Campus Series: Rafael Soltero – The Future is Bilingual
Embrace the change, be quick to listen, and get comfortable with numbers. According to Rafael from Florida International University (FIU), these are the essential actions to take when striving to be a good salesman. The quicker these become second nature, the quicker you will find success in sales.
In this episode of the Campus Series Podcast, Co-Director of the FIU Sales Program Rafael Soltero discusses his story and lessons learned while becoming a successful salesperson and respected teacher since moving to the US from Puerto Rico. Make sure to stick around until minute 38 for a Spanish portion of the episode featuring Seattle DM Gabriella Flores!
Guest-At-A-Glance
💡 Name: Rafael Soltero
💡 What he does: Rafael is the co-director of the FIU Sales Program at Florida International University.
💡 Company: Florida International University
💡 Noteworthy: Rafale is a chemical engineer by trade, but his passion was on the business side, where he focused on sales. He moved from Puerto Rico to New York and then South Florida. However, working for a company like Kodak enabled him to travel all over the world. He also gained international experience by working at French and Canadian companies.
💡 Where to find Rafael: LinkedIn
Key Insights
⚡Change is good; embrace it. It’s challenging to step into the unknown, but it’s the best way to learn more about yourself and grow. For instance, Rafael came to New York from Puerto Rico. He then moved to Florida and spent a lot of time traveling on the job. Today, he is a teacher on a mission to encourage students not to fear trying new things, like relocating, traveling, exploring new cultures, and learning a different language. ”Just go to where you never thought you were going to go and taste it. If you don’t like it, you can always come back. I always knew I could come back to Puerto Rico, but I could not live a life wondering what would’ve happened if I had gone to Rochester, New York.”
⚡A good salesperson is a good listener, Rafael says. That’s quite the opposite of the common belief that when you are in sales, you are all about talking. No, if you want to build connections, grow your customer base, inspire them to come back to you, and recommend you to others, you must be open to hearing them out, understand their problems, and ask questions. ”The customers would tell me, ‘You’re listening to me; I can see it. You’re looking at me; you’re talking to me. You are interested in me.’ It becomes natural, and then you become good at it; it’s a simple truth.”
⚡Don’t run away from numbers. They are a critical part of sales. And the most significant advantage because, as Rafael says, numbers are a universal language; they don’t need translation. Wherever you go, numbers mean the same. ”One of the things that I love is that my engineering gave me a good base in numbers. So many students are like, ‘What’s the class you hate the most?’ Finance. That’s the most important class you should be paying attention to. […] Having that understanding of numbers to explain to somebody, ‘This is how much money I’m going to make for you,’ that eliminates any discussion on pricing. And if you can be that good at demonstrating return on investment very quickly and knowing what it means, then you’re all set.”
Episode Highlights
Moving Away From Home and Settling in A Country With a Different Language and Culture Is a Challenging but Valuable Experience
”Everybody should go through that. Everybody should go and live 2,500 miles away from their hometown, see what is there, and try to work in a different culture. I was born and raised in Puerto Rico. We have been learning English since we were in first grade. But one thing is learning English; the other is speaking English.
I still carry my accent and all that stuff, but it’s a hard thing for somebody who has never practiced the language to be told, ‘Make a presentation for 15 other engineers and find, uh, the way to communicate with them.’ It’s a big transition. It’s not easy, and you can take it two ways.
You can become, ‘Everything that happens to me is because I’m different.’ Or you can say, ‘I’m different. So, let me educate other people on why that difference is good and why it is that two people that are different can work together, and how it is that we can improve.”’
A Chemical Engineer Turned Salesperson: the Learning Curve
”I’m walking into a small mom-and-pop shop in the middle of Sao Paulo, Brazil. I’m walking in with another good friend of mine, a good mentor, Tom Garman. And, as we’re walking in, he stops me before we step into the place, and he says, ‘We’re going to be visiting a customer. And this person has put more on photography and what we call our business than you and I together. He’s put his life into this business. I want you to listen and understand what he needs from us to help him grow.’
I’ll never forget that, and that’s how I […] learned to listen. […] I learned by making mistakes. And that’s what I love about what I’m doing right now, which is I’m trying to teach students, ‘I know that you’ve been taught about marketing and whatnot. Come with me to the dark side. Let me show you the other side.’ And then I take them by the hand, and I show them. […]
The other thing is the importance of listening not only to the customers but also to the cultures. […] I remember that we would invent things at Kodak Europe that we thought would work all over the world. And then we would send it to China. We would send it to Korea; we would send it to Latin America, and we would say, ‘Go, take it and make a lot of money.’ And they couldn’t because it was not the right product. It was not the right target. So, all that stuff was learning.”
