Tech Sales is for Hustlers Podcast

Episode 84: Albert Tejera – Your Time Is Your Equity

Take a page out of Nike’s book and just do it. Rejection is part of the sales game, but Albert knows the most successful sales reps drop the excuses and keep consistent effort.

Now Enterprise Account Executive at Checkit, Albert shares why selling at startups is not for the faint of heart. Competitive, self-sufficient, determined, and resilient are only some of the traits required to reap the rewards of working for an emerging enterprise.

In this episode of Tech Sales is for Hustlers, Albert shares insight on what to be mindful of when considering a position at a startup, the best way to save time and build rapport, and how to advocate for your professional growth.

Guest-At-A-Glance

Name: Albert Tejera

What he does: Albert Tejera is an enterprise account executive at Checkit.

Company: Checkit

Noteworthy: Albert Tejera went to Mary Washington University to study political science, but today he works in the information technology and services industry. He has been playing sports like baseball and rugby from an early age. 

Where to find Albert: LinkedIn | Website

Key Insights

⚡ Always make an effort. Salespeople achieve different levels of success. While some are the kings of sales, others always stay at the same level and do not progress. According to Albert, the key to success is to never stop trying. “You’ll have peaks. You’ll have valleys. You’ll get rejections. And you can make up excuses all you want; there are plenty of things for you to look around and say, ‘It’s not my fault.’ But if you put in the effort continually, and you trust what you do here with training and with the work, it’ll work out, and you’ll eventually get to the top. And when you get to that top, make sure you’re humble enough to know that you can come back down quickly. Just keep up the effort.”

⚡ You don’t need to be very technical in sales. At a time of constant development of technology, sellers are also facing numerous challenges. But if you are good at your job, there is no reason to worry. Albert points out that you can sell your product, despite not being very technical. “You need to be able to explain the benefits of your product in a simple manner, and super quickly. And all you’re getting them to do is commit time, which is the hardest part of the sales cycle. But I don’t think you need textbook acumen for the thing you’re selling.”

⚡ Remote work is not good for sales. COVID-19 brought many changes, and remote work became commonplace as a result. Although many people like this way of working and do not want to return to offices now, Albert believes that remote work doesn’t really suit sales. “I did SchoolKeep right after this (memoryBlue), and I was having some health issues with family that wanted me to stay home. I also hated New York, and I didn’t want to move up there, so I negotiated that I would work remotely. I was 23 and had ten months of great experience with memoryBlue — which is probably equivalent to a couple of years somewhere else — but it was not an easy transition. It was not a good experience for me. I was the only one out of all my friends working remotely. So it’s like I was socially isolated. I felt almost angry. And it was really hard to find that groove where you can start to hold yourself accountable, start to do things on your own, but still so socially isolated. […] I think your sales acumen suffers if you’re at home by yourself all day.”

Episode Highlights

Importance of Discovery in Sales

“You can be a good writer and just get people to commit 10 minutes on an email or LinkedIn or whatever it is. But if you’re able to find out real or not on a sales cycle and save yourself time based on what you can ask on the phone and where people are at in the buying stage, you’re going to be so much more efficient, and you’re going to be a much better forecaster for whoever you’re reporting to.”

Albert’s Love for Emerging Companies

“Every day is just a battle. Every day you’re making an impact, whether it’s losing steam on a pipeline for investors to be reported in the next quarter, or you’re putting up a logo that’s getting emailed to the shareholders, and it might inform the next round.

You’re a piece of the pie, which might be negotiated a little bit bigger since you’re making such an impact. Everything you do affects other people around you. It’s not just, ‘I’m going to make more commission,’ it’s also, ‘Okay, we might be able to hire some more marketing. We might be able to enhance the product with this revenue.’  And it’s growth at all costs at those younger companies. And I will never leave the startup mentality, whether it’s stupid or not.”

How Do You Pick a Company?

“From a startup perspective, there are really two things I look for. The first — how they’re spending their money and just making sure that it’s not inflating super fast. There’s going to be a ton of pressure that’s not necessarily warranted on the sales team early when there’s no fit. The second piece — if the company hasn’t established enough logos and enough early adopters with the tech curve and enough innovators, it’s going to be a really hard job. And if they’re throwing money at sales, it’s not going to be a fun job either. There are still ways to have success in those places, but that’s what I look for. There is more of a measured approach from leadership on, ‘Let’s keep it lean, and let’s keep this sales team armed to the teeth until we find what’s going to blow us up.’ […]

From an interviewing perspective, I measure leadership first on what their experience is — if it’s their first time doing it, it’s risky business; if they’ve come from a place of having success in getting acquired or exiting, they know what they’re doing, or at least they did. 

From the perspective of a salesperson, I always try to talk to a rep, and they’re going to give you the most ‘Drink the Kool-Aid’ person to bring you on, but you get a sense for what success looks like and what their managers are doing. Is it micromanaged? Is it a great team? Are you getting coached like you get coached here, or is that going to die off? That’s one of the questions I wish I’d asked more often.”

Work-Life Balance

“I do think there needs to be some life. You can give the motivational speech about grind all you want, but there still needs to be some balance there. It’s dependent on what you’ve done. If you’re down and you’re number, you’ve got to work harder; if you’re up, you get to make that choice — whether you hit those kickers and those accelerators, or you want to take a little break or something. So I think you’re in control of your own destiny — in the sales world, at least. You have to perform well. If you’re down, sorry, your work-life balance goes down.”

 

Transcript: 

[00:00:00] Albert Tejera: The biggest piece of advice I’d give to the folks on the floor right now is just effort. You’ll have peaks, you’ll have valleys, you’ll get rejection and again, there’s, I mean, you can make up excuses all you want,

[00:00:10] there’s plenty of things for you to look around and say, ” It’s not my fault.” But if you put in the effort and you continually do it and you trust what you do here with training and with the work and it’ll, it’ll work out, it’ll eventually work out and it’ll eventually get back to the top. 

[00:00:40] Marc Gonyea: Albert Tejera paying us a visit. Albert, thanks for 

[00:00:45] Albert Tejera: coming in, man. Yeah, absolutely. 

[00:00:50] Chris Corcoran: In the casa. In the casa. In the castle. It’s not a house anymore. I know Albert’s massive. You can’t believe it. It’s huge. 

[00:00:56] Marc Gonyea: I’ve been here when you worked here. 

[00:00:58] We must have been, so I was in the Boone office with Mishler.

[00:01:01] Albert Tejera: Oh, no. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh, I’m going to ring that bell song. I love that. I was hearing in all the podcasts, I was listening to it. Yeah, we, we must’ve been at 40 or 50, maybe. California was just getting, talking about opening up, I think as I was leaving, it was opening up. So, wow. I mean, I may be completely wrong, but. 

[00:01:20] Marc Gonyea: No, it was probably right, in the who’s got fact-checking, Fish

[00:01:23] Daddy, Mishler. Fact-checkers.

[00:01:25] Chris Corcoran: I hope he… 

[00:01:28] Marc Gonyea: We’re going back to 2015, Corcoran. 

[00:01:30] Chris Corcoran: Nice. It’ll be seven years ago. Hot tub time machine. Yeah. 

[00:01:35] Albert Tejera: I’m glad it’s a podcast, not video, so you can’t see my receding hairline spring away from my forehead. 

[00:01:42] Chris Corcoran: You’re looking good yet.

[00:01:48] I’m getting Tommy Romo vibe. Keep that in place. Whoa, here we go.

[00:01:57] Marc Gonyea: Well, what was his name? He played rugby. He looks like a rugby player. Yeah. 

[00:02:00] Outside Center back, which is, like, I dunno, the fluffy, don’t hit very hard, but you can run. 

[00:02:07] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. I feel like that’s what translates, like, it’s nice to see this guy practicing with his rugby guys, old man of soccer.

[00:02:13] I was like, “Those guys are crazy.” 

[00:02:16] Albert Tejera: I know my sales persuasion wasn’t home then to try to get him to play, play code of practice or try it. Ask them to juice. I can. Yeah, I believe this.

[00:02:22] Marc Gonyea: I have some paste, but I don’t have any muscle. We can still go out there. No, you guys break me. All right. Well, let’s talk. Okay. Albert, the purpose of this podcast is for, well, Chris, and I just liked doing them, but it’s really for the people who work here.

[00:02:39] Now, we’re thinking about coming to work here and alums, catch up with you, kind of hear what’s going on. We were talking about where Chris and I liked doing it because it’s a great way for us to connect with great people like you and some of your colleagues who used to work here, and then we always learn something from everybody listened to.

[00:02:55] Right. So, let’s get going, and why don’t you just tell everybody a little bit about where you’re from, where you grew up, so they kind of get to know you a little bit better? 

[00:03:01] Albert Tejera: Yeah. So, I’m from Central Virginia, Fredericksburg area. I’m still living in Fredericksburg area. I went to school in the Fredericksburg area, so

[00:03:10] I’ve got roots down there. Lay them. The University of Mary Washington. Some people call it the Harvard of the South, but you got.

[00:03:19] That’s it. But yeah, I, I was in school, I think just kind of like a memoryBlue path. I was in school, I was doing… 

[00:03:29] Marc Gonyea: Okay. As a kid, though. What were you like? Oh, sales? Yeah, now,

[00:03:33] like, you played sports growing up, big family, small family, just give us a quick little. For sure. 

[00:03:37] Albert Tejera: Yeah. Brother, sister, both younger, so I’m the heir, apparently. Dad, mom, both put us in sports non-stop, we’re fighting, we’re, you know, rolling around doing, doing everything kids do, and then we had a massive group of friends just in the neighborhood who were competing every day,

[00:03:52] so it’s, it’s, it’s always been like an athletic-driven childhood. Played a little bit of baseball, started in college, decided that I wasn’t even close to good enough to keep it going as a job, switched to rugby, and just, yeah, I’ve always been in athletics, and I think my dad was in sales whole life, still, strictly commission, no base.

[00:04:14] Wow. Just grind and… 

[00:04:15] Marc Gonyea: Tell us a little bit about that.

