Transcript
WEBVTT
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we as customers expect seamless,
connected and relevant experiences, and
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we deliver that to our customers, and
we focus on that when we're trying to
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deliver the message way. All know that
we should not try to be all things to
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all people. And in this episode on the
c X Siris on B two b growth, you'll
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enjoy a conversation with Neema Hashami,
the director of sales at Contents Stack,
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the company that pioneered Headless CMS.
And don't worry, I didn't know what
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that was either has a consistent
renewal rate over 95% and is very clear
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about who they will and won't sell to
and serve. My name is Ethan Butte, host
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of the customer Experience podcast,
host of the Sea, X Siris on B two, B
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Growth and chief evangelist at Bom Bom.
Enjoy this conversation with Neema
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Hashami, creating engagement and
communicating the need for change, the
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need for transformation, thes air key
to customer experience and, in fact, to
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employee experience. Today we're
talking sales change and engagement
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with a gentleman who served in a
variety of sales roles and sales
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leadership roles for nearly two decades,
including director of sales at Wearable
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World Labs, Bluenose Analytics and
built Dot io. He currently serves as
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director of sales at Contents Stack Ah
company that brings business teams and
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technology teams together to deliver
personalized Omni Channel digital
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experiences for customers like VM Ware,
Chase, Cisco, Walmart, Sephora, Iceland
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Air and the Miami Heat. Among many
other familiar names. Neema Hashami
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Welcome to the customer experience
Podcast. Glad to be here, Ethan. Yeah,
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Thank you so much for making time. I'm
looking forward to getting into it, but
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one of your offices is in San Francisco.
You're in Oakland? Kind of set the
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scene. What is the pandemic done to you?
Your business. Your customer is kind of
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like, what are a couple high level
takeaways? Here is we're recording in
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mid to late June. Yeah, absolutely. I
mean, I think around the world, we
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worked with customers all around the
world, and, you know, everybody has
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been hit. I don't think anybody has
been immune to you know what's happened
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with the pandemic. I think on the one
hand, it's been unfortunate that we
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haven't been able to gather in our San
Francisco office. We also have offices
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in Austin and in India everybody's been
work from home since early March. On
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the other hand, it was great to see our
leadership team step up and make
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decisions quickly and swiftly with the
best interests of the employees in mind
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and also working with customers through
this difficult time. It's helped create,
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you know, a more solid bond. But I
think where we have been affected is
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just, you know, things kind of paused a
little bit on the sales front as
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companies were tryingto figure things
out. We worked with large companies and
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the vast majority of those air public
companies eso they had, you know, pause
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and spending that affected us a little
bit, just personally, not being able to
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go into the office every day. It's been
three months since I went into the
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office and not being able to interact
directly with the team. But on the
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other hand, we were set up pretty well.
You know, most of our employees have
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not. All of them had a set up for work
from home. Our technical support team
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was able to step it up in the first few
weeks and support the employees working
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from home even more on So I think we've
We've done pretty well, all things
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considered nice. I really appreciate
the idea that you feel like leadership
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made the right choices for the benefit
of the employees. That's where AH,
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great customer experience starts with a
satisfied, engaged employees that feels
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secure and appreciate. And so really
good words. Thank you for sharing that.
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I wanna learn more about content stack.
But first I'm gonna ask you a couple of
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definitional questions, and the first
one is customer experience. When I say
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that Neema, what does that mean to you?
I think it's twofold. One is customer
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experience. When I think about it, it's
This is what it's like to be your
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customer. But when you kind of take a
step back and look at it in greater
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detail, I think like the brand is what
the company wants their customers to
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think they are, and the customer
experience is the reality check of
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being your customer. So I think that's
that's what it means to me. Like, what
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is the reality of being, ah, brands
customer? I love it. I like both of
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those angles there. One I often bottom
line customer experiences. I wanted,
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like, really simplified as how you make
people feel, which was essential to
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your first one and then to the second
one. This idea that the customers
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reality is the reality you can think
and feel and say whatever you want. You
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could even have a retort or rebuttal to
some kind of customer feedback that the
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fact of the matter is the customer gets
to define what reality is and what
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their experiences. I like that one more
definition here when I see engagement,
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what does engagement mean to you? It's
one of those slightly. It's critical, I
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think, Thio the work that you all do in
the value that you provide your
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customers. But it could also maybe be a
little bit slippery when I say that,
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What does it mean to you? Engagement is
that I think that direct action of the
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brand interacting with the customers
for the prospective customers so that
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that moment, when you are on a mobile
app or on a website or entering a store
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from that moment on, when that that
happens to me, that's engagement. Go on.
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So for people who aren't familiar, tell
us a little bit about contents stack
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like, Who is your ideal customer and
what do you solve for them? Yeah,
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absolutely. At a very direct level, we
are a content management solution. So
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we're a technology company on the
product that we have is a content
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management solution. We make it
possible for businesses to create and
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publish content faster. It does go much
deeper than that, but that's that's
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essentially what we dio. We are
software as a service. Eso All that
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means for for those that are not
familiar is that our product is in the
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cloud it's hosted. So you don't have to
like if you think back decades and
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decades ago when we would get the CDs
for a O. L. And you have tow manually.
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So that would be more of a traditional
software embedded software where were
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in the cloud. So it's like logging into
your Gmail, account the updates or
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happened seamlessly, you know, and
seamless up updates and upgrades. But
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that's what we are where content
management solution, where SAS company
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and we help our customers deliver a
more succinct and consistent customer
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experience for their customers. Nice
and of course, I listed in the
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introduction there some very, very
large companies, Very well known brands.
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What is the range? Is that Is that the
typical customer like, what is the
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range of of folks that you serve? Yeah.
So we made a decision very early on to
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Onley work with large customers. So the
vast majority of our customers are
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public companies and have been around
for a long time. One of the reasons
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that we made that decision is we came
from a professional services background.