Advice for Those Interested in Landing a Sales Role That Involves Travel
”If you want to try something different that makes you happy, try sales. Let me give you a couple of reasons. Number one, happiness is directly proportional to the distance between you and your boss. The farther away you are, the happier you are. So, the only people that can be outside are the salespeople.
The other one is when you visit a country, study it and learn. When people offer you food, eat it. […] Those people are testing you, ‘Are you willing to come to my dark side and understand who I am?’ And as a salesperson, as a representative of your company, as the face of that company, you cannot say, ‘No, I’m gonna go to McDonald’s and wait until I get a hamburger.’ It’s an insult.
And, also, when traveling, don’t go to tourist places. I would usually tell the people with me, ‘Take me to the place where you take your family on a Sunday.’ That’s where we should have lunch or dinner, whatever it is. And, ‘Tell me about you. Talk to me about your country. Talk to me about you and how you live here.’ Get interested in knowing the people. […]
You’re going to find a lot of people along the way — from the person that receives you at the airport or the customs person, everybody. Make sure you respect them. Don’t become a ‘This is not what I would expect.”’
Transcript:
[00:00:00] Rafael Soltero: You can have a great strategy on paper, right? And that’s what happens in the headquarters. They put the great strategy there is. Then you go down to the battlefield and try to implement it both, we can’t do this. And then you get to, the other thing is the importance of listening not only to the customers but also to the cultures.
[00:01:05] Kristen Wisdorf: Welcome back, hustlers. I am your host, Kristen Wisdorf of our Tech Sales is for Hustlers, it’s your special Campus Series. Jeremy, welcome back to the podcast.
[00:01:15] Jeremy Wood: Good afternoon, Kristen.
[00:01:17] Kristen Wisdorf: We’re excited to have you, and we’re super thrilled to have Rafael Sotero, who is the associate teaching professor at Florida International University and also the Co-Director of the FIU Sales Program. Welcome to the podcast.
[00:01:29] Rafael Soltero: It’s a pleasure to be here.
[00:01:31] Kristen Wisdorf: Well, we’re very excited to have you and pick your brain and talk all about your experience and your experience in sales. I know you worked internationally, as well, and now as a professor. So, let’s dive in. If you’ve been here before, listeners, you know that we like to start these episodes the same way we start our interviews here at memoryBlue, which is, Rafael, take 60 seconds, give or take, no one’s got a timer on you and walk us through your highlight reel. Tell us who is Rafael.
[00:02:00] Rafael Soltero: So, Rafael was born in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. You know, Puerto Rico, it’s a small island, a hundred miles by 35 miles wide. You can go around the island in two and a half hours. And uh, you know, I graduated, I’m originally a chemical engineer, graduated from chemical engineering in Puerto Rico.
[00:02:20] Took an airplane after I graduated and went all the way to Rochester, New York. And that is very close to Canada. So, the only thing you have north of you is snow. And I worked there for Kodak, Eastman, a great company, worked there for 18 winters, and, at some point, I changed my career from being a, an engineer to being in the business side.
[00:02:43] They made me Director for the Latin American region, for a particular business unit. And I landed here in South Florida in ’97. And then, uh, after that, in 2005, they told me, “Rafael, we want you to back up here in Rochester, New York.” And I said, “You don’t have enough money. You need to go up.” So, I decided to stay down here.
[00:03:05] And since then, I’ve been working, I work for a French company, KIS Photo-Me. Worked for a Japanese company, which was Noritsu America, Noritsu, uh, International. Then I worked for a Canadian company, which was Athentech Imaging, which was a small startup. Kind of funny, when I started at Kodak, there were 80,000 people.
[00:03:28] When I worked to work for Athentech, there were only eight people. So, it was a big change for work, but it was a great learning experience. And then, uh, at some point, I was given the opportunity to teach. And that’s the best move that I’ve ever made. I’m having so much fun teaching and passing forward what I have learned in all these years.
[00:03:46] So, that’s, that’s me. I’m married. I have a son that is a dentist, and I live here in South Florida.
[00:03:52] Kristen Wisdorf: That’s great. Okay. We can’t move past the fact that you said you worked and you were in Rochester for 18 winters. Is that how people note years when they go from Puerto Rico to just the land of snow?
[00:04:07] Rafael Soltero: I don’t know how other do, other people do, but me and my wife, we measured it that way. And, uh, it was cold. It was a great learning experience. Uh, Kodak was a great school, you know, it was funny because, uh, I travel a lot while I was winded worldwide, and I remember that every time that I took an airplane, I would break through the clouds and the sun was there, but not people of the clouds.
