Mastering Intro Calls: Preparation Strategies for Success
Overview
In this video, Alex Wilson, Magic's head of sales, shares essential strategies for preparing for introductory calls with clients. He discusses key resources provided by Magic, minimum preparation requirements, and best practices to ensure a successful call. Viewers will learn how to effectively present themselves and understand client needs to build strong working relationships.
Key Points
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Resources Provided by Magic
- Client Guide: Overview of client needs and expectations.
- Interview Preparation Documentation: Tips for technical setup and professional presentation.
- Profile Guide: How to create an impactful profile.
- Client Preferences: Understanding communication styles and availability.
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Minimum Preparation Requirements
- Familiarize yourself with the client’s basic information, including their role and company.
- Review the client guide to understand their needs and expectations.
- Ensure technical readiness (internet, audio, webcam) and a professional environment.
- Dress appropriately and arrive early to the call.
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Best Practices for Success
- Craft a concise personal pitch that highlights relevant experience and skills. For more on effective communication, check out Master the Art of Speaking: Avoid These 7 Deadly Sins and Embrace HAIL.
- Research the client’s company and industry to ask informed questions.
- Be proactive in suggesting tools or systems that could benefit the client.
- Prepare for common interview questions and have icebreaker questions ready.
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Building Rapport
- Use insights from the client’s LinkedIn profile to establish a personal connection.
- Show genuine interest in the client’s business and challenges.
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Continuous Improvement
- Seek feedback after calls to improve future performance.
- Utilize AI and other resources for ongoing learning and preparation. For a comprehensive guide on mastering AI, see A Step-by-Step Roadmap to Mastering AI: From Beginner to Confident User.
FAQs
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What resources does Magic provide for preparing for intro calls?
Magic provides a client guide, interview preparation documentation, a profile guide, and client preferences to help assistants prepare effectively. -
How can I ensure I am technically prepared for the call?
Test your internet connection, audio, and webcam beforehand, and ensure you are in a quiet, professional space. -
What should I include in my personal pitch?
Your pitch should be concise, highlighting your relevant experience, skills, and how they align with the client’s needs. -
How can I build rapport with the client during the call?
Research the client’s background and interests on LinkedIn to find common ground and establish a personal connection. -
What should I do if I am unfamiliar with a tool the client uses?
Research the tool beforehand and express your willingness to learn how the client uses it in their business. -
How important is preparation for the intro call?
Preparation is crucial as it sets the tone for the relationship and increases your chances of success in the role. -
Can I use AI to help with my preparation?
Yes, AI can be used to simulate interview questions and help refine your understanding of the client’s needs. For more insights on enhancing your professional communication skills, consider Unlocking Professional Communication Skills with Dr. Apurva Chan.
So, we're back with Alex Wilson, Magic's head of sales, and today we'll go through what a good preparation looks
like for intro calls. We'll go through some resources that you'll be receiving before you meet with your client, and
we'll talk through some good practices on how you can best prepare for your intro call. So, Alex, take it away.
Thanks, Josh. Thanks for having me. Glad to be back. So as you just shared, we're going to dive through a couple of key
aspects today. Uh one is what magic provides in order to help you prepare. Second would be what like minimum prep
really looks like, what we would suggest as bare minimum and then finally like what really great preparation could look
like and that way you're set up for success and hopefully you go crush your call. So let me share my screen. All
right. So now you should be looking at a client guide. This is within the workspace portal of magic on on your
end. you should have access to this. There's there's four key sections. Those four key sections are this client guide,
which is a lander. We then have interview preparation documentation. We have a profile guide. And furthermore,
we have client preferences. So, these are four key areas to make sure that you're set up for success. Again, all
prepared for you by magic and um given to you by by the matching team. Before I dive in each individual one, I think
there's a really key thing to look at which is in the bottom left and it really is the client's basic
information. It might be called the client's basic information, but this is actually important and vital
information. So this tells me what company, what organization does this person reside within and what is their
role within that company. Knowing those two key things helps you do a couple of things. One is understand uh what the
company does in the in the first place, right? The other is where does this person sit within that or so? So the
person I have here, his name is Chappie. He's the co-founder and CEO of the org. That's a pretty important understanding
of where he sits as well as the facts of like what he might be responsible for, therefore what an executive assistant
might be helping him with day-to-day. So first I'm going to dive a little bit deeper into the client guide though. So
the whole goal with the client guide is to give you a bird's eyee view, not the only view, but an initial bird's eye
view what this client came to magic looking for. You have highle information including a link to their site.
