Knowing Exactly Who To Sell and Serve

WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.740 --> 00:00:11.400 we as customers expect seamless, connected and relevant experiences, and 2 00:00:11.400 --> 00:00:16.510 we deliver that to our customers, and we focus on that when we're trying to 3 00:00:16.510 --> 00:00:22.530 deliver the message way. All know that we should not try to be all things to 4 00:00:22.530 --> 00:00:27.990 all people. And in this episode on the c X Siris on B two b growth, you'll 5 00:00:27.990 --> 00:00:33.740 enjoy a conversation with Neema Hashami, the director of sales at Contents Stack, 6 00:00:33.750 --> 00:00:38.290 the company that pioneered Headless CMS. And don't worry, I didn't know what 7 00:00:38.290 --> 00:00:44.540 that was either has a consistent renewal rate over 95% and is very clear 8 00:00:44.540 --> 00:00:50.830 about who they will and won't sell to and serve. My name is Ethan Butte, host 9 00:00:50.830 --> 00:00:54.810 of the customer Experience podcast, host of the Sea, X Siris on B two, B 10 00:00:54.810 --> 00:01:00.110 Growth and chief evangelist at Bom Bom. Enjoy this conversation with Neema 11 00:01:00.110 --> 00:01:07.090 Hashami, creating engagement and communicating the need for change, the 12 00:01:07.090 --> 00:01:11.500 need for transformation, thes air key to customer experience and, in fact, to 13 00:01:11.500 --> 00:01:16.260 employee experience. Today we're talking sales change and engagement 14 00:01:16.260 --> 00:01:19.730 with a gentleman who served in a variety of sales roles and sales 15 00:01:19.730 --> 00:01:24.750 leadership roles for nearly two decades, including director of sales at Wearable 16 00:01:24.750 --> 00:01:29.770 World Labs, Bluenose Analytics and built Dot io. He currently serves as 17 00:01:29.770 --> 00:01:34.140 director of sales at Contents Stack Ah company that brings business teams and 18 00:01:34.140 --> 00:01:39.170 technology teams together to deliver personalized Omni Channel digital 19 00:01:39.170 --> 00:01:45.130 experiences for customers like VM Ware, Chase, Cisco, Walmart, Sephora, Iceland 20 00:01:45.130 --> 00:01:49.900 Air and the Miami Heat. Among many other familiar names. Neema Hashami 21 00:01:49.910 --> 00:01:54.880 Welcome to the customer experience Podcast. Glad to be here, Ethan. Yeah, 22 00:01:54.890 --> 00:01:58.120 Thank you so much for making time. I'm looking forward to getting into it, but 23 00:01:58.130 --> 00:02:02.710 one of your offices is in San Francisco. You're in Oakland? Kind of set the 24 00:02:02.710 --> 00:02:07.960 scene. What is the pandemic done to you? Your business. Your customer is kind of 25 00:02:07.960 --> 00:02:11.540 like, what are a couple high level takeaways? Here is we're recording in 26 00:02:11.550 --> 00:02:16.420 mid to late June. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think around the world, we 27 00:02:16.420 --> 00:02:21.290 worked with customers all around the world, and, you know, everybody has 28 00:02:21.290 --> 00:02:25.250 been hit. I don't think anybody has been immune to you know what's happened 29 00:02:25.250 --> 00:02:29.920 with the pandemic. I think on the one hand, it's been unfortunate that we 30 00:02:29.920 --> 00:02:33.280 haven't been able to gather in our San Francisco office. We also have offices 31 00:02:33.280 --> 00:02:37.980 in Austin and in India everybody's been work from home since early March. On 32 00:02:37.980 --> 00:02:41.320 the other hand, it was great to see our leadership team step up and make 33 00:02:41.320 --> 00:02:46.560 decisions quickly and swiftly with the best interests of the employees in mind 34 00:02:46.570 --> 00:02:51.300 and also working with customers through this difficult time. It's helped create, 35 00:02:51.310 --> 00:02:55.210 you know, a more solid bond. But I think where we have been affected is 36 00:02:55.210 --> 00:03:00.270 just, you know, things kind of paused a little bit on the sales front as 37 00:03:00.270 --> 00:03:04.780 companies were tryingto figure things out. We worked with large companies and 38 00:03:04.780 --> 00:03:09.110 the vast majority of those air public companies eso they had, you know, pause 39 00:03:09.110 --> 00:03:12.990 and spending that affected us a little bit, just personally, not being able to 40 00:03:12.990 --> 00:03:16.370 go into the office every day. It's been three months since I went into the 41 00:03:16.370 --> 00:03:19.740 office and not being able to interact directly with the team. But on the 42 00:03:19.740 --> 00:03:23.430 other hand, we were set up pretty well. You know, most of our employees have 43 00:03:23.430 --> 00:03:28.620 not. All of them had a set up for work from home. Our technical support team 44 00:03:28.630 --> 00:03:32.870 was able to step it up in the first few weeks and support the employees working 45 00:03:32.870 --> 00:03:36.970 from home even more on So I think we've We've done pretty well, all things 46 00:03:36.970 --> 00:03:42.370 considered nice. I really appreciate the idea that you feel like leadership 47 00:03:42.370 --> 00:03:46.250 made the right choices for the benefit of the employees. That's where AH, 48 00:03:46.250 --> 00:03:51.360 great customer experience starts with a satisfied, engaged employees that feels 49 