[00:04:34] So, it was, uh, it was hard, but, uh, you know, I learned to ski, I learned to play racquetball. I learned to, a lot of other things that I would’ve never thought of doing when I was in Puerto Rico, but it was a great experience. Nothing, nothing to say, no, it was a great change, and I learned a lot. My life has been fantastic.
[00:04:53] Kristen Wisdorf: That’s great. So, let’s take it back. You grew up in, born and raised in Puerto Rico, and you went to school for chemical engineering. Why did you originally pick chemical engineering back when you were going to school, and what did your parents do? Like, did they push you into that? Like, walk us through that story.
[00:05:10] Rafael Soltero: So, originally, I was supposed to be a priest, that didn’t work out. My grandmother wanted me to be a priest. That didn’t work out. Then after that, my mo, my mother said, “You should be a doctor.” I don’t like blood. So, I did apply to pre-med when I applied in school, and then I had this one great professor, and he, rest in peace,
[00:05:31] I think he, he’s passed away since then. He was a chemistry professor. And my father was a mechanical engineer, and I said, “Well, engineering doesn’t sound that bad. I like numbers, I like, you know, solving problems and what else. So I’m a chemical engineer. And uh, that was it. That’s how I landed in chemical engineering.
[00:05:51] Kristen Wisdorf: You know, a lot of students stick close to hometown or college when they graduate. But there are folks who really want an adventure, and they will go far away after they graduate college. And that’s the experience you had. So, can you talk to our listeners a little bit about what that was like transitioning, not only after college, right, after you graduated, but also transitioning where you lived, the people you were around and, and kind of walk through what that experience was like?
[00:06:20] Rafael Soltero: It’s a wonderful learning experience. Let me tell you, everybody should go through that. Everybody should go and live 2,500 miles away from their hometown and see what is at there. And try to work in a different culture. And, for us, you know, I was born and raised in Puerto Rico, we’re born US citizens. Uh, and it was very different.
[00:06:39] You know, I, I had to go from, you know, we, we learn English since we are in first grade. But one thing is to learn English, the other one is to speak English. And, uh, I still carry my accent and all that stuff, but it’s a hard thing for somebody that has never practiced the language to all of a sudden be told, “Make a presentation for 15 other engineers and, uh, you know, find, uh, the way to communicate with them.”
[00:07:08] And it was hard for me. But, and the same thing for, for my wife, although she was born in Milwaukee, which was, although she didn’t spend there a long time, right, she was born in Milwaukee, her father was going to go there and then. So but, at the end of the day, it’s a big transition. It’s not easy, and you can take it two ways.
[00:07:28] You can really become, you know, “Everything that happens to me is because I’m different.” Or you can say, “I’m different. So, let me educate other people on why is that difference good and why is it that two people that are different can work together and, uh, how is it that we can improve and what’s, you know, all that.”
[00:07:51] And, and we even talked about, you know, the business case for having that and whatnot. And it was a great experience. And then it opened the opportunity for me to go on travel all over Latin America first, ’cause I spoke the language. I was young, I could travel and all that stuff. And that’s essentially when I said, “I gotta get out of, uh, the technical part and use that technical part to kind of take me the next level. And that is the business part.”
[00:08:21] And that’s what I did. And it’s really a transition, and I talk to most of the students, and that is part of what I personally teach the students, and that is, “Change is good, embrace it, take opportunities and just, just go to where you never thought you were gonna go and just taste it. You don’t like it, you can always come back.”
[00:08:45] I always, I always knew I could come back to Puerto Rico, but I could not live a life wondering what would’ve happened if I had gone to Rochester, New York. That I think is the beauty of just going out there and taking a little bit of risk and
[00:09:00] look at something completely different from what you have been raised at. So, English was an issue, culture was an issue. You know, we didn’t look same. I could remember looking at things differently and I would have discussions with my neighbors, with my, people that work with me and, uh, and all that stuff.
[00:09:19] But it was always trying to A, learn something and be open to learning and B, educating. Because it’s a two-way street, right? I want you to, I want to understand you, but I want you to understand me. And that really is what make a difference.
[00:09:37] Jeremy Wood: Yeah. I think how people respond to adversity can really be a important lesson for them in, in a lot of different ways, not just in a work setting, but in a, in a personal setting, as well.
[00:09:49] So, you, you studied chemical engineering and then, now you’re in sales. So, like, what was it your first true sales experience, going back to, as far as you can remember?
[00:10:01] Rafael Soltero: So, when I came to Latin America, ’97, I was made Director of the, uh, Latin American region for a particular business.