Sometimes this is different than what's listed over here. We then have who you'll be working with. We try to
overlay the client's background as well as their tasks to give you a really highle summary. So in this case was
client operations, someone in the AI industry and they're a partner of a ton of different organizations. They have a
huge volunteer network and they're seeking somebody who can help with overwhelming communications across
different channels. You'll then understand who this job is a good fit for. So I hope you can go check check
make sure that this really does fit not only your expertise but your passion as well as what you'd like to be doing in
the future. Another key thing here is the work schedule. So we want to make sure that you are are ready to work the
schedule. Should never be a question for you when you jump on intro call. What will the schedule be? You should know
that before you even look at the client guide because the matching team should have explain that to you. But this is
not something to overlook. If you ever see a discrepancy here or you have questions, concerns, anything like that,
just raise your hand and ask. We want to make sure that you are set up for success and that this schedule aligns
with your desires work-wise as well. So we think that makes the the best relationship possible. Further here are
all the key areas this client needs you to help impact them. So it's what you're going to do. This client had four things
that they wanted. One was communication management, coordination, operational tasks, and then marketing and resource
building. Every client's going to be a little bit different. That said, this is like your road map to success. So the
goal of what you will do is to then look at this and understand what's within my wheelhouse. Meaning what have I done in
the past that correlates or is relative to what this client needs me to do. And that way you can start connecting your
prior experience with this client's pains. So when you get ready to talk to them on the intro call, you might have
stories, examples, or a summary of yourself that matches what they need. Finally, at the very bottom of this,
they're going to outline what you're going to be using, meaning technology and systems. So, this is always
different for each client. Sometimes it's an example of a system. It's not the system. Um, an example of that is a
client may say, you know, I love notion. I've not implemented Notion yet. However, I'd love the assistant to help
me do that. So, we might list here project management in parenthesis notion. And that gives you an
understanding that they don't have it just yet, but it's something for us to work towards. This is why you see
project management tools like notion, Trello or Sauna to be decided. And for these sections, uh, for the tasks and
the tools, um, is it safe to say that it may change over time as well? Like, yes, this is what was, you know, laid out at
the intro call and as the work has started, but could these tasks and tools change over time? Yes, they can. And I
think yes, they should. Um to give you a perspective, most clients come to us and probably are similar to you Josh
where they can't predict the future, right? So it's like they understand their now problems and they could have a
very small snapshot of their problems that might be affecting them in the next week or so. They have no idea what
problems are going to be affecting them 30, 60, 365 days from now. So these are their now tasks and their now software
tools. But as their company develops, as the assistant embeds themselves deeper with them, those are going to evolve.
I'd also say a huge opportunity to build a great relationship with a client is to suggest systems, tools, and tasks. So,
this is what the client articulated they needed, but within your first week or by doing your research, you might identify
areas that you could potentially provide value. We always recommend you share that, right? So, the same way the client
can't predict the future, they can't read your mind. Please do not be afraid to raise your hand and say, "Hey, I
noticed this and I thought I might be able help with X." They would absolutely love for you to do that. And show your
proactivity on a day-to-day basis. And you could also say that that essentially helps the client be more comfortable
with working with, you know, the EA. it's it's someone new and it builds that trust almost cuz then if it works out
say the EA suggests something and the client's able to incorporate that in a sense that and that that dependency
almost increases it's like there's more reason for them to trust them give more work you know try out new tasks that
maybe weren't part of his initial list right so Josh you hit on a great point there if you think that your best
friendships your best relationships I bet you you can point to something early on relationship that you shared with
them or they share with you that you then gained from uh delegating can feel like a lot of work. It can feel like h I
have to figure out not what to give but how to give it. I think something that makes a really stellar assistant is
someone who's proactive and suggests what to take off. I also think that we see the best assistants are the ones
that suggest new ways of approaching things or new systems or tools to use. That way the client or your potential
partner sees you as that valuable person who's truly a partner of theirs, right? And that way if you show them, hey, in
the past, you know, I use this software for this or I've learned this for this, they're not just going to be impressed.
