Building a Remote Sales Organization with Mario Martinez Jr., #200

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In this episode of the Modern Selling Podcast, I share an insightful conversation with business powerhouse and my dear friend, Alice Heiman, the host of Sales Talk for CEOs. We go deep into the ins and outs of how I built Vengreso to become the largest digital sales training company in the world and the unique remote selling strategies I’ve used to leverage top talent from around the globe.

If you’re a sales leader looking for creative ways to grow your sales team, to expand your digital sales reach, or to empower your sales reps with new strategies to book more meetings – then this episode is for you.

Download the full conversation to learn how I recruit, onboard, and train the best sales professionals for a fraction of the cost.

Laying the Foundation for Remote Selling

I’ve been in sales for over 20+ years now and when people ask how I got into sales, they’re usually amused by the story.

But, the same key principle I learned as a college student new to sales is the same key principle I instill in my sales team, now at Vengreso.

My sales career started accidentally, when I was working as a photo finisher for Ritz Camera Center. Paying my way through college, I asked my Regional Manager at the time for a transfer to a store closer to campus. Although he did transfer me, he didn’t grant my transfer as a photo finisher – he transferred me as a salesperson. 

For the two years I worked as a photo finisher, I consistently placed in the top 3 for sales for my entire region. It was because early on I realized that sales was the art of helping. As I helped my customers get the best quality photos, I was able to upsell them to services that were not just meeting their needs, but were solving their problems.

That is why, some 20+ years later, I teach all of my remote sellers that to master sales you need to focus on helping (not selling).

When everyone in your organization understands this point then it makes it easier to get your whole company involved in sales and engaged with the customer. And, when sales leaders have the understanding and the vision that sales is helping and that is how sales organizations can rapidly grow by helping their customers grow.

It’s important to ask questions like: What’s the business problem that we’re solving? How are we helping our customers? How are we going to prove that we’re helping them? 

If you can focus everything around these core questions, then you’ll position your sales organization for success.

Tune into the full conversation with Alice to hear the full story of how Vengreso was started and what three questions catapulted my career as a sales entrepreneur.

The 3 Keys to Remote Selling

In today’s virtual selling era, most sales organizations have pivoted to offer some form of digital or remote selling. However, what separates those organizations who do it “okay” from those who do it well comes down to three key components.

I share with Alice my take on what you really need to win the digital sales game, in this new post-pandemic environment.

1. Selling is not just for the sales team. As the CEO of Vengreso, I still have a huge role in sales. Whether I am training new sales reps, coming up with the sales strategy for the quarter, or facilitating client calls – I am immersed in the sales process of my organization. As I mentioned, sales is the art of helping – so why would I not help out as often as I can? When senior leaders can embrace this perspective, then sales teams won’t feel siloed and, instead, can feel supported in their efforts.
2. Invest in training at every level. We have an extensive 6-month onboarding process for our sales reps that ensures they are ready to handle any type of sales conversation or sales objection that comes their way. Our Modern Sales Mastery training program is also designed to equip our sales reps with both the sales tools, the sales skills, and the coaching they need to perform a hybrid SDR/AE role.
3. Find the right tools to generate sales. I always say, “a fool with a tool, is still a fool.” At Vengreso, we are creating a host of sales enablement tools such as our text expander plugin, FlyMSG. For any remote selling organization, you want to capitalize on building efficiency and increasing your sales team’s productivity. After all, you’re not in a physical office and you need your sales reps to be able to maximize the use of their time to get in front of more prospects, to book more sales meetings.

Listen to the entire conversation I had with Alice because I dropped some ‘interesting’ sales gems that could help your sales managers and sales teams increase their conversions.

How to Hire Remote Sellers

Finding qualified salespeople, in general, can be challenging. But, once you add the complexity of needing that sales rep to work (and sell) remotely – this can introduce a new layer of challenges.

That’s why when I started Vengreso, I knew I needed a unique model to help me both attract and retain top talent as a fast-growing startup. Being able to afford the salary of US-based sales reps would put a strain on the company’s finances, but I needed a pool of talent that I could pull from that could master the remote selling process we teach.

So, I looked overseas to find highly qualified sales professionals who could learn the sales skills, the strategies, and the sales methodology needed to not just excel as a SDR, but to even advance to become AEs.

That’s how Vengreso’s remote selling culture was born. For nearly a decade, we have leveraged the outsourced market to get top-performing sales reps from South America, Europe, and Asia.

Hiring remotely is different and requires a different recruiting and vetting approach. We’ve created an entire remote selling playbook for sales leaders to follow to replicate our model with great success.

Make sure to download the full episode to hear how we source our sales reps and the exact process we follow before bringing on a new remote sales rep.