[00:10:11] And I think that it was great because I had this discussion with one of the VPs, at that point, uh, George King, which I made a big impression, and he since passed away. But, yeah, we were having a discussion, and we said, “We’re, we’re coming here to develop the region. We gotta make the transition from traditional film to digital and that sort of thing.” “You’re here to sell.
[00:10:33] That’s what we do here. I don’t care what you do. This is what we do. We are the only way that the company gets money in. So, without the top line, there is no bottom line. So, do you understand this? If you went to school, you know what a P&L is.” And, oh, all of a sudden, I realize that, yeah, it is amazing.
[00:10:54] You know, the people that think about sales as something that is really kind of forbidden, you should not talk about it. Should not think about it. And then, all of a sudden, here I am in the middle of that, and I got to sell. And I learned the hard way, which is, you know, you make mistakes and learn from what other people tell you if you listen and, uh, you make your changes and all of a sudden, you are learning how to do it.
[00:11:22] So, it was a great transition. But, again, it’s really being open, being willing to listen, being willing to ask questions, which I learned early on, you know, “I don’t know what do you mean by that.” And boom, all of a sudden, somebody tells you. And it’s about the people that surround you, too, right? If the people surrounding you doesn’t have the, the patience and the interest in you, then what happens is that you don’t get that help, and you cannot make that transition.
[00:11:48] And this is what I think, it’s this life of continuous changing and moving yourself up to a new level. Very interesting and fun. That was great. So, as someone who studied at, you know, chemical engineering and then you transitioned to the business side and ultimately sales, how did you learn to sell?
[00:12:08] Kristen Wisdorf: And, like, who was your mentor? Who were your coaches? What was the training like? How did you train, I mean, you, you weren’t afraid to go to Rochester, New York, so I imagine you kind of jumped into it, right? Based on what we know about you so far. But what was the process of learning?
[00:12:23] Rafael Soltero: So, okay, to another interesting point in my life, I’m walking into Brazilian customer.
[00:12:31] It’s a small mom-and-pop shop in the middle of Sao Paulo, Brazil. I’m walking in with another good friend of mine, good mentor, called Tom Garman. And as we’re walking in, he stopped me before we step into the place, and he says, “In fact, we’re going to be visiting a customer. And this person has put more on photography
[00:12:54] and what we call our business than you and I together. He’s put his life into this business. I want you to listen, and I want to understand what he needs from us to help him grow.” I’ll never forget that, and that’s how I learn. I walk with other people in, listen to what they were saying. And I think that I learned to listen.
[00:13:18] And I think that many people think, “Oh, a good salesperson is a person that can talk.” No, good salesperson is a person that can listen. And it’s a good, you know, and, and the customers will tell me, “Yeah, you’re listening to me. I, I can see it. You’re looking at me, you’re talking to me. You are interested in me.”
[00:13:35] And I said, “Well, that’s what I’m trying to do.” And if it becomes a natural thing, then you become good at it, and then all of a sudden, you keep going at it, and you find a way. And I think that that’s a simple truth, right? We are all salespeople. We’re selling something every day. It’s just, you know, do you know, do you have the process in and, and you get it and repeat it and do it in a way that it’s natural.
[00:13:58] So, I learned by making mistakes, and that’s what I think that I maybe love so much what I’m doing right now, which is I’m trying to teach students at the level that I was, you know, I graduated in 1974 from my University. That’s, that, I’m sorry, 1979, 1974 is High School. And it’s a long time, and it took me a long time to learn what I listen, you know, I think that you need to have interest in people, and that’s what
[00:14:26] I tell the students, as a matter of fact, I, I tell ’em, you know, “I know that you’ve been taught about the marketing and whatnot. Come with me to the dark side. Let me show you the other side. Right? This is it.” And they, they’re receptive to it. And then I take them by the hand, I show them. So, it, it is just amazing.
[00:14:46] It just raises the hair of my arms and everything else every time I talk about it because I have so much fun.
[00:14:52] Kristen Wisdorf: I love that. And it’s very true, and I think, you know, professors like you are doing a lot to change this stereotype of sales, but I think it still is a misconception that salespeople just talk, talk, talk, and they love the center of attention and the stage.
[00:15:05] And some might, but it really is about listening and helping people. And so, it’s amazing that you learned that lesson so early.
[00:15:14] Rafael Soltero: I wish it was earlier. I wish somebody had taught me that when I was in school. Took me about, I remember it took me about 10 years to get to that step after I graduated.
[00:15:25] I wish somebody had told me that earlier. My career would’ve been completely different. But, again, everything happens for a reason. So, you just take it and keep going.
