#TDSU Episode 192:

⏱️ Timestamps:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:01:06 - Waqas Hussain: a decade in customer success

00:02:07 - The secret to staying close to customers

00:04:20 - Handling protective CSMs and engagement

00:05:13 - Proven tactics for customer connection

00:07:16 - Executive alignment: the game-changer

00:08:24 - Why Waqas keeps coming back to CS

00:10:30 - Banana bread

📺 Lifetime Value: Your Destination for GTM content

Website: https://www.lifetimevaluemedia.com

🤝 Connect with the hosts:

Dillon's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dillonryoung

JP's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanpierrefrost/

Rob's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-zambito/

👋 Connect with Waqas Hussain:

Waqas's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/waqas-hussain-18492b17/

[Waqas] (0:00 - 0:18)

In the world of people are talking a lot about AI, staying close to the customer, being a differentiator for CSMs, right? People talking about AI taking over CSM's jobs, that'd be the key differentiator for CS, right? Staying close to the customer, just the importance of that.

I think that that's kind of what's been on my mind a lot.

[Dillon] (0:29 - 0:40)

What's up, Lifers, and welcome to The Daily Standup with Lifetime Value, where we're giving you fresh new customer success ideas every single day. I got my man, Rob, with us. Rob, you want to say hi?

[Rob] (0:40 - 0:42)

Chop it up. What's up, people?

[Dillon] (0:43 - 0:46)

And we have JP with us.

JP, can you say hi, please?

[JP] (0:48 - 0:49)

It's a great day for a picnic.

[Dillon] (0:51 - 0:54)

And we have Waqas with us. Waqas, can you say hi, please?

[Waqas] (0:57 - 0:58)

Hi.

[Dillon] (0:58 - 1:05)

Hey. And I am your host. My name is Dillon Young.

Waqas, thank you so much for being here. Can you please introduce yourself?

[Waqas] (1:06 - 1:33)

Yep. My name is Waqas Hussain. I am Director of Customer Success for a cybersecurity software company called Trellix.

I have been in the B2B SaaS space for a little over 10 years. A lot of that time in customer success leadership. I live and breathe customer success.

Absolutely love it. Found my calling a long time ago in this space. And yeah, absolutely love the space that I'm in.

[Dillon] (1:34 - 2:07)

Live and breathe customer success. I think you're going to have to fight Rob for that title. Rob's writing new templates and frameworks on the weekend while his wife is trying to get him to leave the house and spend time with him.

Anyway, Waqas, you know what we do here. We ask every single guest one simple question, and that is what is on your mind when it comes to customer success? Live and breathe it.

So you got to have something good for us. Can you tell us what it is for you?

[Waqas] (2:07 - 4:19)

I mean, trying to stay sort of on brand, it's how do we stay close to the customer? I mean, staying the importance of staying close to the customer. How do you stay close to the customer?

I think about that a lot, especially as individuals go from CSM into leadership positions or people in leadership positions, CEOs kind of form their own, go from founders to scale-ups and staying close to the customer, keeping that ear close to the customer. In the world of people are talking a lot about AI, staying close to the customer being a differentiator for CSMs, right? People talking about AI taking over CSM's jobs, that being a key differentiator for CS, right?

Staying close to the customer, just the importance of that. I think that that's kind of what's been on my mind a lot. How do you do it?

How do I do it? You know, for me, it really comes down, I talk a lot about this with my team. Anytime I come into a team, I always tell them, think of me as sort of a third brain or second brain to your book of business.

And I'm here to help operate that book of business with you. Bring me to your customer onsites, bring me to your, you know, I want to strategize with you. And that's how I stay close to the customer problems, customer business.

I want to help them, not in a way of like, you know, overshadowing them, but like really helping them solve the problems that their customers are having. And so when I take that approach with my team, they kind of see me as like a second CSM on the account. And that's how I stay close to the customer, even as a leader.

My team views me as second CSM on the account. So I'll join them on onsites, I'll join them on customer meetings. And I have sort of that ingrained in me that no matter where I go in my career, I always want to take that approach.

I don't care if, you know, I'm a VP of CS, Chief Customer Officer, I always want to have that ingrained in me that I will take any customer meeting, any customer call, no matter how small or how large the customer.

[Dillon] (4:20 - 5:12)

Rob, how did you handle this when you were sitting in seat leading groups? Did you have any, I mean, was it a similar thing of just like, Hey, just invite me whenever? Or I guess what costs the challenge I have is what if you've got a certain kind of CSM that gets real protective and wants to do it all themselves?

They're a superhero. They don't want to get you involved. Oh, it's not worth your time, or I got it figured out.

Like, because ultimately, it's on you to be able to speak to leadership about that customer if something goes sideways, or even if there's a big win, you want to be able to describe it. And so I have this sort of like, well, what if they don't want to play ball? And so I wonder if there's any more like systematic approach, or how do you manage it?

