one and a half million in the next in the next few few months so yes so we are very happy it was not simple and it will be not simple because now customers are expecting from us more and more but i have few secrets that we can share during the view in order to know facile
paris_vega (04:00.54)
that’s awesome
paris_vega (04:08.54)
right
paris_vega (04:12.26)
yeah
alberto_voltolina (04:14.888)
those kind of relationship with a customer
paris_vega (04:17.7)
yeah so you started off pure cold calling based on a list uh give us some more details about your process there
alberto_voltolina (04:26.808)
okay so my opinion is the matter to like cross check information information that you find on the website of the customer and certain other websites that you can find in google blast calling them the problem is that in united states and also for instance i have an biggest pile in socially mexico but from this part of the war when you call and you go and you if you call the mobile form
paris_vega (04:49.9)
okay
alberto_voltolina (04:56.928)
of the major players they are not so much willing to interact with you and sometimes you have a secretary replying to you or you have a voice mail so is sometimes it’s very frustrating in being able to find the right communication channel so i
paris_vega (05:11.16)
right
paris_vega (05:14.92)
did you already have an established business in italy they had some kind of reputation that you could leverage here in america okay okay
alberto_voltolina (05:22.088)
yeah absolutely a yeah absolutely yeah as i told you m g g born in nineteen eighty nine so they have like thirty years even more thirty five years of history and the name is very well known everywhere in the united states as well so there were certain customers that unfortunately did not know us so for those customers was very tough in getting contact with them and i can tell you that i started like humber mote
paris_vega (05:29.08)
got ya
paris_vega (05:34.24)
yeah
okay
alberto_voltolina (05:51.908)
very humaremote like colin and cling and cling somebody picked up the phone and was willing to talk to me i can tell you even that the trade show the american brass association trade show that usually is in march this year for instant will be in san diego in two weeks last year was in bonita spring in florida that was a very good event to attend and to start creating the net working so at least i war
paris_vega (05:54.76)
yeah
alberto_voltolina (06:21.908)
cast one were able to see a face in front of them the same face that was calling them a lot in the previous month so we started discussing together and we start drafting a sort of strategy to implement together with them for what concerned capital eqeement and also after sae ecuivement and consumebles
paris_vega (06:28.84)
yeah
paris_vega (06:46.14)
okay so you had cold calling and then even networking where you were meeting people in personal events do you remember the very first company that you were successfully able to close during that time
alberto_voltolina (06:58.588)
yes i remember i remember and is is very important company for us is a bar the california group that is very important company for painting coatings and they decided recently to enter in the paint brush and roller market and we were able to close that one who was the first case in the united states okay with one of the most important machines that we can supply to the mark
paris_vega (07:06.86)
yeah
alberto_voltolina (07:30.228)
in terms of even volume is very important space for us and really we did like a very aggressive say strategy because like we draft a specific deal for them like we offered a machine with a possibility to reject the machine if they don’t like which is very very grassy i would say and very it
paris_vega (07:54.64)
yeah
alberto_voltolina (07:58.328)
shows a lot how much we’re confident of our equipment so they were like very astonished the first time and then pleased to see this kind of opportunity because they saw a company like as willing to do well ted states and sure of what we offer all around the world so that as
paris_vega (08:01.9)
yeah
paris_vega (08:19.08)
so that was like a guarantee for them to reduce the risk on their part
alberto_voltolina (08:24.028)
absolutely because they did not know as we did not know both of us and that was the right key in order to wet diurappetite but at the same time to show that we are confident of what we do because says you know you can be a very good carpet seller but at the end of the day you need to land your ideas your safe ideas on something solid something real otherwise you
paris_vega (08:33.779)
right
paris_vega (08:50.64)
right
alberto_voltolina (08:53.868)
don’t have you cannot create the right kind of the right kind of relationship with a custom
paris_vega (09:00.38)
so let’s zoom an even further to that sale if we can um you said you were very aggressive so you had that really convincing guarantee as part of the offer and did you start with a cold call to bear and go if you can remember go through that whole process of getting that customer
alberto_voltolina (09:15.508)
yeah
yeah we started with i started with like cold course we get in contact with one of their employ and he informed us that they were actively looking for expanding the keep ment the machinery portfolio that they are accorrently in their workshop and specifically they identified the need for this kind of machine which we call headaembly machine and
