Building Sales Teams in Mexico: Mario Oliveros Figueroa on LATAM Talent & Cross-Border Selling

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Welcome everyone to another episode of the Nearshore Cafe Podcast.
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I'm Brian Sampson, your host, and this podcast is sponsored by Plug Technologies, PLUGG.tech.
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Great way to connect talent from all over Latin America with growing U.S.
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companies.
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If you are interested in hearing about how to build sales teams, how to sell in Latin America, and just a really interesting executive story, this is going to be a fantastic show for you.
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We've got Mario Oliveras.
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Mario, welcome to the show.
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We're so happy to have you.
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Brian, thank you so much for this opportunity.
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I'm happy to be here.
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And we can tell some stories about Latin America, business, people, everything that you needed.
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Amazing.
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And Mario, if I had it right, um you are the uh global director of Latin America for Niyamo.
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Is that correct?
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That's correct.
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This opportunity that Nyamo is is one of the largest companies around the federal services.
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And we are in charge of building the strategy and the teams, the most important thing across Latin America for us is a very good challenge in order to create this amazing team.
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Amazing.
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I can't wait to dive deeper.
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So that's where you are now, but there's a whole story that goes into how it all happened.
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You know, I know uh you did school in Monterey.
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I believe you're in Mexico City today.
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Where did it all start?
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Where were you born?
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And, you know, kind of give us give us some insight into your uh your early life and career.
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Sure, of course.
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Well, this is uh I believe this is a good story because my DNA it's in sales.
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So everything related with my professional career, it's it's in sales, hunting sales and building sales.
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So yes, I was born here in Mexico City.
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I am right now in Mexico City.
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I study in Monterey and Mexico City, between those cities.
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I believe the most impactful for me was when I discovered the sales professional skills that I delivered, and obviously trying to get the knowledge after the school.
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And my first, I believe my first challenge in order to present something to a company was 15 years ago, 16 years ago, working for different companies.
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And obviously, after the school, you know, you you don't have, I believe, the 100% experience, tools, skills you need to develop, right?
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But I remembered that I was a pretty good negotiator in the school.
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So for me, it was like uh trying to develop and adapt that model in the school with my friends, with the with the people that I play, used to play football negotiating with everybody.
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So trying to convince them to do and make some decisions and trying to be be the one who managed those parts.
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So yeah, I believe that's that's the initial skill or the initial career that I that I have it right now.
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I love it.
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And you know, uh for those that that maybe haven't been to interior Mexico, you know, where most of the people live, Monterey, Mexico City.
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Give some insight, I think, into just like the general culture, you know, of negotiating, when you go to the markets, you know, like is this is this a skill that most people tend to have because there's bartering, haggling?
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Yeah, one of I believe one of the most important points that you need to have in mind as a company, first of all, and after that, as a business people who are going to introduce something in Mexico, it's to know the culture.
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It's to know the people.
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Because especially in Mexico, and obviously we can talk about later about Central and South America and with those examples.
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Mexico has different types of cultures, right?
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Maybe we can split the three main cities that we consider as a business cities or clusters that we call in Mexico.
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Mexico in the center, moderate in the north of the country, and Guadalajara is in the eastern part.
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So we'll we call this like a sales trial triangle, right?
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So you need to be aware that you need to develop a relationship with all the companies, the procurement people, the salespeople.
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Mexico indeed has a good relationship with the providers and everything it's established like a, you know, first of all, they need to trust, they need to know you, they need to see that obviously you have something to sell, but you need to understand what kind of sports maybe are uh good and aligned with our contacts, uh what is happening in the in the in the region, cultural sports.
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So you need to be more close with the people.
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So different kinds of behaviors that we have in Mexico, in Mexico City, for example, we have the financial cluster.
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So everything is a little bit more like a bit more formal versus the north of the country.
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In the north of the country, they are more free to open, to receive you in their offices, maybe with a tiny chat or coffee or something like that.
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In Mexico City, for example, you need to schedule a meeting a little bit more formal.
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The dress code, sometimes it's a little bit more formal, too.
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So this is a kind of examples that you maybe need to know with when with you are negotiating and trying to be here in Mexico.