[00:15:33] Kristen Wisdorf: So you were at Kodak almost 27 years, right?
[00:15:38] Rafael Soltero: 26 years. Yeah.
[00:15:39] Kristen Wisdorf: Wow. I imagine, especially a company like Kodak changed a lot over that time, right? Because the world changed a lot. What are some of the more kind of like memorable, I guess, big changes or pivotal moments throughout those 26 years you spent there?
[00:15:55] Rafael Soltero: Well, I think, the number one thing that I, I, I learned at, at Kodak is that change should be embraced, and you should look at it as something positive.
[00:16:05] When I came in, in 1979, they announced the first digital camera. Funny part is that Kodak invented the digital camera, they had a patent, but we were making bulk of money on film, so it was forbidden to take a look at film and say, “It’s not going to live too long.” So, working in the corporate world was really a learning experience for me,
[00:16:29] “How do you get across, how do you do things, how do you help your customers make a transition from the product that was making a lot of money to them, to a product that may not make it a lot, may not make a lot of money to them?” The strategy, strategic thinking, you know, the, the graveyard of a strategy is implementation.
[00:16:46] You can have a great strategy on paper, right? And that’s what happens in the headquarters. They put the great strategy there is, then you go down to the battlefield and try to implement it both, we can’t do this. And then you get to, the other thing is the, the importance of listening, not only to the customers but also to the cultures.
[00:17:05] I remember that we would invent things at Kodak, Rochester, Europe that we would think would work all over the world. And then we would send it to China. We would send it to Korea, we would send it to Latin America, and we would say, “Go, have it, and make a lot of money.” And they couldn’t because, they, it was not ready.
[00:17:24] It was not the right product. It was not the right target. So, all that stuff, I think that was really learning. As you know, Kodak eventually went bankrupt, and now it’s a different name. But that just being part of that, it was like being in school. It was the great University because it was, and you were involved to the point that it was great.
[00:17:44] And then the other thing is that sometimes you need to ask for forgiveness rather than permission. So, many times in Latin America, when I was there, we tried new things that were different than the rest of the world, and they worked. And then we went back to the rest of the world, and we told ’em, “Hey, listen, guys, we want to try this.
[00:18:00] Uh, it worked on here.” And they all said, “Oh, yeah, that makes sense.” So, it’s the ability to really keep going against all the wind, against you, and whatever is just that, right? So, you just stay on the course. And if you think it’s right, just go and implement it.
[00:18:15] Jeremy Wood: Yeah, absolutely. So, Rafael, I think a lot of people, lot of students are interested in the ability to travel, when it comes to a job in, in sales. What advice would you give to someone who wants to be able to have a job that allows that kind of travel that, that you’ve learned through all the different opportunities you had, at Kodak?
[00:18:38] This is what I tell you.
[00:18:39] Rafael Soltero: Number one, if you want to try something different, really make you happy, try sales, let me give you a couple reasons. Number one, happiness is directly proportional to the distance between you and your boss. The farther away you are, the happier you. So, the only people that can be outside are the salespeople.
[00:19:01] So, I was happy, you know, I was in China both with Kodak, with the them, and with the customer. I may have been in a bar having a drink with my customer, whatever it was. But as long as ka-ching, ka-ching, the money’s coming in, they really don’t care what you’re doing or what you’re not doing, right? The other one is, when you go to visit a country study it, learn.
[00:19:25] Don’t insult them. When people offer you food, eat it. And I also give my students a recommendation and that is, there are three things that you do. Number one, never ask before you’re going to eat it, what they’re giving you, never. Secondly, the first bite you take, make sure you bite as hard as you can, so you can kill anything that’s stronger.
[00:19:47] And the third is, have someone or something like that next to you so you can pass it very quickly in case it’s still alive. And that’s it. So, just happy you go out there and, uh, enjoy life. But don’t say no, don’t even ask what it was. It’s got it. And, uh, you don’t have fun with those people. Those people are, every time they’re just testing you, “Are you willing to come to my dark side
[00:20:14] and understand who I am?” And these are all proofs. And you need, as a salesperson, as a representative of your company, as the face of that company, you cannot just say, “No, I’m gonna go to McDonald’s and wait until I get hamburger.” No, you can’t. It’s an insult. Right. And, also, when traveling, don’t go to the tourist places.
[00:20:35] I usually would tell the people that would be with me, “Take me to the place that you take your family on a Sunday. That’s where we should have lunch or dinner, whatever it is.” And, uh, “Tell me about you. Talk to me about your country. Talk to me about you and how, how you live here.” That stuff, and get interest in knowing the people.