How do you monitor it? And so I'm asking Rob that, but then what costs I'd love to hear your ideas after that.

[Rob] (5:13 - 6:59)

Rob Bracco So stepping back, you use the past tense, you said, how did you handle it? I still do this. I mean, as recently as within the last couple days, I've asked people, my clients, I'm like, put me in your seat, let me do your job.

Because how am I going to optimize your job if I don't know how to do it myself? And I've done that ever since. I've worked with some people who are just brilliant enough to somehow abstract out their customers day to day and figure it out without actually doing the work.

That's not me. So over time, that evolved into a lot of really cool programs that, you know, I've been a part of building in the past. Customer onsites, customer advisory boards, those can be, I like customer advisory group better than board, for a variety of reasons I can elaborate on.

Sentiment analysis on call recording. I mean, I come from a day when we didn't even use to record calls. So, you know, that to me is like a treasure trove that kids these days take for granted.

Surveying, right? Like user interviews, not just your standard, okay, we did an NPS survey. Congratulations, we all did.

But like deep user interviews. And the other cool one that's been come that's come up in recent times for me is monitoring user communities. Depends a lot on the product.

But sometimes you have this like petri dish of users, and you see how they interact with each other, how they communicate, how they educate each other. And you're like, oh my god, this is crazy. Like, what did I create?

Between all of like, it's a multifaceted thing to build a true voice of the customer program. And to truly be close to your customer, to be one with your customer. It's super hard.

But that's a variety of pieces for me that have really helped.

[Dillon] (7:01 - 7:15)

And so, Waqas, before I toss it to JP, I do want to hear briefly how you would deal with somebody who is protective or territorial, or maybe it's not even that nefarious. They just think they can do it all without your help. What do you do then?

[Waqas] (7:16 - 8:07)

Yeah, I think, you know, to Rob's point, the call recording piece is huge, and sort of new to this era. But I also think executive alignment is big, right? We do a lot of that at the company I'm at right now, where we do executive touchpoint with the leadership at our company with leadership at their company.

And there's really, I mean, that has to happen. You need to have that executive alignment. And a CSM, there's nothing the CSM can really say about that at that point, right?

If the CEO wants to build a relationship with someone at that company, I don't think there's really much a CSM can or should say at that point. So that's another thing that I've seen truly, truly work really, really well and has saved a lot of accounts and helped customers grow.

[Dillon] (8:08 - 8:22)

Yeah, build executive sponsorship programs in the same double-edged sort of way where it's an additional check on the account to make sure that there's eyes on it. JP, jump in, please.

[JP] (8:24 - 8:49)

Yeah, I think, you know, to take us out, you know, living and breathing in customer success, man, you said 10 years. I want to know what has you wanting to, what keeps you coming back? What is it that you love that makes you want to breathe in and live customer success and like not something else?

You know, like what is it about CS specifically that does that for you?

[Waqas] (8:50 - 10:15)

Yeah, there's something about, for me personally, something about when customers are able to get, you know, get that aha moment of value. And they're really able to understand why it is they purchased whatever product they purchased that, you know, able to achieve those outcomes that they've, you know, hoping to achieve really understand the value that they're hoping to gain from a product. And I remember early in my career as a CSM, I was with a customer in person, in person, again, going back to, I was in person with a customer and this customer, we were struggling to get them over the hump and we finally did it.

And the joy and excitement that that customer felt, and that I felt when we finally got them over the hump and they like finally got it. And that to me, like, I was like, I was hooked from there. And I want all my CSM, CS people that I lead to experience that, like, that's, that's what keeps me coming back.

I want, that's, that, that, that to me is why I keep coming back. It is that feeling that I've been chasing ever since. And I want everyone, every organization that I go to, all the teams that I lead and myself, I want to chase that.

I want to experience that over and over and over again.

[JP] (10:16 - 10:19)

Great. That's, that's, that's great. That's very enlightening.

Thank you.

[Dillon] (10:20 - 10:23)

That's all you got JP? No analogies for us?

[JP] (10:24 - 10:28)

What? That was good. There's no need to, there's no need to, yeah.

[Dillon] (10:28 - 10:29)

Hey, okay.

[JP] (10:30 - 10:34)

We don't need the mashed bananas. We got homemade banana bread right here.

[Dillon] (10:34 - 10:41)

See, that's all I needed. That's all I needed. I just needed something out of you.

No, no, we'll be, we'll be cutting that part out.

[JP] (10:42 - 10:42)

That's our time.

[Dillon] (10:43 - 11:01)

Thank you so much Wakaz. This was fantastic. Love your perspective.

I don't think it's a thing we talk about enough is, is keeping the finger on the pulse of the customer. So thank you so much for bringing it up. We'd love to have you back in the future, but for now we do have to say goodbye Wakaz.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Take care.

Doodles.

[VO] (11:32 - 11:38)

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