Episode 92: Carlos Morales -Asking The Right Questions
The right team will help you keep your head in the game. A high-energy, competitive environment helped Carlos Morales maintain motivation and build resilience.
Now an Account Manager at riskmethods, Carlos calls out the key relationships and invaluable lessons that accelerated his career. There’s no substitution for a culture of consistent practice, helpful guidance, and healthy competition.
In this episode of Tech Sales is for Hustlers, Carlos talks about how to foster cross-departmental communication, the daily responsibilities of being an account manager, and how to pick the right place to grow your career.
Guest-At-A-Glance
💡 Name: Carlos Morales
💡 What he does: Carlos is an account manager at riskmethods.
💡 Company: riskmethods
💡 Noteworthy: Born in Venezuela, Carlos immigrated to the United States when he was five years old. He went to high school in Massachusetts and studied international business at Bryant University. However, Carlos realized that the world of finance was not for him, and immediately after college, he came to memoryBlue and started working as an SDR. Today, Carlos is an account manager at riskmethods.
💡 Where to find Carlos: LinkedIn | Website
Key Insights
⚡Persistence is critical to cold calling. Salespeople use various techniques to offer or sell a product or service, and one of them is cold calling. But to be successful on the phone, you have to practice and develop specific skills. According to Carlos, persistence and determination are critical when talking to the client. “You can’t just take ‘no’ for an answer or give up if somebody doesn’t pick up three, four times. Don’t give up just yet. Keep going after it. If they give you an objection, find a way over it — make them realize what their pain point is, highlight that, and try to rephrase whatever you’re pitching to them as a solution that fits their needs.”
⚡ Teammates play a vital role in your growth. If you are a beginner, the people around you are a significant factor. When you enter something new and sometimes unknown, the support of the people who work with you will be essential. Carlos points out that he had a great team at memoryBlue, and they helped him progress. “If I didn’t have the teammates, if I didn’t have that environment that I could thrive in, I don’t think that I could honestly have stuck through that role as much as I did. […] They really picked me out of the holes that I would be in sometimes: struggling to hit quota or having some tough conversations where prospects are just like, ‘No, why the hell are you calling me? Don’t ever call me again.’ Having another kind of jump back from that — I’d say that without the team, I wouldn’t have been able to do so successfully.”
⚡ Ask the right questions. Every SDR has some superpower, something in which they are the best and which sets them apart from the others. Carlos’s skill was to really reach out to the client and ask them the right questions. “Try to find out what their pain is. How is it affecting their operations or procedures? How does it impact their business? And then asking not only the right questions but also following up with a good pitch of your solution and being quick on your feet.”
Episode Highlights
Being an Immigrant in the US
“Being an immigrant, there are a lot of setbacks, a lot of challenges, and a lot of obstacles. So you have to have that tough skin, perseverance, and the confidence to keep pushing forward, no matter what challenges you face, and be confident with being uncomfortable at times. So definitely, it’s a journey being an immigrant. I think it taught me to make the best out of the worst situations, to not give up, and to have perseverance — which, I think, has been very applicable within the sales career as well.”
What Is the Best Part About Being an Account Manager?
“I want to say, ‘Not cold calling anymore,’ but honestly, I work really closely with our sales team and our SDR team, and I love hearing about their cold calling. I check in with them every week, and I ask, ‘How’s it going?’ I like listening to their calls. And I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of it. I even get upset with myself sometimes like, ‘Man, I wish I could cold call every once in a while, just to see if I’ve still got it.’
But I’d say the best thing about being an account manager is just having an experience on a different side of the business and learning how to maintain these relationships and how to collaborate with different departments a little bit more than before. Maybe we would partner with our account executives to align on our outreach. Now, it’s working with customer success, with marketing, with a head of sales, and with solution consultants. So it’s definitely a lot more engaging and involved within the whole organization.”
Picking the Right Company for Yourself
“I definitely wanted to ensure that the company I went to had a really good environment and had some good resources. I went to memoryBlue for the academy, the environment, our colleagues, the team — similar things to riskmethods. They were still up and coming. I was just starting to learn how to be successful and have the right resources. But my boss and everybody involved were really thoughtful. They were caring. They were like, ‘Hey, we want to make sure that you get everything you need out of riskmethods, and you learn what you need to be successful.’
And that’s what I prioritize — being in an environment where you’re valued, where everybody is pushing you to grow and succeed. I think that is the most important. Graded money is a very important factor as well, but I wanted to establish a company and a relationship where I felt comfortable with the people around me. And it was a solution that I believed in.”
Transcript:
[00:00:00] Carlos Morales: The best thing about being an account manager is just having an experience on a different side of business, learning how to maintain these relationships, how to collaborate with different departments, a little bit more than it previously was.
[00:00:12] Maybe we would partner with our account executives to kind of align on our outreach. Now, it’s working with customer success, with marketing, with head of sales, with solution consultants. So, it’s definitely a lot more engaging and involved within the whole organization.
[00:00:28] Marc Gonyea: Carlos Morales coming to you, live from the central part of the country, Cleveland.
[00:01:09] Chris Corcoran: Cleveland rocks. The pride of Venezuela.
[00:01:13] Marc Gonyea: Carlos, thanks for joining us today.
[00:01:16] Carlos Morales: Thank you. Thank you, Marc and Chris, it’s a pleasure to be here. I really appreciate having the opportunity to join the podcast, you know, back in the memoryBlue days, listening to this while I was list building. It’s crazy to be on the other side of things.
[00:01:28] Chris Corcoran: That’s awesome. Well, that just made my day Carlos, to hear that story.
[00:01:33] Marc Gonyea: I love listening to Carlos talk. But, Carlos, I’m telling you, you got a master, you got a great voice for sales dude. It’s clear, and I’d love the Bostonian accent thing with England accent, whatever we want to call it. It commands some attention, I think.
