79: Intentional Selling with Eddie Baez

0:08 Scott Ingram: You're listening to the Sales Success Stories podcast, where we deconstruct world-class sales performers to provide insights and strategies to help you improve. To learn more, visit us at top1.fm. Here's your host, Scott Ingram.

0:24 Scott Ingram: This episode is sponsored by Outreach. You can check them out and get a free copy of their new book, Sales Engagement: How the World's Fastest fastest growing companies are modernizing sales through humanization at scale by clicking over to top1.fm/outreach. Today on the Sales Success Stories podcast, my guest is Eddie Baez. Eddie was the number one client relationship executive at IBISWorld, and you've probably already seen this, but I have a suspicion that this is going to be a very long episode. There's a lot that we want to get into. Eddie and I actually originally met at the Enterprise Sales Forum. I did a presentation/live interview with Trong Nguyen at their event a little over a year ago, and we've had a few conversations ever since. It wasn't until I was in New York recently and Eddie and I got together over drinks in what turned into kind of a mini flash meetup with some other fans of the show, and we were there with a friend of Eddie's named Scott Hanrahan, and Scott turns to me at some point after this conversation and says, you know what, I'm gonna say this because I know Eddie's not going to, but you realize that he has been the number one sales guy in his role for the last 3 years running. And all that does is just goes to show exactly how humble Eddie is. And immediately I said, man, we have to get this interview scheduled, not just because of the results. Obviously, that's the qualifier. If you're new to this show, I only interview active quota-carrying individual contributors who are either number 1 or at least in the top 1% of performers. So that's the bar. And once, once I realized that Eddie met that requirement, There's just so much about who he is and how he thinks and some of the things that he's working on that this is just gonna be a really, really fun conversation. Welcome to the show, Eddie.

2:12 Eddie Baez: Thanks, Scott. Thank you for having me. I'm really excited to be on the show.

2:15 Scott Ingram: So you, like several others, appear to be an overachiever in all areas of your life. So when I asked you for the top 3 things that we're gonna start off with, 'cause we always want to really front-load some value in these conversations and get right into some good juicy meat, you of course sent me 4, and I know we're on the fence about 5. So let's, let's go through those. And these are pretty in-depth. So why don't we go one at a time? What's, what's the number one thing that you think has had the biggest impact on your success?

2:43 Eddie Baez: Yeah, so the first one on the list was public speaking. Very early on in my career, I actually ran into Toastmasters International. And basically, it's a public speaking forum for anyone who's interested in getting better at presenting in public and in large groups. I was never nervous per se, you know, but I always felt like there was definitely room for improvement. And I actually found this group in New York. It was called Humorous Toastmasters. So, you know, I was like, all right, humor and public speaking, I'm in. So I joined, and that turned into a 2-year stint of me joining the board, me being their public relations person. And, you know, in the program, there's assigned speech assignments. So basically, I try to get as many of those out of the way as I could in the time that I was there. And, you know, for… in terms of my professional career, That probably had the most significant impact because we're on the phones all day and, you know, it's not necessarily public speaking in front of a large forum, but you're speaking in public to people on the phone every day. And so that's where I learned, you know, the gravity of speech and how adding silence and, you know, the cadence of how you say things and, you know, all the little things, the filler words, which you'll hear plenty of throughout this, how those will, you know, directly impact the emotions and what resonates with people when you're on the phone with them every single day. So, so that's, that's the number one for me. I feel like, you know, with public speaking, you can take a room from, you know, feeling really tense to just completely exploding with laughter all in the same few seconds. And it's all in the way that you do it and all in the technique and the approach that you take with your public speaking.

4:24 Scott Ingram: I love that. And I'm amazed it hasn't come up on the show before. I mean, I think it's such a great organization. It's such a great process. And for those that aren't familiar, I mean, it's an international organization. If you go to… I'm sure it's toastmasters.org or something like that. As always, we'll have, we'll have a link in the show notes. So if you go to top1.fm/eddie-baez or forward slash whatever this episode number is, but I always lose track. So whatever, 79, 80, somewhere in there. And that'll get you started. You'll find chapters all over the place. What's great about it is that there's, there's different sequences and processes. And what I find humorous, given that you were in a humorous club, is that the initial thing that you go through is 10 speeches and they work on all different dynamics of presenting, right? So you're working on eye contact in one of the speeches and you're working on body language in another and you're working on just, just different elements. And after you go through all that, you've given 10 public speeches, they, you get the designation of being competent.

5:22 Eddie Baez: 100%.

5:24 Scott Ingram: I always thought that was such a letdown though. I'm like, man, 10 speeches and now I'm just competent. That's the word. That's the word you give me. But anyway, the, and then the last piece is, and Eddie, it sounds like you got involved in this too, is it's not just presentation training or speech training, and that's, that's really learned by doing and learning from your peers and evaluating other people and all of those things. There's also this leadership element to it so you can get involved in the leadership of that club or your district or all of these different things. And just an amazing, amazing organization.

5:55 Eddie Baez: Highly encourage it 100%. And, you know, it extends past just the 10 assignments. After you've earned your CC, it goes on to more advanced speeches, keynotes, basically the types of things that help you continuously improve There's definitely levels of, you know, rigor in the program. And, you know, when it comes to the leadership aspect of it, not only do you take on roles in the organization, but it also extends outwardly into your role, into your job. So I was actually given the opportunity to kind of create my own program at work. And, you know, a lot of programs in the city here in New York actually are work-based programs that are extensions of the Toastmasters International flagship. And I mean, that has done wonders between the amount of collaboration that you get to do on the job and the amount of, you know, just learning from one another. It's just an all-around phenomenal program and one of the best investments I've ever done in my career.

6:51 Scott Ingram: Love it. Love it. So much good stuff. So ever feel like you can't really connect with prospects or have an organized workflow to get deals closed? Outreach is the number one sales engagement platform that streamlines effective playbooks for high-touch revenue organizations so that they can focus their time, effort, and resources on driving better customer engagement and repeatable success. Revenue teams choose Outreach because it's designed to fit the needs of every workflow, role, and team. It's dependable, secure, and scalable, and applies machine learning and AI to power better engagement and rep efficiency. You can check them out at top1.fm/outreach to chat with them and receive a free copy of their new book, Sales Engagement: How the World's Fastest Growing Companies Are Modernizing Sales Through Humanization at Scale. All right, Eddie, so let's go back to or continue on. What's, what's the second point that you think has been the biggest contributor to your success?

7:47 Eddie Baez: The constant pursuit for a trip around the world.

7:51 Scott Ingram: Love it.

7:52 Eddie Baez: So when I was in college, a friend of mine heard about a trip that we were having to go to India. It was part of the master's program. And though I didn't finish the master's program, it was something that I was very, very interested in, had mentioned it to her, and the only thing holding me back was fear. So she said, I'm not having it. And you need to go on this trip. So she dared me to go because she, you know, she knew I was very competitive and knew that I would never turn down a dare. So in my junior year of college, I took my first big international flight to India. And, you know, it was 14 hours of misery on the flight for what I would later find out would be a lifetime of stories and the most humbling experiences I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. Honestly, you know, that trip really taught me a lot about myself. And, you know, I got lost on the trip at one point. My professor, if my professor knew, she'd, she'd cringe. But I got lost with a group of friends. We were looking around the city and essentially during the time that, you know, we kind of finished souvenir shopping and all that, I managed to find our way back. And that was really, you know, kind of formative for me because it really taught me that no matter where I was in the world, I could always find home. And right then and there, it really instilled in me like this just insatiable love for travel, learning, and culture. Or learning about new cultures. And basically from that point on, I would do anything I could do to get on a plane and whatever work needed to get done to get there, that was 100%. I was all in. Fast forward, you know, in my career, in winning those awards, I actually got the opportunity from management to travel to our other offices. And our flagship is actually out in Australia, which also happens to be the place where I proposed to my fiancée. And it was all thanks to this trip. So I was very grateful and very appreciative of that. And we had a really good time. Fast forward a year from that, we actually got to go to Europe as well and visit 4 countries together. And honestly has been one of the best experiences I've had professionally. Love it. Love it.

9:53 Scott Ingram: I mean, so obviously a really strong why that's pulling you forward, but also, you know, I think it's one of the great things about sales, right? There's, there's President's Clubs and incentive trips and other opportunities to do that, that kind of travel. So not only are you hopefully earning the dollars that help fund those those types of adventures, but a lot of times just earning the adventure outright.

10:14 Eddie Baez: 100%, 100%. And everybody jokes with me because if you walk by my computer monitor, I always have my screensaver saved on the next place so that I always am in touch with why I'm doing things and what I'm working towards.

10:27 Scott Ingram: Love it, love it, love it. So I know your next point because I've seen a preview is really kind of another why.

10:32 Eddie Baez: Yep. And this is probably my biggest why out of the bunch. You know, my mom, she has been probably my biggest cheerleader, the person that I've always looked up to. And all around just the person that I aspired to, you know, hopefully, you know, kind of embody in everything that I do in my sales career. Right before I was entering college, my mom was diagnosed with cancer. Before it gets too dark, she's been in remission for over 10 years. So she's been doing phenomenal. She's in great health. And thankfully, you know, that was a very small stint of our relationship, a very small time of our relationship together. But, you know, the during part was always difficult. You know, if it wasn't enough, you know, my mom being a single parent, in the Bronx in New York, raising 2 kids, 2 boys. You know, she also got diagnosed and it was a really difficult time in our lives. I mean, I was helping raise my brother who was 4 years younger than me. My mom lost like 100+ pounds, lost every follicle of hair. I had to bathe my mom, help her through the smallest things. And it was extremely, you know, it was an extremely difficult time. And despite that, you know, about, you know, 5 years later, after countless rounds of chemo and medicine supervision, knee surgery, physical therapy, all of that, she manages to actually get back on her feet. And the first thought out of the gate, my mom goes, I'm going back to work. And she was relentless in her pursuit. I mean, she had to use basically like scarves to, to kind of mask the fact that she, she was, you know, bald. And, you know, that was something that I… that stuck with me. I mean, my… just the idea of my brother and I struggling was enough to get my mom out of bed after all of this and work. And I mean relentlessly. She never took vacation. She never took, you know, a sick day despite being sick. And she just pushed on. And no matter how hard it got, you know, we were always her anchor. So for me, you know, it's always about how could I ever, you know, I didn't even know how to quantify that, you know, quantify the sacrifice or how to even start paying it back. But I was just determined to someday pay it forward to her and just try to afford her as much as I could in return. And it's funny because like I've talked to her about it and funny enough, like I've told her that I want to pay back all her sacrifices and do right by her. And all she keeps saying is like, you know, you guys doing well and making good on this, on all that I went through is enough. But it does absolutely nothing to quiet my desire to give more to her.