[00:04:15] Albert Tejera: Yeah, so he did dental. He started when he was in his second year of college and decided he wanted to start working. Okay. So, I went straight into a company, through networking, through a friend, from there went into dental equipment, and then he’s risen to the top.

[00:04:32] And he’s, I mean, he, he should retire, but he’ll never retire because he loves it too much. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:04:38] Marc Gonyea: I would say most people that work here, their parents were not in sales. Chris’s dad was an attorney, helicopter pilot in the Marines. My dad was an infantryman finance guy in the army. Like, nobody knew

[00:04:50] anything about sales, nobody in our neighborhood knew about sales. Like, he and I lived in the same neighbor for a little while. Like, so, what was, what was it like and how did that change your kind of perspective as to what you thought you wanted to do growing up your old man’s in sale?

[00:05:01] Albert Tejera: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, he did a good job of, like, making everything, which was crazy

[00:05:06] ’cause he worked insane, traveled insane, well, he’s always at game, so I didn’t see it as, like, a blocker to, you know, having a, having a dad there and being supportive. He was coaching, so. 

[00:05:17] Marc Gonyea: And you kind of associated him being in sales with always, also always being more available?

[00:05:20] Albert Tejera: But I think it was just, like, a lot of dedication.

[00:05:23] Okay. He had one to the job and then two to really be there for his kids. So, that was what got me into it, but I actually didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to do what he was doing. I was in college, political science, obviously close to DC, a lot of my family’s in DC, so I really wanted to run campaigns coming out of school

[00:05:40] so it’s going out to win. 

[00:05:41] Marc Gonyea: So, sales wasn’t like something that you thought you were going to do growing up or in college, which is totally fine, it’s just everybody gets there a certain way. 

[00:05:50] Albert Tejera: Yeah, I think it was just stubbornness. It’s like, “I don’t want to do with the old man did. I don’t want to like who the old man like for proteins is, I want to carve my own path.”

[00:05:58] So, there’s a little bit of that. And I, I think what really triggered it was, I had some friends that were older in school who were running campaigns, and they weren’t making any money. They were losing a race in Ames, Iowa, for mayor, where the candidate said something about, like, tax credits for farmers that was wrong, and then they’d lose, and they’d get all upset.

[00:06:20] And I was like, “That sounds awful.” So, I talked to my dad, and he was like, “Sales is the last bastion for you to get rewarded for your performance and you to make a large variable income if you want to make money.” So, I think that really led me to just try it out. And I interviewed some 

[00:06:38] Marc Gonyea: places. You remember when you taught, was it, like, we were junior in college, you had that conversation with senior year, out of school.

[00:06:44] It was early senior year. Early senior year. So, I had the friends who were just getting into the jobs and doing it and hating it, and then I also have my dad being like, “You need to try it.” 

[00:06:53] Marc Gonyea: Alright. That’s cool. And, and that’s what, that’s what you did, right? I did. Tell us about it. 

[00:06:59] Albert Tejera: Yeah. I went straight into it.

[00:07:00] I interviewed a few places right out of school. Here was one of them. I liked the idea that I was really just green, I didn’t know what I was getting into. Julianne Sweat and Candace, Candace Cross. Oh wow. 

[00:07:14] Chris Corcoran: Tiny of a duo.

[00:07:17] Albert Tejera: A piece of pie. They both went to Mary Wash, and they’re like, “Just do it. You’ll love it.”

[00:07:22] That’s really all the, only convincing I need, so. 

[00:07:26] Marc Gonyea: They’re both really good at that gig. 

[00:07:28] Albert Tejera: Savages. 

[00:07:29] Marc Gonyea: Yes. Savages. Savages. Yes. That’s much better, better description. That’s what we do the podcast, essentially. How do you savages? 

[00:07:38] Albert Tejera: I’m getting old too, so. Yeah, I think that was, that was really the start to get in.

[00:07:43] Marc Gonyea: And was it like?

[00:07:44] Albert Tejera: The interview process or just? 

[00:07:49] Marc Gonyea: Let’s spend a little time talking about this, like, 

[00:07:50] Albert Tejera: oh my God. I can do this for hours. The interview process was with you and Mishler. Okay. Fish, Daddy. And then I think I met you at the end, Chris. First came in to close it out. Yeah. And by the way, I listened to the Mishler’s podcast.

[00:08:03] If I was ever on that trading wire or waiver wire in that trading block with him, I’m going to let him hear it. I have to find it. 

[00:08:10] Marc Gonyea: He was the master, that thing. Draft a trade, moving up in the draft, move it down, two, two sixes for a five. 

[00:08:18] Albert Tejera: Yeah. I need to, I need to know…

[00:08:23] Marc Gonyea: But that was probably one of those, like, they, uh, they showed the video of one of the players and said, “Oh,” the guy who’s crushing it for the warriors, he was drafted in the end of the first round. “This might be the worst pick in the draft,” and blah, blah, blah, blah, and planning on Twitter, like, three years later. 

[00:08:37] Albert Tejera: I love it. 

[00:08:38] Marc Gonyea: He’s helping them get the finals.

[00:08:38] He here, this guy. Yeah, you’re, maybe Mishler’s out there. There’s video of Mr. Talking Smack about how…

[00:08:43] Albert Tejera: I know. I know. I’ve got 

[00:08:45] Albert Tejera: to find that. But yeah, it was, from the jump, just awesome. I think it’s, I mean, I’m beating a dead horse with everybody that probably comes in here, but it’s ultra-competitive.

[00:08:58] I walked into, and I’m just telling you all, I worked for Mode for the past, like, three years, and I walk in here, and I’m like, there’s some, there’s some going on, and Jesus flow and give me a desk, give me a… 

[00:09:10] Chris Corcoran: Um. Give me a client. Let me, let me tip it to the PPM baskets. 

[00:09:17] Albert Tejera: I love it. 

[00:09:18] Chris Corcoran: Talk about that, what that means, because you know, we did this whole movement of working remotely in, versus anyway, if, I’m not anti-working remotely,

[00:09:29] well, I’m anti-working remotely when you have zero experience because you have to get that, this, the environment that you felt that kind of gets you going until you can learn the business. Talk a little bit about that. 

[00:09:41] Albert Tejera: I don’t want to jump ahead, but I think it’s relevant. Do it. I got hired out from being here with a client and in school, keep a great client, great company.

[00:09:50] And, Steve Cornwell, CEO. Great guy. That’s software.

[00:10:02] Chris Corcoran: Software.

[00:10:05] Albert Tejera: Yeah, I did Schoolkeep right after this, and I was having some health issues with family that wanted me to stay home. I also hated New York, so I didn’t want to move up there, and I negotiated that I would work remote. Okay. I was 23, and I had 10 months great experience with memoryBlue

[00:10:19] is probably equivalent to a couple of years somewhere else, but it was not an easy transition. It was not a good experience for me. I was the only one out of my friends working remote, so it’s like, I was socially isolated. I felt, like, almost angry. And it was really, really hard to find that groove, and I eventually did, but it was really, really hard to find that groove where you can start to hold yourself accountable, start to do things on your own,

[00:10:44] but still so socially isolated and I, what you guys are doing here is, I think it’s gonna pay dividends for these folks. Um, certainly moving down line and whether it’s hybrid or whether it’s being in an office, there’s, there’s no substitute. I think your s, your sales acumen suffers if you’re at home by yourself all day.

[00:11:06] Albert Tejera: And maybe that’s just for me, but. 

[00:11:08] Marc Gonyea: It’s not just strategic. 

[00:11:10] Chris Corcoran: I mean, this is, that you had a kind of 10, 10 months of experience on the floor, and then you were working remote. Imagine if you didn’t have those 10 months. 

[00:11:19] Albert Tejera: I’d have been dead. I would have been something else. I would have been, I don’t know, a different industry or something.

[00:11:25] There’s no way I would’ve done, been able to do it. 

[00:11:28] Marc Gonyea: Well, so, let’s. Go ahead. No, keep going. 

[00:11:31] Albert Tejera: Yeah, the last thing is, like, one of the biggest things for me, it was that I’m competitive dude. I have stories and bet and all these people that I’ve written down, who I won’t mention, but if you go into the floor on a bad day and it’s 8:00 AM, and you’re tired, you didn’t get enough sleep, whatever it is,

[00:11:46] you’re angry for some reason, and you sit down, and you don’t want to dial, there’s a myriad of excuses you can make, but somebody next to you gets a meeting at 8:03, it’s like a sits a switch flips. You’re, you’re back in it. “I can’t just sit here. I got do it.” So, that’s, I think the benefit of having people that are on that same mission and pushing you next to you every day, um, is, yeah, it’s, it’s invaluable for getting stuff done and getting experience here.

[00:12:17] Marc Gonyea: We’ll come back to that too, but let’s go back to, so you, you there’s Fish Daddy and I in the interview process, Chris came in, close it out in the end. And you started, what do you remember from starting? 

[00:12:31] Albert Tejera: Well, I did not know anything about Hitachi data systems. One Alliance. I was on Alliance. Yeah. Yeah, that, It was the time we got, I met Steven G.

[00:12:39] That was the most nervous I’ve ever been in my life.

[00:12:41] Marc Gonyea: Well, he’s a tough customer. 

[00:12:43] Albert Tejera: The colonel, man. He’s great.

[00:12:44] Chris Corcoran: Yes, it’s right. 

[00:12:47] Albert Tejera: You get to see why they’re successful. 

[00:12:48] Marc Gonyea: You said general. 

[00:12:50] Albert Tejera: Committed chief. 

[00:12:50] Marc Gonyea: There you go. 

[00:12:53] Albert Tejera: Yeah, so, I was on, calling on Hitachi. I thought I was relatively personable on the phone.

[00:12:57] I had confidence to talk to people. I was okay with getting rejected and everything, so I didn’t think I had to overcome those, those things, but I think just familiarizing myself enough with the script, the product was something that was tough for me to start. Just ‘cause I’m, I was probably overly confident, “I can wing it a little bit.