[00:01:46] Carlos Morales: Yeah, it’s a little bit of a mix. I actually had one of my coworkers tell me that my voice sounds like a warm handshake, like a firm, warm, business handshake. And I was like, “Well, you know, that’s, interesting. I’ve never heard that one before.”
[00:01:58] Marc Gonyea: The good sign.
[00:01:59] Chris Corcoran: That’s a hammer hitting the nail, right there.
[00:02:03] Carlos Morales: I’ve never thought about it like that, but I’m, I’m glad.
[00:02:07] Marc Gonyea: Carlos, let’s get into it. For Chris and I and for audience, tell us a little bit about yourself. Like, where are you from, where you grew up like, this, those sorts of things. And, and we’ll kind of go from there. We’ll speed you up and slow you down where we need to.
[00:02:20] Carlos Morales: Perfect. Yeah. So, definitely been a little bit of a, of journey for myself. I was born in Venezuela, Caracas, Venezuela, you know. I immigrated to the US, I’d say, when I was about five years old, so I was still fairly young. I moved into the state of Rhode Island. I lived there for a couple of years of my life.
[00:02:36] I moved to Massachusetts, where I went to high school and school, basically in Stoughton, Massachusetts. And I went to school at Bryant University, studied international business. And, you know, that’s kind of after college. That’s when I ran into you guys and memoryBlue.
[00:02:52] Marc Gonyea: Were, go ahead, Chris.
[00:02:53] Chris Corcoran: So, talk, what was it like immigrating into the US?
[00:02:58] Carlos Morales: Oh, man. I could speak about this forever. It’s definitely a challenge. We definitely went through a lot of hardships. You know, my mom, she decided that things in Venezuela weren’t really going in the right direction. So, she decided to immigrate to the US to give us a better future. I mean, she came here with three kids, just by herself
[00:03:17] and $165 with a suitcase full of dreams, as she would say. And it’s challenging having to assimilate to a whole different culture and lifestyle. But, you know, my mom was my role model. She’s very, um, strong, supportive, caring. So, she led the path for me and my siblings to succeed. But there was definitely a lot of, uh, struggles throughout there.
[00:03:40] I mean, six months after we, we immigrated here, um, we came in the winter, um, then in May, actually May 19th, 2003. Our first apartment that we were able to afford actually burned down. So, you know, being an immigrant, there’s a lot of stepbacks, a lot of challenges, a lot of obstacles. So, you have to have that tough skin, that perseverance, and the confidence to kind of keep pushing forward, no matter what challenges you kind of face, and being confident with being uncomfortable in times. So, definitely, a journey, being an immigrant, I think it kind of taught me to make the best out of the worst situations, and kind of not give up, have perseverance, um, which I think has been very applicable with, within the sales career, as well.
[00:04:26] Chris Corcoran: In your life.
[00:04:27] Carlos Morales: Absolutely. Absolutely. It’s definitely, you know, strengthened my work ethic, seeing my mom, what she had to do, um, to kind of get to where we are today, and it’s kind of a collaborative effort. I know my mom was kind of driving the ship, but, um, I mean, we all kind of came together. We were considered, you know, the Four Musketeers.
[00:04:44] That’s what my mom would call us. And it was definitely a collaborative effort. We would have to wake up even in the mornings on the weekends and before school and, and make so much food. We had a food truck at the time, and, you know, I was in fourth, fifth grade making 700 empanadas. I don’t know if you guys are familiar with empanadas, delicious unless you’re, on the other hand, and making the 700 empanadas every day or every weekend. But, you know, things like this to reflect back on, it’s, it’s taught me so much things in life that I’ve been able to apply in sales and outside of my work, as well.
[00:05:17] Marc Gonyea: You had a family food truck business.
[00:05:19] Carlos Morales: Yes. Yes. Um, my, my stepdad, at the time, he had a, a food truck that had a bunch of snacks, you know, drinks, um, but also homemade food. My mom was a phenomenal cook, phenomenal, and she would make all sorts of foods, sandwiches, and meals for, for anybody that would be interested in. And I kind of helped my stepdad, you know, serve that food, make the sandwiches, prep it, and talk to the customers, as well.
[00:05:45] So, we got, I got my social skills tuned up pretty early, I’d say.
[00:05:50] Marc Gonyea: Awesome.
[00:05:50] Chris Corcoran: It’s great, amazing. Amazing. And then, so, in high school, what kind, what’d you do extracurricular? You, sounds like a lot of what you were working, obviously. But, were you, did you, were you a part of clubs or sports or…?
[00:06:04] Carlos Morales: Yeah. Yeah, I did. Uh, I, I like sports, for sure. You know, it definitely wasn’t the pro league level. But, I, I definitely enjoyed, I, I liked the competitiveness about it. I like socializing with all the team, teammates. I loved playing basketball. I did, like, little league and the baseball back in the day.
[00:06:21] And I, I’d say for extracurricular activities or like for school, I joined DECA. I’m not sure if you guys are familiar with it, but it was, uh, it was really fun. Went out to, to Orlando for a competition, as well. So, got some good experience. Made me a little bit quick on my feet to think, I’d say.
[00:06:38] So, I, I enjoyed that. I was also part of a Low-Income Family kind of program at my school that offered trips and experiences throughout the summer, as well as some involvement in community service. So, I got the opportunity to, you know, help with habitat for humanity and build some homes. I got to travel to China for an immersion program, go to Brown and Harvard for pre-college courses, which were pretty, really, really good experiences, at the time, throughout the high school.
[00:07:08] Chris Corcoran: And then, from high school, you ended up going to Bryant.
[00:07:13] Carlos Morales: Correct. Yes. I wasn’t really sure about going to college at the time. It wasn’t really a goal of mine. I mean, as an immigrant that’s my mom’s goal is to get all her kids through college, graduate, and have us be successful. Me, personally, I wasn’t really interested in it, but I knew there could be a lot of benefits.