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So we were really used to this
partnership approach of working with
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customers and we realized that that's
where we wanted to focus on. There are
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other CMS vendors that focus on, you
know, individual developers slide your
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credit card to pay $99 a month, and you
get to use their services. We're only
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focused on what we term enterprise
companies. There is a range in the size
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of the companies that we work with.
Smaller companies that are completely
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digital are more likely to invest in a
product like contents acts. But because
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of our price point, we do kind of
filter out the smaller customers on the
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smaller perspective customers. So as a
result, all of our customers are are
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very large companies that invest quite
a bit with us and we as a as a result
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of being at a higher price point, are
ableto work more closely with them and
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partner with them rather than just be a
vendor. Yeah, I really like that
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discipline. I think a lot of folks try
to do more than they can do. Super
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Super Well, So I appreciate like that
there's some some heritage or some DNA
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around professional services and what
that means for the nature and the depth
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of the relationship. And then you
continue to honor it in a more
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traditional SAS offering. So for what
is your background like, Is this
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enterprise sale something you've done
for years and years and years? Or is
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this something that you know? You
You've had your toes and multiple pools
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of multiple depth. When you joined the
company, how familiar were you with it?
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With a what I assume is probably a
complex enterprise sale with maybe a
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what, 3 to 6 month cycle or something?
Yeah, so that's a great question. So my
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background I started in 2000 and eight
in technology sales and the company I
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worked with at the time lithium. They
were a provider of online customer
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communities. That was right when Social
Media was really starting to gain gain
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steam from business and enterprise
perspective. And throughout the
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duration of my career, I focused almost
solely on working with enterprise
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customers. So about 12 years of
technology sales background, all
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dealing with large customers. When I
first joined the team here, we were
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actually a company called Built dot io.
I was the first sales higher and
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started the sales team here at the
company. At the time, we had
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professional services, and we also have
three products were really trying to
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figure out where we wanted to go on. It
was very interesting and ah, good
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learning experience. I'd say. At the
beginning of 2018 January 1st 2018, we
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completely rebranded our company and
focus just on the content management
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piece. Prior to that, one of our
products was contents stack, and then,
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as of January 1st 2018, our company,
the rebrand we were contents act. We
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spun off the other products and
services and just focus on the content
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management piece. But throughout the
time. You know, the focus has really
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been on the enterprise approach because
that allows us to better partner with
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our customers on Thio, ensure success.
What we want to avoid is looking back
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and saying, Wow, we could have Dunmore
for this customer to make sure that
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they were successful on. The only way
that we can really do that without
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losing money is by, you know, having
the higher price point and making sure
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that we have skin in the game. But the
customer has skin in the game as well,
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and so it lends itself really well toe
enterprise. Nice. I like to focus and
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discipline in there, too. It's like,
Yeah, we're capable of doing these
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other things, but let's focus on what
we could be expert at and do really
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well. So when I think about the sales
process and really any kind of a
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customer engagement of customer
experience, there's some aspect of a
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transformation in there. There's a
change in there, right? It's and from a
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sales standpoint, it's helping draw the
vision for that change, creating the
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trust and confidence that we can manage
that change within for you for your
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customers. Where are they when you
first engage with them? What is the
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state of affairs and where do you bring
them? What kind of transformation, What
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kind of change? And maybe also, what
kind of resistance do you get or what
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what types of resistance are you
typically fighting? And how do you do
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that? Yeah, so I'd say from Day one, we
are working with our customers to help
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figure out how they can make their
messaging more effective and their
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teams more effective on their
businesses more effective. So I'd say
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from Day one, it's for us. It's really
about a partnership, and that's
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something that we help differentiate.
And so, for example, when you look at a
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lot of our customers Lego, Levi's
burglary The Spectator you know, the
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spectator has been in business for
almost 200 years. These air businesses
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that have been around for a long time
there challenges not creating content.
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Most of the customers we work with have
content management system in place and
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a content management process in place,
but their challenges air to fold. Their
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teams cannot create the content and
publish it at the speed that they
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desire And there's also perhaps, um,
internal struggles going on where you
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know they're they're on an old system
that's only maybe about 50 to 60% of
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their ideal capacity. Or they have
technical folks helping publish content
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for business users. Business users
aren't able to publish at their own
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speed. So when we come in, there's
already something in place that they're
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doing. And what we're trying to do is
help them be more effective and be more
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efficient. And that really is the whole
reason for head lists. You know, we're
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one of the, if not the first headless
CMS out there. We have been named a
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pioneer in the space, and again,
depending on who you ask, were either
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the first or one of the first on DSO.
We realized early on that if you
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separate code from content, allow the
business users toe focus on what their
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best, that which is being creative and
creating content. And then you focus on
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allowing the technical users toe be
good at what they're good at, you know,
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allow the experts to be experts, allow
the technical folks to create new
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products and to secure the digital
presence on things like that. Rather
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than pushing out content, what you have
is much more cohesiveness. And so
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that's really what we enable our
customers to dio is to publish content
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more quickly, but also have a safe and
secure presence out there. So they're
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not being hacked. You know,
catastrophic things like that aren't
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being. They aren't being taken
advantage of Really interesting. I am
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not familiar with headless. But my
where I am with you right now and so
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correct me and scared me back or
whatever is that It's the separation
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between I like published I don't know
hundreds of block posts at Bom Bom over
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the years and I'm not particularly
technical, but I will get into the code.
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But when I need something like legit to
happen in our blogged, I need to go to
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developer. So is it that the separation
of the content producer content creator
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from the developer that is tied to this
headless What does this mean? Yeah,
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close. Yeah, you're You're very close.