13:03 Scott Ingram: That's so great. It's so great. And I think, you know, there's a number of things. And the reason why I know this is going to be a long conversation is we'll go through kind of the more standard set of questions that I typically ask. Right. And pull out those common themes. Teams and things like that. But one of the things that I know is a big piece for you, and I'm going to put them together, maybe wrongfully, maybe this is inappropriate, but I know one of the things that drives you and is really important to you is diversity in sales. And I'm going to add to that and say adversity is often a really significant contributor to sales success, right? As I think through all of these different interviews, man, there's a lot of people with, with chips on their shoulders and who've struggled and had really, really challenging, hard times in their childhoods or in their upbringing or even in their, in their professions or in their careers. Right. That they really strive to overcome. And it becomes one of those whys. So something that we don't necessarily need to get into in too much depth right now, but I think we will. And I think those are important topics. And I would just really appreciate you and how open you've been in sharing all of this stuff and how open you'll, you'll continue to be.

14:16 Eddie Baez: 100%. I mean, you want me to speak on that? So, you know, when it comes to diversity or adversity, as you said, you know, it's very seldom in the community, you know, as a Spanish male growing up in the Bronx, you know, we… I personally, I can only speak for myself. I didn't have too many people in my immediate family or, you know, set of friends that did or even considered B2B sales as a professional pursuit. And frankly, you know, it's a barren wasteland. I mean, honestly, there's so few people, you know, providing advocacy for the the profession and actually even knowing what that entails, that for most of the people that I've met, myself included, I feel like it's always not only did you fall into it, but you also didn't really have a guiding guideline or a beacon. It was all self-taught. So that was probably the biggest challenge for me of like, you know, positing all these different topics and themes and processes. And it was all self-taught because I didn't have a mentor or somebody in my community that I could easily turn to. And, you know, that's something that's That's been very formative for me.

15:23 Scott Ingram: Awesome. Well, again, we're definitely going to come back to that topic. So stay tuned. That'll probably be more, more towards the end. Eddie, give us, give us number 4.

15:31 Eddie Baez: Yep. So this one is, uh, I'm sure going to be a topic of contention. So I'm a consumer first and a salesman second. Personally, I'm a firm believer that you got to try before you buy. And, you know, I think we've spoke about this a little bit, but the last big purchase I made was my home. I'm one of 2 people in my entire side of the family that actually own a home, all courtesy of being sales. And, you know, frankly, it was probably the most stressful decision I've ever had to make. You know, when you think about customer profiles and the type of buyer that you are, I'm very much the skeptic and I'm very A-type when it comes to things. I mean, I sell research, so all I do is, you know, due diligence and fact-finding. So when I was tasked with buying a home, you know, it was everything from, you know, is it in the right area, all the typical standard check-the-box things. But, you know, it was terrifying because I didn't really have too many people to kind of rely on for you know, that were in my personal close network of friends who could help me guide or guide me through the process. So, you know, it was nerve-wracking. And what set that experience apart and what really made the difference was having someone, our broker, who was very dedicated to educating me every step of the way, holding my hand through the process, providing me enough stops along the way to just, you know, quickly catch my breath and learn what I needed to learn. And he was fairly new too, which was, I think, what made the experience even better. Whatever he didn't have an answer to, he was he was very quick to to kind of you know announce and let me know that he would do a little homework, which he always did. And that's literally the approach I take with all of my clients. You know, if you need a trial, if you need a sample report, multiple webinars, whatever it is, as a consumer first, I know that I need that, and and I always try to provide it and reciprocate it to my clients.

17:16 Scott Ingram: Well, in the conversation you and I had about this beforehand, because I was a little bit surprised by this, and I think where that surprise came from was some advice. I it's been a while since I've. Seen it, but one of the things I saw was this was more for, hey, when you're interviewing salespeople, and this probably comes more from a more transactional type of style, but they were suggesting that you should ask them to talk about their last big purchase and what that was. And essentially what they suggested that you were looking for is, first of all, how did they describe it? How big was it? What in their mind was a lot of money, right? So you wanted to sort of understand how they felt about, you know, big dollar sizes and what in their head that was. And then how they made the decision, right? Were they quick? You know, did they do a lot of research? Did they have to go get advice from other people or could they just decide? With, again, the theory being that you want somebody that is really driven, that just makes decisions, that, you know, doesn't need a lot of other input so that they're not going to put up with that from other people. In your case though, and I don't know that I agree with that in general, but again, it's just an interesting perspective. In your world, as I asked about this, I'm like, oh, this makes perfect sense because it's so incredibly aligned to who your customers are and you're really just meeting them where they're at. It happens to be that you have the same type of a mindset and you just know how to serve them and give them things that you know they're going to need to be able to make that type of decision given the way they make those decisions.

18:48 Eddie Baez: 100%. And I'd even add to that, I mean, I was asking complete strangers on the train I mean, you know, if they overheard a conversation between me and my fiancée about the whole buying process, if they offered even a grain of information, I was pulling at the threads and just trying to figure out anything and everything I could to help me, you know, feel more comfortable with it. I mean, it was a 6-figure tag. So I really wanted to make sure that whatever I was doing wasn't going to, you know, set us up for less success or do wrong by us. So the pressure was on. And listen, And anybody who could offer information, that, that was my guy.

19:27 Scott Ingram: That's awesome. That's awesome. Well, Eddie, let's now get into just a little bit of context. So talk about what your role is exactly. What is this role? Who is IBISWorld?

19:35 Eddie Baez: Yep. So IBISWorld is the leading provider of market intelligence in the US. Our pedigree is really in kind of market research, and we're an off-the-shelf research product. We cover about 1,300 industries, unique industries in the US, which is about roughly 97% of the economy. So quite a bit of data, very robust production team. And the role that I had when I actually achieved those accolades was I owned the retail channel of the business, which was a hybrid role, mostly, you know, client service, but very much sales specific, a smaller account, and basically have to, you know, grow it, you know, farm style and, you know, try to kind of go through all the traditional methods. But it was always a very small account and I'd basically grow it using traditional AE, you know, techniques. So, you know, a lot of it was hunting, a lot of it was prospecting and, you know, mind mapping and strategically placing conversations, getting the type of executive sponsorship that we needed to really grow that business. So in that role, I handled a high volume of accounts, but it was, it was a mixed bag, everything from really transactional stuff to, you know, some of them took 12 to 18 months to close. And those were some of the most rewarding and the most, you know, kind of… they were really the most difficult, but honestly, that's the one that offered the most growth. So I was in that role for roughly about 4 and a half years. The first year, you know, it was totally skill/will. It's like you definitely have the will but not the skill yet, and, you know, you definitely don't have the background, but you're making the climb, and that was definitely me. I was shadowing everybody that I could. I mean, I was a fly on the wall. Sometimes I'd literally be just hovering over someone listening in on what they had to say. I asked my managers who the best people in the room were, and I made it my mission to, you know, just listen and just absorb everything I could. So years 2 to 4 is when I won the consecutive back-to-back client relationship awards. And prior to that, you know, not a single person in the company had ever done that. I think that one of the counterparts in the role had done it once or twice, but in different years. And specifically for my, for my role, it had been unheard of. You know, so layer on top of that, going back to the whole diversity adversity thing, you know, I was one of the few Spanish, you know, Latinos who had ever actually achieved this award or had achieved it at that level. So it was, it was very, you know, I was very grateful for it. It was extremely rewarding. And it was a lot of hard work and a lot of grind. So fast forward now, after the 4 and a half years of 3 consecutive awards, I wanted a challenge, and I've actually now assumed a traditional AE role, all hunt. And honestly, it's been amazing. I've already blown out the quarter, my first quarter, and looking to the future for more continued hunt. Love it.

22:27 Scott Ingram: Love it. Great, great stuff. And I know we've been asked not to speak to any specific numbers. Maybe we can frame this in terms of percentages, but what… maybe just quantify your results for us in whatever way you Sure.

22:40 Eddie Baez: So the whole meritocracy of it all was based on, you know, percentages. Who was the most, you know, who had the largest percentage above target? And year over year for those 3 years, I was 150 or more percent above target. I think my best year was 157% above target, which was, you know, at that point unheard of for the role. I mean, stepping into it my first year, 2014, I think the historical retention rate was like 23%, and I actually doubled it. And actually, you know, I think before I ended was like at 50-something percent. So it was, it was quite an accomplishment. And I, and I, in, in my last year, I hit the million-dollar club. So I had brought in over $1 million in new business in the role.

23:22 Scott Ingram: That's fantastic. What a, what a great, great story. So speaking of stories, what's the origin story? How did you get into sales in the first place? Yeah.

23:30 Eddie Baez: So as always, this is always a great topic and one that, you know, brings up a lot of great memories. So, okay. Okay, when I… I think the first time I got ever introduced to the concept of sales was actually in middle school and high school. Like I said, it was a barren wasteland of, you know, sales professionals in my immediate community, in my immediate family. And the first person… and I always… I still call him to this day, Mr. Carlos, if you're out there, thank you. This was my then, I think, dean. And now he's the principal of Frederick Douglass Academy in the Bronx, Frederick Douglass Academy degree. And basically, Mr. Carlos and I were working together on the Scholar Ambassador Program. And, you know, while I was there, you know, we basically were tasked with trying to get more parents into the school, finding quality students to bring into the fold. And he would hear my conversations, you know, I'd be selling it to the parents, like, you know, this is a stepping stone towards their greatness, stepping stone towards their, you know, careers, and why not find the best place here. And he would keep hearing me and pitching And he just took me aside one day. He goes, man, you have the gift of gab. And frankly, if you don't do sales, I don't know what else you, you know, like this, this is it for you. Like, you are absolutely fantastic. And I was like, what do you mean? Like, you know, Macy's behind the counter? And he was like, absolutely not. You know, there's so many businesses. The world revolves around revenue and bringing in business. And, you know, companies are always looking for great sales professionals. And I think you would do exceptional. And boy, was he right. You know, know, and then to layer on top of that, my whole life I've been called Mr. Rogers by all my friends. I mean, I was the guy making friends with people on the subway that I had, you know, that I've never met, always looking for new people to talk to. So, you know, fast forward into graduating college, my now fiancée, you know, we were talking about kind of my next steps. And at first I wanted to take a year off, you know, naive me. I was like, oh, you know, I graduated early, might as well just take a year off to kind of hit the refresh button. And she wasn't having it. You know, she was, she was like, man, you graduated, you did all this hard work. Let's, let's start your career, man. What is it that you want to do? And, you know, it was her pushing me and us wanting better for ourselves and setting ourselves up for success that she actually told me about her, you know, previous internship at NCR. And I think this one was really crucial for me because I applied not really knowing or thinking, having any expectations of what that would turn into. And basically, you know, I got a role. One of the first roles I actually applied for and interviewed for was to sell point-of-sale terminals, which are basically the computers at restaurants where people, you know, kind of the servers will place your order. So I, you know, fast forward, I get the job. And while on the job, I, you know, they have one… and this is a big shout out to them… they have probably one of the best sales training programs I've had the pleasure of being a part of. And, you know, I actually found out later on that, you know, their founder, John Patterson, had written the first sales book on, you know, what it means to be a professional salesperson. And it really hasn't changed much. I mean, insofar as they really are kind of, you know, built around a culture of success in sales. So I held multiple positions there, both inside and outside sales, and I found my passion for it when I hit the inside sales role. And that's really where I think, you know, just my love of, you know, crushing quotas and all that started. And then I found IBISWorld. And I will say beyond a shadow of a doubt, that's where I learned how to sell, you know, mostly because of the culture. You know, in the beginning when I started out, there was a lot I didn't know despite having learned all of that at NCR. You know, this… in this role, I was given a lot of, you know, kind of free rein to, to, to, you know, mess up and learn from my mistakes. And a lot of positive reinforcement from management just showing me, hey, you know, this is what you can learn from this. And, you know, between reading SPIN Selling and doing, you know, as many webinars as I could, that's really where kind of I learned to sell successfully. I failed a lot at first. I mean, a lot. I probably delivered the 30 worst webinars of my career in my first month on the job. And honestly, it was the most rewarding experience because I learned the most then. And then last but not least, I think somewhere along the line, I think it was like my first year winning the award going into my second year, I had the pleasure of being placed on a scholarship to do the Dale Carnegie program. They're Winning with Relationship Selling. And that's where I met one of my best friends and current mentors, Scott Fennick. He's currently the head of global sales training at Hearst and by far and away one of the best salespeople and just really the embodiment of all things sales. This guy was so transformative for me and he really gave me the confidence to sell and, and, and really just excel at what I did.