They'll probably be like, oh, let's set this up in my business or my team. All right, we're going to hop into some
interview prep. So, this section is is literally a guide. The whole document is to get you ready for your upcoming call.
Again, this call is between you, the client, and a magic representative. The magic representative may be in sales,
support, customer success. Their goal, the magic representative, is to support you and to support that client and to
make sure that they help facilitate a very healthy and agile match. This preparation guide is built to make
sure that you show up ready to rocket. So, first things first, we need to make sure we technically are sound. That's
doing the the minimum like testing your text setup, right? So, like internet connection, audio, webcam.
If you don't know if it's going to work at the time, maybe log on earlier, create a Google Meet for yourself, which
is free with any Google account, and just log in and make sure it works. Right? Then second thing here is
professional space. Make sure it's quiet. Make sure there's lack of background noise. If you need to get
noise cancelling headphones, and make sure that you are fully present. If you don't show up with a great internet
connection, audio, webcam, or an unprofessional space, remember this is your first impression. The client may
assume that's how you're going to show up to work as well. And I don't know about you, but I'm not one to show up to
work with a background being a busy Starbucks or coffee shop that you can hardly hear me in and try to come off as
having a great impression. So do what you can to wake up a little bit earlier, test things out. The other is
timeliness. Please do show up on time is early. On time literally is late, right? Like being 5 minutes early never hurt.
And then the final thing here is dressing for success. I'm in a t-shirt. Josh, you look fancy in your collared
shirt. I'm probably dressed below the average for an intro call. You could think of the best attire would be
business casual, right? That way you're not dressed up too much. You're not dressed down too much. You're right in
the middle. Okay? And don't forget the client can only see the the profile, right? The snapshot of you. So, when
you're trying to figure out what to wear, well, think about top and above. All right. The second part of this is
just strategizing for the call. But the very beginning of the call is literally make it or break it as we went over in a
prior session. So when you think about crafting your personal pitch, think about how long this pitch takes. And
remember, the client saw your profile. Chances are they read it verbatim. They don't need you to read it. They need you
to take your experience, take their problems, and position yourself and your experience to solve their problems. A
good personal pitch is short, concise, to the point, well under two minutes, does not highlight every single role
step by step, every technology step by step. Instead is highlevel, strategic, and something that is guiding or
summarizing of yourself. So that's why we want you to start out with a quick greeting. Hey, I'm Alex. I have X number
of years of experience driving business change for founders like yourself. Then you're going to share background. Hey,
I'm I'm located in blah blah blah and I have expertise in these three key areas. You could share a couple achievements if
they're important to you. You can then recap your background and how it fits the clients. And then um finally, if you
have any skills, certifications, or certain things this client asked for which would be nice to have or
requirements, I'd make sure to highlight those. Okay. Best advice I can give you about strategizing for the call is
practice makes perfect. Um, I'd recommend that you record your personal pitch. You then
listen to it. I would also time it. If it is more than 2 minutes, please just take a moment, think to yourself how you
can make this shorter, conciser, and more to the point. And then from there, do it again. The best openers, when you
think about it, the client's going to be under 60 seconds. and I would do everything I can to try to match that.
Client doesn't need to know everything about you. They just need to know the pertinent details about you. Finally, we
want to help you go the extra mile. So, in interview prep, it's important not to just take this whole guide magic gives
you. It's important to go to the other areas of the the role as well. So, that's things like look at the company,
which we'll show you in a minute, understand their pain points. What does a client really want from these tasks?