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Yeah, it's interesting.
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I and I can certainly validate that.
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When I was in Mexico City, I felt like there were a lot more uh suits, and especially in you know, more of the business districts, Condesa and so forth.
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Reforma Manre.
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Yeah, right.
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Reforma, yeah, a lot more, a lot more suits, a lot more business people.
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And then more recently, when I was in Monterey, and Monterey is a little warmer too, so maybe more for sure.
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You know, polo shirts uh and and slacks.
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Yeah, and also maybe another another point that you need to have in mind when you are here to to to do business is the traffic.
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It's amazing that you are going to spend a lot of time in Mexico City, for example.
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Obviously, not in the same proportion in Monterey and Guadalajara, but in Mexico City, especially speaking, you can have one meeting in the east side we call Santa Fe, or in the center that we call right now Reforma.
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It's only six kilometers.
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And you can maybe spend two hours between the two meetings, right?
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So you need to be, obviously, you need to be very coordinated in that part because you need to plan, you need to be there, you need to know the city.
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And sometimes when I receive some foreign colleagues or customers or prospects here in Mexico City, and we need to move for another part of the city, they don't believe when I said we need to be two hours before.
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Like uh if you are going to take a plane, yeah, it's the same.
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You need to be aware two hours because we need to transport and we need to do something to do like that.
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So yeah, for them it's sometimes it's crazy.
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That's so funny.
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I um I regret that I didn't have a chance to do the subway when I was in Mexico City, but I've heard that it that it's it's quite good, quite famous.
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Is it used by by everyone?
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Like, is that part of the way people get to meetings or is it usually by car?
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No, it depends obviously in in which part or your office, because everybody is, I believe it's a good way and good transport.
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Maybe we need more efficiency and that, but sometimes if you need to cross some, I don't know, 20 kilometers, something like that, maybe it's a good option because you are going to spend less time versus than uh by car, right?
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So everybody, students, people at the office, uh everybody allows to use the subway.
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Sometimes it will be, you know, a lot of people going forward right now.
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Right now it's uh complicated because you know we are going to be host of the World Cup, Soccer World Cup.
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So they are making some arrangements of that.
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So this is crazy right now because we are trying to do something, trying to be better and functionally better for everybody to is going to be here in Mexico.
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Yeah, I um you know my my recent visit to Monterey, I felt like everything was under construction and in a big hurry for the World Cup.
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Yeah, exactly.
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Almost the three cities that I mentioned Mexico, Guadalajara, and Monterey, those cities are under construction, airports, roads, subways, everything.
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So, you know, if if in the past we're crazy, right now it's complicated.
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You you don't you don't need to see this right now.
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Yeah.
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Uh tell us more about Guadalajara.
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What should people know about it that have never been?
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Yeah, sure.
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Guadalajara, culturally speaking, they are famous, you know, mariachi.
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We call the land of mariachi, a land of tequila.
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So they are a good sound that we produce tequila from mariachi.
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It's it's one of the one of the biggest and famous uh part of uh our culture.
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And also in the business side, we have the the technic uh technical corridor, or we have a lot of international companies, technology speaking based on Guadalajara.
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So we have like a this this particular behavior on that.
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Yeah.
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Now, if I had a ride, you went to the technical university in Monterey, which is world famous.
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And from my understanding, most people that go there are setting off for a technical career.
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Here you are as a uh sales leader.
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Tell us more about that.
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What what got you into that school?
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Did you have uh another path in your mind that you were going to take as your career?
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Yeah, sure.
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That's a good point because I understood when I was finishing the school, I developed some skills, but not technical skills, right?
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So one of my first jobs that I have was in technology.
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So I needed to learn because I wasn't an engineer.
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So I had a good, very good colleagues, engineers.
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So I am trying to learn about that part, you know, the technical part, embedded with the sales part.
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So from my perspective and talking with some colleagues, sometimes it's better for a salespeople trying to get better knowledge and trying to be aware of that technology, everything is happening so fast.
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So you need to be there.
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You need to be aware of that.
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When you are where you are working with colleagues, and for example, you are going to make some demo or something like that.