[00:13:16] I can talk to people. I can get these people, you know, spend some time.”

[00:13:23] But then you got an objection. I remember Mishler one time, and he’s such a great manager ’cause he knows how to coach people in different ways, and I think for me it was like, “All right, be direct with this kid.” But I remember we were in a call and coaching session, and he was like, “What’d you do wrong there?”

[00:13:39] I was like, “Oh, I thought it was pretty good.” Means like, “You could have had it here. You could have had it here. You could have had it here. And you didn’t know because you didn’t do enough research on Hitachi, so take the next 10 minutes and get into the packet and get into the stuff they sent you.” So, I think, yeah, starting out was just “boom” in it.

[00:13:54] You’re in it. 

[00:13:56] Marc Gonyea: There’s no hiding, right? 

[00:13:58] Albert Tejera: Not at all. And I mean, it’s just simple gamification things. Well, they seem so simple, but, and I think a lot of people enact them, but it doesn’t come to life, like, leaderboards. Walking around here and seeing the paper with the numbers on it and you’re pulling it down, the gong,

[00:14:12] it’s like you, exactly, it’s nowhere to hide. You better perform. And it’s, if you think rejection feels bad on the phone, like, you getting lower and lower on that leaderboard is going to feel worse. 

[00:14:26] Marc Gonyea: Yes, it should the right person. Who do you remember? Who else did you roll with? Who was, like, your posse at the time?

[00:14:33] We had such an awesome team. Like, I listened to Robbie Connor’s podcast, and that guy, he’s a beast. Laura Mantros was on boot camp with me. Husein was right next to me. Well, Mankiller. Yo, yeah, he’s, he’s the beast. It’s like Nimit, Wyatt, Jovan sat next to me. 

[00:14:54] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. That’s a good 

[00:14:55] Marc Gonyea: crew right there.

[00:14:56] Yeah. I remember now walking over to Boone and seeing everybody. That’s it. That’s a good little posse. Did you have a mentor, or did you meet anyone? 

[00:15:08] Albert Tejera: Absolute beast. Oh yeah, she’s good on, she’s on SchoolKeep with me. She’s good on the phone, and then they actually had her pitching and closing demos on smaller accounts while, while she was here,

[00:15:21] so I got to sit next to her and listen, like, set up meetings for her next to me, and I was like, “This is just nuts.” And she’s just so good at, I dunno, laying out what you needed to do and what I could be doing better, so.

[00:15:35] What, um, when you, when you look back on that, like, you probably figured it out, like, what, what were you good at?

[00:15:41] Marc Gonyea: Like, what did you get good at? What was, like, your superpower? 

[00:15:46] Albert Tejera: I think the biggest thing for me, the biggest piece of advice I’d give to the folks on the floor right now, is just effort. You’ll have peaks, you’ll have valleys, you get rejection, and again, there’s, I mean, you can make up excuses all you want,

[00:17:00] there’s plenty of things for you to look around and say, “It’s not my fault.” But if you put in the effort and you continually do it, and you trust what, what you do here with training and with the work and it’ll, it’ll work out. It’ll eventually work out, and it’ll eventually get back to the top. And when you get to that top and make sure you’re humble enough to know that it can come back down quickly, just keep the, keep the effort up.

[00:17:21] And that’s, that was my biggest thing. Like, if it was a bad day, I still get my dials. I’m still getting all my outreach done.

[00:17:27] Marc Gonyea: And a lot of people, he was onto tough stuff because it was up, some people are able to walk in and roll in on data storage right away, you know? They, they prefer something that might be

[00:17:37] calling, what might be dealing more friendly environment, but calling storage is kind of difficult because those people are supermarket for sure and then they’re fairly little more technical than the average people we call sometimes.

[00:17:48] Albert Tejera: Oh yeah. Far more technical than I was. 

[00:17:51] Marc Gonyea: I will be. Yeah. Let’s talk about that. So, I mean, how technical do you think you needed to be?

[00:17:55] Some people think, “I need to go get a certification and data storage to be good at this.” And I don’t think you need to, I think you need to do.

[00:18:01] Albert Tejera: Well, if you’re going to do that, great. Like, it’s worth your time, and you think it’s going to make you more credible, sure, but no, I don’t think you need to be very technical.

[00:18:08] I think you need to be able to explain the benefits of your product in a simple manner, super quickly and all you’re getting to do is commit time, which is the hardest part of the sales cycle, but I don’t think you need a, I don’t know, textbook acumen for the thing you’re selling. I think it starts part of the sales cycle? I do. As an enterprise rep now, really the gamut,

[00:18:29] by far the hardest part. Why? One, okay, so the biggest thing I’ve written it down, the biggest thing I want to portray here, is that it’s hard to see when you’re hitting it, but when you leave, and you go from organization to organization from startup to startup, like I have, no one does, no one does this, no one has the training,

[00:18:48] so if you’re able to make that impact quickly on what you’re doing here and transition it to another organization, you’re going to see that you’re already way ahead. And memoryBlue has helped me in really every facet of my career, just the foundation that was built here, but it’s, it’s hard to see when you’re here

[00:19:03] because you think you’re next to people doing it too, so. 

[00:19:07] Chris Corcoran: You think everybody does? 

[00:19:09] Albert Tejera: I think everybody does. 

[00:19:09] Chris Corcoran: Yeah. And then you leave and be like, “No one does it.” 

[00:19:10] Albert Tejera: You put up 10 meetings in a month, and you’re salty ’cause that’s not your normal number at memoryBlue, and you’re like, “I’m paying meetings ahead of everybody else, what’s going on?”

[00:19:19] So, I think, yeah, just, just seeing it from, like, your future self and the success you’ll have from the work you put in here is certainly something that’s, that’s came alive to me in the recent years to. 

[00:19:31] Chris Corcoran: So, when you were about, when you, when you were an SDR here, who did you think had the best game? 

[00:19:37] Albert Tejera: Oh man. There’s so many monsters. Mischler, for sure.

[00:19:41] I mean, it was so annoying that he would, I would be calling a hundred people and then, you know, we do the call sessions, and he’d go, and he’d call three and get a meeting. It was just so frustrating, but awesome to hear it, to hear it too. He was great. Robert was great. Hannah was a monster. I mean, I, I had no insight into closing

[00:20:03] really, I had asked my reps, which is something, again, people should do, is ask their reps to get more insight into the sales cycle beyond the meeting they set. But, yeah, seeing her close deals, I was like, “You’re actually driven into revenue right now for them, and they’re so stoked. Like, they’re coming down, meeting her in person

[00:20:19] Albert Tejera: who was, she was a monster. Sam Data, I don’t know, he was here for one year? Yeah. You’re here, or you’re? Was not here for very long, I don’t think, but man, he came in, and just, I felt pretty confident where I was in the leaderboard and where I sat in the room at that point. I think it was six or seven months in did he mashed, mashed me the first month

[00:20:39] and I was like. SP. 

[00:20:41] Chris Corcoran: Ugh. 

[00:20:43] Albert Tejera: It was, it was a nightmare, but it was also like, “Okay, I guess we got somebody to chase too.” 

[00:20:48] Marc Gonyea: So, you seem to be really self-aware, like, you got a high degree of self-awareness. 

[00:20:52] Albert Tejera: Like, yeah. 

[00:20:54] Marc Gonyea: So, I had to be. Yeah, but also humble. But you’re also, but you mean he was good. He, his quota on Alliance, hit it on Schoolkeep, except for one month, after the first ones, he just figured it out, “I need to close,” one or two hustles.

[00:21:07] We can edit that part. What, why not, you said you, talk about, you said this earlier, but you got to what’s, the bets with people, what was that all about?

[00:21:15] Albert Tejera: Oh, man. Well, Mishler was also really good at just, I think Robbie mentioned it too, but just you coming to the office random days, like, lunch is on me for whoever gets the most meetings, and that fires me up immediately, but I remember Nimit and Jovan were sitting next to each other.

[00:21:34] Uh, and I think I probably picked a fight, but I was like, 8:00 AM, like, smack, 15 bucks whoever gets first one Jovan and Nimit buy-in. And then, by the time I left, I think we were, like, four months into that. It was like a hockey fight, where it was respected, but it was just like, you want to go? After lunch or in the morning, like, just a simple thing like that.

[00:21:56] And no one ever said no. It’s just, yeah. It was always a grind. It was fun. 

[00:22:04] Marc Gonyea: And then, so when you’re here doing this, what, did you kind of say, “Oh, this is,” did you get caught up in being in it because that’s a very dangerous task for even people who are good at it. Like, I mean, “I don’t know if this sales for me” because that SDR job wasn’t really sales.

[00:22:18] I mean, it’s sales, excuse me, it’s sales, but it’s not what you’re doing, you know, as you progress in your career and some people kind of lose sight of where they want to go, did you ever worry about it or lose sight or did you kind of know you wanted to go close? Did you have different experience ‘cause Hannah’s close and work for Schoolkeep? 

[00:22:34] Albert Tejera: I mean there’s days you have some self-doubt, you just got to put yourself out of it and like, just, but, but never, like, a doubt about the profession,

[00:22:42] Albert Tejera: I think. This may be, like, addicted this place. Yeah. I, I could’ve gone somewhere else and be miserable, but I think just coming to work every day and trying to win, it’s, it’s hard to do that in another job. I mean, from what I’ve heard, I’ll never do any other job at sales now. Um, but yeah, I, I would say

[00:23:04] no self-doubt. I think I’m focused a lot on getting hired out, which. I remember that, was great. I saw people progress quicker than me and I was like, “You know, put, kind of projecting myself onto them a little bit, which I should have done. 

[00:23:20] Marc Gonyea: I should. I remember trying to slow you down. Sorry. Could you pause it. “This guy’s so good,” Mishler

[00:23:24] and I were trying to contrive ways to keep you here a little bit longer. Not in a bad way. You’re just, like, the client sees, thinks he’s so smart. He knew he wanted you to come work there. 

[00:23:33] Chris Corcoran: Oh, don’t pump my tires too much. I’m serious. 