00:03:51.360 --> 00:03:55.460 secure and appreciate. And so really good words. Thank you for sharing that. 50 00:03:55.470 --> 00:03:58.880 I wanna learn more about content stack. But first I'm gonna ask you a couple of 51 00:03:58.880 --> 00:04:02.010 definitional questions, and the first one is customer experience. When I say 52 00:04:02.010 --> 00:04:06.240 that Neema, what does that mean to you? I think it's twofold. One is customer 53 00:04:06.240 --> 00:04:10.410 experience. When I think about it, it's This is what it's like to be your 54 00:04:10.410 --> 00:04:15.110 customer. But when you kind of take a step back and look at it in greater 55 00:04:15.110 --> 00:04:20.839 detail, I think like the brand is what the company wants their customers to 56 00:04:20.839 --> 00:04:25.480 think they are, and the customer experience is the reality check of 57 00:04:25.480 --> 00:04:28.790 being your customer. So I think that's that's what it means to me. Like, what 58 00:04:28.790 --> 00:04:33.320 is the reality of being, ah, brands customer? I love it. I like both of 59 00:04:33.320 --> 00:04:37.990 those angles there. One I often bottom line customer experiences. I wanted, 60 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:42.750 like, really simplified as how you make people feel, which was essential to 61 00:04:42.750 --> 00:04:46.050 your first one and then to the second one. This idea that the customers 62 00:04:46.050 --> 00:04:50.060 reality is the reality you can think and feel and say whatever you want. You 63 00:04:50.060 --> 00:04:54.430 could even have a retort or rebuttal to some kind of customer feedback that the 64 00:04:54.430 --> 00:04:58.470 fact of the matter is the customer gets to define what reality is and what 65 00:04:58.470 --> 00:05:02.860 their experiences. I like that one more definition here when I see engagement, 66 00:05:03.340 --> 00:05:07.380 what does engagement mean to you? It's one of those slightly. It's critical, I 67 00:05:07.380 --> 00:05:10.020 think, Thio the work that you all do in the value that you provide your 68 00:05:10.020 --> 00:05:15.070 customers. But it could also maybe be a little bit slippery when I say that, 69 00:05:15.070 --> 00:05:20.660 What does it mean to you? Engagement is that I think that direct action of the 70 00:05:20.660 --> 00:05:26.230 brand interacting with the customers for the prospective customers so that 71 00:05:26.230 --> 00:05:32.040 that moment, when you are on a mobile app or on a website or entering a store 72 00:05:32.050 --> 00:05:37.190 from that moment on, when that that happens to me, that's engagement. Go on. 73 00:05:37.200 --> 00:05:42.480 So for people who aren't familiar, tell us a little bit about contents stack 74 00:05:42.480 --> 00:05:46.130 like, Who is your ideal customer and what do you solve for them? Yeah, 75 00:05:46.140 --> 00:05:51.060 absolutely. At a very direct level, we are a content management solution. So 76 00:05:51.060 --> 00:05:54.330 we're a technology company on the product that we have is a content 77 00:05:54.330 --> 00:05:58.340 management solution. We make it possible for businesses to create and 78 00:05:58.340 --> 00:06:02.840 publish content faster. It does go much deeper than that, but that's that's 79 00:06:02.840 --> 00:06:08.020 essentially what we dio. We are software as a service. Eso All that 80 00:06:08.020 --> 00:06:11.940 means for for those that are not familiar is that our product is in the 81 00:06:11.940 --> 00:06:16.860 cloud it's hosted. So you don't have to like if you think back decades and 82 00:06:16.860 --> 00:06:22.570 decades ago when we would get the CDs for a O. L. And you have tow manually. 83 00:06:22.580 --> 00:06:26.830 So that would be more of a traditional software embedded software where were 84 00:06:26.830 --> 00:06:31.510 in the cloud. So it's like logging into your Gmail, account the updates or 85 00:06:31.520 --> 00:06:36.300 happened seamlessly, you know, and seamless up updates and upgrades. But 86 00:06:36.300 --> 00:06:40.580 that's what we are where content management solution, where SAS company 87 00:06:40.590 --> 00:06:46.740 and we help our customers deliver a more succinct and consistent customer 88 00:06:46.740 --> 00:06:50.620 experience for their customers. Nice and of course, I listed in the 89 00:06:50.620 --> 00:06:54.580 introduction there some very, very large companies, Very well known brands. 90 00:06:54.590 --> 00:06:58.130 What is the range? Is that Is that the typical customer like, what is the 91 00:06:58.130 --> 00:07:04.020 range of of folks that you serve? Yeah. So we made a decision very early on to 92 00:07:04.030 --> 00:07:10.250 Onley work with large customers. So the vast majority of our customers are 93 00:07:10.440 --> 00:07:14.410 public companies and have been around for a long time. One of the reasons 94 00:07:14.410 --> 00:07:18.410 that we made that decision is we came from a professional services background. 