[00:07:31] So, I knew that I wanted to have, like, an international aspect to, to my career, my life. I was fluent in Spanish. Um, I was studying Mandarin at the time. I knew I wanted to be in business. I thought, you know, being comfortable with the three languages would really help me excel. I also have a dog that’s kind of running around, right
[00:07:50] next to me. So, it’s very distracting. Yeah, so, I mean, I studied international business at Bryant. I had a concentration of finance, um, you know, with my background, I always wanted to avoid having to struggle about or worry about finances.
[00:08:05] So, I thought maybe studying and getting a degree in finance would kind of mitigate that, and it helped me gain some stability. So, I, I did that. And throughout the four years at Bryant, uh, it was a great experience. I learned a lot about business and had a lot of different experiences like study abroad, as well.
[00:08:24] Towards the end, we had a capstone project. What we call it practicum, where I worked hand in hand with a manufacturing company to kind of work on their portfolio. So, we looked at currency fluctuations, all that fun stuff, and how they would be impacted. And I realized, “This is really not the right thing for me. Uh, I’m not having fun. I mean, I’m stressed, I’m, I’m bored. I’m, like, falling asleep, looking at all these numbers.” And I just realized, you know, there’s, there’s gotta be something else for me. Something that I’m more interested in and have a passion for. I tried to go into real estate and property management, which I thought, you know, it’s more interesting.
[00:09:02] Definitely more engaging, and I can socialize a bit more instead of being behind a desk all day. But, I also realized, ” That isn’t the right thing for me, either.” The real estate was strictly commission, at the time. Coming out of college that’s very difficult. So, that’s when I started looking at other careers.
[00:09:17] When I had Andrew DiNardo reach out to me on LinkedIn.
[00:09:21] Marc Gonyea: Nice.
[00:09:22] Carlos Morales: Yeah. No, and I’m glad he did, man. He changed my life. He mentioned, you know, memoryBlue. We had a chat on the phone, and he gassed up the company. He said, you know, “This is a place to be.” Um.
[00:09:33] Marc Gonyea: You bought it
[00:09:34] Carlos Morales: I bought it, a hundred percent, man. I was like, you know, “I need a change of pace. I need something different.” And, you know, he highlighted what the sales academy looked like, all the training. And I think, you know, this is, this is the right step for me.
[00:09:47] Marc Gonyea: Yeah.
[00:09:48] Marc Gonyea: Carlos, that’s amazing, right? Because what we want to try and do is get people into the tech sales world who weren’t familiar with it, normally. And, you know, it’s not like you grew up with a family who people are in tech sales. Right? Right. And you went to a school that we like to recruit from, but, you know, we missed ya.
[00:10:06] Carlos Morales: Right.
[00:10:06] Chris Corcoran: Give me an immigrant with the voice of a warm handshake.
[00:10:12] Marc Gonyea: So all over.
[00:10:14] Chris Corcoran: And look out all over, but the right.
[00:10:17] Marc Gonyea: So, so, when you, when DiNardo got you on the phone or Zoom or whatever it was, when was this? This, this is, you started in November of 2020.
[00:10:27] Carlos Morales: Yeah, I think it was, like, in October, I want to say, um.
[00:10:31] Marc Gonyea: And then, what, what’d you think? Go ahead.
[00:10:34] Carlos Morales: Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, it started October. I was actually, this was during the pandemic, so I was actually flying out to LA at the time to see my sister. She just recently moved out there, and her birthday’s in October. Um, she was visiting her and, you know, that’s kind of when everything was developing with Andrew, you know, he said, “Let’s, let’s have an interview.”
[00:10:52] I said, “Okay. All right. Let’s make it happen.” You know, I, I pulled in nice attire. I went downstairs. I went to Target. I got a nice tie. I was like, “All right, let’s make this happen.” I went into the lobby, put in my AirPods in, and had an interview with Emie and Ellie, as well as, uh, Jeremy. And it just went well, you know, they, they said, you know, “I think you’d be great for the team.” And I thought, you know, they just reassured me of the choice that I was making. You know, I was looking for a place that I could really grow in, as well as get really good experience and training and be in a competitive but also very welcoming environment.
[00:11:28] I liked being in that type of environment from being at Bryant and being in DECA. So, it’s very similar at memoryBlue and, you know, I’m really glad that I ran into Andrew and, and had that phone conversation with my manager, Robert, as well, to lead me where I am today.
[00:11:43] Marc Gonyea: That’s great. So, Rob, you interviewed with Rob, as well as Rob’s DM.
[00:11:48] Carlos Morales: Yeah, well, Rob was my DM, but I, I spoke with Andrew, and then, I spoke with Rob on the phone, and he’s like, “All right, listen, we’re going to practice cold calling. Let’s go for it right now.” And I was like, “What, what do you mean?” Like, “What do you want me to say?” He’s like, “Listen, we’re just going to role play right now.
[00:12:04] Let me see what you got.” And I tried my best, man. I thought back to, like, Wolf of Wall Street where they’re like, “Here’s a pen, sell me this pen.” And I just kind of went with the flow and, and Rob loved it, you know, proceeded with the interviews with Emie and Ellie and Jeremy.
[00:12:20] Marc Gonyea: Okay.
[00:12:21] Carlos Morales: Yeah, I came on board, man.
[00:12:22] I started as, what, the following month, in November.
[00:12:25] Marc Gonyea: What was the job like? ‘Cause we know what you think the job is and what it turns out to be are a lot of times two different things.
[00:12:31] Carlos Morales: It was a little bit more, um, heavy loaded with the work. I mean, it was, it was just different. I mean, I was going from property management to, like, working with tenants and, and looking at, you know, repairs and talking to contractors to, “Okay. I gotta make a hundred cold calls a day and, and, you know, try to make sure I’m talking to ideal customer profiles and making sure, you know, I’m, I’m handling objections correctly and open-ended questions and list-building.”