[00:23:36] Marc Gonyea: I was talking to him about 

[00:23:37] it. 

[00:23:38] Yeah. Steve was great. I mean, Schoolkeep was great.

[00:23:40] Albert Tejera: I won’t regret going there. It was good, painful, it was good experience. It was good, good closing. And startup SaaS led me to my next job, which was good. But yeah, I think I, I think I should have just taken it in a little bit more, which I wish I would’ve done, but then coming back here, I’m like. “I should’ve taken it in.”

[00:23:59] Marc Gonyea: I mean, I think what makes you good is you seem kind of patient, right? And that’s what makes you good too. ‘Cause the patients is kind of gets you where you want to go, and sometimes you’re like, “Maybe I should slow down a little. Maybe not.” What it means is an alright thing. 

[00:24:11] Marc Gonyea: The urgency of now. 

[00:24:13] Chris Corcoran: The urgency of now. Yep. And I, I, ’cause that’s not uncommon, is people fixate on getting hired out and I would advise people, like, don’t focus on getting hired out, focus on building your skills because eventually you’re going to get hired out or you’re going to go into the industry

[00:24:32] and at that point, you have your skills, or you don’t have your skills, and that’s going to be you what you’re left with for the rest of your career.

[00:24:39] Albert Tejera: I will a thousand percent agree with that. 

[00:24:43] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. It sounds like he was on a good team, people were getting after it, so the skills was built, built. A lot of us inherit and yourself, but like then

[00:24:52] multiplies it.

[00:24:53] Albert Tejera: Oh, it makes it better. If you’re here right now, just be a sponge, just a sponge. Soak up people that are, you know, if they have a bad call, listen to what they say, if they have good calls, listen to what they say and just kind of be yourself and you can find your own style, but, yeah, there’s no, there’s nothing like this.

[00:25:09] And when, when you get out, you’ll understand that you are positioned for success better than most in the industry, and then yeah, you, you’re going to miss doing this. 

[00:25:22] Marc Gonyea: So, we will go with a winding path here. We’re using all the tools, right? We’re more on LinkedIn, we’ve got Zoom, we’ve got call recording technology, listen to your calls, break it down much easier than when you were here,

[00:25:37] people are, some people are texting, but we still book 75% of our meetings were booked over the phone, using the phone and we’re super into the, somewhat, and this is total softball, but I’m going to ask anyway, you can call them in as you want over LinkedIn, but you’re not going to progress, your sales skills aren’t going to progress because you’re not driving anybody.

[00:25:59] Marc Gonyea: And we tell them, “You got to learn to qualify and engage.” And talk about how important that part of the process is in terms of when you go to the next role, you gotta be good at that discovery part. 

[00:26:12] Albert Tejera: Yeah. You can be a good writer and just get people to commit 10 minutes on an email or LinkedIn or whatever it is,

[00:26:19] but if you’re able to find out real or not on a sales cycle and save yourself time-based on what you can ask on the phone and you know, what, where people are at in the buying stages, it’s just, you’re going to be so much more efficient, and you’re going to be a much better forecaster for whoever you’re reporting to.

[00:26:41] That was huge for me. I came into shift one, which was just an Arlington, and Rasheed Rambleer has been my mentor for years now. He’s my boss. Did you meet him there? I did. Yeah, but I can’t, but I got that job through cold cadence, but I learned that memoryBlue…

[00:26:55] So, I was at Schoolkeep, I was going well, I just wasn’t seeing myself really progressed being in Virginia in, in New York. So, I wanted something local ’cause I was itching to get back in the office, at least for a hybrid model, and looked up startups on DC and found one that was dealing in restaurant, gamification, making the job better for servers and bartenders,

[00:27:15] Albert Tejera: so it was easy for me to understand and buy in, but I just cold-called station cam a few times, so I don’t see the CEO. He’s a CEO. Um, Cam was a CEO, and she’s the president. Okay. So, I didn’t know how big it was or anything like that. I get an interview at North Side Social, and it’s just them. And I’m throwing the SaaS book at ’em like I know what I’m talking about.

[00:27:40] Like, like, “What’s the burn? Where do you, where do you see capital deployment? Like, what’s the engineering team look like? Is it overseas?” And, she’s just like, “Slow down. You’re just like SaaS Bible.” So, but he told me, he was like, “We have two other guys. We can come to you with budget. You’re going to have to prove yourself on that

[00:28:00] you can actually do these and get these meetings and fill the pipe early, at least top of funnel. Yeah. So, I was like, that’s no problem. So, I took, from an account executive closing job, I love where this company is going, I love the guy who’s running it, went back to SDR. Oh wow. To prove myself. He gave me a target,

[00:28:18] it was agreed upon, and I think it was a, potentially, I think it was, like, eight meetings each month to a three-month target. So, I was going to get promoted back to closing at that point. I smashed in a month and a half, I was back to closing, it was just a bet on myself, and it was built from getting the job, from what I learned here, and then understanding of having confidence that I could get meetings, especially with the target like that ’till we get promoted back and then set myself up with a great closing role where a company that I was bought in on

[00:28:49] Chris Corcoran: And so when you were, like, the negligible, you had to set all your own meetings. Oh yeah. There’s no SDR, there’s no inbound. It was all “Go eat what you kill.” 

[00:28:59] Albert Tejera: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I, I mean, if you’re going to go to start up, you have to expect that. Yeah. Maybe you have some great marketers or whatever, and you get a couple of leads to toss your way,

[00:29:10] but the majority of business, almost 95% of it, is going to be driven by you. So, for a startup mentality, yes, and then where else, if you are relying on a marketing or inbound engine, which is great to have, if you’re getting leads and you’re frustrated with them, who do you have to blame? It’s, it’s, you’re going to get, you know, upset at marketing,

[00:29:31] you’re gonna get upset at demand gen or whatever it is. If you can go qualify your own, like you were saying earlier, and you can go on your own, you’re going to know what you’re getting. And I believe, especially in this labor market right now, when you tell CEOs you never really had a marketing pipeline in an inbound engine, you’re immediately a more attractive candidate because without.

[00:29:51] Albert Tejera: For sure.

[00:29:53] So, I think driving your own is, I mean, no one’s coming to save you. Plan accordingly. That’s like my favorite bait on my phone. So, my 

[00:30:01] Marc Gonyea: background on my phone. It’s true. There are a lot of things to unpack. Yeah. Right. You want to keep going? You have too much coffee like it’s not as good. Do you want to keep? Oops, let’s go back to all right.

[00:30:15] So, so, this is a multiple of the journey, a little bit short. So, so we’re talking about how you came in, you soak it, soaking up a memoryBlue and I think you gave really good feedback on, like, keeping your eye on the prize, and it’s hard to see, you know, where this leads when you’re in the trenches. You’re literally in the trenches, and I won’t take away anything,

[00:30:35] people who are actually fighting wars and trenches, but, like, you’re in the trenches of, you’re the trenches of this career, right? And it’s a very difficult profession. And you talked about Alliance, you talked about School Keep, you, and you, you kind of said, “This is on hook, this I’m in this profession.” And then let’s talk about the journey to get to that closing role

[00:30:51] ’cause it sounds like it’s never linear, but everybody thinks, “It’s just going to be, like, going up and,” let’s talk about that. So, you with the Schoolkeep, you did what you’re doing, SDR still, you’re just, you’re closing. 

[00:31:05] Albert Tejera: Yeah. Wh, yeah, I was the only SDR. It was actually mostly inbound, so it was kind of like, “Okay, what, what am I doing?”

[00:31:13] But there was enough there that I had time to outbound and set up a solid pipe, and then once that pipe was set, which is basically based on my efforts, once the pipe was set, I moved into closing. So, I was in, the good thing about startups is you understand with a good transparency on, like, what’s going to move you up, when you’re going to be needed to move into that role.

[00:31:34] Albert Tejera: So, I moved in there. I did some smaller account closing, and it was great. I mean, it was good experience. It was a simple demo with moving through a cycle with the smaller accounts. It was just, you had the economic buyer on the phone, usually the first call, so they were quick cycles. 

[00:31:51] Marc Gonyea: What’s the economic vibe?

[00:31:54] Albert Tejera: The person who is going to be signing a, for the, for the, maybe not the end-user, maybe not the person that’s going to be using the product, but the person that’s got the budget to get it done. The big learning curve for me was moving from that mid-market cycle at a high-volume SaaS company to a six to nine-month enterprise cycle with a bureaucracy of people to get through and multiple initiatives going on at once

[00:32:19] and the complexities of that was huge learning curve. But, yeah, I’m trying to, I’m trying to think of, like, the best advice to give for someone making that jump because I could have used some. 

[00:32:30] Marc Gonyea: Really. Well, we all did, could have.

[00:32:33] Albert Tejera: Yeah. So, I would say learn quickly and learn from people that are doing it.

[00:32:38] And so I was lucky enough to have Asheesh by my side, who, as chef one, had come from a successful venture in new brand analytics that had been acquired, so he knew what he was doing, and he knew the process with the restaurants. And I just, I get it. It’s taking, being a sponge at memoryBlue, to being a sponge everywhere you go and soaking things in and implementing them fast and efficiently.

[00:33:01] Marc Gonyea: Here’s a shift from three and a half years. It’s good. Right? So, we hit on this earlier. You like the emerging 

[00:33:08] Albert Tejera: company. I love it. I love it. 

[00:33:11] Marc Gonyea: Tell us why and compare and contrast ’cause you’ve got colleagues who’ve gone to bigger companies, big companies, plenty of people you’ve met here with, or people you met along the way,

[00:33:21] why, why is that important to you? Why do you love it? 

[00:33:26] Albert Tejera: Again, not to take anything away from, like, the trips or anything, but every day is just a battle. You go in and shift one was 5 people, Schoolkeep was 20, Cattle’s 25 and Check, it’s like 180, but there’s only about 25 in the US. So, Every day you’re making an impact, whether it’s losing steam on pipeline for investors to get reported on the next quarter, or you’re putting up a logo that’s getting emailed to the shareholders, and it might inform the next round.