95 00:07:18.420 --> 00:07:24.870 So we were really used to this partnership approach of working with 96 00:07:24.870 --> 00:07:29.170 customers and we realized that that's where we wanted to focus on. There are 97 00:07:29.170 --> 00:07:34.660 other CMS vendors that focus on, you know, individual developers slide your 98 00:07:34.660 --> 00:07:39.140 credit card to pay $99 a month, and you get to use their services. We're only 99 00:07:39.140 --> 00:07:43.450 focused on what we term enterprise companies. There is a range in the size 100 00:07:43.450 --> 00:07:48.450 of the companies that we work with. Smaller companies that are completely 101 00:07:48.450 --> 00:07:54.650 digital are more likely to invest in a product like contents acts. But because 102 00:07:54.650 --> 00:08:00.180 of our price point, we do kind of filter out the smaller customers on the 103 00:08:00.180 --> 00:08:05.020 smaller perspective customers. So as a result, all of our customers are are 104 00:08:05.020 --> 00:08:09.800 very large companies that invest quite a bit with us and we as a as a result 105 00:08:09.800 --> 00:08:14.230 of being at a higher price point, are ableto work more closely with them and 106 00:08:14.230 --> 00:08:17.710 partner with them rather than just be a vendor. Yeah, I really like that 107 00:08:17.710 --> 00:08:22.310 discipline. I think a lot of folks try to do more than they can do. Super 108 00:08:22.310 --> 00:08:26.910 Super Well, So I appreciate like that there's some some heritage or some DNA 109 00:08:26.910 --> 00:08:31.080 around professional services and what that means for the nature and the depth 110 00:08:31.080 --> 00:08:34.130 of the relationship. And then you continue to honor it in a more 111 00:08:34.130 --> 00:08:40.299 traditional SAS offering. So for what is your background like, Is this 112 00:08:40.309 --> 00:08:44.370 enterprise sale something you've done for years and years and years? Or is 113 00:08:44.370 --> 00:08:48.630 this something that you know? You You've had your toes and multiple pools 114 00:08:48.630 --> 00:08:54.140 of multiple depth. When you joined the company, how familiar were you with it? 115 00:08:54.140 --> 00:08:58.150 With a what I assume is probably a complex enterprise sale with maybe a 116 00:08:58.340 --> 00:09:03.990 what, 3 to 6 month cycle or something? Yeah, so that's a great question. So my 117 00:09:03.990 --> 00:09:08.940 background I started in 2000 and eight in technology sales and the company I 118 00:09:08.940 --> 00:09:13.060 worked with at the time lithium. They were a provider of online customer 119 00:09:13.060 --> 00:09:17.010 communities. That was right when Social Media was really starting to gain gain 120 00:09:17.010 --> 00:09:21.240 steam from business and enterprise perspective. And throughout the 121 00:09:21.240 --> 00:09:26.240 duration of my career, I focused almost solely on working with enterprise 122 00:09:26.240 --> 00:09:31.630 customers. So about 12 years of technology sales background, all 123 00:09:31.630 --> 00:09:35.870 dealing with large customers. When I first joined the team here, we were 124 00:09:35.870 --> 00:09:39.730 actually a company called Built dot io. I was the first sales higher and 125 00:09:39.730 --> 00:09:43.970 started the sales team here at the company. At the time, we had 126 00:09:43.970 --> 00:09:47.260 professional services, and we also have three products were really trying to 127 00:09:47.260 --> 00:09:53.070 figure out where we wanted to go on. It was very interesting and ah, good 128 00:09:53.070 --> 00:09:58.470 learning experience. I'd say. At the beginning of 2018 January 1st 2018, we 129 00:09:58.470 --> 00:10:02.830 completely rebranded our company and focus just on the content management 130 00:10:02.830 --> 00:10:08.460 piece. Prior to that, one of our products was contents stack, and then, 131 00:10:08.440 --> 00:10:14.090 as of January 1st 2018, our company, the rebrand we were contents act. We 132 00:10:14.090 --> 00:10:18.680 spun off the other products and services and just focus on the content 133 00:10:18.680 --> 00:10:22.030 management piece. But throughout the time. You know, the focus has really 134 00:10:22.030 --> 00:10:26.420 been on the enterprise approach because that allows us to better partner with 135 00:10:26.420 --> 00:10:33.560 our customers on Thio, ensure success. What we want to avoid is looking back 136 00:10:33.570 --> 00:10:37.150 and saying, Wow, we could have Dunmore for this customer to make sure that 137 00:10:37.150 --> 00:10:41.760 they were successful on. The only way that we can really do that without 138 00:10:41.760 --> 00:10:45.990 losing money is by, you know, having the higher price point and making sure 139 00:10:45.990 --> 00:10:48.930 that we have skin in the game. But the customer has skin in the game as well, 140 00:10:48.930 --> 00:10:53.410 and so it lends itself really well toe enterprise. Nice. I like to focus and 141 00:10:53.410 --> 00:10:56.700 discipline in there, too. It's like, Yeah, we're capable of doing these 142 00:10:56.700 --> 00:11:01.400 other things, but let's focus on what we could be expert at and do really 143 00:11:01.400 --> 00:11:05.370 well. So when I think about the sales process and really any kind of a 144 00:11:05.370 --> 00:11:08.140 customer engagement of customer experience, there's some aspect of a 145 00:11:08.140 --> 00:11:12.170 transformation in there. There's a change in there, right? It's and from a 146 00:11:12.170 --> 00:11:15.560 sales standpoint, it's helping draw the vision for that change, creating the 147 00:11:15.560 --> 