Do I have clarity on their role? It's one thing to read the task and responsibilities, but it's another thing
to fully understand them. If you really understand the task and responsibilities, it should be easy for
you to come up with key questions to ask about them. And I think there's nothing better than having an assistant show up,
having read the tasks, ask how would they like those tasks achieved? What does success look like in X task? Or how
are you currently doing this in your day-to-day now? That shows you read it and you want to learn more. Finally, if
you don't know about a tool and the client uses it, you should look it up. Okay. If you have any questions about
it, reach out to Magic. We'll be more than happy to help you with tool familiarity. Then finally, platform
proficiency. So, it's very similar to tools. The whole goal here is that the technology stack that this client uses,
you understand what each system does, aka why the client wants you to use it in the future. So instead of being able
to show up to an intrical saying, I'm not sure what HubSpot does, you can then start asking questions like, hey, I know
everyone uses HubSpot as their CRM, but how do you use it within your business today?
Finally, we have some common interview questions. These are questions that are asked of you from a potential client or
partner. These are questions we um hope that you can try to answer. I'd work on and ask yourself if you can answer these
on the fly. And finally, we have icebreaker questions. These help you show up prepared uh and basically um
show up like you want to own that role. Furthermore, I think a good rule of thumb if you don't use these is breaker
questions, we always recommend you come prepared with three to four questions that help you better understand the role
so you can then articulate how you'll fit that client's needs. Overall, this is how we want to help you minimally
show up prepared for an interview. Next, we're on to the profile guide. This is quite literally a guide
to making the best profile possible. Uh, first impressions usually start with first profile photo, right? So, it's
like, who am I going to go see? Um, we want you to have it be clear, professional type headsh shot. You want
to make sure that your face is visible. You want to look at your dress. Look at how you're showing up in that photo. If
you need any help, we do suggest you could use things like photo room here or remove.bg to help make it polished. The
other thing is your experience. So your experience should always be in reverse order. Meaning your most recent role at
the top, your most past role, meaning your first job that you want to highlight at the very very bottom. That
way it's a timeline from now to way back when. I would say keep your skills, achievements, and
experiences brief to the point. The other thing is I'd focus on not just what you did, but what type of impact
you actually made. So saying you know I used to handle two executives inboxes. There's a different approach which would
be saying you know I supported two executives at any time live the best lives they ever could. That makes me
want to understand holy cow what does this assistant do and how can I get them to work for me. The other things are
things like skills and tools. Please don't be afraid to showcase all the tools you're familiar with. That way,
not only do they know you're an awesome assistant from a behavioral standpoint, from an expertise standpoint, they know
that you're skilled with technology, too. We always think that technology helps make you efficient and effective.
And then finally, if you'd like, you can do a video introduction. If you want to do that, there's a script just down
below. Again, this goes similar to the whole uh interview prep. Make sure you're in a well-lit area, you have a
great background, you're dressed to impress, and that you keep it short, sweet, to the point, and that you take a
couple of cuts at this. Your first one's likely not going to be the the best, but each time you try it, you can get
refined and refined. And not only can your profile make a great first impression, your video introduction can
as well. Um, actually, I just wanted to touch on the profile photo really quickly as well. I've seen some
instances before where you know this is the first or one of the first things that the client will see about the
candidate. So that whole first impression that you mentioned earlier starts as early as the profile, right?
And I've seen a lot of instances where they see the profile and they join the call and maybe they don't look exactly
like how their photo was in the profile and that starts to create some doubt or confusion for the client. It's like is
this you? Uh I've actually seen calls like that. So, um I think it's a really good, um thing to remember is your
profile needs to represent yourself and all your experiences and what you're able to bring to the table. And you
know, really part of creating a good first impression is also uh forging that trust early on. And then actually Alex,
I also have another question on the rest of the profile. So with how powerful a AI is becoming, it's inevitable that you
know a lot of maybe candidates profiles are run through AI you know for proof reading or polishing. Um but we also
know that sometimes there are tells clear tells that oh wait this is AI generated which you then you know as a
client they could be thinking how much of this is actually real. So, do you have tips or advice on, you know, we're
not saying don't use AI, right? It's s such a powerful tool, but how can they balance, you know, using AI, but also
making sure that their profile still comes off as authentic, representative of them and their capabilities? Like a
question. So, I think there's there's one thing I'd suggest not to do. So, a lot of people use AI like they would
Google, right? So, you take your your current resume, you put it into AI, and you say, "Help make this sound better."