[00:33:56] And, you know, your piece of the pie might be negotiated a little bit bigger since you’re making such an impact. It’s, it’s everything you do affects other people around you. It’s not just, “I’m going to make more commission.” It’s also, “Okay. We might be able to hire some more marketing. We might be able to enhance the product with this revenue and its growth at all costs at those younger companies.

[00:34:20] And I, I, I will never leave the startup mentality, whether it’s stupid or not, I’ll find out in a few years.

[00:34:27] Chris Corcoran: You love it. 

[00:34:29] Albert Tejera: I do, I do. But you’re also, I mean, the one caveat is that if you don’t get the piece and it never comes to fruition, or it takes a while to come to fruition, or you never pick the winning horse, I guess, it’s,

[00:34:41] I dunno, your, your time is your equity. Right. You can look at it as wasted time, but I’m always learning and shirking. Oh. That’s great experience from it. 

[00:34:51] Marc Gonyea: I mean, he, th, the definition he just gave about he likes to work through the numbers, or companies are the best one we’ve had. Because you’ve, you’ve, and I think ’cause you’ve been in the battles, just go with that theme. You understand, like, what’s at stake and how important it is, which is good,

[00:35:13] right? And the influence, like, bringing in these deals can have to the company making it or not 

[00:35:18] Chris Corcoran: making it right, right? 

[00:35:20] Marc Gonyea: Getting that round of funding and hitting payroll because they get the funding because of this deal that was brought in just the promise of the deal. This company acquired the technology, they’re paying for it ‘cause validate the investor’s hypothesis.

[00:35:33] Right. And that’s what we preached the SDRs here. He was like, “He has to know if one of these leads that we pass over closes, it could change the trajectory of the entire course of the company. Oh, right?

[00:35:42] Albert Tejera: For anyone working on startup accounts, you are driving a lot of their, their growth and trajectory of, of what they’re going to be looking at in the next six months because guarantee, startups, reps, it’s probably not driving a lot.

[00:35:59] It’s, it’s hard to get brand recognition, name recognition, market fit, but you are the driving force for those startups to succeed. 

[00:36:07] Marc Gonyea: So, you and I talked about this, like, the job you enjoyed the most, I mean, we’ve got great jobs, but the job you really enjoyed, he says memoryBlue, of course, was, you had shift one.

[00:36:19] Right? And then you were in the service industry.

[00:36:21] Albert Tejera: Oh yeah. 

[00:36:23] Marc Gonyea: And COVID came along. Yeah. What, what, so talk about that experience. 

[00:36:27] Albert Tejera: Oh man. It was a kick in the teeth. And I love Checkit, Steve Pack if you’re listening. Good. Yes. That’s the current gig.

[00:36:37] We had momentum because it was basically a, an app and an, a platform for retention of staff. And before COVID, it was still a record-low unemployment, so we, we had momentum. We were, the labor was a revolving door within restaurants, and we had a fat pipe. It was going to be, I think it was like three or 400% year over year.

[00:36:59] We went to PF Chang’s headquarters for a meeting. No, it’s the Dave and Busters conference. We got back on a plane, and I shut everything down, and with an app for servers and bartenders, and all the servers and bartenders get furloughed, not a whole lot of people to sell to. So, the sales function was, I mean, it had to be cut.

[00:37:21] Albert Tejera: It had to be cut. It was wasted costs at that point. So, that was, that was a tough one because it talked to my heartstrings a little bit. The guys were near and dear to my heart, and we had so much going for us just to get that slap in the face and everybody did. Of course. Everybody got ripped by that thing.

[00:37:38] So, that was tough, but also some of the, I had the luxury of, like, not needing a job immediately, just financially, but to take my time and then, guess who I’m talking to two weeks later? Marc Gonyea. And he set me up with some places he thinks I would like and some places that are hiring during the mess. And I called Robbie Connors, and Robbie picked up, and he was like, “Yeah, we’re, we’re still fine.

[00:38:03] Let’s, let’s chat.” So, I didn’t end up taking those, but, I mean, just to have those, that network built from here and you’ve got studs in every sales department across the tech ecosystem, it’s, it’s easy to pull yourself out of a hole when you’re at that. 

[00:38:20] Marc Gonyea: And I remember, you’re very deliberate. I mean, that is a compliment talking to Albert during that time

[00:38:25] and Albert was like, “No, I want to stick.” You wanted to stay in the space you were in because you’ve got ’cause you had the acquired insight and understanding. I was like, “Wow. It’s because he knows what he wants, kind of where he wants to go,” which is good ’cause that’s half the battle too. Right. So, let’s talk about that part, a, to two things.

[00:38:43] Let’s start with that, though. How do you kind of know what, what type of company you want to work for? Like, when you’re looking, what advice do you have for people who are looking at an opportunity? How do you size it up? ‘Cause you seem to have a really good understanding as to how these companies work internally,

[00:38:57] so when you’re out in the outside, looking in, what are you looking for? 

[00:39:00] Albert Tejera: Yeah. From a star perspective, there’s really two things I look for, the first being how they’re spending their money and just making sure that it’s not inflating super fast, and there’s going to be a ton of pressure that’s not necessarily warranted on the sales team early when there’s no fit.

[00:39:16] And the second piece, which…

[00:39:22] Marc Gonyea: When you say fit, what do you mean by that? 

[00:39:25] Albert Tejera: Well, if the company hasn’t established enough logos and enough early adopters with the tech curve and enough innovators, it’s going to be a really hard job. And if they’re throwing money at sales, it’s, it’s not gonna be a fun job. It, there’s still ways to have success with those places, but that’s what I look for.

[00:39:43] It’s just this, this is more of a measured approach from leadership on, “Let’s keep it lean, and let’s keep this sales team armed to the teeth until we find what’s going to blow us up.” 

[00:39:56] And what does that mean, armed to the teeth? 

[00:39:59] Albert Tejera: Whether it’s use cases that you can have customer stories that are really implicating the pain that the products alleviating, logos

[00:40:07] and I really think that’s it. Once you finding your niche and then carving it out, and once it’s starting to be carved out, that’s when I feel good about.

[00:40:16] Marc Gonyea: And what type of questions do you ask? Because SDRs, they get offers from their clients. Yeah. Maybe the basis tank get higher, and it might be a great company.

[00:40:24] So, I’m not, just not, it’s not a great company, the company might be great, it was just not a great place to go right now. Right. So, how do you size it up? If you’re necessarily, you don’t know anything, what types of questions might you be asking you? What, what should you be looking to observe? 

[00:40:39] Albert Tejera: Yeah, so from an interviewing perspective, I measure leadership first on what their experience is, if it’s their first time doing it, risky business, if they’ve come from a place of having success in getting acquired or exiting, you know, they’re, they know what they’re doing, or at least they have. From a perspective of a salesperson, I always, always, always try to talk to a rep, and they’re going to give you the most, you know, drank-the-Kool-Aid person to, to bring you on, but you get a sense for

[00:41:09] what success looks like, what their managers are doing, is it micromanaged, is it a great team, are you getting coached like you get coached here, or is that going to die off? That’s one of the questions I wish I asked more often. I think Chuck is doing a great job. Of what? Coaching you? Coach, just coaching and training.

[00:41:27] Yeah. He was every day here. Yeah. So, I think, yeah, those are some of the questions that I would really, and I’m really trying to get to where your position will be. So, a rep or something, reach out to them on LinkedIn, they’ll talk to you. If they’re unhappy, they’ll talk to you, and if they’re happy, they’ll try and get you on as long as you’re not cutting their territory now.

[00:41:44] Marc Gonyea: Right? Right. We had an alum recently who called me, doesn’t work here anymore, and he was looking to leave, and we were talking about what he was going to do, and he had talked to one of the reps on who works there now, and I said, “Why don’t you look on LinkedIn and see if anybody’s left recently and just reach out to them.”

[00:42:03] He reached out to one. And the breath, he hadn’t taken the job, but he talked to the rep. Brooke gave him good advice, but it was a little more candid, and maybe he would have gotten from the rep who is on the payroll, is on the payroll. Right? Who’s maybe lining up a club or something or talk back to CRO,

[00:42:21] you don’t know it. So, but that stuff… 

[00:42:24] Albert Tejera: And just to feel it out. Nope, no situation is perfect. Just get all the information so you can make a clear-minded 

[00:42:30] Albert Tejera: decision. 

[00:42:30] Marc Gonyea: That’s genius. Yeah. You do not want to be in a bad spot when you could have asked more questions. 

[00:42:36] Marc Gonyea: Particularly early in your career when you try to break it.

[00:42:38] Chris Corcoran: For sure.

[00:42:39] Absolutely. So, you look at Burn, and what was the other thing that you looked at? 

[00:42:43] Albert Tejera: Just leadership experience for, for startups. They gotta have, had done something for you to have some serious confidence and…

[00:42:50] Marc Gonyea: What was the biggest skill that you had to develop that kind of get you to, like, “Okay, I’m a legitimate enterprise

[00:43:01] Marc Gonyea: that,” you know, so I’m an SDR listen, what’s, what’s the skill I need to kind of be your mate? It might be one, might be two that you had, you had to develop to get into it, and then when you’re in it, you’re like, “All right, I’m here.” 

[00:43:11] Albert Tejera: Yeah. I think, well, two things, a cold calling foundation gives you the opportunity to already be less agreeable with just objections that are going to delay the cycle.

[00:43:22] Like, we have projects, budgets locked, whatever it might be. I think the biggest skill for me was getting a super wide account map and exposure in multiple departments that are going to affect the decision and doing that fast without offending anybody and jumping over their heads because a lot of the bigger restaurant companies are huge

[00:43:43] and the product’s going to touch multiple departments, whether it’s tech, HR, people, operations, like, it’s, it’s probably going to touch everything. So, getting wide, getting fast, that was a skill that was tough, but I think I have done a good job of conquering. And how do you do that? You really set expectations for how it’s going to go.