[00:20:54] It’s a lot easier to know one person than to know a whole country and ask, and don’t judge, and try to understand. So, all that, as you go to all these different countries, I think it’s very important. And don’t be afraid to travel. Don’t be afraid to get into a freaking plane. Don’t go, you’re gonna go. It’s, somebody’s gonna make the decision.
[00:21:14] You have it. So, I don’t know if that help answer your answer, uh, your question, but it’s about not having fear of trying new things and having the, sorry, and having the politeness of really researching those cultures so that you know who they are and still you’re gonna make mistakes on the way there, but learn and laugh.
[00:21:35] Then you can make stories when you become a teacher like me.
[00:21:37] Kristen Wisdorf: So, I think the no fear is a great lesson for life, for travel, working in with an international role, and also just for sales in general, right? You, you gotta jump in and, you know, do some preparation. Make sure you, whether it’s like reading up on the culture or reading up on your prospect, but you just have to go for it, and you can’t kind of prepare and plan everything.
[00:21:59] But it would be interesting if there are any very memorable stories you have from your time traveling the world where you’re like, “Okay, this is a lesson.” Or, “I’m gonna remember this 20 years from now.” Any good stories come to mind of your travels or working with customers across the world?
[00:22:16] Rafael Soltero: So, I got many, but let me tell you one that I remember the most is, or one that I use very often, is when you are a salesperson, you’re many times traveling alone.
[00:22:29] Right? And you get up every morning, and you’re ready to go on the day, and here you are having breakfast by yourself. One of the things that I started to do was that I would approach somebody that was sitting by themselves, going in there and, “Hey, are you having breakfast now?
[00:22:44] Or do you have, can I share your table?” He would look, I remember this, he was, I think it was in Korea, and he looks around, and he’s, “Oh, my God, no.” He said, “The restaurant is empty. Why here?” That’s exactly the reason for it. The restaurant is empty, and I just don’t want to have breakfast by myself.
[00:23:03] We had a wonderful conversation. He didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know what, all of a sudden, we ended up having a great relationship and a business opportunity, and we didn’t know that that was going to happen. So, the idea of no fear, again, of asking a question, a simple question as, “Can I share your table?”
[00:23:24] And just because I just don’t wanna have breakfast alone, we, which is, goes back into my, my, my, another thing that I tell my students is when we go networking, and I ask them, “Who do you, you’re in the room, you are going to be networking, who do you go to? And, uh, you go with your friends. I say, yeah, I go to say hello, and go to his friends,
[00:23:46] and finds out who I don’t know, because that’s important, to meet the new people. I go, they don’t, “You see me, don’t come to me because I’m gonna tell you I don’t have time for you. I’m going to meet somebody that I don’t know.” And I think that that lack of fear, and the other one is traveling into all these different places.
[00:24:08] You’re gonna find a lot of people along the way, from the person that receives you at the airport or the customs person, everybody, make sure you respect them and that you, uh, you don’t take dirty jobs lightly. Don’t become a, “This is not what I would expect.” A hotel, you move to a hotel, you know, don’t, you know,
[00:24:32] they’re not the same hotels as we have here with the big beds and everything else. You know, I remember going to a Japan place that only had, like, this much of a phone on top of big board. Did I don’t complain? No. I just went there, and I landed, and I said, “Kim, you’re going visiting. You should be humble enough to say, ‘Yeah, I’m in your country. I’m here to learn.'” Did that answer your question?
[00:24:56] Jeremy Wood: It does, and I think that’s some really useful advice, especially for folks that are interested in getting in, into sales and maybe not knowing, understanding the value of building a network and how to maximize each conversation. What are some of, like, the other things that you’re most proud of regarding the skills you’ve learned that you’re able to teach your, your students today?
[00:26:24] Rafael Soltero: I think, I try to let them know that I have no fear of trying new things, uh, that I, I’m going to be ethical. You know, one of the things when you’re traveling alone, and you can do whatever you want out there.
[00:26:39] Uh, but really you should have your own values and stay in the line. Ethical issues happen a lot as you travel around, and you gotta make sure you keep that line. You have to make sure that you, uh, listen to the other people. But the one thing that I do try to tell everybody is that I have a good understanding of numbers.
[00:27:04] You know, numbers don’t have to be translated. Numbers are numbers. Anybody can write something and it, it’s like worldwide. That’s a worldwide kind of language. And many people, you know, one of the things that I love is that my engineering really gave me a good base in the numbers. And when people talk about numbers, I, and, and today’s, in today’s environment with all the simulations and everything else, and, right, numbers are important, and many of the students today are kind of, “What’s the class that you hate the most?”