Okay, it's one way to do it, but it's going to come out like AI. The better way to do it is actually you could give
the AI something to be, which is, hey, you are a recruiter and you coach people on how to get great jobs as assistants.
I'm now going to give you my resume and we're going to go roll by roll and I'd like your help to ask me five questions
about each role and with each role I want you to output based off those questions and my resume best most
actionable skills achievements and overall overview possible. So I'm not just asking the AI to enhance my resume.
I'm asking the AI to ask me more in-depth details to then put with my current resume and make it a 3.0
version. I think that really helps you uh think through your expertise. I I think it also really helps get the
resume to that next level. And then furthermore, you're not going to get those generic sentences which is um I I
cleaned an inbox and I managed a Google calendar. Instead, you're going to have more impactful messages uh under each
role which will really stand out to that client. If you do want to go another layer deeper, you can go through that
exercise. You could then take this client guide, which we have here, and say, "Hey, I'll be working with this
client based off the resume and the roles you've just uh understood for me and my background. Can you please help
improve and my summaries and my roles to fit this client's needs? Help show me in the best light possible. In that
situation, you're not asking the AI to go fly. Instead, you're asking the AI to take your current resume, take the
improved version that you worked on with it, and then take what the client needs and just extrapulate what the client
would actually want to read and visualize. So, there's likely key things you did within each role that are
important to this future client, and that exercise can help you highlight those. All right. So, here are the
client preferences. The the biggest thing I want to share before we dive even into it is these may not always be
accurate. We we want to make sure that we're providing you the preferences the client did put in. We're all prone to
mistakes, though. So, there could be human error here uh and a misclicked button. In that case, if you have
questions or if a preference here doesn't fit what you saw in the client guide or any discussion pad with magic,
just double check. Reach out to your matcher, reach out to your magic representative, and we'll be more than
happy to answer any question you have. We do want to say it's better to ask questions about these preferences before
you get on the intro call verse ask about them on the intro call. Right? If you ask about preferences, hey client, I
just want to ask what's your ideal schedule? Well, you've been provided that information in a variety of ways.
You could ask that before you get on the call and not to the client. You can ask that to your magic representative. That
being said, uh the preferences highlight firstly communication parameters. So, it's what is the client's time zone and
then what's their general availability. Doesn't mean that's the only time they're available. It just means
generally speaking, these are the hours that I'd like to be notified of things and be available for my EA or assistant.
Further at the bottom here are self- selected channels of communication or platforms. This is not all-encompassing
but it's some select channels that this client has said they they use uh or they want to use with you. So these check
marks symbolize what they prefer. They all might be selected only one of them may be selected or none of them may be
selected. If you find that there's a discrepancy here and in the client guide about how you'll work with the client,
we do recommend reaching out to your magic representative to see and gain some clarity on that. The other thing
once you do have clarity on the preferred communication platforms, we always suggest a way to go above and
beyond during the intro call is actually to ask questions like, "Hey, so I understand we're going to be using Slack
for communication. I want to ask going above communication, how do you want to stay in touch with me?" and what kind of
cadence do you want to have daytoday. Not only is that show you show the client you're paying attention and
you're u proactive, it also comes across to the client like, "Oh, wow. This EA is really on top of it and wants to work
with me and understand how to stay regularly informed. So now we've shown you what Magic provides. We've
shown you the minimum prep and what it looks like. Let's go the next layer deeper." So, we always recommend that
you go to the client's website. You understand what they do. In this example, just went to the client's
website. I can quickly see what they do as a company. I can then understand parts of my role. What do I mean by
that? Well, this assistant is going to be helping a client called Genai Collective manage their community, their
chapters, and their social channels. Right away, you get some really important details. One is most websites
have an about us page. I'd comb through this. Who are they? What do they really do? This is not things to just skip
over. I'd really seek to understand what your client does for business or in their role. The deeper you understand
that, the deeper you'll be able to understand the tasks or the potential issues they try to overcome every day.