28:27 Scott Ingram: Man, there's a thousand directions I want to go. I mean, that's so much good stuff. I mean, the first thing I'll say before I forget is the NCR, National Cash Register, like origin story, just the beginnings of that company is fascinating. And, you know, I love this piece of, it sounds like a lot of your formational, foundational learning and education is, you know, like quote unquote old school, right? But it's the stuff that is fundamental that hasn't changed in 100 years, right? It's, it's the, it's the NCR sales training. It's Dale Carnegie. It's, it's some of those things where, man, that stuff's never going to go out of style. Like it's, it's one of those just, you know, you can, you can buy, I'm not into fashion, but I'll use it as, as an example, right? Like you can, you can buy something like really cool and modern, but you know, 6 months from now it's going to be irrelevant and you won't be able to wear it because you'll look like a goon. Or you could buy something that's just super classic that next years from now, 20 years from now, it's, it's going to be, it's going to be something. Why don't we talk about, there's 2 directions I want to go. You mentioned kind of the failure component. We'll get to that. But I want to talk about just the, the learning piece, because one of the things I know that continues to be true about you, given our involvement, the conversations we've had, the, the speed at which you jumped into contributing and being a part of the first Sales Success Stories book, and now getting ready to write for and contribute to and have stories in the next book. Talk about just how you've gone about… what's been your structure for all of that personal development? Because I know you've taken just a huge level of ownership around it and continue to.

30:07 Eddie Baez: 100%. That's… I mean, whoo, that one's a loaded one. So for starters, I am a very avid reader. I mean, I am voracious when it comes to my appetite for books. My fiancée and I are constantly at odds with one another because I don't have any more room in my library at this point. And every week I'm getting a new book. So I've had to switch to Audible. But I will say, I think of National Treasure, the movie, when I think about sales. First and foremost, I'm extremely old school. I'm almost like an old soul when it comes to it. You know, the Og Mandino's, the positive reinforcement and mindset to the Tom Hopkins, you know, Mastering the Art of Sales. I'm always looking for that secret puzzle piece, you know, like in National Treasure, The one treasure leads to the next treasure that leads down all the way to the, to the very, you know, cinematic ending where he finds that, that big treasure that he was looking for, that big document. So for me, I've always have been on the search and always looking for new things, both old and new, that I can, that I can bring into, you know, my professional development, because I would say it's definitely a mixed bag of both. And, you know, I think that there are profound topics and old school topics that will just never go away. You know, I'm very much the old school pick up the phone guy, but I also know that there's power in social selling as well. And for me, you know, coming out of college, there's really not that many colleges, you know, my college included, that really teach sales. I think, you know, less than 4% or like under 100 out of the thousands of schools in the US actually teach sales as an actual profession, an actual class at school. So, you know, a lot of it was me having to lean on the pillars of the community through books. You know, I started I started out reading the Sales Bible, you know, the Tom Hopkins, the Art Sobczaks, you know, I hope I'm saying that right, Art Sobczak. But, you know, there were so many great gurus and guides that, you know, Brian Tracy, God, Zig Ziglar, so many great and profound people in the craft. And I felt like, look, if I read every book there ever was to be read about sales and applied as much of it as I could, there would be no end to the success. And that was some… that was my guiding beacon. So there was no book, there was, there was nothing that could have been a suggestion from any of these people that I didn't take seriously. And I just took ownership of it and just leaned in and I read as much as I could on the train, you know, right before bed, in the morning, whatever opportunity I had that, you know, that allowed me to go in and do some fact-finding. That was me, man. It was just voracious. I love it.

32:43 Scott Ingram: I love it. And so this, this is funny and this will, this will give some insight into when we're recording this. So I'm pretty sure we'll release this the end of October. Actually, we're probably at the very, maybe the last couple of days of the big crowdfunding campaign for the next book project. So if you're just into it the way that Eddie is and you're voracious and you can't get enough of this stuff, and if you're not, heck, you need to be. It's a, it's certainly a common theme. The sales tip that I released this morning, it's tip number 259. I was reflecting on a couple of conversations over the course of the previous week here. And one of those things was just, you know, the session that we had over drinks with yourself, with Sebastian, with Scott, and the number of books that were mentioned in the course of that conversation can't have been less than 30. I mean, we, there was, I mean, it was, it was almost like a shorthand to share a thought on a topic. Like it was like, we're going to reference this book. So I just, I thought that was, I thought that was fascinating. And then you really contributed a significant insight that I'm now following through with is as we work on assembling the second volume of Sales Success Stories and this next collection of these stories from, from top sales performers like Eddie. What Eddie called out, he's like, Scott, look, there's the book that's missing in sales is the book that talks about the creativity that's required and creativity at every level, the creativity in finding a way to get that meeting and get in the door and get somebody interested and the creativity around structuring the deal and negotiating and getting things done and the creativity needed to work within your organization and to serve your clients and all of these things. And I think it was certainly embedded within the first Sales Success Stories book. There were some of those things, but now I'm really turning it into directive guidance to those who are contributing to this next volume and asking them, hey, Hey, as you're thinking about this, think about the times that you've been the most creative in your career that has served you well and where you've had a great win. Because I think it's just such an incredible, incredible insight. And I'm putting a huge burden on Kevin, who does all of the show notes for these episodes and has to find all of the resources. We have to be careful. I'll try not to name actually 30 books, but when you go and you look at the show notes from these episodes and you go to top1.fm and find the links to all the books that we mentioned and all the podcasts and apps and, and all, and Dale Carnegie and all this great stuff, it's thanks to Kevin. So we'll have to be a little bit careful about not bringing all of that into bear. But I just, I love the, the drive and the passion that you have for it. And the fact that, you know, it's not something that you did at the start of your career and you got to a point where you're like, okay, cool, I got it. I don't, I don't need to learn anymore. It feels like you're, you're just as voracious as I've been.

35:41 Eddie Baez: 100%. And I think my favorite moment in that conversation was when Sebastian was was like, you know, one of my big favorites. I constantly reread it. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. And I had it in my book bag and I just popped it out and I was like, man, this, this is the most hilarious thing. And I just, I love that moment. Like, that was great for me.

36:00 Scott Ingram: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And again, foundational book. Like, if you haven't read that book more than once, you're way behind the times. Like, that's… there's something amazing and incredible about that particular book. Again, just from that, that foundational perspective. So Eddie, talk about why don't we go that creative direction? Like what's, what's the most creative thing you've done, or maybe not the most creative, but give us, give us a creative story about something that you've done just in your day-to-day to, to, to win a deal or, or get opportunity.

36:32 Eddie Baez: Yeah, absolutely. So I, I love creativity. I think that probably anytime somebody tells me, you know, or, or has a critical issue or challenge that they're having with the client, they, they know that I'm pretty good about getting creative solutions. You know, or trying to get as creative as humanly possible. I'm the guy, you know, like many of the SDRs, I'm writing handwritten notes, sending gift baskets. You know, one of my big things, and I know we're going to probably cover it later, you asked about routines and when I'm traveling, I will always go out of my way, no matter how far the distance, to Yelp the best either donut place or the best, you know, buzzy kind of food place in their area. And I always bring it to meetings because the first topic of conversation and really the best way to disarm and defuse people is having something that is part of the culture, part of their, you know, right in their neighborhood. And, you know, I do that all the time because more often than not, it sparks conversation and gets that trust capital up, man. You know, James Muir always talks about trust capital and how it's always missing that linkage. So we always have to kind of proactively search for it either through a Or somebody who we've already sold, and you know just be it's those little things like taking the time to acknowledge where they're from in the culture that means so much more to the client and the prospective clients. So no matter the distance, I will always do that as part of my pre-travel plan. And it's one of those small little creative things you can do just to really spice up a conversation. Love that.

38:01 Scott Ingram: That's a great great idea. I've also seen the the flip side. I will see people. People bring something iconic from where they're from, right? So if, if I'm coming to see you from Austin and I'm going to visit you in New York, maybe I bring you some Salt Lick barbecue sauce. Or actually, this is, this is a threat I, I ended up not having to make good on, and I've not… I've still not even done this. In Austin, there is an epically famous barbecue spot called Franklin's, and the deal with Franklin's is you stand in starting at, I don't, like ridiculously early. You basically need to plan to stand in line for about 4 hours before they start serving lunch and they sell meat until they sell out and they sell out every day. They've sold out every day they've ever done it. And it's this experience, right? You, you just, you stand in line for hours and hours and you get this supposedly epic barbecue. Like I said, I haven't done it, but I had a client. We were, we were making an internal transition. And so I was picking up this relationship and he was used to being brought, I don't remember what the, what the food item was, but there was some sort of treat, some sort of ritual that the previous account rep had with this guy. And I said, hey, look, I know that you guys have this level of relationship. I don't want this to downgrade in any way at all. So I said, my commitment to you is the next time I come out to see you that morning, I'm going to go stand in line at Franklin's for you and I'm going to bring you Franklin's barbecue. Now, unfortunately, Michael changed companies before I ever made good on that offer because I would have. I'm, I'm a man of my word. But, you know, I, I think those, those are great, right? Whether you're bringing it from, from where you are or you're, or you're bringing them stuff, you know, there's just something about food and, and those discussions and, and we remember them. Like, people are gonna remember the fact that, you know, we, we mentioned Franklin's or they're gonna go look it up at, at the very least, cuz it's definitely an experience and people certainly talk about it and, and document their, their journeys in, in line to be sure.

