Veteran B2B sales and revenue professional Paul Ratner is the Vice President of Sales at Marble Bridge Funding Group. Marble Bridge is a California-based strategic commercial finance company helping entrepreneurial organizations succeed by working on growth strategies through strategic financing. Before Marble Bridge, Paul held many titles during his decades-long tenure at the Golden State Warriors. He also taught sales and business development for four years as an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Paul Ratner talks about Marble Bridge and what makes the company unique
- Paul’s experience in the sales industry — and his tips to be a successful salesman
- How to get from where you are to where you want to be
- The difference between consumer sales and business sales
- Paul’s experience selling the new Golden State Warriors stadium in a top-five market
- Why Paul believes it’s best to maintain boundaries between management and sales teams
- Transitioning out of sports and into commercial financing
In this episode…
Regardless of the industry you work for, your job is to sell whatever product your company offers. The sales industry is competitive, and your strategy can determine whether you sink or swim. What are the fundamentals necessary to achieve success in the sales industry?
The former Senior Director of Premium Suite Sales for the Golden State Warriors, Paul Ratner, knows what it takes to be successful in the sales industry. Early in his career, he found a unique approach to landing an internship with the basketball team that led to a full-time position. His experience has granted him wisdom on how to take advantage of opportunities and leverage skills to be an asset to any company.
Join host Chad Franzen in this episode of the Top Business Leaders Show as he welcomes Paul Ratner, Vice President of Sales at Marble Bridge Funding Group, to discuss the mindset necessary to thrive in the sales industry. Observing his prior role for the Golden State Warriors, Paul shares what it takes to achieve your professional goals, the difference between business and consumer sales, and crucial boundaries to establish between management and sales teams.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Chad Franzen on LinkedIn
- Rise25
- Email the team at Rise25: support@rise25.com
- Paul Ratner on LinkedIn
- Marble Bridge Funding Group
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Episode Transcript
Intro 0:04
Welcome to the Top Business Leaders Show powered by Rise25 Media. We feature top founders, executives and business leaders from all over the world.
Chad Franzen 0:20
Chad Franzen here co-host of the Top Business Leaders Show where we feature CEOs, entrepreneurs and top leaders in the business world. This episode is brought to you by Rise25. We help B2B businesses reach their dream relationships and connect with more clients referrals and strategic partnerships and get ROI through done for you podcasts. If you had to have a B2B business and want to build great relationships. There’s no better way than to profile the people and companies you admire on your podcast. To learn more, go to Rise25.com or email us at Support@Rise25.com. Paul Ratner is a veteran in b2b sales and revenue generation. Currently, he works for a private lender that offers growth capital, to small, small commercial businesses. Prior to this role, Paul worked nearly two decades in professional sports, while having various business advisor roles. Paul, thanks so much for joining me today. How are you? Great.
Paul Ratner 1:12
Thank you for having me. Looking forward to the discussion. Yeah, absolutely.
Chad Franzen 1:16
Same here. Hey, so as I mentioned, you work for a private lender, and it is called Marble Bridge Funding Group. Tell me more about about Marble Bridge and kind of what they do and what makes them unique.
Paul Ratner 1:26
Yeah, I’ll preface with this, in that I’ve been working in this industry for about five months. So hopefully I sound like I’m pretty smart for how much I know in that time trends. Okay. Yeah, but we actually, you know, we’re a company that was started by an entrepreneur right, 25 years ago. And his whole ethos was to help people get funding that don’t have access to capital, that need it for their business and their business owners. So we specifically work with commercial based companies. So I have an expertise in b2b sales. This was translatable for me and that I’m working with companies that are trying to grow b2b businesses, the way it works more or less than the way we work with customers, is we actually find strategic financing solutions for them against future revenues that they’re forecasting going forward. I think most lenders look at your history, as opposed to where your lending opportunity is going forward. So yeah, we’re in a higher risk business. But this is kind of the line, you know, the ethos and our mission statement, we want to help people that don’t have access to capital.
Chad Franzen 2:33
So you’ve been there for about five months, as vice president of sales, what are kind of your primary responsibilities day to day,
Paul Ratner 2:41
we actually do a little bit of everything here. So I’m actually networking with a lot of bankers, and I’m working with them on customers that they’re talking to on a daily basis that may bank with them, but they may not be able to lend to. Right. So we’re partnering with a lot of the banks, as well as CPA firms, CFOs advisors, finding ways to be able to help their companies and it may not just be for lending, right, I will use my expertise on any level to be able to help people. And that’s what I love best about this job. The next part about it that I think makes our role unique. Most bankers usually have an underwriting team or a team of people that do things for them, we do everything. Right, so I will work with them. I will underwrite so I will know, and understand their business from top to bottom, as well as the risk profile of what we’re helping somebody with.
Chad Franzen 3:30
I know that sales and sales management has been a very big part of your career, as I mentioned, you also work in sports, but a lot of that was you know, in a sales type role. What are some things you find most enjoyable about that type of work?
Paul Ratner 3:42
Good sports, I’d loved sports, right? Like I grew up playing sports. So I always wanted to work in sports, when I realized I wasn’t going to be a professional athlete. And I think you talk to most people that work in that industry. That is kind of what it is. I think a lot of people go into that too, looking for the glitz, the glamour and meeting people that you always aspire to meet. And I think probably in my first handful years doing it that got kind of old for me. I didn’t care about that aspect of it as much. I actually grew to love talking to CEOs. I love talking to business owners. And I think when you when you talk to the athlete or a young kid, right, you’re you’re almost excitement when you’re talking to them is like, Oh, they were nice to me. And I think when you get in business and you say you’re in sales, the the premise of it is like people buy from people they like and I believe the same from the sales perspective of it. And when you’re doing that type of thing and fear in broadcasting in sports, right? Like you don’t necessarily get to just talk to the people you like there’s people you have to talk to you. And I think that was something that I didn’t want to do. But that was initially where I was going. Right I wanted to go into broadcasting kinda like you’re doing here. Yeah, I got, I mean, my, my degree was in radio and television. So that was, that was a angle I was going for when I realized it wasn’t gonna play, but I ended up liking the sales and business side of it more. And it’s quite fascinating to be in the business side of sports, especially when you’re a fan. There’s so much behind the scenes that people just don’t know about how it’s run. And how much of it it’s a business.
Chad Franzen 5:25
What kind of to be successful in sales, whether it’s sports, or what you’re doing now? Is there kind of a mindset you need to have you said people buy from people they like, how do you? How do you approach that when you know, like, do you have to put aside your desire to complete the transaction? In order to be successful in sales?
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