Eso What it means is if you look at a
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monolithic CMS something like wordpress
or adobe or site core. Those air sort
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of droop als another really popular
legacy. Monolithic CMS Um, they give
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you everything. They give you the
design, the u I the templates. But the
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content is hard coded in. What we did
is if you look at the front end, the u
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I and the design, the look and feel of
a website. If you look at that as the
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head and then the content itself is on
the back end. What we did is we chopped
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off the head, so that's where they got
the term headless. It was developed by
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Forrester Research, so it's an analyst
term, but it's the one that really
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caught on. But that's really what it
means is you. You and your team. Your I
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T team, your development and
engineering team, can create the look
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and feel of the website I'll use. Lego
is an example. So the lego dot com
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website or the Lego app they create the
look and feel, and then the content
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creators are in the background,
creating the content. So when you see
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you know, Lego comes out with a new
Batman toy or they are launching a new
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movie, all of the content around that
is created by a team of content
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creators and what we enable Lego to dio
what they had to do prior toe coming to
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content stack is every time a content
creator created a piece of content,
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they would then have to bring a
developer in developers air. High cost
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resource is and they're hard to find,
so even if you have the money to hire
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them, it's very difficult to find them.
So they had to bring them in and the
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time it took would be about a week or
two to get that content onto the
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website in a secure fashion. What
they're able to do now is to move much
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more quickly and you know a matter of
minutes, if not seconds, assuming all
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the boxes were checked around approvals
and permissions and so on. So we enable
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Lagos team to move move much more
quickly and as we've seen, especially
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over the last few months with co vid on
the pandemic, but also with the social
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unrest around, you know, the movement
that has taken the world really by
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storm companies have had to move really
quickly. They don't have weeks toe
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announce their stance on the pandemic
and what they're doing or their stance
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on, you know, things like black lives
matters. Um, they've had to move much
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more quickly, and our customers, we've
enabled them to do exactly that as they
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see fit. Whereas if they were on their
legacy systems, they may not have been
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able to move as quickly. Cool. Give me
a little bit of an operational pass on
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this. So headless coined in part by
Forrester. Probably with you all new
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category or essentially a subcategory,
right cause CMS. As you said, there's
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some some legacy monolithic
opportunities hanging around. What did?
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Taking on this headless concept of this
this category? Let's call it or
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subcategory. What does that mean for
you and your sales team and customer
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conversations? Was there training
around it, or was this so deeply baked
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into the company that it all just kind
of happen naturally was specifically
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speaking to headless? And I'm speaking,
I'm now holding that as a as an example
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of category designer, A new way to talk
about the product, a new way to create
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a sense of differentiation because
you're very clear on the benefits of
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making that separation that is headless.
How did that go for you all internally.
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And what was the customer reception
like to that message? Because I'm sure
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my ignorance that I just shared with
with you and with everyone listening,
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I'm sure some of your customers were
maybe in the same boat, at least for
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some period of time. Yeah, I wish I had
a great story to tell, but it all
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happened by accident. And I e no, my c
m. I was going to kick me for saying
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that, but really, what happened is when
I joined the team at the time, we were
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much more focused on mobile. We were
building mobile APS and contents. Stack
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was, ah, piece of that. We actually
were ahead of the market. The market
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wasn't really ready for it in 2015. And
then about early to mid 2016, we
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noticed this critical mass, if you will,
of interest in headless CMS. So there
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are two examples that come to mind.
Express and photobox. Photobox is an
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online retailer based in the UK and
expresses the retailer here in the US
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that sells clothing goods. And they
came to us, did an evaluation and
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decided to go with content sack. We had
a great team. We've always focused on
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creating quality products and it was
right then and again. This is this is
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kind of a new internal story that I'm
maybe sharing for the first time
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externally. But I was at a conference
with my CEO and CMO. It was in Phoenix,
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and around this time, you know, it
could have been exactly this this state
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or close thereabouts. So as you know in
Phoenix in June, it's extremely hot. We
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had about an hour. We had been at this
conference for about two days nonstop,
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and we had about an hour to kill and
they had the pool with water slide. So
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we all looked at each other. We're like,
Let's go get a drink and let's go to
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the pool and I'm sitting at the pool.
My CEO and CMO are in the pool, and I I
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told them like, Hey, guys, we just
close this deal and at the time it was,
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you know, on the higher end and a much
shorter sale cycle than the majority of
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our deals, and I saw the wheels turning
in their heads like I think the time is
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right now for headless CMS. So it was.
It's a great story. It's kind of how we
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started to pivot our focus and just
focus on headless CMS. But we noticed
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that the term was starting to gain
steam. Customers were really feeling
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the pain of this monolithic,
traditional approach to managing
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content. They needed to move faster.
The focus on digital was there, and
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that was really what carried us. And,
you know, when we asked one of those
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customers, how did you hear about us?
They said that they were, you know,
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eight months into a nine month project
using a traditional CMS adobe that they
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were gonna go beyond their their
timeline. It was gonna almost prevent
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them from being able to deliver before
Black Friday before the Black Friday
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sales, which in retail is a big no no.