39:59 Eddie Baez: And, you know, on, on the topic of creativity, I, I, I read a lot of psychology topics, or a lot of topics on psychology. And, you know, one of the big things is like people do have emotional anchors to food, myself included. I consider myself very much an emotional eater. I eat through my problems sometimes. But what I will say is like, you know, whether it's that meal your mom made when you were a kid that you will forever remember, you know, or you go to a different country. So I remember the first time I went to Scotland, and I'll never forget the moment I had haggis for the first time. I remember the exact location. I remember everything around me. I remember it was like, you know, a really amazing bar. Like, it's been there since like the 1800s. It's just an amazing place. And think about it, it always comes back to what I was eating that day. And that goes for every place I've ever been to. Escargot in Paris, right? Like, it really has a really strong emotional impact on people. And I think, you know, when you take the time to do a little research and find out what people are really enjoying You know, it just, it really makes a huge difference psychologically too.

41:03 Scott Ingram: Yeah. I'll make one more point because we could talk about this topic by itself for probably 30 minutes, but you know, I, the, one of the ways that I sort of think about this, I mean, we just finished and you were there. It's, it's so weird talking about a thing that's going to happen next week that, that has now happened as people were listening to this. But as, as I work on the Sales Success Summit, I really try, it's not just the food. I mean, the food's kind of a part of it, but it's really thinking about just the entire experience. And I think that absolutely applies to the way that you're engaging with your clients, and especially if you're going to be there in person. So the experience of I'm bringing them food, or just other ways that you can sort of connect that and do creative, unique things where now there's this emotional, real connection, memorable connection I remember Eddie. I remember when we went, you know, to that particular place. I remember having that extraordinarily spicy drink where I couldn't even have another one. And I'm from Austin. Like, I don't know what the heck they put in that drink. It was freaking spicy. So, you know, just those kinds of connections and experiences and tying that in with the conversation and things that happen. I mean, I know for a variety of reasons that conversation that we had this last week week is gonna stick with me and it's going to be quite memorable and, and may have some very, very, very lasting impacts given on, on some of the topics that we, that we discussed.

42:28 Eddie Baez: Same. I mean, the whole topic of shared experience was, you know, it was like a million light bulbs went off and, and all I could think about was how I can incorporate that into my day-to-day at work. And even with clients, it's like, how great of an experience can I craft? How creative can I get? And, you know, what, what are going to be the benefits of me going ahead and doing that? I mean, I, I think that that was by far way, you know, right now, one of the, one of the biggest topics that I think we could delve so much deeper into in the community, and definitely something that is not overlooked, but we could do a better job as always.

43:02 Scott Ingram: Yeah, for sure. And even applying it to a virtual experience, right? We're talking about a lot of in-person type opportunities here. I don't see any reason why we can't get super creative and make a Zoom meeting just an amazing experience for somebody. And how do you do that? Right? And, or how do you take your, your Vidyard Go video and do something just completely out of the box. I know I'm just getting ready to judge a contest that they're having for sales videos, and I'm super excited to see that again, just to see the creativity and see and pick up different ideas on, on what people are, are doing. All right, Eddie, let's, let's, let's ride the emotional rollercoaster down now. And you talked about some of the failures and some of the, the webinar issues that you had kind of early I'll let you go in whatever direction you want to go, right? Whether it's a time where you found yourself to be the most challenged or you just had a series of those sorts of failures, like what would… what has been the hardest part in the whole of your sales career?

44:03 Eddie Baez: Well, 2 actually immediately come to mind. The first one was during that period where I was failing a lot at first. And the second is actually right now in this new transition. So I'll speak to the first one. Basically, in the beginning of my career here at IBISWorld, you know, like I said, I failed a lot and I failed really fast. And I remember reading… I forgot, so many books, right? I remember one of the authors saying how you have to fail fast and fail hard. And the only way to really learn anything is through failure, right? You don't learn from the wins. And I don't 100% agree with that, but I definitely think you learn more from the failures. And so I got this idea in my mind of like, look, man, how can I fail hard? How can I fail fast? And what does failure really look like? You know, because it is very much relative. And I immediately thought, all right, well, I need to get through these webinars and this is the most airtime I have with clients. I remember we did some average of like how many minutes we had on the phone with clients. And I said, all right, if it's, you know, 10 minutes on average with every single client interaction, I want that to be 50. 15 minutes. And what is it that I can add to, you know, extend that time so that I have more time to give a value prop or whatever it was. And my biggest takeaway from that experience was failure for me was not knowing, right? Whatever it was that the client asked me that I didn't know, it was, it was now a new search or something new that I had to really learn and keep close to, close to my heart. Because I was like, you know, this is going to be, these are going to be the same questions somebody else might have. So for me, failure was not knowing in the constant pursuit of learning more about my product and about the types of customer profiles we were dealing with. So number one, I mean, failure doesn't mean failure. I think that, you know, it is relative and you have to define failure for what, what you think it is versus what other people think it is. And it has to be very much intrinsic to your kind of moral compass. So I think that when you go about it, you know, always look for the silver lining, always look for what can be learned from that failed experience and just push forward, right? I did like 30 webinars, which was a record, I think, at the time. And, you know, I booked all these meetings. I had all these people asking me a billion questions I didn't know the answer to. So I got really good at saying, I don't know, but I'm committed beyond a shadow of a doubt to knowing everything I can about that question and getting back to you. And that was the biggest takeaway for me. The second one, or the second experience I think upon is my new role as an AE. So like I said, it was… the previous role was very much hybrid, so it had a lot of hunter aspects to it, but I, I always had someone that I could just kind of leverage in the conversation, almost kind of like a warm lead, not really, because, you know, it was really a mixed bag. Some people wouldn't even know that they had assigned, you know, someone to work with them. So, you know, I, you know, in, in this new role, it's, it's very much completely hunter, completely creating my own demand and generating, you know, all my leads. It's full ownership of the sales cycle and everything was 100% transferable. I'm pretty much doing 90% of the same. And that 10% is really just the prospecting, which, you know, I was always doing prospecting, but now it's changed a little bit. It's taken on a new identity for me. And, you know, kind of coupled with that is, you know, the pressure and the immense kind of self-assurance of like, hey, Hey man, you were the 3-time CRM of the Year. Can you do that again in this role? And, you know, what are the expectations? What are people thinking about you right now? Like, what if you fail and let yourself and everyone else down? You know, if you don't, if you can't do this the same way you did the other one, that other role I had down, you know, with my eyes closed. And now I'm basically having to recreate process and, and start over again. And it's like climbing Mount Everest all over again from, you know, starting at the foot foothills. So that, that I think is the biggest challenge for me right now of, you know, getting out of my head and, you know, really targeting and being specific about the type of self-talk that I, that I'm having with myself every single day.

47:57 Scott Ingram: That's, that's so funny. I'm sitting here thinking about, okay, which direction do I go? Because once again, you're giving me all sorts of threads to, to pull on. But just your, your conclusion there was perfect because what I was thinking about was we've really got to talk about the, the mindset piece because what I just throughout your answer obviously is a different perspective on failure, right? Failure is not bad. It's just, it's just part of the, part of the process. And you, you've gotta look for the, the learnings and the outcomes and, and those kinds of things. What's your process just in general? And talk about, again, talk about this however you want to managing your mindset.

48:29 Eddie Baez: Yeah. So a lot of it is finding motivation, finding, you know, I already know my whys, but I think that there's something to be said about knowing your whys and also having something to support them and carry you through those difficult moments. And for me, anytime I'm out of sorts, the first person I turn to is Les Brown. For anyone who doesn't know, he's a phenomenal motivational speaker. I've listened to everyone from Tony Robbins, Wayne Dyer, Dr. Wayne Dyer. I've listened to, you know, Dr. Rob Gilbert, the Success Hotline. I used to listen to that literally every single day when I started my day. That was part of my morning routine every day when I started. But whenever I was really, really out of sorts, losing touch with myself, or, you know, things just got toxic in my head, Les Brown was always the guy to turn things around for me. And I think everybody should definitely invest time into finding who that person is. You know, his big mantra is, it's possible. And I know that sounds really simple, and for some people maybe even a little silly, but anytime I'm really getting out of sorts and I'm really feeling like, man, this is so insurmountable, like I don't even know where to start. And just telling that to myself and remembering all of his great, you know, anecdotes and just motivational speeches like that, that it's possible line, it just keeps replaying in my head over and over again.

49:48 Scott Ingram: Dude, I love that. So what I heard was really 2 things, right? So anchoring back to the whys that drive you, but also just doing the exploration and finding that, that person that speaks to you the most, right? The person that motivates you, that inspires you, and just you know, having that well that, you know, if I'm in a bad place, I need to, I need to pull myself out of this. In your case, you, you've, you've done enough of an exploration to know my go-to is Les Brown. I know exactly where I got to get to, to fix myself.

50:21 Eddie Baez: 100%.

50:22 Scott Ingram: That's awesome. So let's talk about the, the routine stuff because that's, that's always important. And I, I know you know the drill, but for, for those, again, if you're, if you're newer to the show and you haven't heard me ask this Basically, the framework is I want as detailed a blow-by-blow of your typical day as I can get, from the time your alarm goes off and what time that happens until your head hits the pillow that night and when that happened and most of the standard components in between.

50:48 Eddie Baez: Awesome. Yeah. So I usually wake up around 6:30 every day. On the days that I work from home, I might give myself an extra hour. Totally depends on the type of day I'm going to have. I'm always waking up in the morning with my fiancée and we watch the news together. Together. And that really helps us to just kind of understand what's going on. I'm looking for, you know, threads of information that I can bring on to calls or conversations with clients. So I definitely watch the news every single morning, both international and local news. You know, right after that, you know, we, we start getting ready. Everything is prepped the night before. So I've already looked at my calendar, I've already looked at my emails, I've got… I've ironed my clothes, everything. I don't scramble in the morning. I, I refuse used to. And it really helps to give me an even-keeled just mood as soon as I walk out the door. I have my coffee ready, everything's prepped the night before. So, you know, we walk out and then basically, you know, we're on the bus. I'm just rechecking my calendar and rechecking my emails just so I know if there's anything that I need to reprioritize. Basically after that, you know, I flag anything that, that needs immediate attention and then I completely disconnect. You know, my commute into the job is about an hour, hour and a half. So, you know, on the topic of professional development, I'm always in the pursuit. So that hour train ride is my escape. You know, I, I listen to an audiobook, I bring on a physical book, LinkedIn Learning, you know, whatever I can get my hands on that day that, that really helps me, you know, to, to get in that mindset and ready. And sometimes, you know, funny enough, whatever I'm reading that day, in, in some instance throughout the day, whether it's in a company meeting or a conversation with a client, it always comes up somehow. And it's like, you know, it's such a great moment to be like, I read that this morning on the train. So I like to really do that as much as possible because I always chuckle at the fact that how many times it comes up, you know, every day, day to day. And then for the days I'm feeling really burnt out or like, you know, every… I feel like everybody is, you know, at some point kind of hits that threshold. You know, if I'm not reading or listening or learning. I'm listening to music like many others on the podcast. But very specifically, I listen to artists that came from the Bronx, because it's a constant reminder that it's possible, right? Going back to Les Brown, these are people in my community who made it, who broke through, are making millions of dollars. And I happen to also love their music. So that's the Cardi Bs of the world, the A Boogies of the world from Highbridge, literally 5 blocks over from where I grew up. I listen to that and it really pumps me up right before, you know, Thursday or Friday. So that's, that's definitely something I do. And then, you know, fast forward, I'm in the office. And, you know, after all the greetings and getting, you know, getting settled in, immediately I tackle those things that I already flagged and prioritized, get the hardest thing out of the way for the rest of the day. And immediately I'm touching all my hot accounts, making sure that they're getting the appropriate amount of attention and time. And then after all that's out of the way, you know, I want to say around, you know, 10, 11 o'clock, it's all about prospecting. Sometimes it'll extend to noon. So right after lunch, it's all about prospecting and continuing to fill my pipeline with new and hot opportunities. So, you know, after the day is done, that's pretty much rinse and repeat from then on.

