The Psychology of Sales with Robert Arauco

Wesleyne Greer: 00:00:05

Hello, and welcome to another episode of

Wesleyne Greer: 00:00:08

the transforming sales podcast today I am so excited to be

Wesleyne Greer: 00:00:13

interviewing Robert arou. CO How are you, Robert?

Robert Arauco: 00:00:17

Very good. How are you?

Wesleyne Greer: 00:00:19

I am doing awesome. Let me tell you a

Wesleyne Greer: 00:00:22

little bit more about Robert. He's an entrepreneur at heart

Wesleyne Greer: 00:00:25

with a deep understanding of sales, reading human patterns,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:00:30

and has a true appreciation for leadership. Staying true to the

Wesleyne Greer: 00:00:33

numbers is needed to be successful. But a leader that

Wesleyne Greer: 00:00:36

can connect with people can take you far, a combination of the

Wesleyne Greer: 00:00:41

two makes you unstoppable. And that you didn't just pop out of

Wesleyne Greer: 00:00:45

the womb with this amazing leadership concept. Tell us

Wesleyne Greer: 00:00:49

about how you kicked off your career and how you got to where

Wesleyne Greer: 00:00:52

you are today with this nice formula for leadership success,

Robert Arauco: 00:00:56

for sure. Yeah, I know the leadership definitely

Robert Arauco: 00:00:59

came kind of later in life. In the beginning it was more of

Robert Arauco: 00:01:02

like all me, me me, how much money can I make, you know, all

Robert Arauco: 00:01:05

that kind of stuff. And it molded into building a tech

Robert Arauco: 00:01:09

company and but I started at first I realized I was good at

Robert Arauco: 00:01:13

like selling to my neighbors when we had the school

Robert Arauco: 00:01:16

fundraisers and all that I'm like, Alright, I see a dog here.

Robert Arauco: 00:01:19

How can I start the conversation and get them to actually talk to

Robert Arauco: 00:01:22

me right now? Other than being just a cute kid, right? So you

Robert Arauco: 00:01:26

still always win those contests. And then I got like a letter in

Robert Arauco: 00:01:30

the mail from vector marketing. They're the management branch to

Robert Arauco: 00:01:34

sell Cutco knives. So I know a lot of your listeners probably

Robert Arauco: 00:01:37

that was one of their first jobs in college or like around that

Robert Arauco: 00:01:40

time they mass recruited, but at first I was like, I'm gonna sell

Robert Arauco: 00:01:44

knives. But then they cut a penny in front of me. And I'm

Robert Arauco: 00:01:47

like, oh, yeah, I could sell this all day. So the beginning,

Robert Arauco: 00:01:51

you know, was neighbors and referrals, learning how to build

Robert Arauco: 00:01:55

relationships. And the thing I learned about from Cutco really

Robert Arauco: 00:01:59

was just like the psychology of sales. And this is in person at

Robert Arauco: 00:02:03

the time, right. So don't sit across from someone sitting next

Robert Arauco: 00:02:07

to them. Because there's natural like barriers. When you do that,

Robert Arauco: 00:02:10

and people drop their guard. When you sit next to them. Make

Robert Arauco: 00:02:14

sure when you're done presenting a knife, put it in the correct

Robert Arauco: 00:02:17

position and roll it. So now it's not a messy table and the

Robert Arauco: 00:02:20

person's like I don't want all these freaking eyes on my

Robert Arauco: 00:02:23

counter like it's a clean presentation. So I did learn a

Robert Arauco: 00:02:27

lot of the psychology of that which did translate into my

Robert Arauco: 00:02:30

career starting home stack. We build apps for realtors

Robert Arauco: 00:02:35

brokerages and teams that look very similar to like the Zillow

Robert Arauco: 00:02:39

is Redfin's of the world from like a user experience

Robert Arauco: 00:02:42

standpoint, but we personalize it to where they can add it to

Robert Arauco: 00:02:45

their marketing and all that but that's why I went from selfish,

Robert Arauco: 00:02:49

Robert to making tons of money 1099 Traveling working 25 hours

Robert Arauco: 00:02:56

a week to now you know, averaging 60 to 80 hours a week

Robert Arauco: 00:03:00

running the tech company. Hmm.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:03:03

I really love those lessons that you gave us

Wesleyne Greer: 00:03:05

from your experience with Cutco is Cutco even still around.

Robert Arauco: 00:03:11

Number one, still number one, number one

Wesleyne Greer: 00:03:13

still number one, like sometimes when I'm

Wesleyne Greer: 00:03:16

walking in Costco, I see somebody from like, cowork Oh,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:03:20

company there.

Robert Arauco: 00:03:22

Yeah, most of their sales are driven by

Robert Arauco: 00:03:24

recruiting college kids, getting them to first introduce this to

Robert Arauco: 00:03:28

their family and friends. And then maybe 10% of them move on

Robert Arauco: 00:03:32

to the next phase of like learning how to build referrals

Robert Arauco: 00:03:35

and you know, getting deeper into the into the game.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:03:39

Ah, so their whole strategy is get them young

Wesleyne Greer: 00:03:43

and hungry, get their close network, and then it's like,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:03:48

okay, we know your neck probably gonna last six months, we'll

Wesleyne Greer: 00:03:50

just get a new batch.

Robert Arauco: 00:03:52

I mean, it's up. They don't fire you unless you

Robert Arauco: 00:03:54

do something crazy. Like I've heard some stories but. But

Robert Arauco: 00:04:00

like, naturally, if you run out of referrals, like you got to

Robert Arauco: 00:04:04

now go and sharpen knives to then build your base that way.

Robert Arauco: 00:04:08

But a lot of people just don't make it after a month or two. It

Robert Arauco: 00:04:12

gets harder. What

Wesleyne Greer: 00:04:13

kind of sounds like some companies I've heard

Wesleyne Greer: 00:04:15

about lately. If you don't produce well, you're, we're

Wesleyne Greer: 00:04:18

booting you out. So the lessons that you learn the psychology of

Wesleyne Greer: 00:04:22

sales, I don't think we talked about that often enough. Right?