They did some research on Google. They
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found out about us and then that's what
led them to us in the first place. So I
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would think, you know, the market
itself, the innovators at those
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customers and Google. That's really
what allowed us to pivot. Focus on this
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and the market is really caught up
since Nice And so I assume that that's
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the gap that exists between business
teams and development teams. When I you
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know when I look at your website, I see
how you're positioned. That's really
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speaking to this situations divide this
challenge that slows things down. I
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would agree, You know, I think now
we're seeing a lot more cohesiveness,
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even internally, because they know
there's a better way. And where we
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really focus on is helping customers
and prospective customers understand
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the difference between a true headless
and a legacy system that you know has
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an AP layer on top of decades and
decades of legacy technology and there
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using the term headless CMS. That's
really where we focus on
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differentiating now. It's also helping
perspective customers and even existing
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customers with different business units
understand the benefits of that true
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headless approach. It's difficult to
change, and so if you've been on Sykora
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or Adobe or droop Allfirst's for
decades, there's a lot of legacy
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systems. There's a lot of heavy lifting
you're gonna have to dio to make the
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change. But once it's done, life is
much more much simpler, much easier,
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and it's not just from, you know a day
to day perspective. It's not just about
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being able to publish content out
quicker and more easily, but it's also
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about not having to manage custom
widgets and custom integrations that
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you built. And once you put in that
effort initially, then you can move
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more quickly all around, rather than
continuing to dio all of the things
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that you've done in the past just to
keep things going just to maintain what
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you built. Yeah, I would assume that
that transition off of something so
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deep and layered that I would assume
that there are some emotional switching
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costs, if not cognitive, if not
financial switching costs to this shift.
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What kind of training and coaching do
you provide your team members Thio to
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draw out of vision, to inspire trust
and confidence that, like my read on on
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you in the situation, is that you're
probably White Glove and you go above
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and beyond to make that transition easy.
But you know when when a when a
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prospect or prospective customers on
the outside looking in, how are you
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training and coaching your team? Thio
kind of manage those expectations and
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inspire trust and confidence that what
seems like would be very daunting is
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actually manageable. And we're your
best partner for that. Yeah, that's a
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great question. It's I'd say our
biggest enemy is our enemies. So many
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software vendors out there have over
promised and under delivered throughout
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the years that there is that skepticism
amongst new customers, prospective
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customers. When we tell them you know,
this is what life is like with content
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sack internally, it's very easy to
train the team because we have a great
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product that works on. We have a
customer success team that helps
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provide that White Glove service. Once
a customer is on board officially, and
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we dio we provide, you know, free
trials so customers can go in and test
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out the product. You know, in a live
production and sense on, really test it
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out for themselves. So where we focus
on is helping customers do the right
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type of testing ahead of time so that
they don't make a mistake in making a
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decision. But again, it makes our life
is much easier because we know we have
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a great product that works. We have a
lot of reference. Herbal customers are
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00:24:54.460 --> 00:24:59.940
renewal rate Q. One of this year was
100%. We've consistently maintained a
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renewal rate above 95%. Even when
customers do leave us, it's not because
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the product doesn't work. It's
extenuating circumstances that you know
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there's not really much we could do
anyways or they're on legacy type
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pricing and it, you know, it doesn't
make sense for the business. So I think
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for us it's really easy. We know our
support team responds incredibly
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quickly. We know that they're effective
and they work with our customers. Thio
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identify issues that they're dealing
with and fix them. We know our
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customers Success team is helping
customers in understanding their vision
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and what they need to do Thio to
achieve that vision. And we know that
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the product team is consistently
creating the best product out there and
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always updating it. I mean, last year
we average about four updates a week
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over 200 releases to the products, so
it's constantly getting better and
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better. So when you have those things
in place as a sales team, it's really
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easy. It's just arming our sales team
with the knowledge about the industry,
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about what the customer is doing on
about how we can make sure that we are
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the right fit for the customer and what
their end goal is, and then just
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closing the deal, and you sound like
you have a very, very healthy culture.
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I just love the positivity in talking
about the relationships between the
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teams. Do you have any, maybe tips or
recommendations for people who are in
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sales rules? Sales org's It sounds like
there's a lot of trust and strong
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relationship with your CS or what are
some tips that you might have for
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making sure that there's a healthy
sales and CS trust factor? Because, of
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course, that continuity all the mo
mentum that you build getting up to the
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point of commitment a signed contract
like you know you need that you need
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that mo mentum to continue on the other
side of the commitment. Maybe what are
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some of the things that you do,
practically or socially or
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philosophically, to maintain a really
strong, healthy, trusting relationship
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between those two teams for the benefit
of the customer? Yeah, for us, it's
350
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really easy. Just having been here and
grown the team out, I work very closely
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with our senior director of customer
success were friends S O. That makes it
352
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easy. Not obviously, that's not
something that you can implement across
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every every customer. His wife was the
wedding planner for my wife and I when
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we got married. But what I would say
for companies that are trying to
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achieve this, it's really important to
bring customers success into the sales
356
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process. We use it as a differentiator
and as a sales tool. And then customer
357
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success is constantly reporting back to
sales. You know, when they have their
358
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things like quarterly business reviews,
they share the insights with sales that
359
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we can then use to sell existing deals
because there's a lot of overlap. Maybe
360
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it's not necessarily vertical, but it's
more on a use case basis. So just that
361
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insight that sharing back and forth has
really helped because they're a part of
362
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our process and vice versa. So instead
of looking at them as Siloed teams were
363
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all one team, you know, a content stack
and it's something that's instilled to
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us from the top down. Our CEO in our
CEO, you know, as founders, have always
365
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focused on that, they genuinely care
about the team here at Content Sack.
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It's kind of cheesy to say we're a
family or were a tribe, but when you're
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actually seeing it and feeling it, it's
something that you believe in almost
368
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immediately on. I think just that
teamwork, that we're all in this
369
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together, You know, you see it every
day and it makes it much easier. Nice
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on. And I feel it from U. S. Oh, it's
obviously coming from the inside out
371
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kind of two questions in one here,
maybe a similar question with regard to
372
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marketing and sales and that
relationship. But going across all
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three units and staying on the steam of
engagement. Have you all done any
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coordinated effort to look at or line
out key points of engagement and making
375
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sure that they're lined up for that
there, that there that they all work
376
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together as a cohesive experience? Have
you done that intentionally, or is that
377
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something that's naturally coming out
of your processes? Yeah, I think it's
378
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It's what we what. We're kind of
selling the vision we're selling to our
379
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customers, and if you don't drink your
own champagne, it's difficult to sell
380
00:29:20.430 --> 00:29:25.970
it externally. So absolutely. We we
believe in that. And we, you know, we
381
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practice what we preach on DSO I think
customers, you know, when we're going
382
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back to customer experience, we as
customers expect seamless, connected
383
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and relevant experiences. And we
deliver that to our customers, and we
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focus on that when we're trying to
deliver the message. So I think that,
385
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yes, we absolutely work together with
marketing as well and make sure that we
386
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are delivering that consistently cool.