So, you can try to help them. The other thing they have a join the team section. Sometimes I always think this is a great
area to just go hi uh understand the core values of the org, what they believe in, if they have a mission
vision statement, that way you can understand who you're about to become a partner with and work with day-to-day.
So now we've gone over jumping to their website, understanding a little bit about what they do, what the business
tries to solve, digging into the about us, their core values, I would then try to go one other layer deeper, which is
understand their product or service. So with this sample client, I would start diving into things like chapters. So
right away I'm just highlighting a a core function within their top navigation and I can quickly see all
these cities not just in the US but across the world that this organization works within. So from a quick bird's eye
view potential assistant for this client I know what they do what they believe in little pieces of the tasks they've
explained to me and now I understand where they solve these problems. So I can start to kind of piece together, oh,
I'm going to be doing administrative tasks between the client and their chapters and their chapters are global.
So I'm going to have an opportunity to work with so many diverse cultures around the world, different time zones,
different communication issues, etc. Now, this is just an example of one client, but the thing I will say is 99%
of websites have all of these things. They have a little more about the company. they have about the team, about
what they believe in, or their values to some degree. And then they all have something about their service or
product. Diving into those three key areas will help set you up for success for your next intro call. You can go one
layer even deeper than just going to the website, and that is go check out the client on social channels. A way we
suggest doing that is using your handydandy LinkedIn. So once you find the company page, this starts to give
you a lot of insight. Now my LinkedIn may look a little bit different than yours. Reason being I have a sales
navigator plan. That plan gives me a little bit other insight, but most of what I'm going to show you is fully
available to you in just the free plan of LinkedIn. You're going to understand uh the company's name, their statement
or tagline. You'll then start to see um the follow button. You can see the overview of the company, their own about
us. This gives you other key insight like what industry do they self put themselves in, what's the company size,
where are they headquartered, and pretty important, when did they get started. Further, you can look at their
posts as a company. Sometimes this is going to be actively shared. Other times, you won't see anything here. I
think either case is good insight. If they have nothing on their LinkedIn, nothing on their Facebook, it's just an
area of opportunity to ask, Josh, I noticed your social channels look important, but it doesn't look like
you're adding a lot of posts lately. Is that something I can help you with? And you're providing another thing to do
that the client might not have thought of. If they do have very loud channels, meaning there's a lot going on here.
Looks like this one is almost every day they're posting. I'd ask a different question, which is, "Hey, I notice you
post on social media all the time. Is there anything I can do day-to-day to help with engagement or manage our
social channels?" I'm sure they'd be impressed by that. The key place to go to on a company page in LinkedIn is
people. This is insight you would have if you have the sales navigator plugin, but you should still be able to search.
So, all I would do is go to the portal that we provided you with and I put this person's name there. You're then going
to search and it's going to bring up your potential client. From here, you can see this person's linked up. The
goal is understand who this person is. I recommend reading their about us, about me section. This gives you a snapshot of
what they wrote, what they chose to write about themsel and highlight right away. I noticed that um Chappie is not
only a co-founder of Genai Collective, he's a competitive bodybuilder, he's an investor. Sounds pretty impressive to
me. Also, someone who I would love to get to know and learn from. Some things that I would
highlight, most people, if they do have an about me section, will highlight something
personal. Right away, these two things caught my attention. He's a bookworm world traveler. I think building rapport
with somebody is one of the keys to success in any relationship. Showcasing that you did a little bit of research
can go a long way on an intro call or just initially in your relationship. So even in your own summary of yourself in
your your elevator pitch to that potential client, you could start off by saying, "Hey Chappie, I'm really excited
to get to know you as well. My summary is as follows, but I just want to kick off by saying I'm actually a bookworm,
too, and I love traveling." He's going to be shocked that you said those two things and pleasantly was surprised you
did your research. Further, you can then scroll down and you'll be able to see what they've done. So, who they are,
what they've done work-wise and their accomplishments. You might see uh education, you might see skills, you
might see endorsements, interests. All of this just gives you further insight as to who you'll be working alongside.