Wesleyne Greer: 00:04:25

So it's those subtle things that you mentioned that a lot of

Wesleyne Greer: 00:04:30

sales people they forget, right, they forget the human element.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:04:35

So share with us some more of the things the core lessons that

Wesleyne Greer: 00:04:38

you learned and that you still use today in your early career

Wesleyne Greer: 00:04:42

in b2c sales.

Robert Arauco: 00:04:45

Well, at the end of the day, like you can be the

Robert Arauco: 00:04:48

salesperson that just talks and talks and talks and feature

Robert Arauco: 00:04:52

dumps and you know, everything under the moon about the product

Robert Arauco: 00:04:55

you're selling, but that's not going to get the deal closed

Robert Arauco: 00:04:58

most of the time like Occasionally you will run into

Robert Arauco: 00:05:01

the person and they're just want the knives or they want the app.

Robert Arauco: 00:05:04

And it's an easy sale. Emotional Intelligence is important.

Robert Arauco: 00:05:07

Listening is important. Figuring out how to handle objections and

Robert Arauco: 00:05:12

not argue with people is important and how to like, best

Robert Arauco: 00:05:17

dig out the real objection. Like, Hey, I just, you know,

Robert Arauco: 00:05:22

don't want to do this for this reason. And then you dig in by

Robert Arauco: 00:05:26

asking certain questions to really discover what the truth

Robert Arauco: 00:05:28

is, and offer a solution to that problem. So the psychology of

Robert Arauco: 00:05:32

sales really is not just reading the person. And now we all have

Robert Arauco: 00:05:36

to evolve after COVID I actually used to thrive in the person a

Robert Arauco: 00:05:40

person because I like there's an energy element to that, like you

Robert Arauco: 00:05:43

can see their body language a little differently. Now, people

Robert Arauco: 00:05:46

don't always have their zoom cameras on, right, there's not

Robert Arauco: 00:05:49

that like, Oh, I see them like their arms, sweating, or like,

Robert Arauco: 00:05:53

those elements are gone now. So when it comes to digital

Robert Arauco: 00:05:56

listening is even that much more important and asking the right

Robert Arauco: 00:06:00

questions so that you can really discover the truth to solve

Robert Arauco: 00:06:03

problems.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:06:06

Listening, really paying attention to the

Wesleyne Greer: 00:06:10

person sitting next to you or sitting across from your in

Wesleyne Greer: 00:06:13

front of you on the camera. And again, I think that it's the

Wesleyne Greer: 00:06:16

subtleties, right. Like one thing that I tell salespeople,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:06:19

when we're working on a training session is a person looking

Wesleyne Greer: 00:06:23

down. Are they looking away? Are they looking at you? Are they

Wesleyne Greer: 00:06:25

leaning in? Are they leaning back, right? It's like the small

Wesleyne Greer: 00:06:28

subtle things, the cues you pick up on. And one thing that I

Wesleyne Greer: 00:06:32

really love is I like when people start using my words, I'm

Wesleyne Greer: 00:06:35

like, Yay, I've been graded in your mind. You're using the

Wesleyne Greer: 00:06:39

words I'm using

Robert Arauco: 00:06:40

exactly. matching their body language, their tone.

Robert Arauco: 00:06:43

And sometimes though, like you got you got the guy that's just

Robert Arauco: 00:06:46

like so low energy, and you almost want to like give them

Robert Arauco: 00:06:50

energy. So like you hype him up a little bit, not too much to

Robert Arauco: 00:06:53

where you intimidate him, right. I can get him excited about

Robert Arauco: 00:06:56

something you see a little smirk and then you build off of that.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:06:59

So did you go directly from Cutco to launching

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:02

your own company or how what happened in between?

Robert Arauco: 00:07:05

So I got over selling knives. It took six

Robert Arauco: 00:07:10

years and I was like you know I onto something new. My buddy who

Robert Arauco: 00:07:13

used to actually sell with me, Cutco started selling life

Robert Arauco: 00:07:17

insurance. He's like, bro, you can make so much money. It's

Robert Arauco: 00:07:19

like easier, you get residuals and blah, blah, blah. So I got

Robert Arauco: 00:07:23

licensed to sell that. I personally didn't like it. I do

Robert Arauco: 00:07:26

find life insurance and those products very important.