[00:12:57] So, it’s definitely very different, but, honestly, after that first, maybe month or so, you start really adapting. I started getting more comfortable with, you know, cold calling and being at a, little bit out of your comfort zone, I’d say.
[00:13:09] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. Who else was your crew? Who was the crew on Rob’s team?
[00:13:13] Carlos Morales: Um, so, we had Tyson, we had Caroline, Caroline got hired out with me for, for risk methods.
[00:13:21] Um, I believe we had Jake.
[00:13:23] Marc Gonyea: Yep.
[00:13:24] Carlos Morales: Um, Danielle De La Pena, um, Ryan Carey. Ryan Carey was a beast at the time, man. That was my mentor.
[00:13:32] Marc Gonyea: Oh, there you go.
[00:13:33] Carlos Morales: And Justine, I’d say, I know I’m missing some names, man. This is just off the top of my head.
[00:13:38] It’s been a while.
[00:13:39] Marc Gonyea: You have to stay in Cleveland so they don’t get upset at you when you come home and they see you.
[00:13:42] Carlos Morales: Yeah, exactly.
[00:13:44] Marc Gonyea: That’s a strong crew there. Who, when you’re doing this, everybody kind of learns their style, what did you learn from some of them? Like, what were they good at, on the phones?
[00:13:53] Carlos Morales: I really learned a little bit of everybody. I mean, I just learned persistence, man. You’ve got to really like, “Hey, you can’t just take no for an answer.” Or “Listen, somebody doesn’t pick up three, four times. Don’t give up just yet, man, you know, keep, keep going after it. You know, if they give you an objection, find a way over it, you know, make them realize what their pain point is.
[00:14:13] Um, highlight that and try to rephrase whatever you’re pitching to them to fit their needs as a solution. Not necessarily just, you’re just trying to sell them something, you’re actually trying to solve something in their day-to-day.” And I’d say, Ryan Carey really presented that, I mean, he was a hustler, man. He was getting it every day.
[00:14:30] He was booking more meetings than I could count. So, he was crushing it, and I could let, you know, listen to his calls and how he was handling them. And he was a little bit more persistent and confident on his calls and not really taking no for an answer, similar with the rest of the team, man, they’re all hustlers.
[00:14:46] They, really is no, no joke. So, I definitely, I think I took that the most out of the team, is really just to keep being persistent and stay confident with what you’re selling to them.
[00:15:00] Chris Corcoran: How important was it being in that environment with those teammates to your development?
[00:15:06] Carlos Morales: It was crucial. I don’t think if, you know, if I didn’t have the teammates if I didn’t have that environment that I could thrive and I could honestly have stuck through that role as much as I did. When we were going through the academy, you know, you guys mentioned, read the book, the dip, and that’s definitely something that’s very prevalent, I’d say in the, in the sales development representative role and it, and just struggling to maintain that motivation, that determination every single day to just go out there and get it. Being surrounded with a team of hustlers that are out there doing the same thing, that are just completely crushing their goals, keep set that fire inside of you to keep pushing forward. And they really picked me out of, the holes that I would be in sometimes, you know, struggling to hit quota, having some tough conversations where prospects are just like, “No.” Like, “why the hell are you calling me?” Like, “Don’t ever call me again.”
[00:16:48] Having another kind of jump back from that, I’d say without the team and without Rob, I wouldn’t have been able to do so successfully.
[00:16:56] Marc Gonyea: It’s a tough gig, right?
[00:16:57] Carlos Morales: Oh, yeah, it’s not for the weak.
[00:17:00] Marc Gonyea: It’s not for the weak, it’s not for the weak, but you can, people that, people can learn it. It’s gotta be supported. Right? That’s how we all, none of us were good at when started. As you, as you kind of got acclimated, what did you, what kind of strength did you develop? Like, what was your style?
[00:17:17] Something that you’re, you’re good at.
[00:17:19] Carlos Morales: So, I think I was with Rob, um, really asking those discovery questions. Um, trying to find out what their pain is, how it’s affecting their operations or procedures, how is it an impact in their business. And then, you know, asking not only the right questions but to follow up with a good pitch of your solution.
[00:17:44] And kind of being quick on your feet. I think Rob really instilled that in me. You know, I apply that on my day-to-day now. You know, I’m not on the new business side of things, but being able to understand, “Hey, you know with this prospect’s tone of voice and how they’re approaching this conversation, how they’re responding to my questions,
[00:18:01] Carlos Morales: this is, this is really where their head is at. This is the strongest way that I could follow up with.” And I think that’s the biggest skill that Rob really gave to me is, understanding where that pain is coming from and then how to provide that solution to them.
[00:18:15] Marc Gonyea: That’s great. What surprised you the most about the role the company?
[00:18:19] Carlos Morales: I’d say, you know, just the overall hard work. Honestly, um, everybody goes in, every day, clocks in and gets after it. I mean, early morning blitz, afternoon blitz, evening blitz. Man, it never stopped. Like, and it is 24/7, uh, this whole, uh, everybody is just crushing their goals, crushing the phones, overcoming these objections that, you know, any average person would be like, “Oh, yeah, I give up. Um, you know, this, this sale’s not happening. They’re, they’re not going to take this meeting.”
[00:18:53] Um, but at memoryBlue, man, that’s non-existed. That mindset is out the window. It’s like, you know, you, well, obviously, you have to understand sometimes, you know, there, it’s not a right fit. But, people being, having that perseverance and that motivation to just keep pushing through all of this and keep hustling day-in and day-out, man, that was impressive to me.
[00:19:16] That, that really stuck with me, and that work ethic really stood out. That’s something that I’ve kind of had my whole life, I’ve appreciated from my role models and the people around me, and having that, as well in my first, I’d say real opportunity for a job outside of college, I’d say that was huge for my development.
[00:19:34] Marc Gonyea: Tell me about your client. So, you’re on the same client when you started to where you are now, right?