[00:27:35] “Finance.” ” The most important class you should be paying attention to, what’s that one?” “Oh, math, calculus, all this stuff. Like, I don’t understand it.” I said, “Well, do some more work and understand it because you’re gonna carry that for the rest of, of your life.” Having that understanding of numbers to be able to explain to somebody, “This is how much money I’m going to make for you.”
[00:27:58] That eliminates any discussion on pricing. And if you can be that good to demonstrate return on investment very quickly and knowing what it means, then you’re all set. ‘Cause your customers will understand that language.
[00:28:12] Kristen Wisdorf: That’s great. Well, speaking of the things you teach your students, now, let’s talk a little bit about how you transitioned to South Florida. What brought you to South Florida, and ultimately what brought you to education?
[00:28:25] Rafael Soltero: So, I am working as a, uh, consultant for this Canadian company, and I’m traveling all over the world. And then, I meet friend of mine that, by the way, he just joined today in some type committee that I got thrown into, Cliff.
[00:28:40] And, we were having coffee, and he, he had a Ph.D., and he used to work at Kodak, uh, in human resources. He went to work for Florida International, and I was just having a cup of coffee, and he told me, “Wasn’t you, you ever tried teaching?” And I said, “No, I don’t know that I would like to.” And he said, “Come on.”
[00:29:00] So, he took me out to the marketing department. We had a 15-minute discussion with, uh, at that point, the chair. And I said, “Yeah, I hope people more than happy to do this.” So, three months later they’re telling me, “Would you like to teach a sales managing class?”. And I said, “Sure, I’ll do that. Are you gonna help me?”
[00:29:18] He said, “Yeah. So, they gave me a syllabus, and I think it was Professor Chris, I think that’s the way you like some French. I used to call him Chris Profe, but I think it’s Chris Pourfe. Anyway, he was, uh, he gave me a syllabus. We worked together, we did a lot of stuff together, and I taught my first class and I loved it.
[00:29:38] The interactions, the one thing that I would come in every day and say, “Okay, today I’m gonna teach you this and this and that. And then, at the end of the class, I have a question for you.” And the question was, “How did I do? And if I was going to do this better, how would you suggest I do it better?” And every class was to me a learning experience.
[00:29:56] So, I learned as much as I taught the students. And it was a great class. The surveys came back very positive. And the chair came back and said, “Would you like to do it again?” And, “Would you like to do it again?” And then, someday they told me, “Would you like to be a full-time professor?” And uh, I said, “Hmm, interesting.
[00:30:15] What’s the pay?” And that was the sad part. But the one thing about being in sales is that you accumulate the world early on, right? And now you can go out and say, “What do I want to do for the rest of my life that really makes me happy?” And that’s what I chose to do. And then I stopped traveling. You know, I had a pending trip to Korea, and it’s not easy when you’re traveling for 14, 15 hours in a plane.
[00:30:43] It’s, life in a plane is very interesting. So, anyway, so that’s how I got there. And then, I had a good friend of mine, professor Nancy, who is now retired. And she had this global sales program that started back in 2012, I think it was. And then she said, “Can you help me?” And I said, “Sure.”
[00:31:05] And then we started to teaching sales, and we put together this program, and it’s been amazing because what we do is that we throw the students into competing, in front of professionals, on how to sell. And they have role plays and whatnot, and we, they advance and whatnot. And yesterday, we just announced the global bilingual sales competition.
[00:31:28] One of the things that I, we said in the beginning, is, “How can we make our competitions?” You can, you know, unfortunately, there’s only like 70 universities, 70 or 120 universities in the whole United States that have a sales program or the beginning of the sales program. So, we had one, we said, you know, “How can we make ours different?
[00:31:48] Let’s say, “Bilingual.” And we all, all the professors spoke English and Spanish was like, we said, “Why don’t we do this bilingual?” So, the competition of ours is we select the product, and you have to go out there and sell it, do the role plays, and advance and sell in English, and then you come out, and you get to meet another customer.
[00:32:07] The only thing is that one speak Spanish. And here in Miami, that’s exactly what happens. And in many places of the world, even the United States, that can happen, right? So, we started to make the competition that way, and, uh, you know, many universities came back and said, “We would love to compete. I have the students, but who’s going to help me?”
[00:32:28] I spend a lot of time at night coaching students that are not from our University because I’m interested in getting this going, I’m interested in learning what can we do in order to get more, it’s not Spanish, Swahili, English, Chinese, anything. You need to learn more than one language. You need to, the world is becoming smaller because of communications, so you don’t know who you’re going to be sending a note.
