A self-described “builder and believer in the Alabama market,” Ryan Robinett channeled his enthusiasm for putting people in positions for success when he founded Multiply, Inc. in 2018.
Calling on his years of experience at a highly successful IT services firm, Robinett created Multiply around a set of core principles to which he has adhered throughout his career.
“The ability to put people in a position to be successful, equip people to be successful and see them achieve personal results that create corporate gains, that’s what I have always enjoyed most about my work,” he explained.
The universal nature of those principles has allowed Robinett to apply them to the sales industry and has resulted in substantial growth for his own company.
What began as a services firm helping some of Alabama’s largest companies expand the capabilities of their business development teams has now expanded into a multi-dimensional company helping some of Alabama’s smallest businesses create a sales process from scratch.
During its first two years of operation, Multiply’s clients have included Alabama Power, UAB, Brasfield & Gorrie and ServisFirst. Robinett has adapted his model for small businesses, as well. The company’s client base stretches up to Charlotte, North Carolina, and as far west as Colorado.
The firm hit a turning point at the start of 2021 when it added a software component to its offerings.
“I started seeing a gap in the market when I went in to deal with small and medium-sized companies, and even large companies for that matter. A lot of times there was this concept of ‘I know exactly what you are talking about, but budgets don’t allow for the services,’” recalled Robinett. “Or the companies felt it was culturally challenging to bring a consultant in. That was one impetus. The other impetus was I was looking for some way to stop simply building documents that would grow stale if not maintained by the company. To give companies a way to easily maintain sales messaging and the necessary areas of HR in a frequently evolving environment. I went out and looked for a tool to partner with, surprisingly to no avail.”
The resulting effort has made Multiply a tech-enabled company which has increased the breadth and depth of its capacity to support clients.
“I decided to build a technology product that tightly couples with the Multiply services,” said Robinett. “Now, basically starting in 2021, I have a tech-enabled services firm that goes into companies large and small and not only provides services but also stands up a system that allows the company to continue with or without Multiply.”
Whether through that technology product or its consulting services, or both, Multiply can solve one of the most common problems in business development.
“There’s a huge gap of people doing what I call ‘hiring and hoping’ a sales team,” stated Robinett. “They forget the operational principles that we apply in other job functions. It is fraught with frustration for everybody involved.”
Robinett is quick to point out that his firm’s process fits easily for a company of any size because it is a sales management concept not tied to size of sales force or company.
“The massive assumption is that the salesperson knows what to say, when to say it and how to say it,” he outlined. “The Multiply process, every single thing through services or the tool, is to eliminate that assumption.”
The secret for any company, he says, is to turn a well-educated, new member of the workforce into a contributor quickly.
And that’s where Multiply comes in.
“It’s all teachable,” explained Robinett. “Take the mystique out of the sales process and create a repeatable pattern. When you have a repeatable pattern, you can plug people into a repeatable pattern and that creates scale.”
Under the Multiply model, clients benefit from a trained sales team that knows how to deliver the same pattern of information in any variety of situations. Robinett says his company does not create messages for companies but rather helps his clients understand why someone buys from them and then builds the information pattern that can be easily taught to the sales team.
“It is applicable in all walks, but the question is ‘how do companies turn people into relevant professional contributors quicker instead of saying I have to go hire someone with 5 to 7 years’ experience when that’s just as risky because there are no guarantees that the person is going to work out anyway?’” he offered.
In what has been viewed as disruptive to traditional sales management methodologies, Multiply offers a ROI calculation to help sales team members see the value they are providing to the company and help the companies understand the value their sales teams are bringing as a whole.
As for what’s next for Multiply, Robinett looks forward to building off of the company’s newly-acquired capabilities.
“Covid will eventually abate, and a new normalcy will evolve, so I think it’s more important than ever for companies to have a finely-tuned sales force ready to contribute to their success,” Robinett concluded.
(Contact Ryan at [email protected] or give him a call 205.677.6087)