[00:19:40] Carlos Morales: Right. Yeah. So, I had riskmethods as my client. So, they are supply chain risk management company. At the time where I was starting, this was very new, you know. I think the pandemic, as it started developing and really having an impact on supply chains, people started realizing, “Hey, this is really important.”
[00:19:59] Like, “We’ve got to pay attention to our supply chains and have, uh, software in place for that.” But when I first started, it was a little bit of a challenge. People didn’t understand, “Hey, you know, this could really impact our revenues, even a slight delay or just lack of materials out there can really have an impact on my supply chain.”
[00:20:15] So, at first, with the client, it was difficult to sell the product. People didn’t realize, “Hey, I mean, we have a team that takes care of this. They’d go through excels. They do things kind of manually. We’re all taken care of.” That was a challenge. But, you know, as the pandemic started to continue and not really go away, as people suspected it to, immediately, we started to get more interest.
[00:20:36] People are starting to understand the value in our solution and saying, “Hey, I’m tired of looking at a thousand suppliers every day and going through Google alerts and trying to see what’s important. We need a tool like yours to make my day a little bit easier.” So, that’s when I would come in, and you say, “Hey, you know, I, I’ll be able to relieve some of those headaches with active, visible, active alert, real-time alerts, and visibility into all of your supply chain. And I, I’d say, you know, businesses were really starting to value it. So, it was a tough start but gradually has really brought in a lot more business as time has gone on.
[00:21:12] Marc Gonyea: That’s great. Did you and Caroline work close together?
[00:21:15] Carlos Morales: Yeah. Yeah, no, Caroline worked really great. We were really good coworkers. We got along really well. We always bounced ideas off of each other. You know, made sure that we check in on each other if we had a tough day or a tough call or whatever it is to make sure that, “Hey, we keep pushing each other to succeed and meet our goals.”
[00:21:31] So, it was a great dynamic duo that we had going on there, as well with Rob coming in and supporting us. I couldn’t have asked for a better team, honestly.
[00:21:39] Marc Gonyea: So, you’re in the role, working at the firm, new in the tech sales, what did you think, you know, where’d you hope this was going to take you, working for us? Because when you work with us with a client, see the client say ease, you see memoryBlue carries on the memoryBlue AE team, now you’ve got people who go Delivery Managers, some people were filled in offers from clients. Some are accepting them. Some are turning them down. Like, when, when, when you get in, like, “Okay, been working my ass off, when Lauren had to do this outbound part of the game, learned about supply chains and risks and so on and so forth.” And then, well, it kind of settles in, and then people are like, “Oh, at least look up, like, oh, where am I going to go?”
[00:22:15] Carlos Morales: Yeah. I mean, that’s definitely a question that I would always run into with Rob. I always asked him for his support and his perspective on, you know, “What would be good for me?” Sales was still brand new to me, so I knew I definitely wanted to grow within the sales industry. Didn’t know exactly where.
[00:22:32] So, Rob definitely laid out a couple of different paths for me, at the time. I, you know, I saw an interest in being a Delivery Manager, maybe an Account Executive which, when those conversations were really starting to develop and, and I was just confident within myself, confident with my outbound strategies and, um, confident in my skills that’s when riskmethods started reaching out and say, “Hey, you know, we’re in the process of, you know, maybe hiring you guys out.” So, that kind of solidified my next move that once I started working with them on a, an offer, I say, “Hey, maybe, maybe I can be a sales rep for a little bit longer and see where that takes me.” I wasn’t quite sure where that path would take me afterwards.
[00:23:13] Carlos Morales: Um, but I had confidence in myself that, “Hey, you know, I took the risk on, on memoryBlue. Let me take the risk on, you know, being hired out by riskmethods. And let’s see where that takes me.”
[00:23:25] Marc Gonyea: And what’s that been like, so far?
[00:23:27] Carlos Morales: It’s been amazing. Honestly, riskmethods is a small company, but we’re rapidly growing. We have a lot of credibility within the industry, which helps, well, helped my end, uh, when I was on the new business side of things, that actually lead the North American team and opportunity. So, I was a top contributor for last year, which, you know, I, I credit that to, to memoryBlue, man. All those skills that I applied to my day-to-day here, it worked out, it was successful. I was able to create the most opportunities and pipeline for the company, which I was very proud of. And, you know, recently this year I was able to receive that promotion to Account Manager.
[00:24:03] So, now I’m able to receive a little bit more experience on the other side of business, closing and working with our customers and having a little bit more of a farming mentality, rather than hunting.
[00:24:12] Chris Corcoran: Very good.
[00:24:13] Marc Gonyea: Tell us about that role. So, did they give you a choice? Did you say, “Hey, I kind of want to move into this role.” And did any of those deals you source close, or are they still in the works?
[00:24:22] Carlos Morales: There’s still, I believe, one, a couple of them did close. I don’t know how much I can disclose because of the confidentiality, obviously.
[00:24:30] Marc Gonyea: Of course.
[00:24:30] Carlos Morales: But, yes, some were, some did close. A lot of them were also really good opportunities that are still being brought back in. Nowadays, the sales cycle is very long for riskmethods, and working with different size businesses can be challenging.
[00:24:43] But, it’s been very successful. I mean, I was able to be the top contributor. And now, as an Account Manager, I’m able to really get comfortable and talk to my customers and work on upsells and see how they’re doing on their day-to-day, ensuring that they’re happy with our solution. So, I, I’d say it’s definitely been exciting.
[00:25:02] It’s been quite a journey, but it’s definitely moving up.
[00:25:06] Chris Corcoran: So, as an Account Manager, more of a developer or a farmer, do you use the words that you said? How are you using the skills you learned as going through a prospecting outbound mentality? How are you using that as a farmer?