00:11:20.660 trust and confidence that we can manage that change within for you for your 148 00:11:20.660 --> 00:11:24.910 customers. Where are they when you first engage with them? What is the 149 00:11:24.910 --> 00:11:28.260 state of affairs and where do you bring them? What kind of transformation, What 150 00:11:28.260 --> 00:11:32.650 kind of change? And maybe also, what kind of resistance do you get or what 151 00:11:32.660 --> 00:11:35.460 what types of resistance are you typically fighting? And how do you do 152 00:11:35.460 --> 00:11:43.640 that? Yeah, so I'd say from Day one, we are working with our customers to help 153 00:11:43.650 --> 00:11:47.870 figure out how they can make their messaging more effective and their 154 00:11:47.870 --> 00:11:52.180 teams more effective on their businesses more effective. So I'd say 155 00:11:52.180 --> 00:11:55.200 from Day one, it's for us. It's really about a partnership, and that's 156 00:11:55.210 --> 00:12:00.830 something that we help differentiate. And so, for example, when you look at a 157 00:12:00.830 --> 00:12:05.920 lot of our customers Lego, Levi's burglary The Spectator you know, the 158 00:12:05.920 --> 00:12:09.430 spectator has been in business for almost 200 years. These air businesses 159 00:12:09.430 --> 00:12:14.610 that have been around for a long time there challenges not creating content. 160 00:12:14.620 --> 00:12:20.060 Most of the customers we work with have content management system in place and 161 00:12:20.060 --> 00:12:24.990 a content management process in place, but their challenges air to fold. Their 162 00:12:24.990 --> 00:12:30.650 teams cannot create the content and publish it at the speed that they 163 00:12:30.650 --> 00:12:36.170 desire And there's also perhaps, um, internal struggles going on where you 164 00:12:36.170 --> 00:12:41.460 know they're they're on an old system that's only maybe about 50 to 60% of 165 00:12:41.460 --> 00:12:47.400 their ideal capacity. Or they have technical folks helping publish content 166 00:12:47.410 --> 00:12:51.720 for business users. Business users aren't able to publish at their own 167 00:12:51.720 --> 00:12:55.970 speed. So when we come in, there's already something in place that they're 168 00:12:55.970 --> 00:12:59.860 doing. And what we're trying to do is help them be more effective and be more 169 00:12:59.860 --> 00:13:04.930 efficient. And that really is the whole reason for head lists. You know, we're 170 00:13:04.930 --> 00:13:09.490 one of the, if not the first headless CMS out there. We have been named a 171 00:13:09.490 --> 00:13:12.840 pioneer in the space, and again, depending on who you ask, were either 172 00:13:12.850 --> 00:13:17.760 the first or one of the first on DSO. We realized early on that if you 173 00:13:17.760 --> 00:13:23.020 separate code from content, allow the business users toe focus on what their 174 00:13:23.020 --> 00:13:28.090 best, that which is being creative and creating content. And then you focus on 175 00:13:28.090 --> 00:13:32.530 allowing the technical users toe be good at what they're good at, you know, 176 00:13:32.530 --> 00:13:37.080 allow the experts to be experts, allow the technical folks to create new 177 00:13:37.080 --> 00:13:42.690 products and to secure the digital presence on things like that. Rather 178 00:13:42.690 --> 00:13:46.430 than pushing out content, what you have is much more cohesiveness. And so 179 00:13:46.430 --> 00:13:52.420 that's really what we enable our customers to dio is to publish content 180 00:13:52.420 --> 00:13:56.440 more quickly, but also have a safe and secure presence out there. So they're 181 00:13:56.440 --> 00:13:59.410 not being hacked. You know, catastrophic things like that aren't 182 00:13:59.410 --> 00:14:03.820 being. They aren't being taken advantage of Really interesting. I am 183 00:14:03.820 --> 00:14:08.050 not familiar with headless. But my where I am with you right now and so 184 00:14:08.050 --> 00:14:12.170 correct me and scared me back or whatever is that It's the separation 185 00:14:12.170 --> 00:14:16.900 between I like published I don't know hundreds of block posts at Bom Bom over 186 00:14:16.900 --> 00:14:21.030 the years and I'm not particularly technical, but I will get into the code. 187 00:14:21.030 --> 00:14:24.750 But when I need something like legit to happen in our blogged, I need to go to 188 00:14:24.750 --> 00:14:29.700 developer. So is it that the separation of the content producer content creator 189 00:14:29.700 --> 00:14:35.960 from the developer that is tied to this headless What does this mean? Yeah, 190 00:14:35.970 --> 00:14:42.520 close. Yeah, you're You're very close. Eso What it means is if you look at a 191 00:14:42.520 --> 00:14:48.710 monolithic CMS something like wordpress or adobe or site core. Those air sort 192 00:14:48.710 --> 00:14:55.840 of droop als another really popular legacy. Monolithic CMS Um, they give 193 00:14:55.840 --> 00:14:59.790 you everything. They give you the design, the u I the templates. But the 194 00:14:59.790 --> 00:15:04.440 content is hard coded in. What we did is if you look at the front end, the u 195 00:15:04.440 --> 00:15:08.660 I and the design, the look and feel of a website. If you look at that as the 196 00:15:08.660 --> 