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If you understand 100%, it's going to be easier for you.
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Because sometimes maybe some engineers, not everybody, doesn't have the skills to sell, right?
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So you need to be like this mix is very interesting.
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So that was my experience.
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Right now, obviously, this the way that we sell right now, it's totally different.
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Three years ago, six years ago, eight years ago, because we didn't have AI, right?
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Today, today is fantastic because we can try everything about color coding, outbound, inbound, uh, everything related with the messages.
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So right now, data and business and this combination, it's very interesting for the people that are in the sales world because you have more information.
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You are having better engagement with the companies, information, and you are going to plan, in my perspective, a better way to do this approach for companies.
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Yeah.
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I'd love to get in, get deeper into that in a second.
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Before I go there, I'd love to get your perspective on building sales teams, how you hire, and then also kind of put it all together as we talked about the big three cities, you know, what kind of sales talent between, you know, SDRs and software selling and things like that, you know, how you might build the team and what should we we know about some of these cities in terms of talent?
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Yeah, good question.
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So, for example, in my experience, building the teams, sales teams here in in Mexico, talking about only in Mexico, sometimes we found very good talent, technical talent, for example, in in Guadalajara, in that part of the of the country.
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In the north, maybe it's going to be a little bit more aligned with near shoring, with the cross-border, because they are very close to US, right?
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So they have a better engagement with the culture and also the language.
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Sometimes it's better in the north of the region because they are very, very close to US.
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They have family in the US, they are back and forward with the US and Mexico.
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So they have like a that style.
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So sometimes you need to improve some skills for the center and the and the eastern region of the country in terms of that.
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But on the other hand, you can find a very good talent in in three these uh big cities that we have.
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And obviously, I am not saying the other part of the country is not uh is not aware about a good talent, yes.
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But in my experience, in the companies that I've been working, and obviously in the hiring process, recruiting process, we find very good talent in this in this triangle that I mentioned.
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So these are the skills that maybe we can find, and also the people that we prefer to do this hiring process.
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Yeah.
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You know, in in the US for for many, many years, we kind of had this SDR would do the outreach, kind of book the meeting, and then we have the uh, you know, account executive, maybe paired with a sales engineer.
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And then, you know, if you need the big gun, you bring in, you know, the executive, you know, later.
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When you're selling in with a team in Mexico to Mexico clients, do you build it in a similar way?
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Um, and then maybe you could also talk about what the sales structure used to look like, and then now with AI, what it might look like today.
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Yeah, sure.
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Sometimes it depends on the project, but maybe we can have like uh one experience that I have.
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When we introduce a specific technology in Mexico, they go go to market strategy.
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We needed to put it in in, I believe, in three levels.
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We need to get the awareness of the brand, right?
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Because it's a new brand or a new technology that's going to be in Mexico.
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We need we need people to develop and have a lot of contacts in order to have many connections and promote organically speaking, right?
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Because sometimes you need to invest with marketing efforts, but you need to build the basis that you are going to settle down the sales team.
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SDR, BDR, account executive, BDM sometimes, because you need it sometimes to decide if you are going to approach and your ICP, your DL customer profile is going to be small and medium.
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Maybe you are going to attack with these first two figures that I mentioned.
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And if you are going to attack a business and top companies, maybe you can have those resources in the top of the parameter.
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Maybe people with a little bit more experience, maybe people with more networking, making business maybe from the past.
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So my recommendation is trying to have this balance between, right?
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Because you need openers, you need like a people who run the whole process, the sales process, and also you have specialists in the top that maybe you can assign and specific projects and specific accounts.
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And also you have uh, I believe, the balance that you needed.
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Yeah.
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And how about some of the sales tools?
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You know, the common ones I hear about in the US, HubSpot, Go High Level, Salesforce, of course.
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Are there ones that that you prefer?
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And and maybe how do you how do you think about that?
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Or is there a maybe like an internal company, domestic company in Mexico that that's a competitor to those?
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Yeah.
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In in my experience, um, I manage Salesforce, HubSpot.
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I believe those are the main tools that we use in order to manage the pipeline, manage the forecast, funnel, administrate all the efforts that we have at contacts and that sales process.