[00:25:22] Carlos Morales: Yeah. I mean, you have to understand, you know, who are the right people you’re talking to. I mean, list-building and prospect, and those skills are always important. I mean, once our customer, it’s a little bit different, you understand who the decision-makers are, but understanding how to speak to them, again, having that, that funnel of questions of knowing when to ask things, knowing to see if they have a problem.
[00:25:42] “What is, what could be their solution, how, let’s not focus on what the problem is at hand, but how do we re, solve that?” And using those skills to kind of further strengthen those relationships, I say, has really been helpful in my career, and my journey as an Account Manager is using those skills of being able to speak to high-level prospects or customers and not being necessarily self-conscious and say, “Hey, you know, I’m talking to the CEO, the CPO and I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how to handle this.” That’s long gone, memoryBlue has really built that confidence within me to be out of my comfort zone with these customers, ask the right questions, pull out whatever pain they’re feeling at the time, and find a solution.
[00:26:22] Marc Gonyea: What’s the best part about being an Account Manager?
[00:26:26] Carlos Morales: It’s tough, it’s a tough question. I’d say, I want to say not cold calling anymore, but, honestly, honestly, I work really closely with our sales team and our SDR team. And I love hearing about them cold calling. Like, I check in with them every week, and I’m like, “How’s it going?” I like listening to their calls, and I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of it. I even get upset with myself sometimes just, “Man, I wish I could cold call every once in a while just to see if I still got it.” But, I’d say, the best thing about being an Account Manager is just having an experience, on a different side of business, learning how to maintain these relationships, how to collaborate with different departments, a little bit more than it previously was.
[00:27:07] Maybe we would partner with our Account Executives to kind of align on our outreach. Now it’s working with customer success, with marketing, with head of sales, with solution consultants. So, it’s definitely a lot more engaging and involved within the whole organization.
[00:27:22] Marc Gonyea: So, you know, how has working at, working there influenced, like, your view on tech, in general? Like, do you follow the competition? Like, what do you do to stay kind of up to date with what’s going on in your, in the industry? So, you have different responsibilities now, right, in terms of the role you’re going outbound, but you also kind of need to know what’s going on in that.
[00:27:42] So, I’m curious about how you educate yourself.
[00:27:44] Carlos Morales: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, being an Account Manager, people expect you to be knowledgeable about what you’re speaking about, what you’re selling. So, I always stay up to date on any resources that are part of marketing team is developing on, or speaking on, they usually do a really good job of highlighting any current issues or current events that might be impacting supply chains, as well as there’s a couple of websites that I, I look at, to stay up to date on current events.
[00:28:08] Our solution, actually, sends me alerts every day if there’s any poor congestions or shortages that would have any impact. So, you know, it’s, I take an hour or two every day just to look through all these alerts, all these resources and in order to make sure that, you know, I stay up to date, you know, if I got a question I’m not just stumped, I can say, “Hey, you know, I know what you’re going through and this is how we’re helping.”
[00:28:31] Marc Gonyea: So, you got to spend like an hour or so, or a day at least, to kind of make sure you’re just kind of feeling the pulse of what’s going on in your space?
[00:28:38] Carlos Morales: Yeah, I’d say so. I mean, that just makes me feel confident. And being confident makes me work a little bit better, I’d say more efficiently. And, you know, when I hop on a call I’m not so nervous, I know, “Hey, I know what you guys are going through. I know the issues at hand. I know there’s a shortage of plastics, of semiconductors and all, all of these other materials that you guys are using. So, this is what we can do for you to alleviate these pains. And this is how our solution down to a T can help mitigate these risks with, you know, extra visibility, real-time alerts, and being able to, ‘Hey, you know, even if you’re out of your office, you know, you get a notification on your phone telling you, ‘Hey, you know, you got to take a look at this supplier.””
[00:29:16] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, I’ll say, you know, Carlos, like, it’s so, this is in some ways as a kind of textbook case of, like, a client working with us, they get to work with us. They had access to an up-and-comer like you, you benefit from the system, the clients benefiting from the system, too. But, you know, you’re, help you build your foundation.
[00:29:35] And now, you’ve been working with them for a year and a half
[00:29:39] Chris Corcoran: Got promoted.
[00:29:39] Marc Gonyea: Got promoted.
[00:29:40] Chris Corcoran: Number one performer.
[00:29:41] Marc Gonyea: And he was an SDR for a while.
[00:29:42] Carlos Morales: Yeah.
[00:29:43] Marc Gonyea: That’s the six months, and you got promoted. So, you, you build some perspective on things when you, when you go outbound for, whatever you’re a year and four months, whatever
[00:29:51] year it was. What, when you look back on the, you know, if you have advice for other SDRs who considering going to work for their client ’cause sometimes it works out sometimes it doesn’t.
[00:30:00] Carlos Morales: Yep.
[00:30:01] Marc Gonyea: What kind of questions did you ask? What were you looking at? And you said, you mentioned a little bit, what were you looking at as the, to help you make that decision?
[00:30:08] Carlos Morales: Yeah. I definitely wanted to ensure that the company that I went to had some, had a really good environment, had some good resources. You know, I went, I went to memoryBlue for the academy, for the environment, our colleagues, the team, similar things to riskmethods. They were still up and coming.
[00:30:24] I was still, you know, starting to really learn how to be successful and, and have the right resources. But, my boss and everybody involved, they’re really thoughtful, they’re caring. They’re like, “Hey, you know, we want to make sure that you get, you’re the best version of yourself, that you get everything that you need to, you need out of riskmethods, and you learn what you need to be successful.”
[00:30:44] And I’d say, and that’s really what I prioritized, being in environment where you’re valued, where everybody is pushing you to grow and succeed. I think that is the most important, I mean, graded money is also, I’d say a very important factor, as well. But, I wanted to establish a company and a relationship where I felt comfortable with my, the people around me.
[00:31:05] And it was a solution that I believed in.
[00:31:07] Marc Gonyea: Yeah.