00:15:14.120 head and then the content itself is on the back end. What we did is we chopped 197 00:15:14.120 --> 00:15:18.030 off the head, so that's where they got the term headless. It was developed by 198 00:15:18.030 --> 00:15:21.900 Forrester Research, so it's an analyst term, but it's the one that really 199 00:15:21.900 --> 00:15:27.480 caught on. But that's really what it means is you. You and your team. Your I 200 00:15:27.480 --> 00:15:31.770 T team, your development and engineering team, can create the look 201 00:15:31.770 --> 00:15:35.890 and feel of the website I'll use. Lego is an example. So the lego dot com 202 00:15:35.890 --> 00:15:42.020 website or the Lego app they create the look and feel, and then the content 203 00:15:42.020 --> 00:15:46.520 creators are in the background, creating the content. So when you see 204 00:15:46.530 --> 00:15:51.080 you know, Lego comes out with a new Batman toy or they are launching a new 205 00:15:51.080 --> 00:15:55.750 movie, all of the content around that is created by a team of content 206 00:15:55.750 --> 00:16:01.570 creators and what we enable Lego to dio what they had to do prior toe coming to 207 00:16:01.570 --> 00:16:06.260 content stack is every time a content creator created a piece of content, 208 00:16:06.260 --> 00:16:10.530 they would then have to bring a developer in developers air. High cost 209 00:16:10.540 --> 00:16:14.640 resource is and they're hard to find, so even if you have the money to hire 210 00:16:14.640 --> 00:16:18.670 them, it's very difficult to find them. So they had to bring them in and the 211 00:16:18.670 --> 00:16:22.960 time it took would be about a week or two to get that content onto the 212 00:16:22.960 --> 00:16:27.740 website in a secure fashion. What they're able to do now is to move much 213 00:16:27.740 --> 00:16:32.700 more quickly and you know a matter of minutes, if not seconds, assuming all 214 00:16:32.700 --> 00:16:37.770 the boxes were checked around approvals and permissions and so on. So we enable 215 00:16:37.770 --> 00:16:41.940 Lagos team to move move much more quickly and as we've seen, especially 216 00:16:41.940 --> 00:16:47.130 over the last few months with co vid on the pandemic, but also with the social 217 00:16:47.130 --> 00:16:51.820 unrest around, you know, the movement that has taken the world really by 218 00:16:51.820 --> 00:16:56.140 storm companies have had to move really quickly. They don't have weeks toe 219 00:16:56.150 --> 00:17:00.430 announce their stance on the pandemic and what they're doing or their stance 220 00:17:00.430 --> 00:17:03.990 on, you know, things like black lives matters. Um, they've had to move much 221 00:17:03.990 --> 00:17:08.130 more quickly, and our customers, we've enabled them to do exactly that as they 222 00:17:08.130 --> 00:17:13.170 see fit. Whereas if they were on their legacy systems, they may not have been 223 00:17:13.170 --> 00:17:17.859 able to move as quickly. Cool. Give me a little bit of an operational pass on 224 00:17:17.859 --> 00:17:25.700 this. So headless coined in part by Forrester. Probably with you all new 225 00:17:25.710 --> 00:17:30.060 category or essentially a subcategory, right cause CMS. As you said, there's 226 00:17:30.060 --> 00:17:34.370 some some legacy monolithic opportunities hanging around. What did? 227 00:17:34.370 --> 00:17:40.650 Taking on this headless concept of this this category? Let's call it or 228 00:17:40.650 --> 00:17:45.050 subcategory. What does that mean for you and your sales team and customer 229 00:17:45.050 --> 00:17:49.840 conversations? Was there training around it, or was this so deeply baked 230 00:17:49.840 --> 00:17:55.140 into the company that it all just kind of happen naturally was specifically 231 00:17:55.140 --> 00:17:59.290 speaking to headless? And I'm speaking, I'm now holding that as a as an example 232 00:17:59.290 --> 00:18:04.120 of category designer, A new way to talk about the product, a new way to create 233 00:18:04.120 --> 00:18:08.310 a sense of differentiation because you're very clear on the benefits of 234 00:18:08.320 --> 00:18:12.610 making that separation that is headless. How did that go for you all internally. 235 00:18:12.610 --> 00:18:16.980 And what was the customer reception like to that message? Because I'm sure 236 00:18:16.990 --> 00:18:21.220 my ignorance that I just shared with with you and with everyone listening, 237 00:18:21.230 --> 00:18:24.460 I'm sure some of your customers were maybe in the same boat, at least for 238 00:18:24.460 --> 00:18:29.280 some period of time. Yeah, I wish I had a great story to tell, but it all 239 00:18:29.280 --> 00:18:35.000 happened by accident. And I e no, my c m. I was going to kick me for saying 240 00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:38.760 that, but really, what happened is when I joined the team at the time, we were 241 00:18:38.760 --> 00:18:44.090 much more focused on mobile. We were building mobile APS and contents. Stack 242 00:18:44.100 --> 00:18:47.540 was, ah, piece of that. We actually were ahead of the market. The market 243 00:18:47.540 --> 00:18:53.570 wasn't really ready for it in 2015. And then about early to mid 2016, we 244 00:18:53.570 --> 00:19:00.710 noticed this critical mass, if