i visited them in november two thousand twenty one year twenty one and then i presented the machine i presented the company and the equipment that we can supply they were the first i mean meeting was not easy i mean for two reasons first of all they were attending like ten of them and just myself so which is fine i mean i’m not scared about that the problem is that i’m not coming he
paris_vega (10:11.74)
wow yeah yeah
alberto_voltolina (10:17.828)
time my knowledge on paint brushes and rollers akibment was like almost zero now they started with technical question and these kind of things i mean when i go to a meeting i try to be prepared so i studied a lot before doing that i was i would say from zero to ten probably seven and a half prepared okay for sure i’m also young so sometimes you know american custom are they liked to see they liked
paris_vega (10:26.62)
right
alberto_voltolina (10:47.828)
see gray hair so it is i in an aspect that is not so that is very important to take in consideration something that is already happening to me is an all this story when you talk about paint brush is you go like like very far in the history like couple of andre years ago so people want to talk with somebody with gray so the first meeting was not so easy where then a few back and forth discussion with them myself and the italian colleague
paris_vega (10:54.7)
yeah
paris_vega (11:04.16)
right
alberto_voltolina (11:18.008)
the technical office especially so at the end of the day they saw that we know what we’re talking about and then we draft the first proposal in december we sent to them that was a little bit out of their scope than we find tune and song of support and then at the end of the day we came out with this nice idea to be aggressive and to offer the machine in this for in this particular
paris_vega (11:46.44)
okay
alberto_voltolina (11:47.748)
condition this was the first case and the only one for which we can apply this kind of condition because it was a very peculiar situation we closed the deal in february to thousand twenty two and we recently stole the machine thanks god that the machine work and they did not reject the machine so that was the fuel that allows us to start working in north america
paris_vega (11:54.06)
right
paris_vega (12:03.94)
wow
paris_vega (12:17.9)
yeah
alberto_voltolina (12:19.168)
and to have a successful experience
paris_vega (12:22.22)
so that was about a five month sales process roughly five or six months
alberto_voltolina (12:28.148)
yeah potentially yes from november i would say ober november december january february five months
paris_vega (12:31.36)
yeah
yeah okay and what role was that first employe that you called called where
alberto_voltolina (12:41.168)
i is a technical is a technical consultant so i directly spoke with a technical with technical specialist and he immediately appreciated the quality of the machine so i have been living and working united states since then twelve years so in my opinion at a certain point you need to talk technically and you have to present technically what you are talking about is not we sell b t b
paris_vega (12:44.62)
okay
paris_vega (13:06.78)
hm
alberto_voltolina (13:11.368)
we sell achievement so we need to know how to technically offer those kind of machineries to our customer and probably it was luck because i found the right channel in the right moment so the technical guy okay talk to him and he was i was pleased to see this kind of cevement and that was the right the right person for sure
paris_vega (13:19.12)
right
paris_vega (13:25.52)
right
paris_vega (13:35.12)
so that was so that was somebody who was on the list that somebody had kind of pre qualified that this was the right person to call because i know that’s a big part of a lot of sales people’s jobs as prospecting trying to find who even the right person is
alberto_voltolina (13:42.328)
yeah
alberto_voltolina (13:45.768)
absolutely
absolutely that’s the reason why in the past not now because we’re already idetified the mage player but in the past when i was used to talk to our first customer the first idea was to talk like make a phone call and then ask for the operational guy like the director of operation or the director of the technical office so this is in my opinion
the right way to communicate because probably the owners or the co or this kind of level the c sits is a little bit too high to talk about those things but you need to stay like in the technical level with a director of operation or technical office managing
paris_vega (14:27.56)
yeah
paris_vega (14:37.94)
okay and how many calls did it take to get to a physical meeting
alberto_voltolina (14:44.948)
well for for this customer i would say one for other customer i would say even now we did not have a physical meeting so for is for certain customer i know who they are finally but we did not have the charge to met physically which is it’s a pity unfortunately and but now as i told you in three weeks from now two weeks from now we will have the aid
paris_vega (14:50.undefined)
wow
alberto_voltolina (15:15.548)
the three show and that that will be the right time finally to see certain customers that we didn’t have the chance to talk with in the last twelve months but now we have something to put on the top of the table because we have one are successful track record wait six or seven machine three already stole and the other four or five already sold so we have some good score cars
