Solutions for Customers - The Sales Engineering & Customer Success Podcast

This week we talk about CenturyLink changing to Lumen and welcome our guest, Jay Hanley from Thrive. Jay is a seasoned Solution Architect and it was awesome to host him on the show. Jay covers his background which began in Finance & Economics...nothing to do with Tech. We're talking numbers, graphs, supply and demand all of the subjects many of us avoided so we could take a programming class, ha! In all seriousness, his background in business lends itself well when solving critical workload challenges with his customers. He's not simply putting a demo together or explaining the finer points of his value-prop....he talks about breaking it down for each customer. Every company has a slightly unique business case and we ask Jay how to perform in that scenario as a Solution Architect. Check out Thrive.com to learn more about their solutions & services. Connect with Jay Hanley: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jjhanley3/ About the Host, Gary Sloper For 20 Years, Gary Sloper has led high-performing Tech Sales Engineering and Customer Success teams Globally. Growing up as a programmer and eventually a Sales Engineer, he explores the scrappy environments people in these roles face and the fun they have. After years of being nudged by his colleagues to come to speak to the masses about the inner workings of supporting customers in fast-moving Tech, it's now here for all to listen and interact with. Please join future topics! Connect, chat and interact with Gary on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gsloper/ Follow us:: https://www.linkedin.com/company/solutions-for-customers-podcast www.SolutionsForCustomers.com

Show Notes: We hosted Claude Decarish, Areas SE Director for Windstream, based out of Atlanta to speak about staying relevant and how to build your career. His team supports Next-Gen SDWAN services, Collaboration and Security Services for many large enterprise accounts. Claude began his path to Presales as a Civil Engineer which provided an excellent foundation to move into technology. I pressed him on the importance of relationship-building not just among your peers as Sales Engineers but the ever-critical role with Sales counterparts. Claude talked about holding each other accountable and being open to feedback with those teams. Claude also shared some feedback about being a SE Leader and the importance of establishing a relationship early on with Sales Management to focus on common goals. There are situations when both are not aligned and he discussed his experiences about how he puts the train back on the track. Check out Windstream.com to learn more about their SD-WAN and full suite of Layer 1-3 services. Connect with Claude: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claude-decarish-4185899/ About the Host, Gary Sloper For 20 Years, Gary Sloper has led high-performing Tech Sales Engineering and Customer Success teams Globally. Growing up as a programmer and eventually a Sales Engineer, he explores the scrappy environments people in these roles face and the fun they have. After years of being nudged by his colleagues to come to speak to the masses about the inner workings of supporting customers in fast-moving Tech, it's now here for all to listen and interact with. Please join future topics! Connect, chat and interact with Gary on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/solutions-for-customers-podcast or www.SolutionsForCustomers.com

The Career Opportunity this week is with Intensify who is searching for a Rockstar Customer Success Manager. Check them out @ https://intentsify.io/careers/ learn more! Shown Notes: This week we had the privilege of hosting Matt Toy, Director of Account Management with Fastly. Fastly's edge cloud platform provides a content delivery network, Internet security services, load balancing, and video & streaming services for brands all over the world We dive into the various descriptions or assertions many have on what Customer Success is or should be vs. the reality. One key area that is discussed is not how to support B2B or B2C, it’s P2P, aka People to People which is often overlooked these days. Matt shares a few instances on his journey into customer success and why it's critically important when scaling a business, protecting protentional customer churn, and much more. We clearly run out of time to dig deeper into the analytics and myopic views which can spawn hours of conversation. So, that just means we need to host Matt again on the show! Check out Fastly.com to learn more about their Edge platform Connect with our guest Matt Toy @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/mtoy5/ About the Host, Gary Sloper For 20 Years, Gary Sloper has led high-performing Tech Sales Engineering and Customer Success teams Globally. Growing up as a programmer and eventually a Sales Engineer, he explores the scrappy environments people in these roles face and the fun they have. After years of being nudged by his colleagues to come to speak to the masses about the inner workings of supporting customers in fast-moving Tech, it's now here for all to listen and interact with. Please join future topics! Connect, chat and interact with Gary on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/solutions-for-customers-podcast or www.SolutionsForCustomers.com