[00:44:05] Albert Tejera: It’s not so much how they evaluate technology, but how your process is going to go. So, yeah, it’s gotta be a plan, but it’s, “Okay. Well, since you’re interested, the evaluation normally goes to ops next, and once we go to ops, we make sure it’s okay with IT, and we can work with your near environment, but that’s how our process works,

[00:44:24] is that how yours?” So, it’s, it’s education, but a little bit of a push to, on this is how you should be evaluating technology, not, you know, trusting their process where it might take forever. And if you know the product, buying into your own product and knowing it can help, you’re going to do whatever you can to get it in as quickly as possible.

[00:44:45] Marc Gonyea: Interesting. And when you want to make sure, I don’t even know Thomas, you guys lock. We’re good, man. We’re good. We’ll have you out of here, don’t worry.

[00:45:00] Maybe she was just talking about deals after this, but you said, when we did a little prep and you, you’re referring to it now, that one of the things you wish SDRs, or maybe sales professionals in general, it really resonated with me when you talk about, you know the impact that these deals have on these companies

[00:45:15] Marc Gonyea: and you said you need to negotiate for yourself, right? Hm. And people, like, sales needs, needs to get more from the company sometimes when you’re looking for a gig and so what’d you mean by that? 

[00:45:29] Albert Tejera: So, the best advice came from my CEO, who’s the one who’s going to be negotiating against me S. Gambier.

[00:45:35] He’s like, which he shouldn’t have said, ’cause it, it really hit home, but he’s like, “You’re your only advocate. My job is to make sure that you’re happy and you stay, but you’re at a, you know, a level that we can take for the startup. And he also told me to protect your variable on anything. If you are given an agreement, and you’re measured on your work, and you provide those successes that propel the company forward, none of that should be taken away from you,

[00:46:03] it should be rewarded. So, I think, you know, when you’re talking about renegotiating or getting the best spot for your, your process, make sure you’re thinking about yourself because nobody else is. 

[00:46:16] Marc Gonyea: And then it translates into what? You got to ask for things that you might not think you should ask for, or like that?

[00:46:23] Albert Tejera: I don’t know. It’s whatever, whatever you want. I mean, if you want it to be hybrid, be hybrid, and maybe the company says, no, we’re, we’re all in the office, but you have to ask that if you really want it, or if you need it for your family or whatever, things like that. It’s anything you want to ask, for now, you’re going to get told no, but at least you’ll, you’ll know at that point

[00:46:42] and there’s like, no doubt in your mind on what you could have gotten. And it translates to the cycle. What does it mean? Like, if you, if you’re doing that in an interview process or a renegotiation process, they know you’re going to do that with the client or the customer. So I think it, I mean, at least for me, if I’m in leadership, that’ll be a signal where I know the person knows what they’re doing.

[00:47:02] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. Yeah. The person who’s interviewing you and a person who you’re interviewing. 

[00:47:05] Albert Tejera: If I’m interviewing someone and they’re negotiating with me hard, I know they’re going to do that for their, their first cycle that’s, you know, at the end of the. Yeah. 

[00:47:14] Marc Gonyea: You know. But some people are, some are afraid to do that ’cause they’re for what they say no

[00:47:16] or they get upset, you know, like…

[00:47:20] Albert Tejera: Yeah, they’re not going to, like, pull the rug out from under you and kick you out of the room. 

[00:47:23] Marc Gonyea: Right. If they are, then probably not. When you said the variable, what’d you mean by the variable? Like, explain that to the people?

[00:47:32] Albert Tejera: It’s whatever you’re making on top of, like, your percentage on what you’re making is, I think what the variable is.

[00:47:37] So, if you have kickers on, if you make it a two or three-year deal, instead of an annual, you know, if you expand it to the system without piloting, if there are kickers in there that are good for the business, when you’re making that deal, you should be rewarded for it, and you should never give it away with, with 

[00:47:55] Marc Gonyea: Right? Whether you’re selling or whether you’re trying to work out your comp plan. Right, right. Yeah. That’s a great example, right? Corporate, you go two years to three years versus one year, huge. For the company, that’s sort of very valuable. Yeah. I think. TCV baby. Right, right. TCV. Okay. All right. 

[00:48:18] Chris Corcoran: Nothing. 

[00:48:19] Marc Gonyea: All right. Well, let’s talk about deals. Like, everybody’s, like, what you got to met, most memorable deal?

[00:48:26] Albert Tejera: Oh yeah. It’s memorable because it was painful, and it left a scar. 

[00:48:31] Marc Gonyea: There you go. 

[00:48:34] Albert Tejera: Physically. I, we were at Brinker International, John’s Chili’s Maggiano, major restaurant brand, public huge, where we’re trying to secure a pilot, and I’m down in Dallas with my CEO Cam, and we got an Uber, and we’re five minutes away,

[00:48:48] we’re prepping, we’re, we’re pretty much on the finish line of getting a pilot done, and we get slammed and T-boned in the Uber where the car is just wrecked. 

[00:48:58] Chris Corcoran: What? 

[00:48:59] Albert Tejera: It was nuts. It was nuts. 

[00:49:01] Chris Corcoran: At stop light?

[00:49:01] Marc Gonyea: So, he run a light? T-boned now? 

[00:49:03] Albert Tejera: We were green, and I think somebody took a left on a red and just ripped us shreds. And I get out, I got, like, a huge black eye,

[00:49:09] like, I flagged the, the seat in front of me and my, my boss gets out and he’s like.

[00:49:14] Marc Gonyea: No seatbelt? Seatbelt. Maybe. 

[00:49:17] Albert Tejera: That’s a no. No comment. I think I settled, settled. So, he gets out, we both kind of crawled on the car, the drivers, all the story in it, and we, we totally know it’s her fault, and like, we’re waiting for the cops, and we’re gonna be late to the meeting,

[00:49:30] so we give them, like, five minutes. We, we s, we say, like, “We have, we’re delayed five minutes” or whatever, and he can barely, like, he’s concussed. I’m probably concussed. We’re both bleeding, walked, like, a block and a half to the breaker deal, it would walk you to the room, and they were like, “What are these guys?” They’re like, “Do 

[00:49:51] Albert Tejera: we need to reschedule?

[00:49:52] Should we go to the hospital?” My boss is like, “Fight, no, sit down. Like, we’ve, we’ve earned this meeting.” So, I mean, we ended up getting the pilot, which was awesome. There was no celebrations after that night, we just went home, and I think we went to sleep for, like, 12 hours. But it was, that was my most memorable by far.

[00:50:10] And, wow. Yeah, it was fun. I mean, it was nuts, but it was fun. 

[00:50:14] Chris Corcoran: Any, any last deal that haunts you to this day? 

[00:50:19] Albert Tejera: That one. I lost that after pilot. 

[00:50:20] Chris Corcoran: Oh, you lost it after the pilot?

[00:50:20] Albert Tejera: Yeah, we lost it after pilot. We just. 

[00:50:23] Marc Gonyea: Why do you think you lost it? Like, generally speaking? 

[00:50:25] Albert Tejera: I don’t know. She was going to get mad at me for this, but I think it’s ’cause I wasn’t high enough within the organization.

[00:50:31] I think we piloted with a stakeholder who are as pretty confident he could’ve done it, but I was wrong about that.

[00:50:42] And for the people listening who don’t know, {..} just didn’t have the juice to, to move something over the line or get something implemented. We needed to go to the next level of executive, and I, I was pushing back on that, so. 

[00:50:52] Chris Corcoran: For the listeners, I think it’s very important to hear what Albert has said because I know a lot of salespeople, why’d you lose the pilot because the products. He didn’t say the product.

[00:51:06] He said it was, it was him ’cause it was what he didn’t do. He takes all the accountability, win or lose, which is if you’re not taking all that accountability and you’re looking out the window and blaming other people, that’s kind of a recipe for mediocrity. 

[00:51:20] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. It’s also a mindset thing. Totally. ‘Cause if you think you’re going to blend yourself, you’re going to be looking at you.

[00:51:25] Nobody wants to blame themselves for shit going wrong. Right? So, you’re going to look at it a little bit different if you have that kind of mindset where I know I own this meeting for this, I go down. Yeah. 

[00:51:38] Albert Tejera: Yeah, I agree. And I think those excuses, like you said, whether it’s a product or blaming pricing or whatever, you can find any one of those every day, every hour, you can pick one and stick to it and get mad and blame somebody else, but it’s all your fault.

[00:51:55] You can’t blame yourself.

[00:51:56] Marc Gonyea: So, what about, you know, how you kind of view, you know, you, you left 2015, right? And you’ve had some jobs, you worked your way, you’re definitely a vet, junior thing. When you look at people in the industry and your colleagues, people you worked with at memoryBlue, why do you think, what did he, there were some moves that people make that aren’t that good, like, bad moves. 

[00:52:26] Albert Tejera: Like, bad career moves?

[00:52:28] Marc Gonyea: Like, what, you know, like, not everybody has the same level of success. I’m not talking about anyone specifically, but like, w, w, what are some mistakes people make you, you might look this mail, you’re like, “Man, why did they go there? 

[00:52:41] Marc Gonyea: Why did they go there? Like, you know, what are some traps to avoid when you get out of the SDR role, and you’re making your way into a world.

[00:52:48] And let’s say you’ve made it, “I’m closed. I closed work. I’m a legitimate closer now,” what are some mistakes of what is people do their journeys? Can you tell us what to look for, but what are some mistakes you see people commonly make? 

[00:52:58] Albert Tejera: Okay. The biggest one, I mean, it’s hard for me to pin mistakes on other people, but I think if I’m looking at people that I know have been unhappy in their jobs and significantly unhappy where they, they feel like they can’t get out, you can always get out,

[00:53:10] but chasing base is the biggest thing I see that really just puts people in a spot where it’s going flip. Like, you were, you were always about the money. That’s all you saw with the base salary, and that’s cushy, and it’s nice. Salary’s a little drug to have every day. It’s, it’s not allowing you to see the whole picture of how the company is going to work and what the job is going to work

[00:53:36] and how often are they going to switch hitter or whatever it may be that you could have uncovered, but, that, I mean, don’t let it be detrimental if you, if the base is too low, negotiate up, but find the right spot and find where you can make money on the variable. 