54:05 Scott Ingram: So let's, let's go into the details on the prospecting side. So you're, you're clearly blocking good chunks time to do it. What are you doing and how are you doing it?

54:14 Eddie Baez: Yeah, so I take a very much vertical-specific focus. I like to just pick a particular vertical. We're very industry agnostic, so we have different value props for a whole host of different industries. So I try to get my messaging just right. And the best way to do that is just picking a vertical and leaning in, right? So I'm making, you know, 50, 60 dials on off days. If I have a lot going on, it'll be 30 dials, but I try to make them quality dials. And I think to do that, you have to first and foremost know, A, you know, which are your strongest verticals, which ones do you feel the most comfortable in. And I'm not saying avoid the ones you don't, but I think that there's something to be said about, you know, I, I feel really comfortable with consulting clients. It's, it's the one vertical I sell the most of because I know that business inside out. I know the model. So I try to use what I… and leverage what I've… what already what I've learned, sell-by stories, anecdotes from all those other clients. And then I, I, I basically lean, lean in and, and do as many cold calls and as many, you know, personalized emails as I can. And, and more often than not, I start getting little tidbits from people, you know, either through the rejection or if we're actually able to book an appointment. There's something I can take from that person and leverage in the next conversation. I'm also a big firm believer of mail merges and email campaigns. We have a marketing department and they do a phenomenal job, but I am very A-type and I love taking control of my client's experience and my own just, you know, ability to manifest opportunities. So, you know, whether it's using our internal resources or our tools or just doing traditional mail merges using Excel spreadsheets and doing a lot of manual work, I like to personally craft the messaging and, you know, obviously, you know, making sure that it's compliant, but I like to make sure that I'm taking as much control of that communication, that narrative as possible. So I do that fairly frequently throughout the week. And, you know, if anything you can ask about me, it's, it's that I am very unrelent… like, I'm very relentless when it comes to my activities. You know, I've had months where I have 5,000 activities, you know, and, and all manual, you know, between a mix of cold calls, prospecting, LinkedIn InMails, whatever, you know, avenue we take with it, whatever medium. So that, that's typically how I structure it. To day and week to week.

56:30 Scott Ingram: Awesome. And, and then the, the evening piece. So when, when and how are you then setting up the day? So you kind of teased that, that you don't have to do any of that work in the morning because you got it all set up the night before. Talk about that, that evening setup.

56:43 Eddie Baez: Yeah, absolutely. So first and foremost, I'm a night owl. I still can't relate with people who wake up at 4:30. And, and it's funny because I always aspire to that, and, and I've just come to terms with the fact that I just really am a night owl, which, which also plays to my favor because the night before I usually, you know, after dinner, after we've watched some really bad TV, you know, we, you know, before we settle in and go to bed, I set aside a good, you know, 20 to 30 minutes just to again, go through my emails, kind of check off, you know, a list of priorities and make sure that I know what my day is going to look like the next day. So I know where to prioritize, when to have lunch, all those little things. And I try to be very intentional about every last conversation and every last item on my to to-do list. So, you know, I use Wunderlist and Todoist to get things organized. I make sure that if there's something that I absolutely need to remember, I put it on the calendar and I set a reminder. So that's usually what I do.

57:36 Scott Ingram: And then is there, is there time blocking involved as well in terms of the way that you're managing the prospecting? Kind of like, is it, is that blocked out on your calendar? How does that, or it's just at this point enough of a routine that, you know, hey, 10:30 rolls around and it's game on?

57:50 Eddie Baez: It's definitely the latter. I used to block out 2, 3, 4 hours to do it straight. Now because of how I've structured things and because I get most of that hard heavy lifting stuff out of the way in the morning, I usually have my afternoons pretty, you know, free. And I also have very specific times where I book appointments. So I'm very intentional about trying to get everything done by 2 o'clock so that from, you know, 3 to 5, or, you know, maybe it's from, you know, 1 o'clock on, I have that afternoon ready to go for prospecting. So I try to book all my meetings early in the morning when I'm sharp, I'm ready to to go. And then after that, everything in the afternoon is pretty much, you know, focused around, you know, prospecting.

58:29 Scott Ingram: Interesting. So my approach is actually the exact opposite because I have all of my energy and strength in the morning. So that's typically when I will do my prospecting and the harder parts of my work. And then I know that I'm gonna fade in the afternoon. So that's when I put all of my meetings because I know if I'm talking to people, if I'm in a conversation, well, I'm not gonna fade. I'm not gonna bonk in the middle of a conversation. Conversation like I might in the middle of trying to build a proposal or, you know, who knows what, what else. So, you know, I think it's just interesting to kind of recognize and flow with some of those different, different rhythms. Speaking of which, Eddie, it's fun to ask you, have you read the book When, W-H-E-N, by Daniel Pink?

59:08 Eddie Baez: I haven't. I have read To Sell Is Human by Daniel Pink. And that's after that conversation we had. I already ordered it. So it's on its way.

59:16 Scott Ingram: So how many books did you need to order after that conversation?

59:19 Eddie Baez: About 4 or 5. The David Goggins book is already on its way. The Daniel Pink book is on its way. A lot, I guess. In short, it's a lot of books after that conversation.

59:28 Scott Ingram: That's awesome. Well, you couldn't have given me a better setup for just kind of the information diet question. And obviously, we've talked about a lot of the different pieces. So the pieces that I've gathered, and I'll just let you elaborate, is you're leveraging the commute. You've got lots of time on a bus to be consuming the content. We've talked about kind of what Some of it is there being a lot of books and Audible and things like that. What, what else? I mean, what, what sort of drives… is, is it conversationally driven, right? Is, is that how the list of materials gets built? Because you have this epic, this epic conversation with Scott and Sebastian and another Scott over, over drinks, and now you've got 4 more books to read, or what's, what's the whole kind of process there?

1:00:08 Eddie Baez: 100%. I journal a lot, but I don't have specific times when I journal. I literally bought my Galaxy Note just because it had a stylus and because I knew I'd be using it very often. So, Every opportunity I get, every little piece of information I get, I try to journal it out in my Galaxy. And, you know, similar to what you just described, anytime somebody's, you know, giving me a book recommendation, an Audible recommendation, immediately the stylus comes out and I'm definitely putting it down as the next one to read. So that's definitely it. As far as like what I'm reading right now, we talked… we actually talked about some of these already, but recently through a very interesting Interesting friendship that happened that actually started at a spa. A gentleman actually introduced me to the book called We First by Simon Mainwaring, and it basically introduces the topic of social enterprise and the power of driving capitalism through social missions and purpose. And it's a phenomenal book if you haven't read it. I think it's really where the economy is going. And as a millennial, I know the importance of having things bigger than yourself that really drive your decisions. And I think it's a really great read. We talked about the topic of diversity and inclusion. I hope we come back to it. But The Inclusion Dividend by Mark Kaplan and Mason Donovan, it is the best and most codified book on learning about D&I, diversity and inclusion in the workplace. And I think they're doing… they're real change agents in the workplace and really making a strong business case in favor for D&I and all the tangible benefits you get from having such distinct perspectives in the workplace. Then this one's really quirky and funny, and I hope if he's listening, he recognizes that it came through in the book. But anybody who's a Million Dollar Listing fan, Ryan Serhant actually wrote a book called Sell It Like Serhant. Basically, he's the quirkiest, most creative guy I've ever seen on television and Sure enough, he does a bang-up job of having that come through in his book. And I read that, I devoured that in like 3 days. Like, I, I hadn't had so much fun reading a book. And, you know, it's funny because immediately you're like, okay, well, is it going to be a book on just how to sell in real estate? And it's so not. And he brings up the topic about improv and getting creative and going outside the box. And it really got all my creative juices flowing. And I think it's a phenomenal book. Phenomenal book to pick up.

1:02:33 Scott Ingram: Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, I'm still… I haven't picked it up yet, but We First is at the top of my list based on both your recommendation and Scott's as well. So looking forward to digging into that one. What about the tools and apps? So your Galaxy Note and your note-taking and obviously Audible. What else is kind of the core parts of the Eddie stack?

1:02:51 Eddie Baez: Yep. So as I mentioned, Yelp, for all the reasons I outlined earlier, but also out of the ones that I haven't talked about, all the news apps. I know I watch the news, but I have alerts on my phone for anything major, you know, and I usually try to keep it neutral and nonpolitical. So I always look for something that's, you know, going to really make a difference in a conversation or maybe just bring something up in a conversation that kind of jolts the person to action. You know, I remember I had a conversation recently with someone about the wildfires in the Amazon rainforest and how it had been going on for 2 to 3 weeks. And, you know, immediately the whole paradigm of the conversation shifted. And it turns out she was very big into, you know, preserving the environment and really kind of, you know, trying to do our best to maintain it and sustainability. So the whole conversation, you know, we bonded over it. So I think, you know, setting those alerts and getting ahead of, you know, any newsworthy things that, you know, again, are neutral, nonpolitical, are great must-haves in conversations with clients.

1:03:48 Scott Ingram: Awesome. I'm curious about the neutral, nonpolitical. I'm finding that's harder and harder to find these days. So what do you find to be the best news sources that check that particular box?

1:03:58 Eddie Baez: Okay. So I think you have to discern. All right. Every media outlet has its own kind of audience. And that's something that you learn in Toastmasters, right? Know your audience. I do like CNN. I think that they have… every media outlet has its bias. But I also look at every channel. So whether that's Fox, I mean, literally every news channel in my zip code. And then I, you know, The Wall Street Journal is amazing at that. I have all… most of my alerts are coming from Wall Street Journal. I also have the Financial Times, which is great and heavy, you know, business-focused. TechCrunch, you know, a lot of the traditional ones. So I'm always looking there to find any, any, you know, kind of newsworthy business-focused articles.