Most people have an unrealistic belief (at times) that all Sales Engineers have the answers to every question and possess a swami-like approach to solving problems. We all know SEs are human and never have nor will they ever possess the answer to every challenge a customer sends their way. What if you are a SE who looks to find the answers to his/her profession? Our guest this week had that exact challenge and took charge to control his learning curve. This week, Ramzi Marjaba joined the show to discuss his career as a Sales Engineer and why he started his own Podcast, We the Sales Engineers. He started a podcast to interview and learn from others about the craft of being a Sales Engineer…super clever! He now has over 100 episodes in which users can listen to or watch the YouTube channel. That’s not all, he’s launched a brand to discuss tools and tips across the ether on Sales Engineering so others can share in knowledge. Please take a listen to his podcast and visit his site which is a useful tool for SEs. You can reach him on his website: WeTheSalesEngineers.com or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramzimarjaba/ About the Host, Gary Sloper For 20 Years, Gary Sloper has led high-performing Tech Sales Engineering and Customer Success teams Globally. Growing up as a programmer and eventually a Sales Engineer, he explores the scrappy environments people in these roles face and the fun they have. After years of being nudged by his colleagues to come to speak to the masses about the inner workings of supporting customers in fast-moving Tech, it's now here for all to listen and interact with. Please join future topics! Connect, chat and interact with Gary on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/solutions-for-customers-podcast or www.SolutionsForCustomers.com

Today we hosted Tom Gleason from Snyk.io where he leads the Solution Engineering organization. Snyk empowers software-driven businesses to develop fast and stay secure. The Snyk open source offering is what many engineers are quite familiar with and I was eager to have Tom on and discuss the organization further. Tom and I discuss his career background and how it has come full circle supporting customers in a pre-sales role and now a leader within Synk. I highly encourage anyone interested in learning more about Snyk to check out their site or connect with Tom directly as you will not be disappointed. www.Snyk.io Connect with Tom: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasdgleason/ About the Host, Gary Sloper For 20 Years, Gary Sloper has led high-performing Tech Sales Engineering and Customer Success teams Globally. Growing up as a programmer and eventually a Sales Engineer, he explores the scrappy environments people in these roles face and the fun they have. After years of being nudged by his colleagues to come to speak to the masses about the inner workings of supporting customers in fast-moving Tech, it's now here for all to listen and interact with. Please join future topics! Connect, chat and interact with Gary on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/solutions-for-customers-podcast or www.SolutionsForCustomers.com

In this episode, we throw out the metrics(well, sort of) and bring the discussion to focus on the human element we find ourselves in during the coronavirus. How do you support customers who are all remote at the moment? What pre-actions should you focus on as a CSM in the industry prior to speaking with a client? Let's focus on customers and their situation as people and then their business as I promise you, nobody is immune right now. About the Host, Gary Sloper For 20 Years, Gary Sloper has led high-performing Tech Sales Engineering and Customer Success teams Globally. Growing up as a programmer and eventually a Sales Engineer, he explores the scrappy environments people in these roles face and the fun they have. After years of being nudged by his colleagues to come speak to the masses about the inner workings of supporting customers in fast-moving Tech, it's now here for all to listen and interact with. Please join future topics! Connect, chat and interact with Gary on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/solutions-for-customers-podcast or www.SolutionsForCustomers.com

Season 2 is finally here! On this episode, we invited Paul McBratney, Senior Solution Engineer with Alert Logic based in Atlanta to join the show. Paul brings a wealth of knowledge and background on the role of a PreSales Engineer, Problem Solver and Story Teller. Paul is a bi-lingual SE who discusses how getting your teeth cut early into areas such as physical devices (taking apart and rebuilding servers for example), troubleshooting and more helped him early on. He walks through the conversation about how to methodically work with customers but also set the right expectations and the value of “no” when needed. His organization at Alert Logic was founded in 2002 and has a slew of offerings including their SIEMless Threat Management portfolio providing security, compliance and more Globally. Let’s dig into the conversation with Paul. Paul McBratney: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulmcbratney/ Alert Logic: www.alertlogic.com About the Host, Gary Sloper For 20 Years, Gary Sloper has led high-performing Tech Sales Engineering and Customer Success teams Globally. Growing up as a programmer and eventually a Sales Engineer, he explores the scrappy environments people in these roles face and the fun they have. After years of being nudged by his colleagues to come speak to the masses about the inner workings of supporting customers in fast-moving Tech, it's now here for all to listen and interact with. Please join future topics! Connect, chat and interact with Gary on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/solutions-for-customers-podcast or www.SolutionsForCustomers.com

As we wind down Season 1, it’s time to quickly reflect on closing Q4 and getting ready for the next fiscal year. How do you push for the final support of your customers if you are on a Fiscal Calendar year? Does your Customer Success plan go out the window only to drive short-sales which will burn you in the future? Let's not forget about getting ready for Sales Kick-offs! About the Host, Gary Sloper For 20 Years, Gary Sloper has led high-performing Tech Sales Engineering and Customer Success teams Globally. Growing up as a programmer and eventually a Sales Engineer, he explores the scrappy environments people in these roles face and the fun they have. After years of being nudged by his colleagues to come speak to the masses about the inner workings of supporting customers in fast-moving Tech, it's now here for all to listen and interact with. Please join future topics! Connect, chat and interact with Gary on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gsloper/ or email: solutions4customers@gmail.com