When I see words like personalized
387
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omnichannel digital around the context
of the word experience, it makes me
388
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think about. I don't know whether it's
a fundamental or whether it's the Holy
389
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Grail, but right person, right message,
right time. You know, when you see her,
390
00:30:10.200 --> 00:30:14.580
when you speak to personalize and I'm a
channel and digital, what does that
391
00:30:14.580 --> 00:30:20.920
conjure for you and how do you speak to
it to potential customers and or how
392
00:30:20.920 --> 00:30:26.140
does that translate to your customers?
Customers? Yeah, so I'd say
393
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personalization is always a trending
topic, like you said right message at
394
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the right time to the right audience.
But when we look at enterprises,
395
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especially the type of folks that we
work with, I'd say that their challenge
396
00:30:41.220 --> 00:30:46.630
is not necessarily in the message part.
And, you know, oftentimes it's not even
397
00:30:46.630 --> 00:30:52.800
the right place or the right time issue.
It's that they have these disparate
398
00:30:52.800 --> 00:30:57.480
systems, you know. Their mobile team,
their mobile app is disconnected from
399
00:30:57.480 --> 00:31:03.310
their website, is disconnected from
their e commerce experience, and it
400
00:31:03.310 --> 00:31:08.600
frustrates their customers. And it's
because they built these systems often
401
00:31:08.600 --> 00:31:11.850
times. I'll have to preface it by
saying, Oftentimes not every company is
402
00:31:11.850 --> 00:31:16.020
like this. Oftentimes it's because they
built their website in the nineties
403
00:31:16.020 --> 00:31:20.540
when that became, you know what
companies did on then in the two
404
00:31:20.540 --> 00:31:24.520
thousands they built a mobile app on.
Then in the last decade, they built out
405
00:31:24.520 --> 00:31:30.500
these other channels and they're siloed.
They're separate experiences and with
406
00:31:30.500 --> 00:31:36.480
very large companies you have different
teams managing all of those channels
407
00:31:36.490 --> 00:31:43.390
with different technology as well. So
they don't have this one consistent hub
408
00:31:43.400 --> 00:31:46.900
for all their content, and therefore
the content that they push out to their
409
00:31:46.900 --> 00:31:52.230
customers is inconsistent. So what we
do is we help bring that all in. We
410
00:31:52.240 --> 00:31:56.920
strongly advocate this micro services
approach to managing technology as well.
411
00:31:56.930 --> 00:32:02.760
Our focus is on as we discussed earlier
on creating the best CMS. We're not
412
00:32:02.760 --> 00:32:05.450
trying to be an e commerce solution.
We're not trying to be a
413
00:32:05.450 --> 00:32:09.830
personalization engine. We know that
there are companies that focus on just
414
00:32:09.830 --> 00:32:15.250
that east. And so what we allow them to
do is to integrate contents, sack their
415
00:32:15.250 --> 00:32:19.800
content management process into all
these other systems, as is relevant to
416
00:32:19.800 --> 00:32:25.120
them, their business, their their
industry, their tax sack, and be able
417
00:32:25.120 --> 00:32:29.470
to deliver that consistency from a
content perspective. If for whatever
418
00:32:29.470 --> 00:32:33.350
reason, whatever e commerce solution
they're using or whatever
419
00:32:33.360 --> 00:32:37.740
personalization technology they're
using no longer meets their needs, they
420
00:32:37.740 --> 00:32:42.790
can easily kick that out, bring in
something better and, you know, really
421
00:32:42.790 --> 00:32:47.720
have minimal work needed to do that and
continue on and still deliver that
422
00:32:47.720 --> 00:32:53.630
consistent messaging that leads to
consistent customer experience. Really
423
00:32:53.630 --> 00:32:58.500
good. And I can, of course, the the
need for this inside much smaller
424
00:32:58.500 --> 00:33:01.760
organizations that are much less
complicated. The problem exists
425
00:33:01.760 --> 00:33:06.360
probably at every level, slightly
different topic here. What do you look
426
00:33:06.360 --> 00:33:10.590
for when you're hiring people for your
team? What are a few characteristics
427
00:33:10.590 --> 00:33:15.820
that you look for in someone for your
sales organization. Yeah, absolutely. I
428
00:33:15.820 --> 00:33:20.740
think we have the luxury of being in a
kind of a hot space and being with a
429
00:33:20.740 --> 00:33:26.770
great company. So we do get our pick of
who we want. But what I look for when I
430
00:33:26.770 --> 00:33:33.170
bring on team members, I like diversity
within our team on I don't mean just by
431
00:33:33.340 --> 00:33:39.290
diversity in terms of, you know,
ethnicity or sex or whatever. I mean,
432
00:33:39.290 --> 00:33:43.560
just like also diversity of experience.