[00:53:51] Marc Gonyea: Let’s come back to the variable and say, “So, that’s a big one,” right?

[00:53:54] The base, Corcoran, will cloud people’s decision-making ability or their judgment or what else might be going on. Of course. And when people leave, I’m like, “Don’t you think there’s a reason why they’re offering you that fat 

[00:54:07] Marc Gonyea: crazy base from your dude, this is an SDR, which is great, but they’re early in their career, typically

[00:54:12] it’s because it’s having to make up for some other problems or concerns they don’t want you to know, to know about or talk about or focus on. 

[00:54:18] Albert Tejera: I get it too. It’s guaranteed money. It’s guaranteed money in a contract, and you’re like, “That’s more guaranteed money than I’ve ever made,” and it just, I mean, yeah, you better hope and pray at that point.

[00:54:31] But who knows? Maybe there’s some awesome companies that are paying a sick base in my way. I don’t 

[00:54:37] Marc Gonyea: know. And what about the variable? What’s your take on your, your perspective on, like, how you look at variable or, or maybe, yeah, give me your take on that. And actually, we hit, hit on earlier, but I want to hear it again.

[00:54:49] Albert Tejera: I always try to backload mine with a ton of incentive.

[00:54:54] So, you know, maybe not, if 10% is the number you’re trying to hit, maybe not 10% upfront, maybe it’s 5 to 8, and then once you prove yourself and you’re getting into those back numbers, they’re inflated a little bit, more so 12 to 14. And I always try to incentivize the kickers in some way if they don’t have a process like that in place.

[00:55:15] Albert Tejera: Because if you’re, like you said, it’s great, if you get two, three years occurring or it’s creative, um, yeah, maybe engineers can do a remote install or something that saves the company a bunch of money and those are all negotiated within the terms. If you’re able to do that, you should be rewarded for it, so 1 to 2% kickers on those where you can crush a contract

[00:55:34] and it’s, it’s mostly after you’ve proven yourself with that low percentage. So, it’s mutually beneficial, I think, for both. 

[00:55:41] Marc Gonyea: He’s Chris Corcoran, sales rep. And accelerators. Yeah, totally. Yeah, I mean, that’s creative. That is very valuable advice for people. 

[00:55:51] Albert Tejera: Hope so. 

[00:55:54] Chris Corcoran: You don’t get what you don’t ask for, but then start thinking a little more creatively.

[00:55:57] Marc Gonyea: But, but people don’t put thought into that, a lot of times just worried about the base and I can’t, 

[00:56:02] like you said, I get it.

[00:56:03] I mean, the right, people get, they got expenses and might be more 

[00:56:07] money they’ve ever made, and like, think about proposing things, or if you’re good and you know, you’re worth, it could be a non-negotiable, they might do it. 

[00:56:17] Albert Tejera: Who knows? You got to ask. 

[00:56:19] Marc Gonyea: You gotta ask. Yeah. And they might appreciate that school of thought, and they’re certainly going to you.

[00:56:22] I let your whole idea, “Well, this is, I’m doing this with you guys. This is how we’re going to do it.” And we’re at the deal after we’ve proven the value of the product, and we know they want to do it because they see the value they’re committed to, and we can do some things that we haven’t been able to do before.

[00:56:36] Right. And they’re like, “Yeah, I want this guy selling for me and teaching other people in my company how to sell this way.” So, so how do, so, you know, I’m not trying to wrap it up, but this is talking about where do you kind of see yourself going? You still like being, being an individual contributor? Medium-term, long-term?

[00:56:52] Do you ever want to, like, deal with other people’s problems? Yeah. 

[00:56:55] Albert Tejera: Yeah. I’ve, I’ve always, I mean, management, I think is, it has to be the next step, just depends on when, if I’m, if I’m still making good money as an individual, it’s gonna be hard to pry out of that. Yeah. But at the same time, I hope I have management experience.

[00:57:12] I love to get into the VC game. Just, I mean, you’re still closing deals, just in a little bit of a different.

[00:57:17] Marc Gonyea: Like, be an investor? 

[00:57:19] Albert Tejera: Yeah. You’re part of a firm. Yeah. Okay. Be somewhat of, like, a junior associate or something. Are you still betting on startups? 

[00:57:28] Marc Gonyea: With you bring a lot of expertise to these 

[00:57:30] companies.

[00:57:31] Yeah. I mean, we’ll see, I’m maybe, like, 10 years from now. 

[00:57:35] Marc Gonyea: A young man. We can start, you lose the energy to get older. He’s a freaking me out a little bit. ‘Cause you catch that earlier. Like, how will you keep, you can get more energy? When you get older, you use it more wisely.

[00:57:44] Albert Tejera: That’s not what I’m at.

[00:57:48] But yeah, I mean, individual contribution’s nice. Come to work every day, and you’re measured on what you’re doing, you’re paid on what you do. 

[00:57:59] Marc Gonyea: How do you view work-life balance as a successful sales rep? 

[00:58:04] Albert Tejera: That’s a tough one ’cause I do think there needs to be some life and, like, you can, you know, give them motivational speech about grind all you want, but there still needs to be some, some balance there.

[00:58:15] I would say, if, it’s dependent on what you’ve done, if you’re down in your number, guess what? You got to work harder. If you’re up, you get to make that choice. Whether you hit those kickers and those accelerators, or you want to take, you know, a little little break or something. So, I think you’re in control of your own destiny, in the sales world, at least

[00:58:37] and if you, you have to perform well, if you’re down, sorry, your life balance goes down. 

[00:58:43] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, that’s the same thing that when you’re in SDR. If you’re behind on your number, you’re probably gonna have to work harder than as you’re out ahead of it. And that good situation. 

[00:58:55] Albert Tejera: Just killers and assassins will be ahead of their number and still be monsters.

[00:59:01] Yeah. Yeah. And still just cranking. I know it doesn’t record-books, people. 

[00:59:05] Marc Gonyea: What about, oh, another question. All right. What, what walk us through, like, your ideal day as a rep. How do you structure your day? 

[00:59:14] Albert Tejera: They were very hopefully with a fat call sheet and not a lot of breaks, a lot of pipe, calls you just supposed to call?

[00:59:22] It’s just a bunch of enterprise monsters that are willing and able to buy the product. Now, maybe a more typical, more typical day. 

[00:59:31] Marc Gonyea: Do you have any habits, any routines?

[00:59:32] Albert Tejera: I definitely, I definitely get, I mean, I start my day with, like, an outreach blitz to an extent, like, it’s built here, you get up and then you just, you’re good for the day.

[00:59:43] Like, you’re juiced up, you’ve got, you’ve got your outreach, you’ve probably got a couple of meetings if you did it right and you’re targeting the right people. And I think from an enterprise perspective, that’s just always, if you have that as a hab, as a habit, it’s always a cushion because it’s always going to keep going up and

[01:00:00] you’re not going to have that downdraft of things go the other way. So, that, and then, I take, I take my calls as I go. I leave 30 minutes of prep before each call to make sure I’m aware of what the people do if I’ve talked to similar roles or similar leadership positions to make sure that, I mean, I’m just trying to be as credible as possible on the calls and that’s just done through research.

[01:00:20] So, there’s that and that and. 

[01:00:23] Marc Gonyea: You’re so casual about it, but like, this is a start the day, generally speaking, once you get a meeting, something, you generally try to do some more outreach activity. Oh, for sure. 

[01:00:34] Chris Corcoran: Why in the morning?

[01:00:34] Albert Tejera: Yeah, I have to. Like, if, if I put it off, if I procrastinate, it doesn’t get done. I think that was part of the issue

[01:00:42] when I started working remote at 23, I just, I could do it at 3 instead of 8, and it’s just such a bad habit to get into. If you get something done early, you won the day. Yeah. You won, you won it already. 

[01:00:55] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, exactly. And then the second, what was the second thing you just said? Research recalls. Yeah.

[01:01:00] Just talk, talk about that. So, you leave 30 minutes ideally in between calls, so you can prep?

[01:01:04] Albert Tejera: Ideally. It depends on the account if it’s bigger than long, but. 

[01:01:08] Marc Gonyea: Well, come, what does 

[01:01:08] research mean to you? 

[01:01:09] Albert Tejera: Oh, man. Everything. Um, going through earnings calls, finding out initiatives that the CEO’s thinking about

[01:01:15] that’s going to impact shareholder value. If you can align with those, you’re going to probably have a quick way up the ladder. 

[01:01:21] Marc Gonyea: Going through earnings calls, what you mean? Like, listen to them, reading them?

[01:01:23] Albert Tejera: I usually do transcripts. I don’t have the time to really read and listen, but reading them, and I mean, it’s quarterly, so you can find something that’s two or three months ago at the worst.

[01:01:35] So, finding that researching my conversations that I’m having with similar titles and see if those problems that we’ve solved or addressed or are addressing are pertinent to that person in a similar role to some organization. So, maybe you can qualify something out before the call, and then I think the call, a discovery call, should be validation on those pain points that you are assuming are actually there and are impacting the business.

[01:02:09] Albert Tejera: But, I mean, if you’re not doing research, I don’t know how you’re going into calls confidently. 

[01:02:16] Marc Gonyea: What’s a mistake you might make sometimes, you’re like, “Man, this is the kind of bad habit of mine. I got to kind of.” 

[01:02:21] Albert Tejera: I’m so bad with organization. I’m so bad with it. What do you mean? Just like, I mean, this is good,

[01:02:27] this is definitely self-aware, but I’ll have like, somebody that’s interested on outreach, on an outreach campaign or something and then talk to me in three months, you combat the objection, if it, if it dies, you still have that opportunity to do it, but I’m, like, so scatterbrained sometimes and I’ll be five months later and be like, “Oh, you missed it too.”

[01:02:48] Marc Gonyea: Not a family show. No, it’s just a sale show, more reality-driven. 