[00:32:53] How do you write the letter? How do you make a note, you know? One of the things that I told my students is, “What you say, you can start, you have to start thinking about what you’re saying or what you write, it’s gonna be translated by something like Google Translate. And what gets translated may not be what you want to say.”
[00:33:16] And one example that I tell them, “Imagine that you want to say you hit the bullseye, and now you send that note, ‘I hit the bullseye.’ And then it gets translated into Spanish. And the translation is, ‘It hit the eye of the bull.’ Which means in Spanish, right? So, you get to translate that, and then all of a sudden you have these communications.
[00:33:39] So, keep it simple. Make it small world and try to have these big words that make sure that the other side understands what you’re saying.” So, use things like that that I’ve been trying to get through. These are the things that we do teach, all the time. And I have a partner in crime, which is Nicola. We worked, like,
[00:34:01] 30 years over in Hewlett Packard, and he was also in Latin America. And so, we come in and, “If you want stories, we have stories.” And students all of a sudden go, “Wow, we’re talking to the real guys.” Right? And that really makes a different so. We’re trying to enhance this, we just had the results. We had, like, 12 universities coming in here on April 6th.
[00:34:28] They’re coming from Spain, they’re coming from Peru, they’re coming from Argentina, they’re coming from other states in the United States, Indiana, Chico, all over the place. So, we like it and, uh, it’s starting to make it then, I think that students recognize, I remember this, a student came from another university and said, you know, “It’s so good.” And this is why I pick a class that I teach in Spanish is that I realized at some point that students, because I experienced that, students are translating everything from Spanish and natural language into English and doing a role play and having a conversation with somebody, it’s a lot easier on your native language, for us that have been here for 30 years
[00:35:17] we can do both easily, right? But for students that are learning and are learning the technical terms, and it gets stuck. So, one day I’m looking at the student saying, “Why don’t we do the remote in Spanish?” And all of this sudden that person flourished. It was a completely different sales conversation. And then I said, “Huh.
[00:35:40] And they should do a class in Spanish.” And that’s what I did. So, every Mondays, and we have to be careful, we have to do it so that, there was a, an English class at the same time because you didn’t speak English, I wouldn’t tell you cannot, we would send it to the other section. But, by the way, let’s start by Nicolo so that way they can still do some Spanish.
[00:36:01] But, anyway, that’s what we do and it’s just amazing and the classes are full all the time. They come in and they say, “Professor, it’s so good to be able to do it in my native language.” “It’s great, but now you need to learn English. That’s the other language you need to do. You can do a lot of business with English, right?
[00:36:19] So, do it. Learn it.”
[00:36:21] Jeremy Wood: I think something that, Rafael, your extremely world-class at is being coachable and open and always looking for ways to improve. Even back to when you were in sales, and then when you started teaching just by simply asking, “How did I do?” I think it’s extremely important to
[00:36:41] see that a lot of that success has come from you not just being set, but always open to improving your craft, no matter what you were doing.
[00:36:51] Rafael Soltero: And that is continuous improvement, right? That, the one thing that I remember, there was a book that was called The Pression, and it, it was right, it gave me a good thinking.
[00:37:02] And that is, you know, present is a moment right now, it’s a present, this is a gift right now. Live it. And then the past, you can’t do nothing about it. You can’t cry or anything like that. It’s a waste of your, you know, crying if you will learn from it. That’s the only thing you can learn and the future, can’t predict.
[00:37:19] It’s a hundred percent wrong. Forecasting is a hundred percent wrong. I mean, 90% right, but never a hundred percent right. So, it’s a hundred percent wrong, just be prepared. So, the more you prepare, the more you expand your knowledge, the more you listen, really gives you the opportunity that when options come out in the future
[00:37:40] you can essentially pick them and decide to go, without really looking back. Because you already looked back on the, now you’re looking forward and trying to make a better future. So, yes, asking the question, “How can I improve? How can I be, do better?” is something, I still do it every time at the end of the class, and they do send me, you know, the spot surveys, but most of the time, they’re just, you know, filling out the plan.
[00:38:05] They, they don’t say it. So, I want to have that discussion with the students, and I do it.
[00:38:11] Kristen Wisdorf: That’s great. Well, I’m really happy you walked through what Florida National and what you are doing that’s so unique from other sales programs with your bilingual sales competition. And so, we wanted to introduce a special segment,
[00:38:24] for our podcast with you, Rafael, and we have a Delivery manager joining us. Her name is Gabriela Flores. She’s a manager out in our Seattle, Washington office. She’s absolutely incredible, and she’s crushing it. And so, she is joining to have a conversation with you for all of our listeners who speaks Spanish, Gabriela.