I think all of those things allow you
433
00:33:43.560 --> 00:33:47.350
to have ah ah, much better team because
everybody comes from a different
434
00:33:47.350 --> 00:33:51.050
experience. But that's that's one of
the things I look for and then a track
435
00:33:51.050 --> 00:33:55.410
record of success. Obviously, I also
look for stability, you know? And then
436
00:33:55.410 --> 00:34:00.740
we try Thio do our best in hiring. You
know, people that we know and people
437
00:34:00.740 --> 00:34:05.470
within our network because there is
that level of comfort. Aziz. Well, so I
438
00:34:05.470 --> 00:34:08.030
think you know, again, those were
probably the things that I would focus
439
00:34:08.030 --> 00:34:11.909
on and that we focused on internally
and hiring out our team. Nice. It
440
00:34:11.909 --> 00:34:17.409
reminds me if I had a conversation with
Rick Myers who run CS for Lin owed
441
00:34:17.420 --> 00:34:24.750
Lennox Cloud solution company just
absolutely butchered what they dio. But
442
00:34:24.760 --> 00:34:28.940
hey talked about the same thing. The
importance of diversity. And it's not
443
00:34:28.940 --> 00:34:34.659
just diversity of ethnicity, gender,
etcetera, but hiring from disparate in
444
00:34:34.670 --> 00:34:38.679
dramatically different backgrounds. Do
you have an? The answer might be No,
445
00:34:38.679 --> 00:34:42.719
but you have off the top of your head
like one of the highly unlikely
446
00:34:42.730 --> 00:34:44.980
background, he says, like he hired
someone that used to work in an
447
00:34:44.980 --> 00:34:48.510
equestrian center. And he hired a chef.
And I know you can plug people into a
448
00:34:48.520 --> 00:34:51.850
into a customer care customer support
team differently. Maybe that a sales
449
00:34:51.850 --> 00:34:55.580
role, but give, like an interesting
outside the box higher that comes to
450
00:34:55.580 --> 00:35:01.300
mind. Yeah, I actually have a couple s
o. I hired someone recently at the end
451
00:35:01.300 --> 00:35:07.340
of last year on my team, and she used
to be a sales engineer for me at
452
00:35:07.340 --> 00:35:11.230
Lithium. We had acquired a company, and
she was on the marketing slash sales
453
00:35:11.230 --> 00:35:16.400
engineer team at that company on. That
was over a decade ago, and she had been
454
00:35:16.400 --> 00:35:20.790
doing marketing most recently, and as
we were looking to get this next round
455
00:35:20.790 --> 00:35:25.140
of hires in, I reached out to her. It
turns out she was looking at the time.
456
00:35:25.150 --> 00:35:31.640
She is a little bit older than most
folks on our team. She's a single mom,
457
00:35:31.650 --> 00:35:35.530
so just kind of brings a different take
on the world and it's proven out
458
00:35:35.540 --> 00:35:39.170
exactly like I I expected it to be.
She's always very well prepared,
459
00:35:39.180 --> 00:35:43.810
prepared and because we sell to
marketing. She brings that perspective
460
00:35:43.810 --> 00:35:48.870
to the table, and I think that's been
really good. I also hired a guy on our
461
00:35:48.870 --> 00:35:54.040
team that was, Ah, former Marine pilot.
He had started his own company and was
462
00:35:54.040 --> 00:35:57.990
kind of like a one man show. So had
experience out bounding, going to
463
00:35:57.990 --> 00:36:03.910
events, doing things to create interest
in his former company. I believe they
464
00:36:03.910 --> 00:36:07.050
ended up getting acquired, but he
didn't come from the traditional
465
00:36:07.060 --> 00:36:11.180
enterprise sales background. But I just
thought, you know, the the military
466
00:36:11.180 --> 00:36:15.180
background, the fact that he was an
entrepreneur, you know, as a
467
00:36:15.180 --> 00:36:18.680
salesperson, you're essentially a small
business owner. You kind of own your
468
00:36:18.680 --> 00:36:22.040
own territory. I thought that would be
really good and again it's it's proven
469
00:36:22.040 --> 00:36:27.440
out to be successful. I also made sure
in this last round of hires to bring in
470
00:36:27.440 --> 00:36:31.330
people from different experience levels.
Folks that have, you know, somewhat
471
00:36:31.330 --> 00:36:35.980
newer, you know, had maybe one sales
role, you know, in our bit younger, but
472
00:36:35.980 --> 00:36:39.510
also folks that are, you know, about 5,
10 years into their careers. And I
473
00:36:39.510 --> 00:36:42.590
mentioned you know, folks from
marketing background as well, and I
474
00:36:42.590 --> 00:36:46.870
think that's led to ah, really
interesting team dynamic, but
475
00:36:46.870 --> 00:36:50.880
definitely team players. I think that's
ultimately what you want is someone
476
00:36:50.880 --> 00:36:55.230
that is willing to focus on the team's
success but also bring their life
477
00:36:55.230 --> 00:37:00.000
experiences to the mix to help. That's
fantastic. The words that were coming
478
00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:03.600
to mind there was like What a richer
experience it is for each of the team
479
00:37:03.600 --> 00:37:08.380
members. And what a stronger team for
that for that blend of backgrounds and
480
00:37:08.380 --> 00:37:11.200
perspectives and things. So it's
awesome. Sounds like I have a very
481
00:37:11.200 --> 00:37:14.000
strong team. It sounds like you have a
very strong culture within the
482
00:37:14.000 --> 00:37:18.000
organization at large. If you are
listening to this conversation and
483
00:37:18.000 --> 00:37:21.330
you've enjoyed it so far, there are a
couple other conversations you might
484
00:37:21.330 --> 00:37:25.530
like actually a large number of them,
but two that come to mind here. Episode
485
00:37:25.530 --> 00:37:30.400
47 with Brian Robinson the VP of
strategic partnerships that Works 24
486
00:37:30.490 --> 00:37:34.640
the author of the selling formula. That
episode again, Episode 47 of the
487
00:37:34.640 --> 00:37:38.630
Customer Experience podcast, is called
asking Better Sales Questions for
488
00:37:38.630 --> 00:37:43.790
Greater Sales success. And then, on
Episode 59 I hosted Tyler Monkey, who
489
00:37:43.790 --> 00:37:47.660
is the manager of strategic accounts
and myriad genetics, and he wrote a
490
00:37:47.660 --> 00:37:51.150
book called The Pirates Guide to Sales.