[00:31:08] Chris Corcoran: What a great time to be selling what you’re selling.
[00:31:11] Carlos Morales: Oh yeah. It couldn’t have worked out any better, honestly.
[00:31:13] Marc Gonyea: Wow.
[00:31:13] Chris Corcoran: So, as an SDR or as an Account Manager, have you ever had the opportunity to showcase your Spanish speaking?
[00:31:21] Carlos Morales: So, there has been some opportunities. I’ve actually done some demos. I usually don’t do demos, but I’ve had to do a demo for a company down in XXXX, which, that was very interesting. I mean, Spanish is my first language, but when it comes to the terminology in the supply chain and the business world, that’s a little bit different.
[00:31:39] So, it was a challenge talking to, you know, all these XXXXXXX on a meeting, on Zoom or on Teams and trying to explain down our solution down to a T. They’re asking a million questions, and I’m the only one there. I mean, I don’t have any other, anybody else to count on. I, you know, I don’t know the answer to the question.
[00:31:57] I can’t ask anybody else. So, It was definitely a challenge, but it was a fun challenge. There was some cold calls, like, some emails, some LinkedIn outreach that I would do. Or, you know, if we got some HAAs, some like high activity alerts or prospects looking at our website and there were, you know, from South America, then I would give them a call and, you know, they answered the phone in Spanish, then I would speak to them in Spanish, make them feel a little bit more comfortable.
[00:32:21] So, I have put them to the test, honestly, not as much as I would like to, but maybe that’ll change down the line.
[00:32:25] Chris Corcoran: Yeah.
[00:32:26] Marc Gonyea: You’ve got these XXXXXX on the phone with the Venezuelan guy who grew up in New England.
[00:32:30] Carlos Morales: Right. Right.
[00:32:36] Marc Gonyea: I wish I spoke Spanish. I would be able to try to decipher what was going on.
[00:32:40] Carlos Morales: So, you got to practice, Marc.
[00:32:42] Marc Gonyea: There you go, I know, tell me about it. Carlos, you know, when you answered my question, you talked about salary, but it was, like, the third or fourth thing you said. So, I know you have to assume the salary is important, but, sometimes, I’m glad you said that
[00:32:55] ’cause sometimes SDRs will take a gig because the base is, like, five, five grand higher, maybe ten grand higher. And those other things they may not even consider.
[00:33:03] Carlos Morales: Yeah. I mean, everybody has different needs. Some people are really strapped for cash, and maybe that five extra grand would change their lives, you know. So, everybody’s position is, life is a little bit differently. I definitely value money. I mean, I came from a really tough background of not having money and not having really a lot of financial stability.
[00:33:22] So, I definitely valued it, but I also understood that even having that extra $5,000 a year at the sacrifice of your peace of mind or your mental health, being in an environment where it might be a little bit toxic, you’re not happy, you’re constantly going through the dip, it’s not worth it. At the end, it’s not going to be worth it. And then, you’re just hopping through different jobs and you don’t feel satisfied, or it might just deter your motivation.
[00:33:51] Marc Gonyea: Carlos, what does your mom, what does your mom think about, you know, you said your sister moved to LA, you’re, you’re living in the most cosmopolitan city in the world, Cleveland, but, you know, but you’re very successful, like, what’s your mom, when she looks back on this stuff, like, where you guys have gotten to where you are now, what does she have to say?
[00:34:08] Carlos Morales: She’s so proud of us. I mean, honestly, I mean, she would love to have us, you know, right next door to her. It’s very difficult being here in the US, and it’s just literally the four of us. We’re all a little bit separated. And my mom and stepdad are in Massachusetts. My brother’s in Rhode Island, my sister’s in LA.
[00:34:27] But we’re all having our own success in our different paths. My brother was in entrepreneurship. He has his own company right now. Um, my sisters and, um, immigration lines, she’s thriving right now, as well, in LA and, and I’m doing my thing, killing it in sales. So, she’s looking back, reflecting on, you know, all the things and nightmares that she had to go through to kind of get us where we are today. And she’s so proud. I mean, it’s really gratifying for her to see that everything that she went through has paid off in the end.
[00:34:58] Marc Gonyea: That’s great to hear, man. And that, Chris and I send our compliments to her.
[00:35:03] Carlos Morales: Thank you.
[00:35:04] Chris Corcoran: Man. Yeah.
[00:35:05] Carlos Morales: Oh yeah. She would have been a killer SDR if, if she had the opportunity.
[00:35:10] Marc Gonyea: To put Ryan Carey out of business.
[00:35:13] Carlos Morales: Yeah. You know, don’t let Ryan hear that.
[00:35:18] Marc Gonyea: Right. We’ll take a defense. Hey, what, so, knowing what you know now, what would you tell, have told yourself, like, the night before you started at memoryBlue?
[00:35:26] I, I’d say to, to have some faith. “Just, just keep doing what you need to do every day. Um, you know, clock in, put in a 110% effort, put all the work that you can in order to really thrive and get the most that you can out of that opportunity might be in memoryBlue and riskmethods. And honestly, anything within your day-to-day, within your life is really try to get the most out of it.”
[00:35:52] I think memoryBlue, the academy, taught me a lot, but also learning from my colleagues, Rob, um, really gave me a lot of life lessons and skills that, you know, I applied to myself, my day-to-day and right now. So, I, I’d say, “Be confident, have faith that everything is gonna work out and push through those days that, you know, you’re really feeling down.
[00:36:15] You’re feeling that dip, don’t let it get to you. Don’t let it get the best of you. Keep pushing through.”
[00:36:19] Marc Gonyea: So, I know you just got promoted fairly recently, but where do you kind of see yourself evolving from a business standpoint?
[00:36:26] Carlos Morales: That’s something that I’m still figuring out, as of now. I really enjoyed the, the Account Manager role. I think there is, it could be a lot of success within the role, especially as riskmethods is rapidly growing and the solution just continues to get better every day. Um, I really think that I will be an Account Manager for, I’d say, another year or two.