Robert Arauco: 00:07:30

Especially now that I have a family of three daughters and a

Robert Arauco: 00:07:33

wife. I'm like, Dude, if something happens to me, like I

Robert Arauco: 00:07:35

need to know they're gonna be okay. At least financially,

Robert Arauco: 00:07:39

right? So did learn a lot from that ended up jumping into the

Robert Arauco: 00:07:44

corporate world because my dad's aerospace engineers, he's like,

Robert Arauco: 00:07:47

Hey, man, like you've been 1099 Your whole life? Like, why don't

Robert Arauco: 00:07:50

you just give the W two world a shot just to see it. So, yeah, I

Robert Arauco: 00:07:55

was like, alright, you know, this is a time where I don't

Robert Arauco: 00:07:57

want to do life insurance. Let's try that. And I got a job at a

Robert Arauco: 00:08:01

skilled nursing facility. Luckily for me, I applied for

Robert Arauco: 00:08:05

the marketing position, but they didn't give that to me. There. I

Robert Arauco: 00:08:09

don't want to offend anyone. But like, I found out later why I

Robert Arauco: 00:08:11

didn't get that position. Because I wasn't a girl or and

Robert Arauco: 00:08:14

or gay. I found out later, like I wasn't a girl was a gay. And

Robert Arauco: 00:08:18

that was, I guess, the prerequisite for that manager to

Robert Arauco: 00:08:20

hire me. But it was a blessing in disguise. Because like that

Robert Arauco: 00:08:23

didn't work out. I ended up doing social services. But I

Robert Arauco: 00:08:27

ended up meeting two of my best friends because of working

Robert Arauco: 00:08:31

there. One was my boss. One was the guy that I met briefly and

Robert Arauco: 00:08:35

then got me the job. And then a girl that I was in class with to

Robert Arauco: 00:08:39

get my social services certificate while I had the

Robert Arauco: 00:08:43

position. I don't even know if that's ethical. I was like,

Robert Arauco: 00:08:45

literally in school, I had the social services position that

Robert Arauco: 00:08:49

ended up later introducing him to my wife. So that little six

Robert Arauco: 00:08:54

month period was a huge part of like where I am today, which

Robert Arauco: 00:09:00

then made me realize I'm an entrepreneur, like I need to get

Robert Arauco: 00:09:03

back into this space. And I remembered one of my buddies

Robert Arauco: 00:09:06

growing up was starting a tech company. So hit him up that same

Robert Arauco: 00:09:10

day, his business partner who I didn't know posted on Facebook

Robert Arauco: 00:09:14

that they were looking for someone in sales, so it ended up

Robert Arauco: 00:09:17

being one of those serendipitous things and, you know, when I met

Robert Arauco: 00:09:20

him, I was like, Hey, guys, I'm already making six figures like

Robert Arauco: 00:09:23

I know you're starting up. So I just want a $40,000 base and

Robert Arauco: 00:09:28

then commission opportunities and we're good to go. And

Robert Arauco: 00:09:30

they're like, Dude, you're probably gonna make like 10 to

Robert Arauco: 00:09:34

$15,000 the next two years, but here's where we're going. Right

Robert Arauco: 00:09:41

here's where we're gonna be one day but right now you're not

Robert Arauco: 00:09:45

you're not gonna make anywhere near that. So at the time, no

Robert Arauco: 00:09:47

family talked to my dad about it and will gray wall who's the CEO

Robert Arauco: 00:09:52

of Homestuck I've known the guy since I was five like we've

Robert Arauco: 00:09:54

always kind of been that like, quarterback to receiver

Robert Arauco: 00:09:58

connection. The guys just is brilliant and good at what he

Robert Arauco: 00:10:01

does. And Matt Potter, the other business owner. His father owns

Robert Arauco: 00:10:06

a real estate company here. And he's kind of like that Steve

Robert Arauco: 00:10:09

Jobs. Elon Musk ish, like, has social skills, but also kind of

Robert Arauco: 00:10:15

like is like, what the hell's this guy thinking about right

Robert Arauco: 00:10:17

now like always outside the box thinking, the stuff that he

Robert Arauco: 00:10:20

comes up with is something you just don't think is gonna land

Robert Arauco: 00:10:24

right now. But then when it does land later, you're like, That

Robert Arauco: 00:10:27

was genius. So building apps 10 years ago, for iPhone and

Robert Arauco: 00:10:32

Android was not the thing to do. BlackBerry was the big phone.

Robert Arauco: 00:10:36

And Realtors thought I was gonna go out of business. So we were

Robert Arauco: 00:10:40

like, way ahead of our time, even now, like it's slowly

Robert Arauco: 00:10:44

getting there where Realtors like, No, I have to have this.

Robert Arauco: 00:10:49

Yep, hmm.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:10:51

You gave me a lot, there's a lot to unpack. So

Wesleyne Greer: 00:10:55

in your adult life, you literally lived as a 1099.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:01

Person, literally. Because when you said you were with cutover,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:03

six years, I was like, I wonder if that wasn't a 1099? Was it a

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:07

W two, and then we all know insurance is usually a 1099

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:12

position. And so you had like a stint of about six months where

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:16

you were a W two? And you say, Yeah, this is not for me. So as

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:20

a 1099. And one thing that I love telling sales leaders, when

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:24

they're hiring people, and like, oh, they don't have industry

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:26

experience, they don't have this, they don't have that. I'm

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:28

like, Yeah, you know, some of the best salespeople that I've

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:31

ever met, a successful 1099 salesperson is gonna be so good,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:36

because they're hungry. They know they have to eat, they

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:38

kill. That's what you do every single day. If you don't kill

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:42

it, you don't eat that day.

Robert Arauco: 00:11:43

Yeah, it's, you know, it's not for everyone,

Robert Arauco: 00:11:45

obviously, there's people that want the safe route. And it's

Robert Arauco: 00:11:49

just not in my DNA. I like taking risks. You know, now I'm

Robert Arauco: 00:11:53

now I'm a dad, right? Like, I gotta take more calculated

Robert Arauco: 00:11:56

risks. If I had the family at the time, I don't know if I

Robert Arauco: 00:12:01

would have taken that exact position. But it was literally a

Robert Arauco: 00:12:04

situation where I'm like, I know, I'm gonna see will the

Robert Arauco: 00:12:06

rest of my life. I don't want to be that guy that wondered what

Robert Arauco: 00:12:11

if, right, like, I know, I'll probably make half a million

Robert Arauco: 00:12:14

dollars a year, be a VP of Sales somewhere else, you know,

Robert Arauco: 00:12:18

corporate world in the sense. But that was my chance to start

Robert Arauco: 00:12:21

a company from scratch. And then eventually, you know, get to the

Robert Arauco: 00:12:25

point where we're selling this thing for hundreds of millions.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:28

