Stagnation is the enemy of any career. That’s especially so for those in sales and customer success, who see their slump split between two areas.
First, there’s company-level stagnation, with salespeople and customer success managers forced to sell and service the same product year in and year out because “that’s what works.” Then there’s the people side of things, with leaders who can recognize success but not reward it appropriately with opportunities for career advancement.
None of this is a problem for the CSMs at video software company Screencastify, according to the company’s VP of Customer Success Melissa McMillan. Screencastify has continued to refine and build out its product since launching in 2016, and on the people side of things, she says they’ve created a culture around helping her team reach best-in-class net revenue retention marks.
“The number one reason CSMs look for a new role is that, while they’re excelling in their current role and have been praised for years, management isn’t nurturing them by consciously helping them advance their careers,” McMillan said. “Our people are nurtured in terms of proactive career development and skill tracking, a healthy work-life balance and an appropriate amount of autonomy and independence.”
In addition to Screencastify, sales leaders at data analytics company Arity and SaaS and data management platform AvePoint also told Built In that their companies and teams have big plans for 2023. Continue reading to learn more about these plans and what these leaders look for in new team members.
Arity is a data and analytics company founded by insurance giant Allstate in 2016. The company uses insurance claims data from Allstate and driving information gained from in-car telematics systems — think the devices that enable you to pay for insurance by the mile or based on driving behavior — to help companies build apps, launch targeted marketing campaigns, better manage vehicle fleet costs and more.
What’s one character trait or skill set that a successful candidate should have to land a spot on your team?
First and foremost: a sense of curiosity. When you are inherently curious, you naturally ask questions to discover, which is a characteristic essential in B2B sales. You also become a good listener through this process, which is another essential characteristic. And most importantly, curiosity promotes problem-solving, new ways of looking at achieving goals and reaching success, and more effective competition. All of these characteristics combined make for an exceptional candidate for our team.
When you are inherently curious, you naturally ask questions to discover, which is a characteristic essential in B2B sales.”
What’s the biggest priority for your go-to-market teams in 2023, and why is it important for the success of the business as a whole?
Our biggest priorities are to continue driving revenue growth in our core markets and to secure our data relationships in a privacy-forward manner. These two components are symbiotic to our success as an organization. Additionally, we’re looking to promote our products across the industry. One of our products, Arity IQ, has the power to change the way insurance companies price their customers, enabling them to be more competitive and profitable long term.
Businesses today are looking for new and innovative ways to improve their bottom line and better connect with customers. The driving data we collect, which is at a rate of 2 million trips per hour, provides us with the insights needed to power Arity IQ and provide value across the transportation ecosystem.
How would you describe your team culture in a single word, and why would you choose that word?
Positive. We believe in Arity’s mission, and it’s when we work together that we live that mission. Success takes teamwork, a positive attitude, supporting one another and having the confidence to reach our goals, both individually and as a team. It is why we take on the responsibility of meeting sales goals to drive growth and opportunity for everyone within our company. I am a firm believer in the power of a positive attitude to not only become successful in whatever you choose to do but to overcome obstacles in both your personal and professional life.
Screencastify has built a plug-in for Google Chrome that’s designed to make it easier to record, edit and share videos. In 2020, users from 190 countries created more than 100 million videos totaling 6.1 million hours.
What’s one character trait or skill set that a successful candidate should have to land a spot on your team?
Emotional intelligence and empathy. I always say I can teach just about anyone to use new software or adhere to an operational process, but empathy and emotional intelligence can’t be taught. Be prepared with a great example of a time you had to use your EQ or empathy skills with a customer and how it turned out so that you can clearly and concisely communicate it in your interview.
We’re part of an environment where everyone feels valued and appreciated as a contributor and as a person.”
What’s the biggest priority for your go-to-market teams in 2023, and why is it important for the success of the business as a whole?
In terms of key department performance indicators, net revenue retention (NRR) is the top priority. Customer health scores are vital to track as well, but NRR is the most important metric for customer success, revenue operations and your org’s board members. NRR combines our unit retention and upsell numbers, so both of these categories need to perform exceptionally well. Best-in-class companies do 120 percent NRR, and we aspire to reach that milestone by preventing churn and expanding accounts.
How would you describe your team culture in a single word, and why would you choose that word?
Nurturing. Not only are we aligned on the department’s purpose, company values and team goals — things that make a team successful on paper — but we’re part of an environment where everyone feels valued and appreciated as a contributor and as a person. Our people are nurtured in terms of proactive career development and skill tracking, a healthy work-life balance and an appropriate amount of autonomy and independence.
I’ve interviewed countless customer success managers over the years, and the number one reason CSMs look for a new role is that while they’re excelling in their current role and have been praised for years, management isn’t nurturing them by consciously helping them advance their careers. For managers: You can avoid this pitfall by meeting with your CSMs monthly to track their skill development en route to promotion or their next role.
Companies use AvePoint’s platform to migrate, manage and protect data in the cloud, specifically Microsoft 365. AvePoint was founded in 2001 and has more than 8 million users.
What’s one character trait or skill set that a successful candidate should have to land a spot on your team?
Ambition. The account executives who meet or exceed their goals each quarter all have that in common. Being self-motivated and excited to help our customers solve problems will not only make you successful at AvePoint, but you’ll also never be bored. When you work for a SaaS company, things are always changing, and you’ve got to have a driven personality to not only keep up with these changes but also to be able to push through the highs and lows that come with a sales position as it’s not realistic that you’ll win every opportunity you’re working on.
Knowledge sharing across the three U.S. sales teams is important as we all learn from each other.”
What’s the biggest priority for your go-to-market teams in 2023, and why is it important for the success of the business as a whole?
The biggest priority is breaking into new logo accounts to expand business across all industries, increase revenue and grow our position in the market. Usually, once we win a new customer, we tend to partner with them long-term and build on our relationship to solve other problems related to Microsoft 365 initiatives. We still want to continue doing that but also want to increase the number of net new customers who either haven’t heard of us before or are using a competing solution that doesn’t fulfill all of their requirements. AvePoint isn’t a one-solution vendor, so we can help our clients with multiple projects and consolidate the number of vendors a customer is using while getting the most granular and advanced functionality given our partnership with Microsoft and years in the data management space.
How would you describe your team culture in a single word, and why would you choose that word?
Collaborative. Even though we’re sellers and have our own individual goals, the entire team is always willing to help each other out. Leadership does a great job of communicating product releases, company updates and more. Knowledge sharing across the three U.S. sales teams is important as we all learn from each other to improve our business development strategies, gain insight into industry-specific challenges or notice trends in the market around what customers care most about. At the end of each quarter when we’re trying to bring deals to the finish line, every department between accounting, legal and engineering steps up to help out to win business and hit our goals.