[01:02:53] Albert Tejera: Yeah. 

[01:02:55] Marc Gonyea: So, so, so, you show, so just like keeping track of {..} taller man, it’s tough to keep track of that stuff. I’m with you, man. Chris probably could do it. I have five months. 

[01:03:10] Albert Tejera: Yeah, exactly. I try to get better at it.

[01:03:13] Wait, what’s the strength of yours? What do you like? This is the research you use that you think you’re like, what are you kind of, “Ah.”

[01:03:19] Albert Tejera: I think, I mean, this is going to s, I hate talking about. No, wait, like, you don’t want to hear. I really think related to somebody quickly and establishing that personal report, which makes the call go so much better. It’s not robotic. It’s not like, “Let me show you the demo. Here’s the demo. Do you have any questions?”

[01:03:34] It’s, it’s gotta be a flow of human conversation. I think I’ve been good at that, and I don’t know, maybe it’s a product of my environment. I grew up with a bunch of friends, I worked here, and I work in sales, but, yeah, I think that’s a strength of mine, just making the conversation human. That’s great. 

[01:03:54] Chris Corcoran: So, talk a little bit about different size companies that you’ve worked.

[01:03:58] So, a lot of the companies have been sub-50 people, and where you are now, it’s big, it’s bigger. Huge. Yeah. Yeah. So, in hugely meaning, it’s just 100, 200. Yeah. Huge for me. Yeah. So, some people are like, what’s the biggest difference you’ve noticed based on, what, a huge company for you, a 200-person company versus a 10-person company.

[01:04:17] What’s the difference? 

[01:04:18] Albert Tejera: It’s, it’s a good question. I think the biggest difference is that I have so many resources at my disposal. If I need to pick my managing director of the US, his bosses or the VP of global sales, or IT on product roadmap or whatever, maybe if I need something spun up by marketing and happens in some way.

[01:04:40] So, I have everything I’ve ever wanted from, like, an enablement perspective. Big boats turn a little slower. So, I think that going from private, where you can be extremely flexible in terms and stuff and how the contract is structured and the pricing, I mean, you could beat down the pricing and not have growth on margin because you’re looking for growth for revenue.

[01:05:04] Those sorts of things are out the window, and I think for a good, for a good reason. I mean, we’re a public company and that, the shareholders have to be reliant on some of those stringent processes and making sure margin is, is being made. But yeah, I’m navigating it, and it’s, it’s certainly different, certainly different, but it’s by no means impossible

[01:05:27] and it’s, I think it’s gonna end up helping me move forward. That’s the biggest difference, though, those two things. 

[01:05:33] Marc Gonyea: Where do you learn all this stuff? Learn to do the research, learn to try and be more personable, learn to make the calls, and the more, like, how do you learn this stuff?

[01:05:41] Albert Tejera: memoryBlue 7635… 

[01:05:45] what the address is.

[01:05:47] Marc Gonyea: Nah, that’s not entirely true. I appreciate that shit. So, it was Chris. 

[01:05:54] Albert Tejera: They did give me a gift bag, though, so we’ll see what’s 

[01:05:56] Albert Tejera: in there. 

[01:05:58] I, you know, 

[01:06:01] I do think a lot of it is memoryBlue and I think, I think it’s the opportunity to be a sponge here, and then I think moving forward, it’s those learning habits that are built here, that help being a sponge with shift one and sitting in financial meetings and sitting in investor meetings, sitting in marketing in IT, like… 

[01:06:16] Marc Gonyea: That really shines through.

[01:06:17] Sorry, when you listen to him talk, growth for margin or growth just on the revenue, you’re like, that’s. Well. It’s exposure 

[01:06:25] to those things. 

[01:06:26] Right. Getting exposed to those tasks. So, I’m not, did you deliberately say, “Hey, I want to sit in on these meetings, so I learned this stuff.” 

[01:06:31] Albert Tejera: Yeah, I think 

[01:06:32] partially, but partially it’s having somebody that wants to take you in and wants you to learn.

[01:06:35] So, I mean, I’m an idiot, like it’s, it’s just the effort and effort and willingness to learn, I think, and making sure you have those opportunities for exposure. Okay. 

[01:06:46] Chris Corcoran: That’s good. Any, any pearls of wisdom for the SDR who’s, you know, struggling, thinking about quitting?

[01:06:55] Albert Tejera: Don’t, peaks and valleys, I think would be my biggest thing.

[01:06:58] Yeah. Making sure that the ups and downs aren’t super highs and super lows, but understanding that there will be both, and if you continually put in the effort, you’ll get to the other side of that and see a peak soon. So I think that would be my number one. Just keep, keep working. Don’t get too down.

[01:07:16] You say it wasn’t worth it? Do what? Is memoryBlue worth it?

[01:07:19] Chris Corcoran: No, no, is it worth it, kind of getting through that, those peaks and valleys of being an SDR? 

[01:07:23] Albert Tejera: 1000%, if not for your own, like, I did it, I made it. Like, that feeling of like, that was extremely hard, I wanted to quit. I didn’t listen to that little voice in the back of my head with other opportunities or whatever,

[01:07:37] like, I just went through it and did it. I mean, you can do it all after that. It’s good to have that confidence in your back pocket. Yeah. 

[01:07:49] Chris Corcoran: Seven. I don’t know, it makes it sound like this is like the Marine Corps.

[01:07:58] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, no, I mean, I think you’re, this has been a really good kind of glimpse into, I think, not glimpse, some insights, and content into what it’s, what you should be looking for, how you should view yourself, what traits you need to have to get to that next level, right? I mean, I hope and then understanding the situation and why people buy and doing your research.

[01:08:24] Yeah. 

[01:08:24] Albert Tejera: People who do the research. Yeah. I mean, it seems obvious, but it’s hard. People, 

[01:08:29] Marc Gonyea: it’s not because I must say because I’m such a, you’re such a, I mean, you’re a badass for doing it, but people get distracted by other things they think might be more important. Right. A lot of people won’t give themselves 30 minutes to do before the call, and they make it until 5.

[01:08:42] They’re just not connecting all the dots, but it’s just like, it’s like a slow cook, I’m a slow cooker guy, rece, more recently in the house and these deals, you got to bake ’em. They come, you got to put them in their limps simmer. You gotta be thinking that in the lid and checking on it and seeing what it’s like, tasting it, you can do that.

[01:09:01] That’s what you’re doing, man. Yeah. I mean, you are a craft, craft, craftsman. When you say craft person, man, I won’t say craftsmen anymore. Craft your craft. Like, you’ve got, this has been good. 

[01:09:16] Albert Tejera: Yeah. Next time, I mean, I’ve been talking way too much. I get an hour with you two legends, and I don’t answer any questions? 

[01:09:22] Chris Corcoran: Well, no, I do have a question for you.

[01:09:24] So, is there, is there, in terms of your development, is there a podcast? Is there a Ted Talk? Is there a book? Is there a blog? Well, what’s one thing that is your go-to to help you continue to stay sharp? 

[01:09:37] Albert Tejera: Yeah. My biggest one is the All-in podcast with, it’s like Chamath, David Sacks.

[01:09:46] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. Yeah. I was reading Sacks this morning. 

[01:09:49] Albert Tejera: Sacks is PayPal, Sacks is Gammer, Tomas from Facebook, they have free burns from… So, it was just, I mean, they just have, like. 

[01:09:59] Chris Corcoran: Tell him, tell him I’m not familiar with the pod, what’s, tell me, tell me about the podcast. 

[01:10:02] Albert Tejera: It’s more of, I mean, 

[01:10:03] it’s, it’s kind of like a glimpse into how certain Wall Street aspects work with, with different, whether it’s a hedge fund, whether it’s a startup, whether it’s a SaaS on their VC round, it’s a lot of VC stuff, but it’s also like thinking about how they talk about sales and how that’s the driver, and it’s, it, it really makes you think like “This isn’t just, yeah,

[01:10:27] growth for the sake of growth, like, hit your number, hit your number, hit your number.” It’s hit your number, and then the company gets to do other things because you’re driving that, so. I love it. It’s, it’s just a, you know, an hour every Friday. It’s not, it’s not too comprehensive, but it’s a nice, quick hitter on different aspects of the business.

[01:10:44] And they touch on worldview.

[01:10:44] Marc Gonyea: The thing is it’s not sales. I mean, it’s sales, but it’s not, like, sales classic, it’s, like, business. Yeah. 

[01:10:52] VC 

[01:10:53] economy, some social commentary, and stuff, but in the sales side of the business, but this way just curiosity from the research that he’s covered. 

[01:11:02] Albert Tejera: Sure. And it’s not boring.

[01:11:03] It’s not, like they’re sitting in the room, talking about numbers. It’s their friends and give each other. Their opinions. It’s good to get a rapport. It’s entertaining. All-in. All-in, yeah. 

[01:11:15] Chris Corcoran: Very good. I think that’s a good way to punctuate this episode. Hey, you like that? That’s very good. Well, Albert, we appreciate your time for sure. 

[01:11:23] Albert Tejera: Thank you all. I, I can’t thank you guys enough, so. It’s been, what, 8 years coming since 2015? Yeah, you guys, I still love you guys. Get outta here. 

[01:11:35] Marc Gonyea: No way, man. My only regret is you weren’t here longer. I remember thinking that money left, but that’s how the model works. That’s how it works. That’s how it works. 

[01:11:43] Albert Tejera: Well, hopefully, I’ll be back in the office.

[01:11:44] We got to check it, working with you guys, so, Okay. Hopefully, I’ll be paying a visit and helping out. 

[01:11:50] Chris Corcoran: That’s great. 

[01:11:51] Marc Gonyea: Yes, absolutely. Plus, you can flux down to make sure they’re producing. 

[01:11:58] Chris Corcoran: Yeah. Shoot. Yeah. No. 

[01:12:00] Marc Gonyea: Relationship will go South. All right, Albert. 

[01:12:03] Chris Corcoran: Thank you very much. 

[01:12:04] Albert Tejera: Thank you both. Appreciate it.