Hmm. So talk to us about really starting at a

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:33

startup like the grassroots stages like those early days,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:39

because, you know, everybody sees these big SAS tech

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:42

companies like, Oh, they're so amazing. They're so great. But

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:45

that's not where they started. Talk to us about what that was

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:48

like,

Robert Arauco: 00:12:49

Oh, this was completely bootstrapped. We're

Robert Arauco: 00:12:52

still even to this day, self funded, no seed money, like we

Robert Arauco: 00:12:55

are getting to the point now where the seed money starting to

Robert Arauco: 00:12:58

make a little more sense, just for rocket fuel for growth. Now

Robert Arauco: 00:13:01

that like everything, you just can't, you can't throw money at

Robert Arauco: 00:13:04

a problem, like something that's not tested, you know, a proven

Robert Arauco: 00:13:09

concept. You can't just throw money at it and hope it works

Robert Arauco: 00:13:12

out. It just usually doesn't. So the bootstrap days was like,

Robert Arauco: 00:13:16

alright, well, I know how to make phone calls. I know how to

Robert Arauco: 00:13:20

connect with people. I have zero idea about real estate. I'm

Robert Arauco: 00:13:25

like, 24 at the time, no idea that real estate. So let me

Robert Arauco: 00:13:28

learn this. Let me dive in. Let me read books. Let me talk to

Robert Arauco: 00:13:31

man whose dad owns a company. Let me just sit with Matt's dad

Robert Arauco: 00:13:35

for two hours and like, absorb as much as I can about the

Robert Arauco: 00:13:38

industry so that when I talk to them, these people, I have the

Robert Arauco: 00:13:42

lingo down, escrow closing deals, open houses, like those

Robert Arauco: 00:13:46

types of things, right? But I'm not gonna lie, like the first

Robert Arauco: 00:13:50

six months were extremely difficult, getting hung up on

Robert Arauco: 00:13:53

all the time. What are you talking about? I don't even have

Robert Arauco: 00:13:56

an iPhone. And it was that learning curve. But, you know,

Robert Arauco: 00:14:01

like, I understand in sales that as long as you put in enough

Robert Arauco: 00:14:05

effort, and you do take the time to like, dive in and improve

Robert Arauco: 00:14:10

your your game and learn like what is happening in the

Robert Arauco: 00:14:13

industry. The numbers always play out, make enough calls,

Robert Arauco: 00:14:17

need enough people, the numbers are gonna play out eventually.

Robert Arauco: 00:14:21

So just the early days was just really learning.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:24

It was learning, right? And that's what so many

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:27

companies, salespeople, sales leaders, they don't do is they

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:30

don't get into the customers world, they stay in their world.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:33

They learn all about their products and how great their

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:35

products are and what it can do. But like you said, it's like I

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:38

need to learn their language. I need to learn what matters to

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:41

them. And that's really what sets you up for success to be

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:45

like, we're self funded. We because once you start taking

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:49

investors money, they control what you do, and then you

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:51

they're like, We want you to grow, grow, grow, grow, grow,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:54

and you don't hit those growth targets. And then like we've

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:56

seen in the news, what happens you have to cut 20 3040 50% of

Wesleyne Greer: 00:15:00

your workforce, right? And so it's better to say we know that

Wesleyne Greer: 00:15:04

we have a good customer base, we have a good product with the

Wesleyne Greer: 00:15:07

kinks worked out. And we believe in this before we started taking

Wesleyne Greer: 00:15:11

outside money.

Robert Arauco: 00:15:12

Oh, yeah. And you know, 90% of startups go out of

Robert Arauco: 00:15:16

business after like two or three years? I think it is. We did

Robert Arauco: 00:15:20

almost a few times. Like there's literally the first year on the

Robert Arauco: 00:15:23

job, we started getting things rolling. And then Apple decides

Robert Arauco: 00:15:27

to change their mapping system from Google Maps to Apple Maps,

Robert Arauco: 00:15:31

broke the app completely, like you couldn't search for homes

Robert Arauco: 00:15:34

anymore, which was like the main thing it did. So we had a

Robert Arauco: 00:15:36

decision to make it was like, alright, well, do we try to fix

Robert Arauco: 00:15:39

this? Or do we build a new app? So the logical thing at the time

Robert Arauco: 00:15:43

was like, We got to build a new app. But now we also need

Robert Arauco: 00:15:45

equity. So I'm literally selling the app with slideshows,

Robert Arauco: 00:15:50

presale, hey, this is where it's gonna be, this is the concept,

Robert Arauco: 00:15:54

you're gonna get a huge discount, we only want half of

Robert Arauco: 00:15:57

the build fee now to secure your name and the different things

Robert Arauco: 00:16:01

and it'll be ready in six to eight months. Trust me, you got

Robert Arauco: 00:16:05

to trust me, this is where we're going. So there was multiple

Robert Arauco: 00:16:09

stories like that. But you know, and life in general, like, the

Robert Arauco: 00:16:13

only time you really fail is when you stop. When you give up.

Robert Arauco: 00:16:17

Right?

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:19

You've given us you know, three great lessons,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:22

right? The first one is get into your customers. Well, the second

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:26

one is you don't have to build it before you start getting

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:30

customers. Like some people like develop, develop, develop,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:33

develop and have zero customers. And then they're like, oh, yeah,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:37

now we need investment. And they're like, Okay, well, how

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:39

many customers? Yeah, it's like, no, no, no, don't build it and

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:43

think they will come. And when life throws you lemons and

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:47

oranges and squash, you had to figure out how to make something

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:50

edible out of it. What can I do next? How can I make this

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:53

better? And I can imagine that starting from scratch probably

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:58

made the product even better, made it stand up even stronger,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:17:02

because you had already had a year of development. So you knew

Wesleyne Greer: 00:17:05

what not to do you knew the things that you did, and that

Wesleyne Greer: 00:17:08

covered it up a little bit. Right.

Robert Arauco: 00:17:10

Yeah, no, I definitely played into the

Robert Arauco: 00:17:12

different phases of each app that we built. But yeah, I mean,

Robert Arauco: 00:17:16

you know, there's a difference between, like, accepting certain

Robert Arauco: 00:17:19

things, right? Like, there are things out of your control. And

Robert Arauco: 00:17:22

there are things you just like, you know, like it happened,

Robert Arauco: 00:17:24

like, I just gotta get over it, I gotta move on. But there's

Robert Arauco: 00:17:27

certain things like when you're super passionate about,

Robert Arauco: 00:17:29

especially like a business doesn't matter if you started

Robert Arauco: 00:17:32

the company, or you just want to climb your way somewhere else.