paris_vega (15:23.02)
right
paris_vega (15:42.14)
yeah so yeah so with manufacturing and equipment sales is it usually the situation where you have to be in person at some point before sale closes or can you do like virtually over video or
alberto_voltolina (15:44.828)
ink
alberto_voltolina (15:58.768)
look sometimes i can do even virtually but i don’t like and i’m not waiting for them to close it i mean if they tell me let’s close a deal virtually sometimes i prefer to take a flight and to go there because i he is the way to show the commitment the presence okay and then there is something cloudy in between is not is white nose black now i mean space has to be space is something like is
paris_vega (16:02.26)
okay
paris_vega (16:12.82)
really
alberto_voltolina (16:28.648)
artistical stuff okay a case guy is an artist but it as to be an artist who does not create travels in the company because if you say something wrong it it will be a mess so i don’t want to have gray areas with my customer i won’t i mean you will always say grey area with a customer but i try to be a ninetyfy ninety nine percent precise of what we say now so that’s the reason why
paris_vega (16:40.74)
right
paris_vega (16:50.44)
right
alberto_voltolina (16:58.808)
i want to be face to face in front of them there are certain part of our business like after sae spare parts consumable parts that you can easily sell like from from the desk but those kind of ecpment that can cost half a million dollars you need to be there
paris_vega (17:05.48)
right
paris_vega (17:16.8)
that makes sense yeah that’s that’s a big check to write to somebody you haven’t physically met so that’s understandable okay and so now that you’re you’re more established it sounds like you’re going to depend more on the in person of vent marketing are there any other tactics that you’re using or have used to try and get customers like are using advertising digital marketing that kind of thing
alberto_voltolina (17:22.568)
yeah yeah
alberto_voltolina (17:41.148)
we’re pushing a lot on on marketing and advertising that’s the reason why i told you before finally i’m going to meet face to face certain customers that at that hey don’t know us but they saw a lot of our publicity and advertising so at least they saw that there is an north america now they can meet a face what i’m pushing a lot right now is where ouse that we recently implemented in chat
paris_vega (17:57.24)
okay
alberto_voltolina (18:11.728)
for the consignment stalk the sale of as i told you after sale per parts and consumables in my opinion service service is a very important part of the business which is the key to keep selling machinery so right now i’m working together with my service department i would say i’m more focus now help in the service department in sale because machinery you can sell seven and machine
paris_vega (18:18.5)
yeah
alberto_voltolina (18:40.988)
the car but the the base line okay the strong base line of the company with good with good margin okay is service so we need to apply to what we are offering to our customer in terms of safe and after save in terms of service and after service market okay
paris_vega (18:49.undefined)
hm
paris_vega (18:59.94)
so how are the uh the sales process for the service and the parts how does that differ from the equipment sales
alberto_voltolina (19:08.468)
uh there are two way to make service the one is the productive and the other one is the reactive way the reactive way is you stay in front of a laptop and you wear the customer asking spare parts okay and you sell what sixty thousand hundred thousand perier but there is the right way in my opinion to do service which is you know which kind of a keepment you sold in the past you on
lies you make a trouble shoot list you make like you analyze the machine you understand which are the parts that can be like more sensitive to be broken during the years you make a kind of list you go to the customer and you say to the customer he if you want to make the right men to your machine those are the spare parts we recommend to you to buy you can buy either like a direct says so you buy
paris_vega (19:51.46)
okay
alberto_voltolina (20:08.448)
we voice set or we can even offer consignment stock for those parts that repeat ability in failures okay so they buy i would say every let’s say one month they they commit a certain quantity of pure parts and we emboice them every month as soon as they clear the bottom so this is the way in our opinion to be not reactive but pro active in in in
paris_vega (20:22.82)
hm
alberto_voltolina (20:38.308)
vice and we saw that making business making service in the reactive way was like just to make a number ten the productive way is twenty so you still have the reactive way to do business which is fine that give you so like the ten for the for the rest of the year but you can add other ten on the top of that is if you are more more productive than reactive
paris_vega (20:48.52)
yeah
paris_vega (20:51.66)
got ya
paris_vega (21:07.28)