you will, of interest in headless CMS. So there 245 00:19:00.710 --> 00:19:05.340 are two examples that come to mind. Express and photobox. Photobox is an 246 00:19:05.340 --> 00:19:11.010 online retailer based in the UK and expresses the retailer here in the US 247 00:19:11.020 --> 00:19:16.680 that sells clothing goods. And they came to us, did an evaluation and 248 00:19:16.640 --> 00:19:19.780 decided to go with content sack. We had a great team. We've always focused on 249 00:19:19.780 --> 00:19:24.380 creating quality products and it was right then and again. This is this is 250 00:19:24.380 --> 00:19:28.770 kind of a new internal story that I'm maybe sharing for the first time 251 00:19:28.770 --> 00:19:34.680 externally. But I was at a conference with my CEO and CMO. It was in Phoenix, 252 00:19:34.680 --> 00:19:38.550 and around this time, you know, it could have been exactly this this state 253 00:19:38.540 --> 00:19:43.930 or close thereabouts. So as you know in Phoenix in June, it's extremely hot. We 254 00:19:43.930 --> 00:19:48.030 had about an hour. We had been at this conference for about two days nonstop, 255 00:19:48.040 --> 00:19:52.550 and we had about an hour to kill and they had the pool with water slide. So 256 00:19:52.550 --> 00:19:55.070 we all looked at each other. We're like, Let's go get a drink and let's go to 257 00:19:55.070 --> 00:20:00.070 the pool and I'm sitting at the pool. My CEO and CMO are in the pool, and I I 258 00:20:00.070 --> 00:20:04.520 told them like, Hey, guys, we just close this deal and at the time it was, 259 00:20:04.530 --> 00:20:09.380 you know, on the higher end and a much shorter sale cycle than the majority of 260 00:20:09.380 --> 00:20:15.120 our deals, and I saw the wheels turning in their heads like I think the time is 261 00:20:15.120 --> 00:20:20.570 right now for headless CMS. So it was. It's a great story. It's kind of how we 262 00:20:20.570 --> 00:20:25.550 started to pivot our focus and just focus on headless CMS. But we noticed 263 00:20:25.550 --> 00:20:29.080 that the term was starting to gain steam. Customers were really feeling 264 00:20:29.080 --> 00:20:32.620 the pain of this monolithic, traditional approach to managing 265 00:20:32.620 --> 00:20:37.180 content. They needed to move faster. The focus on digital was there, and 266 00:20:37.180 --> 00:20:41.680 that was really what carried us. And, you know, when we asked one of those 267 00:20:41.680 --> 00:20:46.070 customers, how did you hear about us? They said that they were, you know, 268 00:20:46.540 --> 00:20:52.610 eight months into a nine month project using a traditional CMS adobe that they 269 00:20:52.620 --> 00:20:57.480 were gonna go beyond their their timeline. It was gonna almost prevent 270 00:20:57.480 --> 00:21:01.370 them from being able to deliver before Black Friday before the Black Friday 271 00:21:01.370 --> 00:21:05.230 sales, which in retail is a big no no. They did some research on Google. They 272 00:21:05.230 --> 00:21:09.230 found out about us and then that's what led them to us in the first place. So I 273 00:21:09.230 --> 00:21:13.200 would think, you know, the market itself, the innovators at those 274 00:21:13.200 --> 00:21:17.640 customers and Google. That's really what allowed us to pivot. Focus on this 275 00:21:17.640 --> 00:21:21.810 and the market is really caught up since Nice And so I assume that that's 276 00:21:21.810 --> 00:21:27.360 the gap that exists between business teams and development teams. When I you 277 00:21:27.360 --> 00:21:30.610 know when I look at your website, I see how you're positioned. That's really 278 00:21:30.610 --> 00:21:36.100 speaking to this situations divide this challenge that slows things down. I 279 00:21:36.100 --> 00:21:40.420 would agree, You know, I think now we're seeing a lot more cohesiveness, 280 00:21:40.430 --> 00:21:45.180 even internally, because they know there's a better way. And where we 281 00:21:45.180 --> 00:21:50.980 really focus on is helping customers and prospective customers understand 282 00:21:50.980 --> 00:21:56.070 the difference between a true headless and a legacy system that you know has 283 00:21:56.070 --> 00:22:01.370 an AP layer on top of decades and decades of legacy technology and there 284 00:22:01.940 --> 00:22:05.200 using the term headless CMS. That's really where we focus on 285 00:22:05.200 --> 00:22:11.730 differentiating now. It's also helping perspective customers and even existing 286 00:22:11.730 --> 00:22:15.740 customers with different business units understand the benefits of that true 287 00:22:15.740 --> 00:22:20.030 headless approach. It's difficult to change, and so if you've been on Sykora 288 00:22:20.030 --> 00:22:24.500 or Adobe or droop Allfirst's for decades, there's a lot of legacy 289 00:22:24.500 --> 00:22:28.490 systems. There's a lot of heavy lifting you're gonna have to dio to make the 290 00:22:28.490 --> 00:22:34.330 change. But once it's done, life is much more much simpler, much easier, 291 00:22:34.340 --> 00:22:38.050 and it's not just from, you know a day to day perspective. It's not just about 292 00:22:38.050 --> 00:22:42.440 being able to publish content out quicker and more easily, but it's also 293 00:22:42.440 --> 00:22:48.210 about not having to manage custom widgets and custom integrations that 294 00:22:48.210 --> 00:22:53.360 you built. And once you put in that effort initially, then you can move 295 00:22:53.360 --> 00:22:58.040 more quickly all around, rather than continuing to dio all of the things 296 00:22:58.040 --> 00:23:01.000 that you've done in the past just to keep things going just to maintain what 297 00:23:01.000 --> 00:23:05.560 you built. Yeah, I would assume that that transition off of something so 298 00:23:05.560 --> 00:23:11.880 deep and layered that I would assume that there are some emotional switching 299 00:23:11.880 --> 00:23:17.180 costs, if not cognitive, if not financial switching costs to this shift. 