He talked with a variety of sales
491
00:37:51.150 --> 00:37:55.960
leaders over the course of his career
and in some very challenging roles, and
492
00:37:55.970 --> 00:38:00.530
organized all of his favorite thoughts
that he stole on called it the Pirates
493
00:38:00.530 --> 00:38:05.080
Guide to Sales, Learn and Steal from
the Best. So Episode 47 Episode 59 or
494
00:38:05.080 --> 00:38:09.880
two that you might like. Uh, this has
been awesome. I appreciate your time
495
00:38:09.880 --> 00:38:13.300
and all the stuff that you shared, so
I'd like to give you the chance,
496
00:38:13.300 --> 00:38:17.470
because relationships are number one
core value to give to shout, outs or
497
00:38:17.470 --> 00:38:21.470
mentions. The first is to someone who
has had a positive impact on your life
498
00:38:21.470 --> 00:38:25.520
or career, and the other is to a
company that you really respect or
499
00:38:25.520 --> 00:38:30.670
appreciate for the experience that they
deliver for you as a customer? Yeah,
500
00:38:30.680 --> 00:38:34.880
absolutely. I think for me, just in the
role that I'm in, I have to give the
501
00:38:34.880 --> 00:38:40.560
shout out to my CEO, Nee ha Sampat. I
think they gave me the opportunity and
502
00:38:40.560 --> 00:38:45.220
coming into this role entrusted me. You
know, I was the day after I was hired
503
00:38:45.230 --> 00:38:50.220
when we were still built. Io was when
we officially pivoted away from being a
504
00:38:50.220 --> 00:38:53.750
professional services company to
becoming a product company. And she
505
00:38:53.750 --> 00:38:58.550
believed in me on my ability to help
take us to where we are now and beyond.
506
00:38:58.560 --> 00:39:04.820
I also admire her for her hard work. I
think early on we developed a lot of
507
00:39:04.820 --> 00:39:08.520
our opportunities by going to events.
We were fully bootstrapped. We didn't
508
00:39:08.520 --> 00:39:13.570
actually raise money until the end of
last year. So my first four plus years,
509
00:39:13.570 --> 00:39:17.110
4.5 years of working here we were
completely bootstrapped er, as we like
510
00:39:17.110 --> 00:39:20.870
to say, customer funded because we did
have real customers that we're paying
511
00:39:20.870 --> 00:39:26.190
us. But, you know, just I really admire
her hard work from day one until now
512
00:39:26.200 --> 00:39:30.410
where, you know, we'd go to an event
and you we'd all be staying at an
513
00:39:30.410 --> 00:39:34.990
Airbnb and, you know, we stay up late
working, getting ready for the next day,
514
00:39:34.990 --> 00:39:39.380
having a good time. She's ah, family A.
So she loves to drink wine and she
515
00:39:39.380 --> 00:39:43.090
would probably be the last one to call
it a night. And then I'd wake up early
516
00:39:43.090 --> 00:39:47.640
for a sales call, and she was already
working. So really admire her hard work.
517
00:39:47.640 --> 00:39:51.670
The fact that she takes care of
everybody at the company, you know is
518
00:39:51.670 --> 00:39:56.520
admirable. Um, it's sometimes easy to
just cut people off when they're not
519
00:39:56.520 --> 00:40:01.760
doing exactly as you had expected. But
the time and effort and that she
520
00:40:01.770 --> 00:40:06.900
invests in each person at the company
has been and great. So that's who I
521
00:40:06.900 --> 00:40:10.730
would give my shout out to from that
perspective on she's, you know, someone
522
00:40:10.730 --> 00:40:15.840
I consider a friend and just a great
leader. Awesome. It makes sense now,
523
00:40:15.840 --> 00:40:19.090
everything that you shared about the
internal culture. Obviously it is lead
524
00:40:19.090 --> 00:40:23.250
and demonstrated from the top, which is
obviously really critical to building a
525
00:40:23.250 --> 00:40:26.400
healthy culture. It's gotta be, really
It sounds like it is. How about a
526
00:40:26.400 --> 00:40:31.230
company that comes to mind or a brand?
Absolutely. I'm gonna say to I couldn't
527
00:40:31.230 --> 00:40:35.860
just think of one. I'm in a two. So
first is a customer of ours Levi's.
528
00:40:35.870 --> 00:40:40.860
They're one of the brands that as, ah,
as a youngster, I really loved. I
529
00:40:40.860 --> 00:40:45.280
remember my cousin, um, he was going to
boarding school in Spain at the time.
530
00:40:45.280 --> 00:40:49.680
We'd go visit him over the summers, and
he was a huge Levi's fan. We would
531
00:40:49.680 --> 00:40:53.450
always bring Levi's jeans to him
because it was less expensive in the
532
00:40:53.450 --> 00:40:57.280
States. But then we'd go to the stores
there, and I've always admired how
533
00:40:57.280 --> 00:41:02.410
there's such a quintessential not only
US company. But, you know, you kind of
534
00:41:02.410 --> 00:41:07.130
think of America blue jeans, but also
San Francisco. So being in the Bay Area,
535
00:41:07.140 --> 00:41:10.730
you know, I remember when we closed
that deal, everybody was. I'm really
536
00:41:10.730 --> 00:41:16.210
proud just because of what they bring.