Today we sit down with arguably one of the best Solution Architects in the industry, Brad Loomis. Based in Boston, he is the Director of Solution Architecture at Cloud Technology Partners a HP company. Brad talks about early beginnings as a SA with Exodus Communications (later SAVVIS) who first commercialized the colocation and managed hosting business as we know today. He shares tips and tricks on how to control your learning curve and ways he consumes material quickly. There are a couple of stories Brad shares around how to deal with sticky sales situations and building relationships anyone could learn from regardless of your tenure level in the industry. About the Host, Gary Sloper For 20 Years, Gary Sloper has led high-performing Tech Sales Engineering and Customer Success teams Globally. Growing up as a programmer and eventually a Sales Engineer, he explores the scrappy environments people in these roles face and the fun they have. After years of being nudged by his colleagues to come speak to the masses about the inner workings of supporting customers in fast-moving Tech, it's now here for all to listen and interact with. Please join future topics! Connect, chat and interact with Gary on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/solutions-for-customers-podcast or www.SolutionsForCustomers.com

Today we explore how to understand the global internet, WAN & LAN environments which is paramount for any pre-sales engineer. While we understand IP subnetting, DHCP, routing and switching is not always glamourous it is necessary. :-) All Cloud workloads require the internet and possessing the knowledge to understand Layer 1-3 within the OSI model will propel you deeper with customers. Why? If your SaaS applications are slowly converging, how would you troubleshoot or begin to figure out a solution? What if you provided branch location solutions and you didn't understand the limitation of a hub plugged in for users? Well, hopefully, a hub isn't in-line however you'd be surprised as Sales Engineers what blinky things we find! VPNs, packet analyzing, DNS and more are some great topics to learn in the CCNA curriculum. Links: CCNA Certification: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/training-events/training-certifications/certifications/associate/ccna-routing-switching.html About the Host, Gary Sloper For 20 Years, Gary Sloper has led high-performing Tech Sales Engineering and Customer Success teams Globally. Growing up as a programmer and eventually a Sales Engineer, he explores the scrappy environments people in these roles face and the fun they have. After years of being nudged by his colleagues to come speak to the masses about the inner workings of supporting customers in fast-moving Tech, it's now here for all to listen and interact. Please join future topics! Connect, chat and interact with Gary on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gsloper/ or email: solutions4customers@gmail.com

This week we shift back to the world of Customer Success where we begin to carve out future episodes on metrics. The first and often only metric which comes to mind in Customer Success is Churn. Unfortunately, many professionals use the “Churn” metric in Customer Success interchangeably and sometimes forget to parse out variables in the business. It’s also NOT the only metric used in the Customer Success organization, however, we’ll start here first. Churn discussions: - Churned Customer Logos (cancelled customers) - Churned Revenue (Revenue reduced in the business, can be a complete cancel or downgrade) o Do you measure both? o If you downgrade an existing product but increase revenue with a cross-sell is that bad? - Net Chun/Net Revenue Several KPI metrics exist when running a Customer Success Organization and trust me, we will get to those in future episodes. Today, let’s start with Churn to build a baseline. About the Host, Gary Sloper For 20 Years, Gary Sloper has led high-performing Tech Sales Engineering and Customer Solutions teams Globally. Growing up as a programmer and eventually a Sales Engineer, he explores the scrappy environments people in these roles face and the fun they have. After years of being nudged by his colleagues to come speak to the masses about the inner workings of supporting customers in fast-moving Tech, it's now here for all to listen and interact. Please join future topics! Connect, chat and interact with Gary on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gsloper/ or email: solutions4customers@gmail.com

Today we discuss the basic skill all Solution Architects require - listening. Regardless of the tenure you possess, effective listening skills in a PreSales role is necessary. Honestly, you need to nail this basic skill in all business positions however it's critically important as the technical leader in a sales opportunity you control your listening abilities. If you miss the key driver or pain a customer faces during a discussion, you could lose out on a partnership as there is no rewind in a deal! Article from the episode we cover by Melissa Daimler, former head of Talent, Learning & Development for Adobe, Twitter & WeWork. I really like how she summarizes listening which can be applied as a pres-sales architect. Harvard Business Review - Listening is an Overlooked Leadership Tool: by Melissa Daimler https://hbr.org/2016/05/listening-is-an-overlooked-leadership-tool About the Host, Gary Sloper For 20 Years, Gary Sloper has led high-performing Tech Sales Engineering and Customer Solutions teams Globally. Growing up as a programmer and eventually a Sales Engineer, he explores the scrappy environments people in these roles face and the fun they have. After years of being nudged by his colleagues in the Ecosystem to come speak to the masses about the inner workings of supporting customers in fast-moving Tech, it's now here for all to listen and interact. Please join future topics! Connect, chat and interact with Gary on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gsloper/ or email: solutions4customers@gmail.com