Robert Arauco: 00:17:35

The only thing that's gonna get you there, aside from luck, is

Robert Arauco: 00:17:39

you. So I'm a big believer that if you really want something,

Robert Arauco: 00:17:44

the answers will come. As long as you put in the effort and

Robert Arauco: 00:17:47

have the passion behind it.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:17:49

Yes, it's all about knowing that the person

Wesleyne Greer: 00:17:53

who I am, what I contribute to this world to this company is

Wesleyne Greer: 00:17:57

worth it, right? And whether I feel like I'm making a

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:01

contribution today or not, I'm moving the needle for you one

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:04

step at a time. It's one day at a time, sometimes it's an hour

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:07

at a time, I've had weeks where it's like when people like oh,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:10

it's just one day at a time, hour by hour, what next hour

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:14

what's coming up next on my calendar, okay, and I can candle

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:18

that then what's next. But I know that really as when you're

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:22

in the growing phase of either a company or a team, there are

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:25

those moments that get tough. And so as you had these ups and

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:29

downs, these hills and valleys, what are some methods that you

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:32

use at times where it thought that, hey, we're not going to

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:36

make it out of this? How did you build up yourself enough to work

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:41

through that?

Robert Arauco: 00:18:42

I mean, it's evolved over time. In the

Robert Arauco: 00:18:45

beginning, it was more of an ego thing. Or it's like, hey, oh,

Robert Arauco: 00:18:48

no, I'm not letting this happen. Like, it's not happening to me,

Robert Arauco: 00:18:51

like, I know, I'm good. I know a company is good. We got the

Robert Arauco: 00:18:54

right group of people like it, then I don't wanna say like, I

Robert Arauco: 00:18:57

forced the change I wanted, but like, it was more like, it just

Robert Arauco: 00:19:03

was egocentric. Right now, I'm realizing the difference between

Robert Arauco: 00:19:07

like, when you shift your goals to like, only about you like,

Robert Arauco: 00:19:11

it's just temporary, like it phases away. It just doesn't

Robert Arauco: 00:19:15

last, when you shift your perspective to doing it for the

Robert Arauco: 00:19:20

company. For the people that work there. The employees like

Robert Arauco: 00:19:23

we have health insurance. Now we have all these, we have 401k

Robert Arauco: 00:19:26

plans, like sales is the bloodline of any company. So if

Robert Arauco: 00:19:30

you're not bringing in revenue, how are they going to feed their

Robert Arauco: 00:19:32

families? How are you going to grow to bring in more help. So

Robert Arauco: 00:19:37

the company gets to where it needs to be and we have a lot of

Robert Arauco: 00:19:40

salary base people in the company now they don't

Robert Arauco: 00:19:42

contribute towards the revenue necessarily, but they're

Robert Arauco: 00:19:45

necessary to keep this thing flowing. And if the revenues are

Robert Arauco: 00:19:49

coming in, they're not feeding their families. They're not

Robert Arauco: 00:19:52

providing the insurance that they need. And, you know, my

Robert Arauco: 00:19:56

family is my motivation to so how I Get out of any slump now

Robert Arauco: 00:20:02

is meditations a big part of it like you gotta breathe. If

Robert Arauco: 00:20:06

you're in the wrong state of mind, every call is going to be

Robert Arauco: 00:20:11

in that state of mind. Like, yeah, something and turn it

Robert Arauco: 00:20:13

around, you have a great conversation and like you

Robert Arauco: 00:20:15

flipped your own script because of that. But I'm a big believer

Robert Arauco: 00:20:19

in taking even like two to five minutes to just stop, just stop,

Robert Arauco: 00:20:24

meditate, breathe, refocus your perspective on what's important

Robert Arauco: 00:20:29

in life, and where you want to be, and then go back to

Robert Arauco: 00:20:33

attacking, and building relationships. And, you know,

Robert Arauco: 00:20:37

taking it on that way, and it's just a lot less stressful to

Robert Arauco: 00:20:40

like your health is the biggest part of sales, you're not

Robert Arauco: 00:20:44

getting enough sleep, you're not happy with your, you know, maybe

Robert Arauco: 00:20:47

your physical appearance, you're not doing certain things that

Robert Arauco: 00:20:51

like are going to translate into how you talk to others, how you

Robert Arauco: 00:20:56

present yourself how you feel, in general, because energy is

Robert Arauco: 00:21:00

contagious. If you're in a bad mood, it's not hard for someone

Robert Arauco: 00:21:04

to pick up on that. You try to hide it all you want. But

Robert Arauco: 00:21:07

eventually, they're going to catch on to that when you're in

Robert Arauco: 00:21:09

a great mood when you're passionate. It's contagious. And

Robert Arauco: 00:21:13

who knows, like, maybe you're the person that uplifts that

Robert Arauco: 00:21:17

person that day, to now do what they need to do on the other

Robert Arauco: 00:21:20

end, nothing. So,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:23

so good. That's so good. And I really liked what

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:27

you said in the beginning thinking about, hey, sales is

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:30

the lifeblood of the organization. I was actually

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:32

telling an employee recently, I was like, they're 15 people

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:37

whose lives I'm responsible for. And she was like, Wait, hold on,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:41

did you have a hiring Blitz? I was like, No, you and your two

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:45

kids. And then I listed all their employees and their

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:47

passions, like, oh, because as leaders, that's what you think

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:52

about it's not just me, it's not just my family. It's not just

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:55

the employee, it's your family. It's how you're gonna pay your

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:58

mortgage and your bills, right. So all of those things good

Wesleyne Greer: 00:22:01

leaders really think about and because of that, the stress or

Wesleyne Greer: 00:22:06

the pressure sometimes comes down on us. And so we have to

Wesleyne Greer: 00:22:08

know how to disconnect, take a moment to say like, sometimes

Wesleyne Greer: 00:22:12

you might just be like, Oh, I don't have meetings for a couple

Wesleyne Greer: 00:22:14

hours. I don't have anything pressing, I think I'm just gonna

Wesleyne Greer: 00:22:16

take a nap, right? And that's okay. Because you know what you

Wesleyne Greer: 00:22:20

need to refresh and reboot. So as the company was going, you

Wesleyne Greer: 00:22:24

went from being the sales department, to building a sales

Wesleyne Greer: 00:22:28

team. Tell us about your trajectory from being an

Wesleyne Greer: 00:22:32

individual contributor to growing your team.