[00:36:45] After that, I, I really don’t know where my career will take me. I would like to stay in sales. Um, inevitably, I would like to start my own business at some point. But I’m not really to, to focus on the timeline of things. I’m kind of just making sure that every day I put my all and slowly start setting myself up and prepare myself for, you know, when an opportunity comes by.
[00:37:06] Marc Gonyea: What kind of advice do you have for those SDRs when you talk to them?
[00:37:10] Carlos Morales: What do you mean?
[00:37:11] Marc Gonyea: You, like, you, like, “Hey, you should say it this way.” Or, “Hey, I was the number one guy last year because I did A, B, and C.” And were the things that you were doing that you kind of transferred to them?
[00:37:20] Carlos Morales: I’d say, you know, “Making sure that you do your research on what you’re selling, what you’re picking.” Like,” Whoever your client is, make sure that you know that product, like, back of your hand, you know who your prospects are, you know who your competitors are, you know how to ask open-ended questions.”
[00:37:36] I feel like, when I went through academy, there was a couple sessions on just open-ended questions. And I was like, thinking to myself, “How difficult could it be?” But, honestly, you’re so ingrained to just asking close-ended questions, and some people don’t even notice that. But as an SDR, that’s crucial skill to have to, in order to keep a conversation going.
[00:37:56] And it’s not like you’re doing 80% of the talking and the prospect’s just listening to you. It’s a game-changer. I mean, it can almost make a difference whether you actually close a meeting or you don’t. So, um, that’s kind of things that I transfer right now to the SDRs here at riskmethods. You know, I connect with them every day and, or, you know, weekly and make sure that, you know, they are asking the right questions,
[00:38:20] they feel comfortable on the phones, um, they’re pitching the solution right and objection handling. I mean, that’s, what memoryBlue academy taught me about objection handling has been incredible. I, I’d say there’s not an objection that I can face nowadays that I feel uncomfortable talking about.
[00:38:40] Carlos Morales: Or I get stumped on just because that’s how much exposure I’ve had to that at, back at memoryBlue. Being in strictly outbound, it really gives you that tough skin and different perspective when you’re speaking to customers or prospects.
[00:38:53] Marc Gonyea: I got a question for you, too. If you look back on your time at memoryBlue, that wasn’t all that long, really, but what’s one thing that you think you wish you had maybe done more of or taken advantage of, maybe done differently when you were here, knowing that you’re out, knowing that you’re kind of out of the fire now, in a way, you know what I mean?
[00:39:09] You’re out of the, “Prove it, got to make it in this industry.” You’re in it, you’re firmly entrenched in the industry, and now it’s about, like, doing a good job and going. But, when you look back on it, the memoryBlue time, like, “Man, I wish I’d done a little bit more of that.”
[00:39:21] Carlos Morales: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, when I was, I was at memoryBlue for about seven months, I’d say, um, before I got hired out. And during that time period, I mean, it was during the pandemic, it was working from home, um, when things were starting to kind of rotate in office I wish I had a little bit more involvement. At that time, I was staying at my parents’, and my parents were kind of high risk. So, I decided to kind of continue working from home. Honestly, I wish I had the opportunity to be in office a little bit more where I could socialize and kind of build stronger relationships with some of my coworkers to learn more about them.
[00:39:55] I mean, I learned so much through Teams and through the phone and everything else, but I wish I got more through in-person events and just being in office. I, I feel like there’s a lot of value that you get from learning from each other.
[00:40:08] Chris Corcoran: Yup. Yup.
[00:40:10] Carlos Morales: I’d say that’s my biggest regret. I know the pandemic had a kind of effect, played a role into it.
[00:40:15] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. Absolutely.
[00:40:16] Chris Corcoran: Yeah.
[00:40:17] Carlos Morales: But, you know, I’ll definitely be making up for that at the future alumni events.
[00:40:21] Chris Corcoran: Sure. There you go, very good. The phenol from Northwest Ohio.
[00:40:26] Carlos Morales: Oh, yeah.
[00:40:28] Chris Corcoran: Very good.
[00:40:29] Well, Carlos, this has been great. We really appreciate your wisdom.
[00:40:32] We look forward to kind of watching you continue your Ascension
[00:40:35] Chris Corcoran: through the tech sales world.
[00:40:37] Carlos Morales: Thank you. I can’t be any more appreciative of you guys and memoryBlue for, you know, giving me that opportunity, that preparation to kind of really crush it in the sales industry and carry that out throughout my day-to-day here, as well. So, forever grateful, and I really appreciate that.
[00:40:54] And, you know, I highly suggest anybody that’s interested and going into tech sales to really look into memoryBlue and establish their career through you guys, as well.
[00:41:04] Chris Corcoran: Well, Carlos, I appreciate you saying that but we didn’t give it to you, you took it.
[00:41:07] Marc Gonyea: I mean, you’re yeah. You took the opportunity, right?
[00:41:10] Chris Corcoran: There’s, there’s lots of people who were given the same opportunity you were given and they didn’t take it.
[00:41:16] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. You got to put in the time.
[00:41:19] Carlos Morales: Yeah.
[00:41:20] Chris Corcoran: Yeah.
[00:41:20] Carlos Morales: You don’t take it for granted and take that risk.
[00:41:22] Marc Gonyea: Yeah.
[00:41:22] Carlos Morales: You got to take that risk.
[00:41:23] Marc Gonyea: Exactly. Yep. Very good.
[00:41:25] Chris Corcoran: Well, Carlos, thank you so much. We appreciate it.
[00:41:27] Carlos Morales: Thank you, Chris. Thank you, Marc. You guys have been amazing.
[00:41:29] Chris Corcoran: Same, man.
[00:41:30] Carlos Morales: It’s been a great opportunity. So, I appreciate it.