Mario Martinez Jr is the CEO and Founder of Vengreso. He spent 86 consecutive quarters in B2B Sales and Leadership. He is one of 20 sales influencers invited to appear in the Salesforce.com documentary film “The Story of Sales” launched in 2018 and was named 2019’s Top 10 Sales Influencers by The Modern Sales Magazine. Mario is the host of the popular Modern Selling Podcast.
“We always say invest in people, and that is true 100%. But you also need to know when it’s time to not invest in a person.”
Mario Martinez Jr
Worst investment ever
When Mario formed Vengreso, he started looking at how he could bridge together the world’s largest modern sales training company by amassing multiple companies underneath one corporate structure through a mergers and acquisitions strategy.
Mario pitched 14 different business leaders. He ended up getting ten partners that all said yes to his idea. Two, however, literally dropped out the day before they signed all the paperwork.
The big mergers and acquisitions idea
Mario’s idea was to have a private equity roll-up where you bring all the companies underneath one corporate entity. Everybody’s assets, IP information, and revenue are all rolled up into one centralized structure. And that is what he did.
Mario and the eight partners created a large entity with a lot of reach and brand equity. It went on to take the market by storm.
Too much for some
While the idea was a perfect one, Mario overlooked some things when pitching to business owners. He got excited because people welcomed his proposal. So instead of cherry-picking the people to partner with, Mario accepted anyone who wanted in.
The merger ended up a total disaster
Because of this, the merger ended up becoming a total disaster from a personality standpoint. The merge ended up being too scary for some of the partners, and so along the way, they left. Others were exited out of the firm because there were just too many differences causing a rift between partners. Now only four of the new partners are left in the firm.
Spending time trying to make relationships work
Mario spent so much of his time trying to make the relationships work. He saw the clash in personalities from the start, but he just let it go thinking that the issue would naturally resolve itself over time. However, the differences just got worse, and Mario had to finally have the difficult conversation of exiting some partners, something he wishes he had done years earlier.
Lessons learned
Normalize dissolving partnerships that are no longer working
If you are in a partnership and find yourself disagreeing all the time, do not leave disagreements to chance. If the relationship keeps getting worse and you are arguing over the same thing all the time, you need to consider dissolving the partnership. Have an honest discussion about it and call it quits if it is just not working.
Do thorough due diligence before getting into any mergers and acquisitions
Before you get into any mergers and acquisitions, do your due diligence to figure out who is the best partner for you and what they will bring to the table. Do not let the excitement of a new venture cloud your judgment.
Andrew’s takeaways
Not everything that experts do will work for you too
Just because experts are doing something you are interested in does not mean that it is the right thing to do or that it is going to work for you. It does not mean it is not going to work, be cautious of doing things blindly just because others are doing them.
Not every disagreement needs to be resolved with a confrontation
You can resolve disagreements amicably through nonconfrontational communication and conflict resolution.
Actionable advice
When getting into partnerships, follow your gut. Also, be willing to have honest conversations with your partner/s regarding the progress of your collaboration.
No. 1 goal for the next 12 months
Mario’s number one goal for the next 12 months is to double Vengreso’s growth from an employee perspective. He hopes to do this by hiring more people from underrepresented groups.
Parting words
“Just have fun.”
Mario Martinez Jr
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