The reason for the insight is to also help you understand here are their core problems or tasks, here's their
business, and here's the person. By you really understanding those three fundamental things, you can become a
really effective assistant for them. You don't just have to stop at LinkedIn. You might want to go search
the person on Facebook. If they have a Facebook business page, that's a great option. If they have a Instagram
business page, that's another option as well. But the minimum I would say is most companies have a website and then
they have targeted social channels they choose to engage in and I'd go make an effort to check those out before you
ever begin your preparation for your intro call. So going back to the client guide, we previously showed a section
where we would show the potential tools that a client would need their potential EA to use if they start working
together. So in instances where maybe the candidate may have not tried or previously used a specific tool but
maybe they tried something similar you know CRM are always a good example right it's like if the client needs HubSpot
but maybe they've tried Salesforce instead so very similar platforms similar functions as well how can they
best connect what they do know about the platforms they've used in the past to you know showing the client that they'd
be down to learn and explore the platform that client prefers. Definitely happy to help there. Um, let me first
start with saying I I'll speak from my personal professional experience. I have never worked at a company with the same
technology and tools as any previous company. I say that because I want to make sure you know as
a potential assistant, you likely will have a tool belt of tools as well, but they will not match this this client's
tools. And that's totally okay and totally normal. What I think I would say though is in working with companies,
speaking from my own professional experience, I've worked with numerous types of CRM. We have HubSpot, we have
Salesforce, there's Pipe Drive, I've used Netswuite, I've also used Google Sheets as a CRM. So, I I share this
because that's a lot of different companies all using different things, but the similarity is that every CRM
regardless of its logo, its color, etc. has fundamental parts that are the same. CRM stands for customer relationship
management. They help you manage their customers. So, that means they have things like leads and contacts. They
have accounts and deals. And then they connect communication to those things in one place. On the front end, that's
emails, chats, phone calls. On the back end, that might be things like support tickets. Just understanding the
fundamentals of a CRM allows you to then go from Salesforce to HubSpot and be proficient. The thing I'd also add is a
general rule of thumb. I would definitely look at what they're using. If you don't have a background in a CRM
project management platform, etc., then please do your research on what they how they're set up, what impact they drive,
and how they're used. There's plenty of videos on YouTube about why they're important, and how they're used. But
what this allows you to do is to show up prepared and say before you're even asked, "What is your experience with X
software?" You could say after your summary, "Hey, Chappie, I just wanted to share. I actually don't have experience
with Mailchimp, but in reading through what you like me to do, which it sounds like you want me to work between you and
your communities and send newsletters, I have used Constant Contact, which is very, very similar to Mailchimp, and I'm
excited to learn how you use Mailchimp today. It's not as important if you know the
exact technology as if you know what that technology solves and the pain point or place it fits within their
business. The other thing I'll share if you ever wanted to highlight this to a client as well, it just highlights your
own expertise and your own knowledge, which is different clients use Mailchimp, different clients use
HubSpot. Again, I've never met a client that uses those systems the same way. Every piece of technology nowadays could
be used in such a variety of ways that it's more important to understand how this client uses the software to solve
their own problems. So if you're ever unsure of technology, do your research. And I recommend coming prepared with
questions that really help you understand how this business or this person uses it in their day-to-day or
week to week. It makes you show up like an expert and at the same time it helps you be really successful at your future
job. So we've talked through the different resources that Magic will provide the EA candidates uh to prepare
for the introductory call if they are looking for more resources outside of this client guide, the client's website
or even their LinkedIn page. What else can Magic provide or what else can the candidate look for uh to be better
prepared for the intro call? It's a really good question. So, Magic certainly tries to give you everything
possible. So, we we have the client guide. We have you prepare for the interview, prepare your profile, and