okay um so we work with through i’m part of a marketing agency and we have some customers and kind of manufacturing and uh equipment suppliers and service providers and that’s a really interesting tactics that you’re talking about there like waiting for customers to need service or repairs versus pro actively going out and kind of pre selling them on what you know they’re going to need and you’re saying you’ve seen just about
double the sales taking that approach
alberto_voltolina (21:37.968)
absolutely absolutely and it is going to cost a little bit more because you have to sit on a plane and go there but sometimes even not because you can present a list in front of a laptop i mean is not always take a flight but we did the first the first i would say around of visits together with one of our colleague we did this this approach we plemented this approach sit on a plane we prepared the list we went with a plane to visit
customer we offer the list in front of them we explain the list to them and we identify together the pair part that could be critical for them to buy with a certain repeatability
paris_vega (22:22.86)
so what would you say is the most important thing for a new business in your industry to focus on maybe if you could do what you’ve went through the past year or so if you could do it over or anything you would do different or what would you say is the most important thing for a new business like yours to focus on sales wise
alberto_voltolina (22:37.948)
ah
alberto_voltolina (22:42.728)
let me tell you something sometimes we italy we produce the machine in italy here so far we have the same department project management service department so i would say we are like sae and after say support office in north america plus hour whereas facility where we do talk of sprat but in italy we money
paris_vega (22:49.58)
okay
alberto_voltolina (23:11.968)
up to the aqibment so there is the excitement when you start we start in genually two thousand twenty two excitement everybody s happy everybody with american flag okay we will land the united states okay amazing we saw the first project we saw the second one and the third one the fourth one and and then who is going to produce the acivement because keep in mind that italy okay your mother company let’s in it all your
paris_vega (23:13.16)
right
alberto_voltolina (23:41.988)
where they have to serve the remaining part of the world so they work while so the same indian or chinese or russian or whatever customer as the same im portant of your american customer and you cannot make like you cannot defering shade like more this or like or that one so you can sell three four fives have a machine and everybody they want to kiss you but at the end of the day you need to produce a machine and it can be
paris_vega (23:54.84)
sure
paris_vega (24:01.04)
right
paris_vega (24:10.82)
right
alberto_voltolina (24:11.948)
something that is creating a negative momentum towards your american customer if you sell a machine of half a million dollars but you have a long time of fourteen fifteen months just because there is other customer waiting for their own machines in our italia workshop so this is the is not a secret okay everybody knows that but the suggestion recommendation is if you want to open a company everywhere in the world but your man factor
paris_vega (24:24.44)
right
paris_vega (24:30.32)
yeah
paris_vega (24:33.48)
right
alberto_voltolina (24:41.928)
different country be sure that where you have your ed quarter you are ready to feed properly your after sales and safe office wherever it is otherwise you are making a mess mean you think that okay we are good because we are in the united states but you are jopardizing your presence united states
paris_vega (24:51.18)
right
paris_vega (25:01.34)
right
paris_vega (25:05.78)
so did the global supply chain issues affect that exact issue because of the past you know two or three years there’s inflation and shipping costs and you know factories were shut down for a little while there around the world so speak to that a little bit
alberto_voltolina (25:12.068)
yeah
yeah
alberto_voltolina (25:18.508)
yeah
alberto_voltolina (25:21.748)
our lines are very ultimated so we are talking about full electrical and ultimated lines with a lot of vision systems a obotics so you can imagine for the electrical and a components it was like a mass and especially for certain pl c staff m s and p staff our sub supply are notify as like fifty two weeks of the away so we were
paris_vega (25:38.06)
m
alberto_voltolina (25:50.928)
for at a certain point to look at different options with all the risks that can these can bring on the top of the table like a new product that you never tested the cast former that don’t like what you are now offering to them so absolutely we were like i would say that thanks god after ovid was amazing for us like in terms of manufacturing volume and pose so our ly time that usually
was like eight months it extended to like ten but on the top of that we were impacted a lot by these electrical ndotomacio supply chain disruptions and these like is i would say hitting for a couple of months more on the late time of the on regularly time
paris_vega (26:44.84)
but you are able to maintain your customer relationships and the sales even though got pushed out a little farther
alberto_voltolina (26:48.448)
yes yes yes we’re able because in my opinion we comply what we said the quality of the equipment is amazing so they tend to wait three or four months more but if you sell a ferrari they have a ferrari this is what this is thanks god is what is helping a lot