And just as a brand quality and just a
537
00:41:16.210 --> 00:41:20.810
part of everyone's youth across the
globe. And I think the customer
538
00:41:20.810 --> 00:41:26.700
experience that they provide is so what
you would expect from the quality of
539
00:41:26.700 --> 00:41:31.050
products that they deliver. So Levi's
is my first one on. Then I would say
540
00:41:31.060 --> 00:41:36.440
Nike is the other one that comes to
mind. I'm a huge Nike fan. My wife
541
00:41:36.440 --> 00:41:40.190
always gets upset when we get a new
package, and it's another pair of Nikes,
542
00:41:40.190 --> 00:41:45.290
and I think from a consistency
perspective, they constantly remain on
543
00:41:45.290 --> 00:41:49.620
brand. So whether you go to their
website, their mobile APS, um, the
544
00:41:49.630 --> 00:41:54.070
athletes that they sponsor, it's always
about excellence. And they're such a
545
00:41:54.070 --> 00:41:58.650
trendsetter in style, especially over
the last few decades on. I think that's
546
00:41:58.650 --> 00:42:04.020
been even greater with the Michael
Jordan documentary on how they fit in
547
00:42:04.020 --> 00:42:08.410
that a swell is their response, thio.
Different things going on in the world,
548
00:42:08.410 --> 00:42:12.930
whether it's the pandemic, you know,
the kind of social reform that brands
549
00:42:12.930 --> 00:42:18.050
are now jumping on and helping promote.
I've just always admired the brand, and
550
00:42:18.050 --> 00:42:22.990
I think Nike is probably one of my
personal favorites as well. Great call.
551
00:42:22.990 --> 00:42:27.350
Those were both excellent brands.
They're also both first time mentions
552
00:42:27.350 --> 00:42:33.530
on the show, which is awesome. Oh, e
was wondering if I'd be creative or if
553
00:42:33.530 --> 00:42:37.420
I would just be getting ones. But
that's good. Yeah, it's one of the I
554
00:42:37.420 --> 00:42:41.020
love book ending this show this way
because you get all kinds of stuff, you
555
00:42:41.020 --> 00:42:44.720
know, like I've definitely got
Southwest Airlines. Ritz Carlton.
556
00:42:44.720 --> 00:42:50.610
Amazon comes up a lot. Stitch fix has
come up a few times, and so I really
557
00:42:50.610 --> 00:42:54.680
like both both your choices and and
really the rationale of thought and
558
00:42:54.680 --> 00:42:58.580
feeling behind it. Thio and I can
relate to both of them. Neema. If
559
00:42:58.580 --> 00:43:02.460
someone wants to follow up with you or
they want to learn more about contents
560
00:43:02.460 --> 00:43:06.140
stack or anything else that's going on
with you, what might you send people to
561
00:43:06.140 --> 00:43:10.110
connect? Yeah, I would go to our
website content stock dot com. You can
562
00:43:10.110 --> 00:43:14.960
find me on LinkedIn. I think I'm the
only Neema hashami on there on You can
563
00:43:14.960 --> 00:43:20.100
always email me Neema at content stack
dot com. That's any Emma at contents
564
00:43:20.100 --> 00:43:24.560
stack dot com. Awesome. Thank you so
much for being so open. Thio Direct
565
00:43:24.560 --> 00:43:28.820
communication. I will link all this
stuff up if you are listening to this.
566
00:43:28.830 --> 00:43:32.760
We do write ups on all of these
episodes. We do short, concise, well
567
00:43:32.760 --> 00:43:36.820
organized write ups with some video
clips. Full transcript. If you want to
568
00:43:36.820 --> 00:43:42.010
go really, really deep, you could find
all of that at bomb bomb dot com slash
569
00:43:42.000 --> 00:43:45.830
podcast Neema Thank you so much. I wish
you a great afternoon, a great rest of
570
00:43:45.830 --> 00:43:48.930
your week and thank you for spending
time with us. Thank you so much. Ethan
571
00:43:49.300 --> 00:43:54.990
Hes Neema was talking there toward the
end about the leadership qualities of
572
00:43:54.990 --> 00:44:00.730
their CMO. Notice how he used the term
customer funded interchangeably with
573
00:44:00.740 --> 00:44:06.720
bootstrapped. I really appreciate that
language, especially if someone who's
574
00:44:06.720 --> 00:44:11.500
been with a bootstrapped company for
nearly a decade if you want even mawr
575
00:44:11.510 --> 00:44:15.960
insights from sales, marketing and
customer success professionals about
576
00:44:15.960 --> 00:44:20.910
how to create and deliver better
experiences for your customers. Visit
577
00:44:20.990 --> 00:44:29.290
bomb bomb dot com slash podcast. That's
B O M B b o m b dot com slash podcast
578
00:44:29.300 --> 00:44:35.530
short write ups, full audio video clips
and mawr. I hope you check it out and
579
00:44:35.530 --> 00:44:40.990
find more episodes to enjoy. My name is
Ethan Butte, your host here on the c X
580
00:44:40.990 --> 00:44:44.000
Siris on B two b growth. Thanks so much
for listening.
581
00:44:46.690 --> 00:44:50.080
For the longest time, I was asking
people to leave a review of B two B
582
00:44:50.090 --> 00:44:54.080
growth in Apple podcasts, but I
realized that was kind of stupid
583
00:44:54.090 --> 00:44:59.510
because leaving a review is way harder
than just leaving a simple rating. So
584
00:44:59.510 --> 00:45:03.320
I'm changing my tune a bit. Instead of
asking you to leave a review, I'm just
585
00:45:03.320 --> 00:45:07.510
gonna ask you to go to BBB growth in
Apple podcasts. Scroll down until you
586
00:45:07.510 --> 00:45:11.450
see the ratings and review section and
just tap the number of stars you wanna
587
00:45:11.450 --> 00:45:17.280
give us No review necessary. Super easy.
And I promise it will help us out a ton.
588
00:45:17.290 --> 00:45:21.300
If you want a copy of my book content
based networking, just shoot me a text.
589
00:45:21.310 --> 00:45:24.520
After you leave the rating on, I'll
send one your way. Text me at
590
00:45:24.520 --> 00:45:28.100
4074903328