300 00:23:17.190 --> 00:23:21.890 What kind of training and coaching do you provide your team members Thio to 301 00:23:21.890 --> 00:23:28.070 draw out of vision, to inspire trust and confidence that, like my read on on 302 00:23:28.080 --> 00:23:31.830 you in the situation, is that you're probably White Glove and you go above 303 00:23:31.830 --> 00:23:36.390 and beyond to make that transition easy. But you know when when a when a 304 00:23:36.390 --> 00:23:40.740 prospect or prospective customers on the outside looking in, how are you 305 00:23:40.740 --> 00:23:44.970 training and coaching your team? Thio kind of manage those expectations and 306 00:23:44.970 --> 00:23:50.390 inspire trust and confidence that what seems like would be very daunting is 307 00:23:50.390 --> 00:23:54.030 actually manageable. And we're your best partner for that. Yeah, that's a 308 00:23:54.030 --> 00:24:00.450 great question. It's I'd say our biggest enemy is our enemies. So many 309 00:24:00.460 --> 00:24:04.610 software vendors out there have over promised and under delivered throughout 310 00:24:04.610 --> 00:24:10.500 the years that there is that skepticism amongst new customers, prospective 311 00:24:10.500 --> 00:24:14.520 customers. When we tell them you know, this is what life is like with content 312 00:24:14.520 --> 00:24:19.730 sack internally, it's very easy to train the team because we have a great 313 00:24:19.730 --> 00:24:24.110 product that works on. We have a customer success team that helps 314 00:24:24.120 --> 00:24:28.430 provide that White Glove service. Once a customer is on board officially, and 315 00:24:28.430 --> 00:24:34.010 we dio we provide, you know, free trials so customers can go in and test 316 00:24:34.010 --> 00:24:38.430 out the product. You know, in a live production and sense on, really test it 317 00:24:38.430 --> 00:24:42.720 out for themselves. So where we focus on is helping customers do the right 318 00:24:42.720 --> 00:24:46.450 type of testing ahead of time so that they don't make a mistake in making a 319 00:24:46.450 --> 00:24:50.570 decision. But again, it makes our life is much easier because we know we have 320 00:24:50.570 --> 00:24:54.460 a great product that works. We have a lot of reference. Herbal customers are 321 00:24:54.460 --> 00:24:59.940 renewal rate Q. One of this year was 100%. We've consistently maintained a 322 00:24:59.940 --> 00:25:04.860 renewal rate above 95%. Even when customers do leave us, it's not because 323 00:25:04.860 --> 00:25:08.520 the product doesn't work. It's extenuating circumstances that you know 324 00:25:08.520 --> 00:25:11.910 there's not really much we could do anyways or they're on legacy type 325 00:25:11.910 --> 00:25:16.030 pricing and it, you know, it doesn't make sense for the business. So I think 326 00:25:16.030 --> 00:25:19.870 for us it's really easy. We know our support team responds incredibly 327 00:25:19.870 --> 00:25:24.210 quickly. We know that they're effective and they work with our customers. Thio 328 00:25:24.220 --> 00:25:27.330 identify issues that they're dealing with and fix them. We know our 329 00:25:27.340 --> 00:25:31.820 customers Success team is helping customers in understanding their vision 330 00:25:31.820 --> 00:25:35.100 and what they need to do Thio to achieve that vision. And we know that 331 00:25:35.100 --> 00:25:39.450 the product team is consistently creating the best product out there and 332 00:25:39.540 --> 00:25:44.180 always updating it. I mean, last year we average about four updates a week 333 00:25:44.180 --> 00:25:48.940 over 200 releases to the products, so it's constantly getting better and 334 00:25:48.940 --> 00:25:53.000 better. So when you have those things in place as a sales team, it's really 335 00:25:53.000 --> 00:25:56.710 easy. It's just arming our sales team with the knowledge about the industry, 336 00:25:56.710 --> 00:26:02.080 about what the customer is doing on about how we can make sure that we are 337 00:26:02.080 --> 00:26:04.950 the right fit for the customer and what their end goal is, and then just 338 00:26:04.950 --> 00:26:09.220 closing the deal, and you sound like you have a very, very healthy culture. 