paris_vega (27:12.24)
so it gets manufactured in italy a piece of equipment and then is it containership shipped across okay
alberto_voltolina (27:17.668)
yeah yes we usually ship d d p from italy to florida or whatever we take care of the transportation if they want
paris_vega (27:33.34)
this is really interesting i love talking to manufacturing companies i think that’s such an industry industry because you’ve got so many moving parts you know sourcing materials and supplies from around the world all to bring it together to make something for your customer and then ship it across the world um all right any other advice for on the sales side of things about about your specific process your expertise and and your experience
alberto_voltolina (27:41.508)
yeah
alberto_voltolina (27:48.228)
absolutely absolutely
alberto_voltolina (28:01.008)
oh i would say we discussed everything now pushing a lot on service i told you ready being consistent of what you sell is the other part i think that we cover everything more or less her
paris_vega (28:12.4)
yeah
paris_vega (28:18.18)
okay
paris_vega (28:21.72)
so what would you say is the biggest uh or the best tactic you’ve used maybe out of the different marketing things you’ve tried something that maybe he’s caused the biggest spike in growth or leads or even close sales
alberto_voltolina (28:35.708)
but let me tell you secrets that i implemented not with m j z but my previous life in the steel market big big companies all around the ward and specially here united states there were a company that did not love us too much and actually or our track rack truck record with them was almost zero so i started approaching them
paris_vega (28:47.16)
m
alberto_voltolina (29:05.548)
a very humble way just like we’re here to support but please let us know where we can have you know as usual i would say but uh i try to enter very with the very meek mouse project so those big companies in still they are used to buy i don’t know if you saw probably some price release but there are companies like new corn or still in as that they buy like half billion plants
paris_vega (29:30.46)
yeah
alberto_voltolina (29:35.648)
from the germans or the italian or the japanese and so they are used to deal with this kind of amount half a million to any million eighty million i literally sold the project with a specific customer i don’t want to mention a name of twenty one twenty one thousand dollars even less that there’s mallersperparts that they can buy significantly last and actually that was the keys and we were
both with that small meek mouths project to enter and then at the end of the day after a nine months they awarded us with a product of twenty five million because with that twenty one thousand dollars we were able to fix certain specific things in the process of producing specific product that they produce in indiana if i remember well and they were so happy that leader
paris_vega (30:18.38)
wow
alberto_voltolina (30:35.488)
later they start opening the door and probably a secret another interesting things is that as we said before ou need to identify the right guy right guy means the guy that speaks your same language so technical language better because we are technical company is okay with sail technical stuff but the guy that can understand that you are solving a problem for him that is impacting
paris_vega (30:47.56)
yeah
paris_vega (30:55.98)
right
alberto_voltolina (31:05.488)
s company but his wallet as soon as somebody here is realizing that he’s fully open to talk to you because keep in mind that certain production guy technical guy are paid fixed plusverable and the variable part is linked to the output the outcome of the lines okay so if you saw few things like with certain mechanical or electrical adjustment it is a big same for the car
paris_vega (31:14.44)
hm
alberto_voltolina (31:35.488)
money but but also at the end of the day is a big plus in their whole because they receive a bigger varables so that is the right chemistry that is interesting to create to with this kind of profit lets
paris_vega (31:42.08)
okay
paris_vega (31:51.28)
so that’s that’s about like finding the specific pain point and the incentives that that person is facing so that you can help with their incentives and their goals they’re trying to reach and help solve in some of those pains that they have
alberto_voltolina (31:58.628)
yep
alberto_voltolina (32:04.428)
yes these these means really know your customer deeply know your customer which is not only okay i call you i know your email but knowing what do they do which is not easy to do is absolutely not easy because it takes time it takes beers restaurant dinners okay and join a lot with them and sometimes certain companies at sea sweets they do not understand that making sacs
paris_vega (32:16.78)
yeah
paris_vega (32:20.74)
right
alberto_voltolina (32:34.188)
is like a lot ninety percent of these kind of things is not is not just drinking a beer to drink a beer with somebody is drinking a beer for sure and join the person that you have in front of you but also trying for the company to understand which is the right way to enter in the mind and in the heart of your customer
paris_vega (32:38.56)
wow
paris_vega (32:45.82)
hm
paris_vega (32:55.3)