Buzzwords. They exist all over Tech and quite often are overused in the industry by more and more people including Solution Architects and CSMs. However, the use of buzzwords is not worded out of malice but more by convenience. This episode was requested by the audience who asked/suggested we discuss not using buzzwords as much as possible replacing well thought out responses. Why? CIOs and other tech decision-makers are product fatigued and will cast aside your solution if they hear nothing but tech word buzz talk. The amount of presentations they see & hear which contain buzzwords has become staggering. We take a look at a few articles in the market a narrow into some independent research. For example, a Buzzword Soup scenario could look like this: We are a CLOUD based solution that enables you to effectively embrace DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION providing you our INDUSTRY LEADING AGILE platform which DISRUPTS traditional AI & BIG DATA competition. Wow, that was a mouthful of buzzwords and I still don’t know what we are selling..ha! Top 10 Hated Tech Buzzwords - Megan Headly https://www.trustradius.com/buyer-blog/top-10-hated-tech-buzzwords-2019 Tech Buzzwords – GroWire Team https://www.growwire.com/tech-buzzwords About the Host, Gary Sloper For 20 Years, Gary Sloper has led high-performing Tech Sales Engineering and Customer Solutions teams Globally. Growing up as a programmer and eventually a Sales Engineer, he explores the scrappy environments people in these roles face and the fun they have. After years of being nudged by his colleagues in the Ecosystem to come speak to the masses about the inner workings of supporting customers in fast-moving Tech, it's now here for all to listen and interact. Please join future topics! Connect, chat and interact with Gary on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gsloper/ or email: solutions4customers@gmail.com

On this episode, we explore the question many people still ask, “What is Customer Success?” Typically the question is really asked around how CS Leaders are defining Customer Success and what it means for their company. While we can all agree there should be a maniacal focus on customers, do we really have their desired outcomes in mind? For 20 Years, Gary Sloper has led high-performing Tech Sales Engineering and Customer Solutions teams Globally. Growing up as a programmer and eventually a Sales Engineer, he explores the scrappy environments people in these roles face and the fun they have. After years of being nudged by his colleagues in the Ecosystem to come speak to the masses about the inner workings of supporting customers in fast-moving Tech, it's now here for all to listen and interact. Please join future topics! Connect, chat and interact with Gary on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gsloper/

Often, meetings on-site can take a turn for the unexpected very quickly. Sometimes, these changes can be prevented in advance with additional planning. In our episode this week, we explore a couple of tricks to take along when meeting with customers at their location. I have witnessed everything from fire alarm evacuations to floods which alter a scheduled meeting and one you can't really fix! What about walking into an unknown conference room and hoping your presentation will load on the customer projector? How do you reconcile what you drew on the whiteboard? Let's dive into a few tips to make your meeting less theatrical and more productive for everyone! Oh and these tips can be used by Sales, Sales Engineering and Customer Success Managers who are often on-site with their client partners. For 20 Years, Gary Sloper has led high-performing Tech Sales Engineering and Customer Solutions teams Globally. Growing up as a programmer and eventually Sales Engineer, he explores the scrappy environments people in these roles face and the fun they have. After years of being nudged by his colleagues in the Ecosystem to come speak to the masses about the inner workings of supporting customers in fast-moving Tech, it's now here for all to listen and interact. Please join future topics! Connect, chat and interact with Gary on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gsloper/ or email: solutions4customers@gmail.com

For those of us who spend countless hours supporting customers in tech, specifically PreSales Sales Engineering (SE) (Solution Architects, Sales Consultants whatever you have been called) and others in Customer Success (CSM), this Podcast is for you. Episode #1 covers the pitfalls of being an amateur podcaster but outlines who will be on the show and what topics. Countless learnings, trainings, podcast etc have always focused on sales in tech and most recently SaaS sales & scaling. However, let's talk about the organizations that help drive those results, build awesome tech solutions and enable long partnerships with customers. It's a super quick, 8 Minutes or less episode recorded right after work before the long holiday weekend here in the states! Gary Sloper has led high-performing Tech Sales Engineering, Solution Architect and Customer Solutions teams Globally. Growing up as a programmer and eventually Sales Engineer, he explores the scrappy environments people in these roles face and the fun they have. Gary has hired and worked with hundreds of Architects and Customer Success Managers and shares insight in this regular podcast. Connect, chat and interact with Gary on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gsloper/ or email: solutions4customers@gmail.com