Robert Arauco: 00:22:34

It was tough, even weird, like, my co workers

Robert Arauco: 00:22:38

are like, Alright, we just got to find more Robert or alcoves,

Robert Arauco: 00:22:41

right, like we need to replicate you. And like that would always

Robert Arauco: 00:22:45

fall flat on its face. Like we just everyone's unique in their

Robert Arauco: 00:22:49

own way, right. And when you're in a situation where you're

Robert Arauco: 00:22:53

1099, and your paycheck is like, mainly dependent on your

Robert Arauco: 00:22:57

efforts, you're like, well, now I'm giving this attention in

Robert Arauco: 00:23:00

this time to this person who's not like even listening to what

Robert Arauco: 00:23:04

I'm saying, like recruiting is tough. Even now, like to this

Robert Arauco: 00:23:08

day, like we've had times where we've recruited like five sales

Robert Arauco: 00:23:10

reps in a row, and train them together, and got them going,

Robert Arauco: 00:23:14

and then they all failed. So now it's like, Alright, we're gonna

Robert Arauco: 00:23:17

take our time we, for anyone that recruits SDRs out there,

Robert Arauco: 00:23:22

satellite is a very good program. It's kind of like a

Robert Arauco: 00:23:26

recruiting agency, but it's basically a two month college

Robert Arauco: 00:23:30

for STRS. And they dive into psychology and like cold

Robert Arauco: 00:23:34

calling, and like, the path to tech sales and different things.

Robert Arauco: 00:23:38

But anyways, like we interviewed six people from them this week,

Robert Arauco: 00:23:41

all of them are polished, all of them are asking the right

Robert Arauco: 00:23:44

questions, but and it's tough. Like now we have a grading

Robert Arauco: 00:23:47

system, like we have to grade each of these people based off

Robert Arauco: 00:23:50

of like culture fit, you know, remote selling setup, like

Robert Arauco: 00:23:54

different things like that. And what I've learned most lately of

Robert Arauco: 00:23:59

being a leader is the empathy side of things is very

Robert Arauco: 00:24:02

important. Because if you don't connect with your people,

Robert Arauco: 00:24:05

they're going to leave. That's the beauty of like connecting

Robert Arauco: 00:24:08

with your people, they can get a job offer that may even be

Robert Arauco: 00:24:11

20 50,000 more, which is probably the right move, you

Robert Arauco: 00:24:16

know, for their family or whatever it is, but like they

Robert Arauco: 00:24:19

don't want to leave, because they love working with you the

Robert Arauco: 00:24:22

organization notation, they see the upside of growing within the

Robert Arauco: 00:24:25

company. But that was my weakness at the same time.

Robert Arauco: 00:24:28

always been good with connecting with people, even at that

Robert Arauco: 00:24:31

skilled nursing facility. I didn't know how to do all the

Robert Arauco: 00:24:34

paperwork because it was brand new to me. But me connecting

Robert Arauco: 00:24:37

with the patients was what I was good at taking them outside for

Robert Arauco: 00:24:41

some fresh air, making sure their day was right. I even had

Robert Arauco: 00:24:44

a lady that she had dementia. I bring her a flower every day.

Robert Arauco: 00:24:49

She called me on her deathbed. After I was already gone from

Robert Arauco: 00:24:53

the company. Her daughter called me like hey, my mom wants to see

Robert Arauco: 00:24:57

you. She misses you. I'm like, do you she has dementia. And she

Robert Arauco: 00:25:01

remembered me like that. Anyways, connecting is the most

Robert Arauco: 00:25:05

important thing. But what I've learned lately is you got to

Robert Arauco: 00:25:08

have accountability. He got to stay true to the numbers, the

Robert Arauco: 00:25:12

Northstar. It's gotta be a healthy mix of the two. Like,

Robert Arauco: 00:25:16

are you running a bunch of groupie sales people, everybody

Robert Arauco: 00:25:19

just gets along and has fun and there's not as much

Robert Arauco: 00:25:22

accountability to like hitting metrics. Are you running like a

Robert Arauco: 00:25:27

bullpen or it's all about numbers turn and burn. You know,

Robert Arauco: 00:25:30

whatever revenue first. I don't like that. So the healthy blend

Robert Arauco: 00:25:34

of the two. And to be honest, I think when you hold someone

Robert Arauco: 00:25:38

accountable, you actually care about them. Like that's a sign

Robert Arauco: 00:25:41

of caring, in my opinion.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:25:44

Yeah. Wow. A scorecard for hiring. It's like

Wesleyne Greer: 00:25:48

all the makings of the things that we need to do to really

Wesleyne Greer: 00:25:52

ensure that we're getting the best people for the positions.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:25:57

And I love to say hire slow fire fast. And some people like oh,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:26:02

wow, why do you say that? But Mike, because of you take your

Wesleyne Greer: 00:26:04

time and hire the right people. And if they don't hit the

Wesleyne Greer: 00:26:08

metrics, the things that you know that they should be in week

Wesleyne Greer: 00:26:12

two, if they're not doing this, let's have a conversation, get

Wesleyne Greer: 00:26:14

you up to speed. And week three, if you still aren't getting it,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:26:18

then there's something that's not right here. Because you're

Wesleyne Greer: 00:26:20

right, having that empathy and that compassion. Sometimes it

Wesleyne Greer: 00:26:23

hurts us as leaders, because we hold on to the wrong people too

Wesleyne Greer: 00:26:27

long, right? And so we have to find that balance between, yes,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:26:32

I need somebody who's driven who's driving, but I have to not

Wesleyne Greer: 00:26:36

push them too much. Push them just enough. And really having

Wesleyne Greer: 00:26:39

that individualized coaching plan for each person on the team

Wesleyne Greer: 00:26:43

is so so important.