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I loved the the tools that maybe we can use for the sales process because right now it's better to have that information in some place, right?
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Because you need to make decisions, you need to see what is happening, you need to see how it's moving forward, why it's not moving forward.
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So it's better to have these kinds of tools.
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Because I recommend for all my team members and all the companies that I've been working on.
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It doesn't, it doesn't have to be the biggest and the most expensive tool that you needed.
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You need to have one.
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Maybe we can start with one small and medium uh tool that we we can we can buy, or maybe we can have our right now we have different options with AI.
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So but my recommendation is always to do this because it's better to have this follow-up for all the sales team members and and obviously for by myself.
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Yeah.
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AI is uh, you know, as you said, very, very exciting, especially for sales.
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Tell us more about how you're thinking about it.
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And obviously, you know, the answer you might have today might be different tomorrow.
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But, you know, uh what are what are some of the tools that you're using that you've seen your your sales team use?
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Yes, so we as as a technological company, we have our proprietary AI tool for our colleagues and our customers.
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This is this is one of the best options that we have.
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But in the market, we have and found different AI tools like Cloud, like other ones that maybe you can have to make the old presentations that we call right now the PowerPoint presentations.
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We call old right now, and you can manage everything with another in between video with between all the images with creating right now.
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I remember in the past, not too far, three years, four years ago, you spend maybe if you are a very good PowerPoint profiler, you spend maybe 30 minutes or 45 minutes creating a deck for some company.
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Right now, you can do it in three minutes.
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Yeah.
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So it's totally different.
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You don't spend too much time on that, right?
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You have more time to dig and analyze everything about your customer or prospect.
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So you have a lot of options right now.
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And also, if we we move a little bit more for the inbound and outbound sales teams, you have this opportunity to create new pictures, new messages, testing A B.
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You can go and measure what is happening, what is this the best way to contact?
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So everything I believe is around data, right?
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Everything's around data right now.
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Yeah, that's amazing.
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We've spent a lot of time on this call in um Mexico and now, you know, the infrastructure.
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I want to shift to cross-border.
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YAMO, from my understanding, is an Indian-based company.
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Um, and then you've also built uh teams kind of all over Latin America.
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So I'd I'd love to get your take on, you know, where you know we're all kind of the same as people and where some of these cultural differences might be pretty different.
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Yeah, totally.
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So we have uh this amazing project and the opportunity to to hire and recruit people for all the Latin American countries because we have different kinds of teams, right?
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We have operations, we have support, we have sales, and we have special discomfort people in every single country in Latin America.
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Talking about salespeople, uh yes, it's different the the profile that we have.
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For example, when you mention and ask me what are the conditions, maybe, or maybe some advantages from Mexico North versus another, I can say, for example, right now that we have a very good surprise in Argentina that people are very good technology speaking.
00:21:06.319 --> 00:21:28.480
They they have a very good lab, very uh very good clusters in terms of technic technic technicians, sorry, technicians and everything, the technical skills in Colombia, very good people in sales because you know Colombians are very good in terms of speaking, teaching, making relationships, and everything related with that.
00:21:28.799 --> 00:21:38.240
For example, in Chile we have people are a little bit more uh aligned with the process because Chile is more formal, like Mexico, for example.
00:21:38.400 --> 00:21:45.039
Sometimes you need to be aware of that, all the sales process, step by step, you need to build that.
00:21:45.200 --> 00:21:48.400
In Brazil, Brazil is a huge, a huge market.
00:21:48.559 --> 00:21:52.160
It's totally different versus another countries in Latin America.
00:21:52.319 --> 00:21:54.880
But it's interesting because they have everything.
00:21:55.039 --> 00:22:05.200
They have a very good salespeople, teaching, technical people, but they have a very Good spirit in order to have the best weight and do everything very, very fast.
00:22:05.759 --> 00:22:08.079
So this is this is a little bit different.
00:22:08.240 --> 00:22:18.640
And also, for example, in Central America, we have people that are this combination between big with Colombians and maybe with Argentinians, that they are processing everything.