1:04:40 Scott Ingram: Good stuff. We're gonna have to like give Kevin a tip because the list of links on this page are gonna be just beyond, beyond anything. So what about your sales philosophy? Do you, do you subscribe to sort of a particular approach?

1:04:55 Eddie Baez: I do actually, and a lot of it had to do with the role. But a lot of it is also stuff I very strongly believe in. So have you ever heard about, you know, have you ever heard the analogy of the pebbles and rocks? I'm sure it's probably been brought up in the podcast.

1:05:07 Scott Ingram: Actually, maybe, maybe not this one. So maybe you want to talk it through, but absolutely.

1:05:11 Eddie Baez: Okay. Yeah. So, you know, if you think about, if you have 2 bowls, right, and you could fill it with pebbles and rocks, the pebbles being obviously the smaller of the 2. And in the analogy, you think of the bowl as your quota. You know, the pebbles and rocks can both fill the bowl individually, right? You can have a bowl just full of pebbles or a bowl just full of rocks. And I think that it's in the perfect marriage of the two that you really find success. And, you know, if you treat every single interaction with clients, you know, and you take them all as seriously as humanly possible, no matter the deal size, it ultimately leads to success. Because no matter how small or how big… granted, the only thing that really changes is how strategic you need to get. You know, the transactional stuff is not going to take up a lot of your time, but it still should be taken seriously. And the big ones, the bolder Right? Those obviously will demand a lot more time, but it's in that union of the both that you build a mountain, right? And that's really how you build it… one pebble at a time. Nice.

1:06:05 Scott Ingram: Now, how would you describe your style?

1:06:07 Eddie Baez: Okay, so this one I had a lot of creative. Like I took a lot of creative liberty and had a lot of fun building this one. So if Mr. Rogers was a friendly neighborhood lawyer who had nothing but your best interests in mind, that's probably that's basically me. And a lot of people will tell you I'm like a walking hyperbole. You know, I'm Latino, so there's a lot of. Drama and exaggeration, all probably from all the telenovelas I used to watch with my mom. But it's a very authentic part of who I am and how my clients perceive me. And I like that, that authenticity. So, you know, my work ethic is grueling. And, you know, I think a combination of all those things, I, you know, I lead with empathy. I am very much, like I said, a consumer first. And I try to be as, you know, kind of dedicated to them and their challenges as humanly possible. But when it comes to my line of questioning. I'm almost borderline scientific. I have a lot of questions. They come at you fast. But I, I, I think that that's where I set myself apart. You know, one of my best, and, and, and honestly still one of my greatest mentors, is actually my current VP. He was then my manager in the role, and, you know, he was big on, you know, challenge your clients, kind of like the challenge your sale model, but more so on, on the things that maybe you feel uncomfortable talking about or whatever fears you have about bringing into a conversation, just put them out on display. And I think that's where I, I think I excel, is being able to ask the toughest questions possible and being okay in that ambiguity. Let's give an example of that. Okay, so, all right, so I had a client that told me flat out no. You know, we went through every possible thing. We went through, you know, the trials, the webinar, the sample reports, everything led… we defined the success criteria, right? What does success mean to you? How do you envision using this afterwards? Like, literally, we checked every single box and then finally arrived at a no. And it was a rather passive-aggressive no. And so I had to reflect a lot about what happened there. And then immediately I noticed that there was an extra layer of authority and decision-making that I didn't, you know, take into account. So immediately, you know, a week later, I gave it some time to breathe, and I call his boss and basically laid it out. I was like, look, man, this is what we did. You know, I guess it was an accountability exercise, but, you know, basically outlined everything that we did. And frankly, you know, after that conversation, it was very clear to me that he actually didn't know everything that was going on. And there were still some gaps in communication that I think wasn't being conveyed. And, you know, it's like a big game of phone when you have other stakeholders involved. Not everything gets siphoned through. And that's just like me. I have a boss. Sometimes, you know, you don't want to cast any unfavorable light or lose face with your boss. So you maybe omit things that need to be brought up. So I kind of, you know, I called him out on it and essentially told him, you know, kind of the things that actually did happen and the fact that we did have great positive usage on the trial, you know, asked him like, listen, man, you know, was it fit, functionality, finance, timing, to quote Victor Antonio, you know, what was it, you know, and he outright said like, we had… we're negotiating a much bigger contract with something, with a platform that has a lot more bearing on our day-to-day. And, you know, I asked him, I was like, you know, why wasn't that brought up? And he goes, frankly, you know, it's not something I would disclose to you. It's something that I make, you know, in decision with so-and-so. And, you know, at that point in time, I understood who the real authority figures were, who the real decision makers were. And it took me feeling uncomfortable asking that question to get there. Nice. And as an outcome, I actually got to secure our next appointment with him. Perfect.

1:09:45 Scott Ingram: Great, great story. Great, great story. So I want to come back to, again, a lot of these things we've touched on a little bit, but I still want to, I still want to dive in. And actually, there's a particular story that I'm hoping to prompt from you here in a minute. I'll remind you if you don't get there naturally. But talk about just what, what motivates you, or how do you think about motivation in general?

1:10:05 Eddie Baez: Yeah, I mean, for me, it's my parents. This one, this one's tough. All right. So growing up, my parents didn't separate, you know, right away. They didn't separate well into my teens. And, you know, frankly, if I'm 100% honest, my dad was actually a great guy and they're still really good friends, which helped a lot because, you know, when my mom got sick, he came back and helped us out. And it was very, you know, platonic, but it was help nonetheless. And I think he did a phenomenal job. And I think the biggest thing that both of my parents agreed on despite their differences was making sure that my brother and I were okay and that we had a future to come back to after all these big challenges were out of the way. So both of my parents immigrated from the Dominican Republic and my dad held down so many blue-collar jobs. I mean, from a foreman in the, a foreman in the Fashion District, a movie set security guard, which was probably his most fun job. And, you know, he got to meet Leonardo DiCaprio, which was cool. And then his last job was as a janitor at a pretty large company. But, you know, it was nothing but blue-collar jobs. My dad never took a sick day. Above everything else, he never complained about his jobs or anything that, you know, if money was tight, he'd never complain. And he was no stranger to picking up extra shifts to support the family. And then on the opposite side of the spectrum, my mom, you know, actually, sorry, not on the opposite side of the spectrum. Let's run that back. My mom, very similar to my father, you know, owned her own business, daycare business, and was a daycare provider for over 15 years. And the only time she wasn't doing it was when she got sick for about 5 or 6 years. And her immediate thought, like I said, you know, after, you know, getting sick, getting the great news that she was cancer-free, was that, you know, I need to get back to work, support my kids, and get through it. And for me, that is in the back of my mind just the most indelible thing possible. I mean, every time I feel like giving up or any time I feel feel like I don't want to keep going, I think back to that and I think about future me and my future kids. And I want to give them the same story. And I want this to teach the same intrinsic motivators and the work ethic that my parents instilled in me. Love it. Love it.

1:12:17 Scott Ingram: Love it. Yeah, I skipped a question earlier that I think is really relevant here.

1:12:21 Eddie Baez: What are you most proud of? Okay. Yeah, my biggest achievement, I think, I mean, it's hands down those 3 awards. If I had gotten it the first or second time, it wouldn't be as meaningful to me because the third time really solidified it. No one in the company had ever done it 3 years in a row. And, you know, to layer on top of that, coming back to the diversity piece, I'm not really certain that there were any Latinos that had actually achieved the award that many times. And that to me was kind of my crowning achievement and something that really made me proud of all the hard work I put in.

1:12:55 Scott Ingram: Now, you told me about a comment that was made, and I'm… I don't know if it was after the 3rd win or maybe had to do with, with a commission check or something like that.

1:13:03 Eddie Baez: You know what I'm talking about? I do, yeah. So, and this is probably, you know, one of the best conversations I've ever had professionally. So my then COO, you know, and I actually went out to lunch one day. This was after the third one. Basically, it was my best year ever, you know, had made the most I had ever made. And, you know, it somehow got brought up in the conversation, you know, and she said one of the most important things I ever needed to here. She basically reassured me that I was worth that and so much more, and that I needed to fully understand and truly believe and appreciate that statement because she had my back, and that no matter what she told me, she believed in me. And that was probably one of the most humbling and grateful moments of my career. And I think I speak for anyone in the business who, you know, is a minority sales professional who, you know, who has that chip on their shoulder. You know, people do care. And I think that, you know, it's so meaningful as sales leaders out there to really make sure that you reinforce that because, you know, imposter syndrome is real. As somebody who's the minority in a vast sea of different, I think that there is a place for that and that positive reinforcement can really change people's lives. So I really will encourage and highly recommend any sales leaders listening to this to please, please, please reinforce that, that worth and that self-esteem that, you know, I think, I think we need, you know, I think we need to get that positive reinforcement. Everybody's different. Not everybody's gonna kind of acknowledge it the same way. But just knowing that they had my back, that they believed in me, and that they thought I was worth more was definitely huge for me, you know, to hear. And on an emotional level.

1:14:44 Scott Ingram: Yeah. Do you remember the question I asked you afterwards?

1:14:46 Eddie Baez: I don't.

1:14:47 Scott Ingram: So please refresh my memory. So, so I asked you which was more important, was it the size of the check that you got or was it just that comment?

1:14:55 Eddie Baez: The comment, hands down, by far and away. You know, money, I've learned, is phenomenal. You know, listen, you wouldn't be in sales if you didn't intrinsically love more of it and felt like there wasn't ever enough. But I will say, you know, it's a recipe, it's a process, and you can get money. But I think that was something that I didn't get every day. It wasn't something that was scripted or inauthentic. It meant the world to me. It really did.