understand their preferences. It's not going to be everything you need. I think also to just go above and beyond and be
the most successful, proactive assistant we know you are. You're going to want more. We recommend that you do
everything you've listed. You also go to other resources um and to look things up. One resource for instance would be
searching YouTube for videos of the basics of CRM, project management, etc. if that's the thing you need to
identify. The other uh would be reaching out to magic. So we created the guide as the baseline of
information to provide you, but we're also just happy to support you, right? We have hundreds of assistants we're
trying to empower every single day. We don't make these perfect. So, what I would say is if you need help, there's
never a dumb question. If there's a piece of this you don't understand, if there's an element to it you want more
clarity on, reach out to your magic representative. He, she, or they will be more than happy to help you in any way,
shape, or form show up prepared for that introduction with the client. And last, certainly not least, is you can resort
to AI. And what I mean by that is you can go to AI and say, "Act like an interview prep coach. I have a role I'm
preparing for with this client to do these tasks. Ask me 10 questions to make sure
I understand what this client does." Then after you do that, you could ask it to ask me 10 questions to test my
preparedness. And frankly, you could then ask it to help you understand what the client's tasks are and how to
accomplish them. Quite literally, you're having a conversation with the AI just like you would with any representative
at Magic, your best friend or other resource. All in all, we want you to be successful. We want you to crush your
intro call, but the intro call is just introduction, right? We want you to crush the role. In that case, I think
using these fundamental things, which is the resources magic provides, the relationships magic provides, and things
like AI will make you really successful. So, Alex, thank you so much for sharing, you know, such valuable insights on how
to best prepare for these intro calls. So, just to wrap things up, what for you are the most important things that, you
know, assistants should walk away with as they not only prepare for, you know, any upcoming intro calls they have with
potential clients, but also just their magic careers moving forward as they encounter, you know, different clients
and different opportunities uh to work with us. Yeah, it's a a really good question. I think the things that you
should walk away with I I hope you walk away feeling prepared. That that's like the first. Um Josh will tell me if I did
my job correctly after getting feedback from you. So please give feedback. That said, if you do feel prepared, um
Magic's real role is to just make this even better and better over time. So I think uh every assistant we train, we're
learning how to make that next generation of of great assistants. But ultimately, while we've covered the
intro call, it quite literally is what it is. It says it is. It it's an introduction, right? And introduction is
it's only 30 minutes, may even be less. It's the very beginning of any relationship. So, my biggest
recommendation is to take what you've learned here and and think through how do you want to show up. So, the way you
showed up for your last role, your last client, your last partner doesn't need to be the way you show up here. You have
every opportunity to change the story. You can rewrite it. You can be the most executive of assistants you want to be.
You can also not be the most executive of assistance. Uh which you get to choose. I hope you choose the latter.
That also being said, I hope you you take the moment to really focus on on preparation. We we really do think
prep makes perfect here. And not only after going through training as well as these exercises do we hope it prepares
you. We think that the more prepared you show up for the introduction, your likelihood to work with that client is
greater, but further your likelihood to actually succeed with that client is greater. If you took the time it takes
to really be ready to do great during the intro call, it shows you're going to
take the time it takes to be great at your day-to-day job. And I I really do think that
winning the intro call means you're going to win the relationship, which means you're going to have a long career
ahead of you. Um, we at Magic, we're not here to support you for a couple of weeks. We want you to thrive here at
Magic and build a career or a launch pad to your future career. And ultimately, we hope that uh you have an
opportunity to showcase your skills, your passions, and your expertise in a unique way. But um at the end of the
day, you know, we we want to accelerate your career. We want to help you make an impact for the client you're paired
with. Any way, shape, or form, Magic can do that, please just let us know. So, I just want to say thank you for being an
awesome assistant and for all the impact you have driving things and driving change for our clients.
Heads up!
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