00:22:18.960 --> 00:22:25.680
And the recruiting and the hiring process, it's a little bit easier for us because they are very close to Mexico.
00:22:25.920 --> 00:22:43.440
The language sometimes is similar versus some wording in Colombia, wording in Argentina, wording in Brazil that you need to obviously understand because sometimes, even though when you are interviewing somebody, sometimes you need to be careful to read some words.
00:22:43.599 --> 00:22:45.519
So you need to be aware of that.
00:22:45.759 --> 00:22:46.000
Yeah.
00:22:46.240 --> 00:22:49.759
Obviously, Mario, your your English is fully advanced.
00:22:49.920 --> 00:23:04.079
When you're interviewing for your Latin America team, and I'm kind of interested because most people I talk to from Latin America, they'll say, you know, like certain certain countries have harder Spanish to understand than others, and you know, different pacing and so forth.
00:23:04.160 --> 00:23:15.759
And do you do you tend to interview in English because it's like you know, every everyone's kind of starting from a different block, or do you do you all try to speak your own version of Spanish?
00:23:15.839 --> 00:23:17.599
And I'd love to get your take on that.
00:23:17.839 --> 00:23:21.039
No, practically we need to start in Spanish.
00:23:21.200 --> 00:23:32.640
And obviously, based on my experience, I know some words, some styles that you need to interview for Colombians, for Argentinians, for Chilean people, for Brazilian people.
00:23:32.799 --> 00:23:45.359
But it's a must for our company right now to interview in English because the official communication, the language in Yamo, it's English because we have headquarters in India.
00:23:45.519 --> 00:23:52.559
Also, we have people here in Mexico to support Latin America, but our main headquarters are in India.
00:23:52.720 --> 00:23:55.759
Our funders are in India, for example.
00:23:56.000 --> 00:23:59.279
Also, we have an office in California.
00:23:59.519 --> 00:24:01.920
So this communication needs to be in English.
00:24:02.079 --> 00:24:12.000
And also, even though we have projects in Latin America, those companies have regional headquarters or central headquarters in Europe or US.
00:24:12.240 --> 00:24:19.680
So mainly where we are sharing, negotiating in Latin America, everything needs in English, for example.
00:24:19.920 --> 00:24:26.319
So that's why it's very important for our candidates and our colleagues to speak a very good English.
00:24:26.559 --> 00:24:26.799
Yeah.
00:24:27.279 --> 00:24:38.079
And I wanted to ask you a little bit about the um, you know, Mexico versus India, you know, as as there's uh, I'm sure a lot of similarities, but also some cultural differences.
00:24:38.400 --> 00:24:49.200
When you maybe have colleagues visit from India or I don't know if you've had a chance to go to India, what are what are some things that kind of jump out as as uh as interesting observation?
00:24:49.440 --> 00:24:50.880
Yeah, it's very interesting.
00:24:51.039 --> 00:24:57.039
I am not right now planning to visit India because it's uh we have a very full agenda and schedule.
00:24:57.279 --> 00:25:00.000
But we have similar, similar things in common.
00:25:00.319 --> 00:25:02.240
Spicy food for everyone.
00:25:02.480 --> 00:25:07.920
So they don't have they don't have to struggle with the food here in Mexico, and vice versa.
00:25:08.160 --> 00:25:16.079
So we have this very common, common so but mainly we have like a similar style.
00:25:16.319 --> 00:25:29.839
We have we're very friendly, we're trying to pitch and speech very, very fast and trying to do something very quick and negotiate, and obviously your best offer pricing you need to scount.
00:25:29.920 --> 00:25:33.279
And so I believe those are similar, our cultures.
00:25:33.440 --> 00:25:35.039
So we are aligned on that.
00:25:35.200 --> 00:25:51.279
That's why I believe we have a very good match, not only with Mexico, I believe with some countries in Latin America, Colombia, are similar with our culture in terms of what kind of behavior, food, and experiences, and everything like that.
00:25:51.359 --> 00:26:06.319
So when when when our colleagues come here to Mexico and we can visit, uh joint visits with customers of prospects, they are they feel very comfortable because this is like a similar environment that they they can experience.