so during that five to six months process of getting the first sale for m g g how many of those type of meetings do you think it too because i know you had the presentation meeting that you had to get kind of through the gate keeper to get set up and then after that big presentation did you have to do a lot of individual one on one like dinners and that kind of wining and dining side of things
alberto_voltolina (33:18.248)
he might have been a weird
now after one year we are in the where in the position that and this is what we like and what our customer like we are in the position that with certain companies we can work productively together to prepare the investment a list together i’m not saying that we decide what they have to buy because absolutely not they know what they want to buy but where you are in the position okay they are in the draw
aving seat you are near by them when you are in that position it’s okay because you listen them and you customize the your there preferences according to your technical knowledge so they trust to you because you are the consultant you are not any more the supplier you are the technical consultant for them so i think i think that in the last two all for three months out of ten twelve companies in us
we are in a good position with four or five which is good for me because after one year is a good is a good is a good scenario for us
paris_vega (34:29.599)
yeah
paris_vega (34:33.24)
sure but those kinds of one on one dinners and that kind of thing that’s that’s like a constant part of your sales process it sounds like interesting
alberto_voltolina (34:40.948)
yeah yeah a custom part is a cause of bart but suggestion it’s nice to have a dinner with a customer the customer wants to have a dinner with you but even during the dinner five percent of the time you have to as a case guy you need to give added value to him so let’s spend ninety five percent of the time without boring your customer talking about kits and families and sports and sort of but when you talk
paris_vega (35:02.5)
okay
paris_vega (35:07.22)
yeah
alberto_voltolina (35:10.748)
for five minutes about business it has to be an added value time otherwise after two dinners he will not sit together with you any more because he can talk about kith and family need somebody else
paris_vega (35:21.58)
right sure sure that’s a good point interesting okay because i’m used to doing a lot more like over video or maybe a phone call um i’m not doing a lot of one on one myself but i see the advantage of that and i see other people doing that and it seems to work really well
alberto_voltolina (35:43.508)
paris making as i told you before making says it some sometimes somebody does not understand the making says means being prepare so when you go to a diner is strange to say because it’s the relaxing moment but you need to be prepared for those five minutes where you talk when you talk about the added value that my technology can give you is a b c d for this this this with the
so for five mes no more than that
paris_vega (36:14.52)
right
and is that usually i like i like this getting into the details here so is this like maybe at the beginning of the conversation you’re just hanging out for a while and then at the end it’s that little added value usually or do you do you strategically think about win to bring that up
alberto_voltolina (36:33.608)
usually is there is a light motive usually in the last ten years of my dinners with a customer we start talking about business three minutes and join and they wrap up at the end after two hours after five glass of wine but still with the brain connected okay so it’s like three minutes at the end at the beginning and five minutes at the end so more or less this is the way we deal with dinners
paris_vega (36:52.18)
yeah
paris_vega (36:58.88)
okay
paris_vega (37:02.24)
huh do you do you have other sales people on the team that you train up and go through this kind of a process
alberto_voltolina (37:08.388)
yes i had the past lot with the previous experience now we are a smaller companies so we are significal until last year in charlot but yes absolutely it is those are the advice that i try to give them to be like to be hammer but in the right way
paris_vega (37:11.12)
okay
paris_vega (37:17.88)
yeah
paris_vega (37:23.42)
huh
paris_vega (37:27.56)
interesting okay yeah i really appreciate that insight because i’ve been curious about how how people execute those kinds of moments where it’s a mix of entertainment and sales and trying to balance that
alberto_voltolina (37:40.588)
i’m so i like people i like says people having methought you need to have a methothenseles is not like a rule of time activity that you do i mean you need to be as i told you before to be prepared to study when you have like a premier leg or legal football match you studied like or an fell match okay both of the teams they studied each one okay so you do the same with you
paris_vega (38:01.4)
hm
sure
alberto_voltolina (38:10.828)
we did customer
paris_vega (38:15.78)
okay cool all right this has been really interesting um i really like the insight into into this kind of sales process um let’s say we had an audience right now of a whole bunch of your target audience so it sounds like different manufacturers of the different paint brushes and rollers what’s that pitch that you would give just really briefly what’s the reason that those companies should use your company
alberto_voltolina (38:20.348)
thanks