1:15:22 Scott Ingram: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you go back to, I think I talked about this, I think I talked about this in the very, like the introductory episode of Sales Success Stories. So just like 3 years ago, and the idea that sales professionals, like we have very, very simple wiring, right? We have, we have 2 buttons you can press. You can press a cash button and we like it when you press that very much. Please keep doing doing it. But the reality is we also have this recognition button and it very rarely gets pressed. And in most cases, it's much, much bigger than the cash button. So it's, it's just one of those, one of those opportunities. And then Eddie, I want to come back to, I'm going to have, when I'm done with this statement, I think the shared global experience of everybody that listens to this podcast will be them shaking their heads and going, you've got to be freaking kidding me, Eddie. So when Scott told me that you'd been the number 1 performer for the last 3 years in a row, and a fact that I had no idea, right? To me, you were an engaged, active listener. We'd had some great conversations. I was really excited about some of the things that, that you're working on that we'll still get to, I promise. But you, you told me, well, yeah, but I don't, I don't know that I'd have anything of value to share. So dude, we are, I don't know. I mean, there was a little bit that got caught up I mean, we're probably an hour and 20 minutes into this thing. We're not even close to being done. And I mean, you… I'm getting… for, I mean, for those of you listening, you… I hope that you agree. If you're still here, I'm sure that you do. I'm getting a ton of value from this. And I also… so one, I just want to acknowledge that, like, the value that you bring to this community is at an epic scale. And I appreciate you and I thank you for doing that. And I also want to just sort of show this to the audience. And I know Dale Dupree has sort of ragged on this as well in just a lot of the training and the educating that he's doing is it's super, super common, this imposter syndrome thing, this idea that, hey, there's nothing really special about me and my story and the value that I bring to bear. Like, it's just regular stuff. Like, that feeling is basically universal and you gotta get over it because freaking Eddie is telling me this right now or told me this earlier this week and now here we are, right? So if you are in that number 1 spot, I need you to reach out to me. We need to talk about potentially having a conversation together because I will. And I told the people at the… I told the people at the table, I'm like, Eddie, you haven't been subjected to what I do yet. Let me, let me this out of you and we'll have a great conversation. And, and that's exactly what's, what's happening. And, and just bringing that authentic piece forward. I had a great conversation last night catching up with, with Paul DiVincenzo, who's, who's on the podcast last year sometime, a great speaker at the, at the summit last year. And, you know, it's, it's about that being human piece. That's, that's so much at the core of, of what this is. And we've all got these stories. And is yours, is your story Eddie's story? No, only Eddie has Eddie's story. But we all have this, and there's, there's all of these, these great ideas and great stories. So please don't think of yourself as, oh, you know, there's nothing special about what I'm, what I'm doing, because there is. I really appreciate that.

1:18:47 Eddie Baez: And, you know, I will say, like, I remember when you went… when Scott said it to you, and my immediate reaction was like, listen, man, I'd be terrified because I don't think I could hold a candle to these guys. You know, when you think of the Trongs of the world, I met this guy so many many times, you know, the guy who sold the $100 million deal. I've never sold a million-dollar deal. Have I sold a million dollars? Yeah, absolutely. But I was sitting there so caught up in my own thoughts and really in my fear of, you know, saying, you know, to compare myself to someone who I thought and really revered as being so great and such a master of the craft that, you know, it's hard. It's hard to reconcile and, you know, put yourself in that position. And, you know, at the time, like, it was really just that. It was fear. And, and, and the fear of maybe not stacking up. And I feel like that's definitely something that I've battled my entire career of, you know, that constant comparison of, you know, am I that good? Am I as good as people say I am? And it's definitely something that I have to battle as part of my self-talk every day. Yeah.

1:19:48 Scott Ingram: So what's, what's going to happen now, because it happens to everybody that comes on the show, you're going to get this litany of LinkedIn connection requests. And what's fascinating to me, I don't always see them, right? Because folks don't send me the messages. It's you that… I just provide the platform, right? It's you that delivers this. They get shared with me every now and then. And what I love about them is they're never the, hey, Eddie, heard you on the podcast, want to connect. It's, you're going to get 3 or 4 paragraphs of this was really impactful. And I have a feeling that this is the thing that's going to get mentioned and reinforced for you. So when, when you connect with, with Eddie on LinkedIn and you share that really thoughtful note, I, I know he's going to appreciate it.

1:20:28 Eddie Baez: I definitely will. I could, I could tell you that.

1:20:31 Scott Ingram: So speaking of crazy, is, is there something you believe that the average sales professional would think is crazy? Yeah. Okay.

1:20:40 Eddie Baez: I get, I get into hot water with this one quite a bit. So some professionals think about, you know, the whole concept of asking for permission, you know, is, is often times a roadblock. And a lot of what I did in the role was actually the opposite. So I didn't want to ask for forgiveness later. I actually wanted to ask for permission upfront. And going back to that theme of trust capital, it's all in the way that you do it and the approach. I was fortunate enough to have someone in the organization who was marginally bought into the value of the tools that we were provided. And that person would be my springboard, right? Right? So, you know, I'd usually say, hey, John, you know, thank you for joining IBISWorld. It's an absolute pleasure to meet you. I'm your dedicated relationship manager. And after the whole kind of, you know, introductory call, my last step was always the most important. And that was, hey, John, you know, now that you've seen value in the tool and really have seen some credibility to the substance, I think that the only way that we're going to really move the conversation forward is getting a broad enough sample size of feedback from your peers to make sure that we account for everyone's perspective. And it's only in doing that that we're able to really drive that conversation and really flesh out all of the potential applications. You know, I'd ask them, do you agree? And basically that already in and of itself would give me a pretty good pulse for how much executive sponsorship I would get or how much they would really advocate on behalf of the tool. And at that point, then I'd proceed to, you know, go for, you know, asking for forgiveness later and still reach out. Out to people. But, you know, I still would lead with that because it's in those few interactions where he's like, yeah, you know what, does it cost anything? And my immediate answer is no. Consumer first, right? You're gonna trial it, so will they. They get afforded the same equal opportunity you do to really take a look at this. So let's just bring them on, give them the same trial, same opportunity. You know, what, what possible objection can you have? And if there is one, let's talk about it. So that was usually my approach, and most people think I'm crazy for it. Love it. Love it.

1:22:39 Scott Ingram: So is there something they believe that you think is crazy?

1:22:42 Eddie Baez: Well, this one is, again, a topic of contention, that social selling is the best way to sell. Going back to what we talked about, I'm an old school, old soul when it comes to sales. And, you know, I actually had the opportunity to go to Outbound and Mike Weinberg and I, Mike Weinberg and I had spoken about it. And, you know, I'm all about the phone. You know, I was at one point the record holder for like 150 dials in a day. You know, I love the phones, and, you know, I, I will say there is a lot of value in social selling as a complement to the cold calling, to the emails, cold outreach. But, you know, I, I don't think that you can gauge… going back to public speaking, you know… a person's kind of an emotional level of commitment and really kind of how they feel about things unless you're on the phone having conversations. For initial outreach, I think it's, it's very practical and very much, you know, something that you can leverage. But again, when it comes to really moving the needle, you got to pull on the heartstrings, and you can't, you can't read that off of an InMail.

1:23:43 Scott Ingram: Nice. So Eddie, I keep teasing this, I swear to God we'll get there, because I know that you are super passionate about mentoring, particularly in the, in the diversity community. What, what's the advice that you would give to somebody that's just starting out in their sales career Yeah.

1:24:02 Eddie Baez: Okay. Yeah. So for me, I think the biggest things were learning and shadowing. You know, I took a lot of ownership of my, you know, success. And I think that sales is a, you know, a dedication to life and really a lifestyle of lifelong learning and self-accountability. And, you know, I always, when I, when I read this question, the first thing that popped into my head was Jocko Willink and how He's, you know, a big proponent of extreme ownership. So I think that the one thing you can control time and time again is how much you read, how much you devour, and how much you shadow, and what kind of relationships you build. So I think you should do that as often as humanly possible. And don't be afraid of failure. Define what failure looks like to you, and what success looks like to you, and be very clear about and very specific about what that looks like, so that you can learn from the failures and have some sort of mechanism To you know to learn from. So definitely set your your process, set smart goals, and deliver everything you're doing with intention.

1:25:02 Scott Ingram: Love it. What about somebody that's a little bit further into their career? And one of two things: either maybe they're struggling a little bit, or they're doing okay, but they're just they're not great, right? And and they know that there's another gear that they they should and and could find.

1:25:17 Eddie Baez: What advice do you have for them? This one was tricky because I think there's a lot that goes into. To that. I think the first thing that resonates with me is just the need to remember, you know, what your why is. Definitely make sure that you're feeding and supporting that why with a lot of motivational stuff and finding who that person is that speaks to you. But, you know, when you get into the technical things that could be, you know, having you struggle or having you kind of held back from that success, I think a lot of it has to do with learning plateaus. You know, I myself, despite all that I read, have had learning plateaus. And that's where kind of, you know, you're challenged to really figure out what is missing and when you don't think there is any, right? So it's hard to kind of put a face to the problem. And, you know, I've done that. I've lost count of how many times that's happened. But it's in those moments that I felt stuck that I would remind myself to look for less traditional avenues and just more creative outlets to inspire me and move past the roadblocks. So, you know, going back to Toastmasters, you know, or I haven't personally taken improv classes, but I watch a lot of improv, you know, for any of the SNL fans out there. It's a great kind of mountain and resource for extemporaneous speaking. And then, you know, psychology textbooks, you know, sociology textbooks, or, you know, even movies, man. There's so many things that you can draw upon that I think that, you know, kind of encourages creativity. And it always goes back to creativity and learning. And I think it's when you apply those less traditional avenues that you find those real big breakthroughs. Greatness.

1:26:43 Scott Ingram: Now, I'm super interested in your feedback here just because of how much reading and learning you do. And I know you've been a significant consumer of, of this show, what would you want to know about the top sellers in other organizations?

1:26:59 Eddie Baez: Yeah, and, and actually, I thought that was going to be a difficult question for me, but it was actually very easy, and I'll tell you why. So I'm, like I said, I can… I'm going to continue to reinforce, I'm very A-type when it comes to things, and I, and I can't live without a structured process to my madness. And, you know, when I… on one of those trips that I did through the accolade, through, through the CRM of the Year Award, I got to go to the UK office at IBISWorld. And one of the colleagues there had actually finished her PMP, and she… her and I basically talked for, you know, a good couple hours about her process and, and her… how she manages things. No surprise, she was one of the best performers, absolute just standout performer. And she showed me her Excel spreadsheet, and Scott, I was in reverence. Like, I, I didn't even know where to start with this thing. It was a work of… it was like watching, you know, Michelangelo paint and/or work on statues. I mean, it was really just that awe-inspiring. And everything from who's owning the next step to, you know, what are the mutual accountability steps, what is the success criteria, when did we host the training… it was so detailed and dynamic and just so free-flowing, but still accounting for all those little details that you absolutely need to move the needle, that I told her, listen, I need to in some way, shape, shape or form have a copy of this? Like, how do I get this? Like, how do I get this good? So if anything, I'm always looking to continue to improve my process and really figure out the most strategic way to save myself time and really build a strong strategic plan in place to tackle those tough conversations.

1:28:37 Scott Ingram: Great, great, great stuff. So obviously we'll be doing that together here next week as, as we talk. And for those listening, videos should be available really soon from the, from the last Sales Success Summit that just concluded. And there will definitely be some on-point presentations to pull from to get into that. So looking forward to delving into that with you because that's, that's certainly also one of my own personal areas. I mean, I'm presenting on it myself, but like you, it's a never-ending process, right? There's always better. There's always a way to improve it and make it better. It's It's never done. So Eddie, I think we got there. I think we're at the point that we need to talk about this diversity in sales stuff, and I'm just going to kind of give you the floor and let you talk about it and frame up the conversation however you want, and then we'll keep talking about it. Awesome.