Robert Arauco: 00:26:45

Yeah, definitely. Another little strategy I've

Robert Arauco: 00:26:48

been implementing lately, too, is like, as that team grows,

Robert Arauco: 00:26:53

it's just harder to like, Give everyone that one on one

Robert Arauco: 00:26:56

attention that, you know, people like it, like, they're looking

Robert Arauco: 00:26:59

up to you. They're growing, they're trying to become you

Robert Arauco: 00:27:02

sometimes in a sense, right. And what's been really working

Robert Arauco: 00:27:06

lately is not just we use stack for our whole company, or sorry,

Robert Arauco: 00:27:11

slack for our whole company to interact. So shout outs to the

Robert Arauco: 00:27:15

whole team, like, Hey, Christian, just set up three in

Robert Arauco: 00:27:18

a row. You know, they love that, and quick videos to like, quick,

Robert Arauco: 00:27:22

like 32nd to one minute videos that are high energy, either

Robert Arauco: 00:27:27

directly to the person, right? Like, Hey, I know you've been

Robert Arauco: 00:27:30

struggling to talk to 10 people so far, but that's okay. It's

Robert Arauco: 00:27:34

all about the next call. It's, you know, how can you improve

Robert Arauco: 00:27:38

your strategy? Think about the 10 people that just said no to

Robert Arauco: 00:27:41

you, and what could you have done different there? You know

Robert Arauco: 00:27:44

what to say? So let's connect, like those small things

Robert Arauco: 00:27:48

sometimes make the biggest difference. And from a time

Robert Arauco: 00:27:50

standpoint, now, I don't have to spend 15 minutes with that

Robert Arauco: 00:27:54

person trying to like get them back on track emotionally. And

Robert Arauco: 00:27:57

you know, from a driven standpoint, that one minute

Robert Arauco: 00:28:00

video did the trick. Obviously, you need the FaceTime by like,

Robert Arauco: 00:28:03

that has been something I've implemented lately, that's made

Robert Arauco: 00:28:06

a huge difference.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:28:07

proactive versus reactive leadership. That is

Wesleyne Greer: 00:28:12

amazing. Having setting the stage for people to know that

Wesleyne Greer: 00:28:17

this is an environment where we're not just shouting you out

Wesleyne Greer: 00:28:20

for closing a sale, because I think a lot of times,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:28:23

salespeople, that's why I call that that's a lagging indicator,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:28:26

what are the leading indicators? What are the behaviors we need

Wesleyne Greer: 00:28:29

to drive to ensure that we're hitting these revenue targets?

Wesleyne Greer: 00:28:32

Let's encourage those small things along the way. So even a

Wesleyne Greer: 00:28:36

brand new person in their third week, and they just made their

Wesleyne Greer: 00:28:39

first call, right? Hey, team, guess why such says just did

Wesleyne Greer: 00:28:43

this, they booked this meeting, they did that that helps

Wesleyne Greer: 00:28:46

motivate them because they feel like I'm a valued part of the

Wesleyne Greer: 00:28:49

team, even though I'm brand new. Exactly. So you have had a very,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:28:54

very diverse career and you have three wonderful kids and you're

Wesleyne Greer: 00:28:59

married. What is the one thing that you are most proud of

Wesleyne Greer: 00:29:03

accomplishing within your life, whether personally or

Wesleyne Greer: 00:29:07

professionally,

Robert Arauco: 00:29:08

that's a tough one because like, I'm always the

Robert Arauco: 00:29:10

guy that's like, looking forward, but I've put a huge

Robert Arauco: 00:29:14

emphasis and now I've noticed like that's one of the tricks to

Robert Arauco: 00:29:18

life. Like, you dwell on the past. Like that's the problem

Robert Arauco: 00:29:21

with salespeople, too, is like there was a time of Cutco

Robert Arauco: 00:29:24

crushing it number one, number one in the nation winning

Robert Arauco: 00:29:27

trophies, blah, blah, blah. And then I had some personal stuff

Robert Arauco: 00:29:31

in my life that happened that affected my sales. And then when

Robert Arauco: 00:29:35

I tried to get back into it, I was like wondering why it wasn't

Robert Arauco: 00:29:39

happening anymore. It's because I was focusing too much on the

Robert Arauco: 00:29:41

past. Right? Not on the now. And then there's people that get too

Robert Arauco: 00:29:47

caught up in the future. And they're just like, hey, you

Robert Arauco: 00:29:51

know, this is where I want to be. This is where I want to be

Robert Arauco: 00:29:53

and they're only focusing on that. And especially when you

Robert Arauco: 00:29:56

have a family, like now you're a lot of times you're in

Robert Arauco: 00:30:00

neglecting them, because they're next to you in the living room,

Robert Arauco: 00:30:03

and they want your attention and you're too busy, like planning

Robert Arauco: 00:30:06

something on your phone or whatever the case. So a big

Robert Arauco: 00:30:11

thing that I focus on now is focusing on the now. Because you

Robert Arauco: 00:30:16

don't know what's next. You can have the biggest Plans of the

Robert Arauco: 00:30:20

World you walk outside, something happens. You're gone.

Robert Arauco: 00:30:24

Right? Yeah. Sorry. Can you repeat the question? You are

Robert Arauco: 00:30:28

tight? I just want to make sure. I'll make sure I'm answering it

Robert Arauco: 00:30:31

the right way.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:30:32

You did, you did. And I think that really to

Wesleyne Greer: 00:30:35

round that out the past two years, if it taught us nothing

Wesleyne Greer: 00:30:39

else, it taught us that nothing is promised to you and nothing

Wesleyne Greer: 00:30:44

is in your control. Because literally people had these grand

Wesleyne Greer: 00:30:48

plans for 2020. In March, it's like, no, like, Okay, I'll do it

Wesleyne Greer: 00:30:53

in three months, six months, then a year, it is like 18

Wesleyne Greer: 00:30:56

months. And it's like, okay, I guess this is a new normal,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:30:59

right? Because we're whilst like, we're living in this space

Wesleyne Greer: 00:31:02

where we're just holding on. And then you're like, I have to

Wesleyne Greer: 00:31:04

start adapting, I have to start changing. And those that didn't

Wesleyne Greer: 00:31:07

adapt the businesses that went out of business, they're the

Wesleyne Greer: 00:31:10

ones who didn't adapt. They're the ones who didn't change. The

Wesleyne Greer: 00:31:13

people who may have been laid off, unfortunately, during that

Wesleyne Greer: 00:31:16

time, and they're still not able to find a new position is

Wesleyne Greer: 00:31:19

because, again, they're still living in what I used to do, or

Wesleyne Greer: 00:31:23

what I my last position was, and they're not really trying to

Wesleyne Greer: 00:31:26

think about, well, what can I do now? Where am I today? And how

Wesleyne Greer: 00:31:29

can I impact the world with where I am today? And what I'm

Wesleyne Greer: 00:31:33

doing?