339 00:26:09.220 --> 00:26:14.530 I just love the positivity in talking about the relationships between the 340 00:26:14.530 --> 00:26:21.260 teams. Do you have any, maybe tips or recommendations for people who are in 341 00:26:21.260 --> 00:26:25.330 sales rules? Sales org's It sounds like there's a lot of trust and strong 342 00:26:25.330 --> 00:26:29.670 relationship with your CS or what are some tips that you might have for 343 00:26:29.740 --> 00:26:34.280 making sure that there's a healthy sales and CS trust factor? Because, of 344 00:26:34.280 --> 00:26:38.030 course, that continuity all the mo mentum that you build getting up to the 345 00:26:38.030 --> 00:26:42.100 point of commitment a signed contract like you know you need that you need 346 00:26:42.100 --> 00:26:45.900 that mo mentum to continue on the other side of the commitment. Maybe what are 347 00:26:45.900 --> 00:26:50.080 some of the things that you do, practically or socially or 348 00:26:50.080 --> 00:26:54.060 philosophically, to maintain a really strong, healthy, trusting relationship 349 00:26:54.040 --> 00:26:58.610 between those two teams for the benefit of the customer? Yeah, for us, it's 350 00:26:58.610 --> 00:27:03.080 really easy. Just having been here and grown the team out, I work very closely 351 00:27:03.080 --> 00:27:08.740 with our senior director of customer success were friends S O. That makes it 352 00:27:08.740 --> 00:27:12.340 easy. Not obviously, that's not something that you can implement across 353 00:27:12.340 --> 00:27:17.710 every every customer. His wife was the wedding planner for my wife and I when 354 00:27:17.710 --> 00:27:21.150 we got married. But what I would say for companies that are trying to 355 00:27:21.150 --> 00:27:25.270 achieve this, it's really important to bring customers success into the sales 356 00:27:25.270 --> 00:27:30.230 process. We use it as a differentiator and as a sales tool. And then customer 357 00:27:30.230 --> 00:27:35.360 success is constantly reporting back to sales. You know, when they have their 358 00:27:35.370 --> 00:27:39.840 things like quarterly business reviews, they share the insights with sales that 359 00:27:39.840 --> 00:27:44.550 we can then use to sell existing deals because there's a lot of overlap. Maybe 360 00:27:44.740 --> 00:27:49.470 it's not necessarily vertical, but it's more on a use case basis. So just that 361 00:27:49.480 --> 00:27:53.880 insight that sharing back and forth has really helped because they're a part of 362 00:27:53.880 --> 00:27:59.130 our process and vice versa. So instead of looking at them as Siloed teams were 363 00:27:59.130 --> 00:28:03.660 all one team, you know, a content stack and it's something that's instilled to 364 00:28:03.660 --> 00:28:10.130 us from the top down. Our CEO in our CEO, you know, as founders, have always 365 00:28:10.130 --> 00:28:15.280 focused on that, they genuinely care about the team here at Content Sack. 366 00:28:15.280 --> 00:28:20.100 It's kind of cheesy to say we're a family or were a tribe, but when you're 367 00:28:20.100 --> 00:28:24.300 actually seeing it and feeling it, it's something that you believe in almost 368 00:28:24.300 --> 00:28:28.220 immediately on. I think just that teamwork, that we're all in this 369 00:28:28.220 --> 00:28:33.220 together, You know, you see it every day and it makes it much easier. Nice 370 00:28:33.230 --> 00:28:38.550 on. And I feel it from U. S. Oh, it's obviously coming from the inside out 371 00:28:38.540 --> 00:28:42.380 kind of two questions in one here, maybe a similar question with regard to 372 00:28:42.380 --> 00:28:46.680 marketing and sales and that relationship. But going across all 373 00:28:46.680 --> 00:28:51.600 three units and staying on the steam of engagement. Have you all done any 374 00:28:51.600 --> 00:28:58.320 coordinated effort to look at or line out key points of engagement and making 375 00:28:58.320 --> 00:29:01.390 sure that they're lined up for that there, that there that they all work 376 00:29:01.390 --> 00:29:05.060 together as a cohesive experience? Have you done that intentionally, or is that 377 00:29:05.060 --> 00:29:10.760 something that's naturally coming out of your processes? Yeah, I think it's 378 00:29:10.770 --> 00:29:16.150 It's what we what. We're kind of selling the vision we're selling to our 379 00:29:16.150 --> 00:29:20.430 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 00:29:25.970 --> 00:29:31.090 practice what we preach on DSO I think customers, you know, when we're going 382 00:29:31.090 --> 00:29:36.750 back to customer experience, we as customers expect seamless, connected 383 00:29:36.750 --> 00:29:42.340 and relevant experiences. And we deliver that to our customers, and we 384 00:29:42.350 --> 00:29:46.410 focus on that when we're trying to deliver the message. So I think that, 385 00:29:46.410 --> 00:29:50.250 yes, we absolutely work together with marketing as well and make sure that we 386 00:29:50.250 --> 00:29:56.770 are delivering that consistently cool. When I see words like personalized 387 00:29:56.780 --> 00:30:01.600 omnichannel digital around the context of the word experience, it makes me 388 00:30:01.600 --> 00:30:05.150 think about. I don't know whether it's a fundamental or whether it's the Holy 389 00:30:05.150 --> 00:30:10.200 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 00:30:26.140 --> 00:30:31.070 personalization is always a trending topic, like you said right message at 394 00:30:31.070 --> 00:30:35.980 the right time to the right audience. But when we look at enterprises, 395 00:30:35.990 --> 00:30:41.210 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