alberto_voltolina (38:47.328)
because in our opinion we are eager to keep looking at technology and right now you cannot be competitive as steel supplier pain brasupplyer whatever put the words that you want in front of producer sorry put the word you want in front of producers you cannot be a steel producer or a pain brass producer or whatever if you do not embrace technology at one other
and which means vision robotics soft where pierces and like the way to make service with like remote tablets to show to our italian colleagues where is the problem and you can intervene right away with the support of the italian colleagues so this is the way to make business because only if you are able to swap to of set from
your manual production to the automated okay two thousand thirty okay new generation production that is the key in my opinion and m g even in my preduce company we were keen to support our customers for those kind of technological aspects so do not rely to the company that tells you yeah we can do manually is fine now is not fine because in order to compete with chinese market
or like low cost market unite to our formes and this is the thanks god what our owner of m j z and founder mrzanfranc decided like thirty years ago to be a technological partner okay
paris_vega (40:35.1)
very cool so you have the high tech solutions that’s really good
alberto_voltolina (40:38.368)
yeah so we help our customers to produce commodities but there are different ways to producing of producing commodities so producing commodities where the margin are limited if you do not embrace certain kind of the business like the technology and the automation it will not be easy to survive in my opinion
paris_vega (40:43.74)
hm
paris_vega (40:57.88)
right
paris_vega (41:02.46)
right because their costs are going to be higher if they’re using older methods or technology yeah
alberto_voltolina (41:05.288)
yeah especially united states i’m not i’m not offering folly automated lines in indonesia but yes i’m offering full two hundred percent full automated lies in united states
paris_vega (41:24.undefined)
all right so any paint brush or roller manufacturers who need automated manufacturing equipment you can give alberto a call
alberto_voltolina (41:33.008)
we need to loma we need to ltomate mean were we are here to outomatize i would say united states because us use osntheinfstructures okay united states our airports united states is like nas top notch technology or sometimes they have certain kinds of things that are still like pristorical things
so we find sometimes per companies that still have like a lot of banal operation with which we love okay which they make sense for their business okay but we need to teach them on how embracing the technology in order to be competitive so yes there are i would say eighty per cent seventy per cent of our customers that sooner or later they need to move towards that direction so there are there are
paris_vega (42:10.68)
hm
alberto_voltolina (42:33.528)
there is still a lot of job to do
paris_vega (42:36.38)
and are you moving into other markets other than just the paint brush and paint roller
alberto_voltolina (42:40.748)
were we are trying to yeah we are very active especially europe for automation and robotics so we motuate the about reciprocate some robotic application that we have in the paidbratinal roller technology in certain other markets like medical and sports so what we are trying to do here in orth america is to make sort of partner with a very reliable canadian company for robotics which is very
active in nuclear and out o motive okay we can work together making scenargies technical scenergies and the idea would be serving the united states and north america canada mexico market for what consereabotics for instance even the same customer for paint brashes like serving williams and bear they have a lot of painting and quoting is facility where they do not produce pain brushes but they produce the gallows of colors okay and they absolutely make
paris_vega (43:30.14)
hm
paris_vega (43:37.28)
right
alberto_voltolina (43:40.548)
those facility more automatic compared to what they are right now so there is the new i would say scenario that i’m looking at
paris_vega (43:51.38)
okay so there’s almost it sounds like there’s an option to get like custom equipment if you have a big enough customer and they have a specific need you guys can come up with a way to create
alberto_voltolina (44:00.128)
yes
alberto_voltolina (44:04.168)
taylor made solutions yeah absolutely yeah fit pork solution
paris_vega (44:06.76)
wow so you guys make you make the machines that make the machines almost
alberto_voltolina (44:14.468)
yeah ally yeah it would be a you summarize perfectly
paris_vega (44:19.18)
really cool all right alberto thank you so much for your time today uh some really good stuff and anybody who sounds like uh who’s listening who you think you might be able to do some business with alberto give miccall will have links to their website and alberto’s linked in in the show notes and we’ll see everybody next time
alberto_voltolina (44:23.308)
thanks berries
alberto_voltolina (44:41.148)
thank you paris i hope that you have been clear with my new jersey accent and i hope you to say thank you so much by
paris_vega (44:48.32)
now i think it was good
bye
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