Robert Arauco: 00:31:34

Yeah, that's a must. And our business grew

Robert Arauco: 00:31:37

during COVID. Like, that was one of that forward thinking type of

Robert Arauco: 00:31:40

things like we were using zoom, three years before COVID hit. So

Robert Arauco: 00:31:44

like, getting a realtor on the Zoom call in the beginning was

Robert Arauco: 00:31:48

what am I downloading, like, this is gonna change my

Robert Arauco: 00:31:50

computer. And I don't want to do this compared to like, now

Robert Arauco: 00:31:52

everybody knows what to do. They click a link they're in. And we

Robert Arauco: 00:31:55

were already perfectly set up for that. And the pitch changed.

Robert Arauco: 00:32:00

How are you going to stay in front of your clients? If you

Robert Arauco: 00:32:01

can't be face to face? It's on this thing. Right? Stay on their

Robert Arauco: 00:32:06

phone

Wesleyne Greer: 00:32:06

is good. That's good. Yeah, you guys had that?

Wesleyne Greer: 00:32:09

Like you said that Elon Musk. Tim, lat whole bit of all these

Wesleyne Greer: 00:32:16

forward thinking people that we think about if we think about

Wesleyne Greer: 00:32:20

Tesla, and SpaceX, and even Apple, you know, like, 10, like

Wesleyne Greer: 00:32:24

1520 years ago, what was apple? So remember, big box that I had

Wesleyne Greer: 00:32:27

an elementary school that I would be typing on, right, like,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:32:31

that's the Macintosh that I remember. And now it's a

Wesleyne Greer: 00:32:35

household name. And so I think that really what your

Wesleyne Greer: 00:32:40

organization has done is you've always been forward thinking.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:32:43

And so when the time came for you guys to step up and accept

Wesleyne Greer: 00:32:47

the hey, we've always been here, it was easy to captivate the

Wesleyne Greer: 00:32:51

market.

Robert Arauco: 00:32:51

Yeah, no, we, we doubled down on everything. We

Robert Arauco: 00:32:55

went from one state to 48 within about two years, of where we can

Robert Arauco: 00:33:02

offer the product because wow, yeah, well, it's it's a very

Robert Arauco: 00:33:06

complicated thing, because like, there's what's called the MLS.

Robert Arauco: 00:33:09

So this is like a data company where the realtors upload their

Robert Arauco: 00:33:12

listings. And it's Yeah, I don't know, it was gorgeous. It's

Robert Arauco: 00:33:16

like, there's some mafia style aspects to it, where it's like,

Robert Arauco: 00:33:20

we don't want to let you and like you got to pay, you got to

Robert Arauco: 00:33:22

do this, she's got to follow these rules. And like, you have

Robert Arauco: 00:33:25

to be able to adjust to each market, you have to be able to

Robert Arauco: 00:33:28

get that data in and pay these fees and everything. And it's

Robert Arauco: 00:33:32

unheard of to go for a startup to grow that fast. In times,

Robert Arauco: 00:33:37

yeah. But we were able to do it.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:33:39

Yep. And knowing that you're in the housing

Wesleyne Greer: 00:33:41

market during the housing, boom, I really, really, and now we're

Wesleyne Greer: 00:33:45

about to go into that low and people still want to be ahead of

Wesleyne Greer: 00:33:48

their customer, they still want to be in front of the customer

Wesleyne Greer: 00:33:51

so they can be top of mind. So you definitely are set up for

Wesleyne Greer: 00:33:55

success. This has been an amazing conversation, Robert,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:33:59

what is the one best way that people can get in touch with you

Wesleyne Greer: 00:34:02

if they're wanting to connect? If you're

Robert Arauco: 00:34:06

a realtor broker or something like that home

Robert Arauco: 00:34:09

stack.com That's like stack of paper will build you your own

Robert Arauco: 00:34:13

app. We'll walk you through the process. And we have coaches

Robert Arauco: 00:34:16

that assist with marketing and teaching you the system if you

Robert Arauco: 00:34:19

want to reach out to me directly. I do have a LinkedIn

Robert Arauco: 00:34:22

account. That's probably the best route. Robert Ralco. My

Robert Arauco: 00:34:26

last name is Ara. You. C is in cat. Oh, the only Robert Ralco

Robert Arauco: 00:34:33

in the United States. won't be hard to find me there.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:34:37

I'm only Wesley. I gotcha. So again, thank you so

Wesleyne Greer: 00:34:43

much for spending your time with us today and enriching us with

Wesleyne Greer: 00:34:48

all the ins and outs of being a 1099 going into startup SAS and

Wesleyne Greer: 00:34:53

into growth mode. We definitely appreciate all of your

Wesleyne Greer: 00:34:56

expertise.

Robert Arauco: 00:34:57

Thank you. We really appreciate you for having

Robert Arauco: 00:35:00

yawn and, and all of your listeners like this lady knows

Robert Arauco: 00:35:03

what she's talking about. So keep listening. Keep coming

Robert Arauco: 00:35:06

back.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:35:06

Thank you so much for the shout out. And that

Wesleyne Greer: 00:35:10

was another episode of the transformed sales podcast.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:35:13

Remember and everything that you do find a way to transform your