As Hispanic Heritage Month attracts to an in depth, we needed to conclude the celebration with an worker highlight that includes the brand new lead for the Cloudera Latin X, Worker Useful resource Group (ERG), Joel Martinez. We talked with Joel about his profession in gross sales, rising up in Excessive Level, North Carolina, and his continued rediscovery of his Hispanic heritage along with his transfer to Austin, Texas the place he at the moment resides.
Discovering his profession match early within the course of.
Joel joined Cloudera two years in the past as an inside gross sales consultant (ISR) out of the Austin workplace. His duties included gross sales actions equivalent to prospecting, enterprise improvement, and demand era for brand new and current accounts.
Throughout his tenure, Joel’s position has expanded. Now, Joel has account govt tasks within the new enterprise improvement group, comprised of latest emblem groups within the central and western US. He’s liable for overlaying 2,000+ accounts, following up with leads, and creating gross sales motions to get introductions with key decision-makers.
Joel began his profession after his freshman 12 months in faculty in his hometown of Excessive Level, North Carolina. To earn some more money Joel began working at Vector Advertising and marketing, greatest often called a direct gross sales firm that sells kitchen provides, most notably its line of cutlery (Cutco). “I discovered easy methods to pitch the product, upsell, and repair earlier prospects,” he mentioned. This ended up evolving right into a full-time position as he superior to handle his personal staff.
After six years with Vector, Joel needed to discover the tech sector. He introduced his gross sales and administration expertise to a small startup in Durham that specialised in a distinct segment compliance software program to facilitate public information related to the federal authorities’s Freedom of Info Act (FOIA) necessities. After gaining some expertise within the tech sector, a pal referred Joel to an ISR position at Cloudera and the remainder is historical past.
“What I like about working at Cloudera is I’m concerned in fixing massive challenges throughout industries,” he mentioned. “The businesses we allow with our expertise actually assist save lives throughout healthcare, biotech, and prescribed drugs, in addition to assist industries that maintain the world going, like utilities, transportation, and banking. It’s fairly cool to be a part of that. As an organization, we are able to have such a direct influence on lots of people globally and for me, that’s actually motivating.”
Rediscovering his Hispanic heritage, sharing with others, and serving to the group
Whereas discovering his ardour for gross sales throughout his faculty years he was additionally rediscovering his ethnic background by means of his continued research of Spanish literature. Joel is of Mexican and El Salvadorian descent, however rising up he didn’t communicate Spanish a lot at residence.
“Rising up, I typically was made to really feel completely different. Because of this, I didn’t wish to communicate Spanish in the home or embrace my heritage—I needed to slot in. Ultimately, I spotted I used to be lacking out on having the ability to talk with my mother and father successfully as a result of I used to be dropping my Spanish. That impressed me to be taught every thing I may in regards to the language and tradition, not simply Mexican and Salvadorian, however all of the cultures that make up the Hispanic individuals and nations.”
Joel’s want to embrace his heritage and incorporate it extra considerably prompted him to step into the position of Latin X, Worker Useful resource Group (ERG) lead at Cloudera. “I used to be already concerned in Huge Brothers/Huge Sisters right here in Austin and conversant in “Latinitas,” an Austin-based group designed to assist Hispanic women get into STEM that Cloudera has supported prior to now. So I believed the ERG can be a great level of collaboration.”
Recommendation for early profession gross sales professionals
In reflecting on his profession to date, Joel recognized one factor to bear in mind at any stage in a single’s gross sales profession. “I discovered this mindset from one among my first managers: Perceive that your success in gross sales is a direct results of how a lot you be taught and subsequently the extra you recognize about your product, the gross sales technique of a company, and so on. can immediately have an effect on your compensation. So whereas taking motion is important to a profitable profession in gross sales, devoting time to common apply and training is an funding in your future.”
He provides, “For instance, I all the time work to know gross sales processes and gross sales motions in and out, totally learning the merchandise and applied sciences, how the associate ecosystem works, and the aggressive panorama. As well as, I’m at the moment learning for an Amazon Net Providers cloud practitioner certificates as a result of I do know it would assist me higher perceive the area and, in flip, higher serve our prospects.”
Dwelling in Austin and the street forward
Joel was excited to affix the Cloudera Austin workplace and to check out dwelling in an even bigger metropolis. Joel says, “Previous to shifting, I solely visited Austin as soon as however I beloved the town, so I used to be like, let’s give it a strive!”
He provides, “It’s a brilliant energetic metropolis and that’s my favourite factor about it. There’s simply a lot to do—the river and trails are superior. I’m all the time strolling or working and I simply obtained a mountain bike. There are quite a lot of social occasions as nicely, together with some nice locations to bounce Salsa and Bachata.”
“Trying forward in my profession I’d like to maneuver as much as a supervisor position so I will help scale the enterprise improvement group and begin mentoring others as I did in my earlier enterprise,” he mentioned. “I obtained quite a lot of satisfaction out of serving to others develop of their careers. I see how knowledge analytics is altering the world and I’m blissful to be a part of it and create a company the place others might be part of it too.”
We thanks Joel for contributing to Cloudera and sharing your story!