1:29:27 Eddie Baez: And I really appreciate you giving me the platform and the opportunity to talk about it. So Scott Hanrahan, who we've mentioned a couple of times already, is actually also a business partner. So Scott and I met at the Enterprise Sales Forum, similar to our situation. So I live in a world of Scotts in sales because my mentor is also Scott Fenick. So there's… it's just an endless sea of Scotts, which has been absolutely the most rewarding thing ever for me. So if you don't have a friend named Scott, definitely find one. So basically at the event, Scott and I kind of, you know, struck up a conversation about, you know, how lacking it is in the community, you know, to have a formal sales program at the academic level. And, you know, when you look at the professional makeup and really the identity of the culture in sales, it is a very small percentage of minority, you know, candidates or professionals in the space. So, you know, coming from underrepresented communities, so, you know, he has a passion. Scott has this burning passion to give back and contribute in a big way. And, you know, I'm really just the poster child of it all. Like, you know, like I said earlier, you know, if it wasn't for a Mr. Carlos being there to lead the way and just say, hey, you know, you should definitely try or attempt a career in sales, and that there's so much more to sales than just, you know, being in retail, I would have never had the opportunity to buy a home or, you know, reach financial independence and all these, you know, great things. And because it's so just, you know, it's just so not common to have those pillars in the community that are doing B2B sales, enterprise sales at a large scale that we kind of decided to start a business that catered exactly to that. So we have a company called CareerPipe. It's a mission-based for-profit, and it's basically providing underrepresented young adults a roadmap to financial independence by training them to become successful sales professionals in New York. And essentially, you know, what we're doing there is we have a curriculum. We want to basically have students who are in their senior year of college, who are struggling to figure out what they want to do after college, basically look for people who are driven, motivated, who have overcome large and very significant obstacles, and positing the opportunity to actually learn about sales and think about it in terms of a profession. I think there's a stat out there that at least 50% of people who graduate college end up in a sales role right out of the gate. And more profoundly, only 4% of colleges actually provide a formal sales program. So, you know, we basically said, all right, why don't we just create it? You know, and needless to say, there are programs, there's definitely plenty, but I think very, very few are as kind of specific and intentional about the diversity piece. And, you know, growing up, I think that that was something that I could have definitely benefited from. And so, you know, as CareerPipe's core mission, we want to really propel these students' careers and help them to overcome those initial challenges. Is by pairing them up with mentors in the community, you know, in B2B sales mentors, everyone on this podcast, whoever's willing to help who has found success in sales and has, you know, been able to, you know, get going with their goals in life and really kind of succeed at a high level. You know, a lot of these individuals, myself included, are always looking for an opportunity to give back. And if ever there was a platform, if ever there was something that I think, you know, we need more in this world is helping people who maybe didn't know a different way. So that's why I consider myself the poster child for it. You know, I wish there was more people there to coach me along the way. And I've been extremely fortunate that the universe has brought me to so many great mentors and people in the community to help. But, you know, moving forward, I think sales leaders need to, you know, really take the topic seriously. And I think that we could all be doing a better job of creating more inclusive work environments, not just diverse, right? Like, inclusion is more than culture piece. And I think that, you know, with diversity comes a lot of different culture aspects and dimensions that maybe aren't understood fully. And I think that there is something to be said about needing to peel that back and really helping cater to that so that there is more cultural diffusion and really just those nuances that can help the businesses grow. Awesome.

1:33:46 Scott Ingram: Eddie, talk about just the value of a more diverse diverse sales ecosystem? I mean, what… why is this important?

1:33:54 Eddie Baez: Well, hands down, just that fresh perspective. You know, I think that if we talked about the theme of, you know, the chip on the shoulder and overcoming challenges and obstacles, you know, growing up, I didn't have a lot. You know, I came from very humble beginnings. And I'm sure you've heard this, you know, countless times. And everyone who I've ever introduced either to IBISWorld or to a sales career who kind of fits a similar profile, they are relentless in their pursuit for a better life. And number one, I think that from an inclusion standpoint and just from, you know, kind of a work ethic standpoint, I see that a lot of the diverse candidates tend to, you know, try to outperform or outwork just because of their just intrinsic drive for better. So I think that it's a huge win for the business to have somebody who's dedicated to success. I think that, you know, from the standpoint of diversity, the perspective piece, you know, in the book that I mentioned earlier on, you know, diversity and Inclusion, they talk about countless case studies of businesses who have actually started huge channels of revenue. By the way, that was The Inclusion Dividend. I think they mentioned something about Dora the Explorer being a concept that one of their… I believe, and I hope I'm not misquoting the book, but a Mexican employee or somebody from a Latino background had introduced to the the execs at their company, and now it's a multimillion-dollar channel of revenue for the business because of not only the show, but all of the different items of clothing and toys for kids. Food industry benefits from this every single day when they introduce new cultural products and add entirely new lines of revenue by just having someone there to guide them through what those different appetites look like, what the, you know, the palate is for somebody in a different country. And so, you know, for anyone out there who's thinking about what's the ROI, what's the tangible benefit, it's all that combined experience and culture that helps to add more value to the business in just different ways.

1:35:54 Scott Ingram: Yeah, love that. I mean, all of this stuff has been really big on my radar. Another session that hopefully, if everything worked out right, there's a video of is Debe Rapson presenting on from the Women in Revenue perspective. So this is an organization she helped create in the Bay Area. And I think, you know, diversity of all types are really important, right? Whether we're talking about ethnic diversity, we're talking about gender diversity. One of the other things, I mean, this is kind of silly, but I think that I'm putting it in the same bucket is just idea diversity. You know, I've kind of settled into this place where there's probably just a little bit too much B2B tech conversation where, you know, there's, it tends to be a little bit of an echo chamber and I need to, I did decide, I don't know when, but I did decide to really stay focused on the B2B side of sales rather than delving off into B2C, which tends to be a little bit of a different animal and staying focused here. But there are tons of different types of B2B sales. You know, I haven't talked to anybody in advertising. I haven't talked to anybody. I've got some come into the Sales Success Summit that is in agriculture sales. You know, there's, there's so many different angles, and I think it's important to get out of just the pure technology SaaS kind of space. And that's just a function of where a lot of my network is and the people that I know. So, you know, I think there's opportunities if you're listening to this to contribute and get involved in all of these different ways, even if you're a, you're a white male like me, right? And you just want to support the effort, that has value too, right? So, if there is the number one person in your organization is a woman, I want to hear about it. If the number one sales professional in your organization is an ethnic minority, I want to hear about it. And I, and if you work for an organization that's outside of B2B tech sales, then I want to hear from you guys too, and we'll continue to really drive this. There are a lot of people in the community that are focused on this topic. I've been talking a lot with Sahil Mansuri, who's the CEO of Bravado. I know this is massively core to their mission and a lot of the work that they're doing. So, Eddie, I just appreciate you. I appreciate the work that you're doing in this space. Thank you for being our poster child and leading this effort in the ways that you are.

1:38:20 Eddie Baez: I very much appreciate it. And if people do want to get involved in, you know, in New York, we actually created a sales meetup similar to Enterprise Sales Forum. It's called Sales Diversity and Inclusion in New York City. If you, you know, feel like you are a diverse candidate or just a hiring manager interested in learning more about diversity and inclusion, we welcome everybody to definitely come and learn and really just be open-minded about, you know, some of the stories that the panelists are going to be sharing, you know, and really want anyone who's willing to contribute and step forward because it's definitely something that needs to be talked about, isn't talked about, I think, enough yet. And it's just getting to a point where, you know, people are really seeing it and being aware of the need for it. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

1:39:03 Scott Ingram: Well, we didn't do quite what I thought we would do. I had a sneaking suspicion that we would cross the 2-hour mark in this, but we didn't. So good, good for us. I think we kept it tight and really just valuable and entertaining throughout. The last question I always ask is trying to make all of this somehow actionable for the individual listening to this conversation. So what would you challenge them to do over the course of the next 1 to 2 weeks to improve themselves and improve their results?

1:39:31 Eddie Baez: For individual contributors, the first thing that comes to mind is learning how to feel comfortable within the ambiguity and the most uncomfortable parts of a sales conversation. Don't be afraid to go ahead and call someone's boss and, you know, call them out and hold them accountable to everything that you've done. If you, if you've done everything you could possibly do on an account and it's still not enough, it might not entirely be your fault. You know, like, I don't like placing blame. I'm always in the search for an answer. So always seek to find and learn whatever else you could have done, you know, in that process. So that's my goal for anyone on the, you know, on the podcast who's listening as an individual contributor. And then for sales leaders, you know, we've talked on the topic of diversity and inclusion and also on the topic of, you know, positive reinforcement in someone's value. And I think that there's actually… while they're not mutually exclusive, I think there's definitely a case for kind of marrying both as well. You know, as a Latino in the community doing well in sales, you know, positive reinforcement goes a long way for me personally. And I think it's that positive reinforcement that has helped carry me through some of the most difficult times. So that's kind of speaking on mine, on my experience. And what I'll challenge the sales leaders to do is to, you know, keep that in mind and try to really positively reinforce them in all of their pursuits. And then also, there is a case for diversity and inclusion, and just to be open-minded and maybe start the search, try to, try to learn as much as you can about the topic and the kind of impact it has on the workplace. So, you know, definitely encourage people to go out there and research and learn.

1:41:14 Scott Ingram: Great stuff, Eddie. So just get involved, right? I think it's great to listen. I think the challenge of the podcast medium is it is pretty passive, right? You are probably in your car right now. Maybe you're working out at the gym. Your hands are probably busy. You're likely doing other things. But I think this is an important opportunity to take some type of action. And so, what I'd encourage you to do, where you'll find the links and the resources and everything on the planet, is at top1.fm. Go to that page, go look at some of the stuff that Eddie's looking at. We'll have a link over to CareerPipe on there. Join the Sales Success Community. It's free, right? It's really just about communicating and keeping you in the loop and the things that we're doing and providing opportunities to join us in person at a future Sales Success Summit. And those those types of things. So Eddie, thanks again. This has been really, really an incredible conversation. I've enjoyed it more than you know, and look forward to seeing you next week. Awesome.

1:42:08 Eddie Baez: Same here. And again, I just wanted to express the gratitude and really thank you for giving me the opportunity to do this because, you know, it's again, you know, something that while it was difficult at first, you know, now actually reflecting on it, it's been a great experience. And I really want to thank you for pushing me to do it.

1:42:25 Scott Ingram: My pleasure. Thanks for doing it.

1:42:28 Eddie Baez: Thanks for listening to the Sales Success Stories podcast. To be sure you never miss an episode and for an invitation to our Sales Success Community powered by Influitive, subscribe to our newsletter at top1.fm.