00:26:06.559 --> 00:26:07.039
That's great.
00:26:07.200 --> 00:26:07.759
That's great.
00:26:07.920 --> 00:26:12.640
As we start to uh wind down the show, I just want to have talk about some fun stuff here.
00:26:12.880 --> 00:26:16.240
You've spent a lot of time in both Monterey and Mexico City.
00:26:16.400 --> 00:26:21.440
For those who've never had a chance to visit, but maybe they're going for the first time.
00:26:21.680 --> 00:26:29.359
What is one food in each of those two cities that you you have recommended you have to you have to have it when you go?
00:26:29.599 --> 00:26:32.559
Yeah, definitely in Mexico City, tacos.
00:26:32.960 --> 00:26:34.240
Obviously, the tacos.
00:26:34.559 --> 00:26:38.079
You have a lot of presentations in every corner.
00:26:38.240 --> 00:26:39.839
You are going to find tacos.
00:26:40.160 --> 00:26:43.759
We we made tacos and quesadillas for everything.
00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:49.920
So you can find hundreds of presentations, spicy food, different kinds of sauces.
00:26:50.319 --> 00:26:57.440
You can put everything in a tortilla, and so you can put anything that you want, and we call tacos.
00:26:57.759 --> 00:27:06.079
So we we are going to have tacos from beef, from seafood, from shrimps, some everything that you have in your mind.
00:27:06.240 --> 00:27:08.880
In Mexico City, I believe, you can try the tacos.
00:27:09.119 --> 00:27:15.359
In the north of Monterey, the city of Monterey, my favorite food is uh, you know, we call cabrito.
00:27:15.519 --> 00:27:17.119
You know, it's like a little goat.
00:27:17.279 --> 00:27:18.079
It's different.
00:27:18.240 --> 00:27:21.839
They they cook different, the flavor is a little bit different.
00:27:22.079 --> 00:27:26.319
There's another thing that they use different kinds of tortilla.
00:27:26.559 --> 00:27:33.119
They made with different flavors and a little bit soft in the flavor versus central Mexico.
00:27:33.279 --> 00:27:35.440
So this is a little bit different.
00:27:35.680 --> 00:27:49.759
Also, in Monterey, we have a very good people making barbecues, you know, like in the US, like when you are going to the stadium and you are going to the parking lot and everybody it's it's making and preparing barbecue.
00:27:49.839 --> 00:27:52.240
It's like a similar in Monterey.
00:27:52.319 --> 00:28:02.400
Everybody, everyone is uh is loving to get their barbecue in in-house or for friends or um in events or something like that.
00:28:02.559 --> 00:28:05.519
It's a little bit different versus Mexico in that part.
00:28:05.759 --> 00:28:06.319
I love it.
00:28:06.480 --> 00:28:11.599
I love the uh the cross-cultural exposure we had today on the show, Mario.
00:28:11.839 --> 00:28:17.519
We're really lucky to have someone who's had such uh uh such an eventful life on our podcast.
00:28:17.759 --> 00:28:24.319
Now, thank you very much for give this opportunity and trying to talk about experience.
00:28:24.480 --> 00:28:34.000
I believe that this is this is part of life, trying to share experiences and somebody can have these similar experiences, or maybe they can try it.
00:28:34.079 --> 00:28:39.039
So hopefully we can see you soon and hopefully talk about anything that you needed.
00:28:39.279 --> 00:28:39.839
Absolutely.
00:28:40.079 --> 00:28:42.559
This is the Nearshore Cafe Podcast.
00:28:42.720 --> 00:28:50.079
Again, our guest today was Mario Oliveiras, and our podcast is sponsored by Plug Technologies, P L U G G dot Tech.
00:28:50.400 --> 00:28:53.519
Great way to connect talent from all over Latin America to U.S.
00:28:53.599 --> 00:28:54.079
companies.
00:28:54.160 --> 00:28:55.839
I'm Brian Sampson, your host.
00:28:56.000 --> 00:28:58.960
We'll see you next time on the Near Shore Cafe Podcast.
00:28:59.200 --> 00:29:02.559
Next week for a new episode featuring another special guest.