110 - How to Be Entrepreneurial and Strategic as a CSM - Giorgia Pedenzini

In this exciting episode of the Women In Customer Success podcast, I am joined by Giorgia Pedenzini, a Customer Success Manager at Gainsight and a pro at building strong customer relationships. 

In our conversation, Giorgia gives strategic CSM tips, from deepening your understanding of customer needs to improving customer interaction skills. She shares her journey to becoming a customer success manager and her experience building a career in customer success.

We talk about building customer loyalty, and Giorgia gives helpful advice for CSM professionals. She explains the importance of really getting to know and forming deeper relationships with customers. Giorgia also talks about the importance of entrepreneurial skills for CSMs, showing how these can help innovate and push your career forward. 

What this episode has in store for you:

• CSM career tips
• CSM strategic thinking skills
• Celebrating customers’ success
• How to get to know your customers better

This episode is sponsored by Gainsight, a customer success and product experience software.

Follow Giorgia!

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About Women in Customer Success Podcast:

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Host Marija Skobe-Pilley

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

What would you say? How strategic or entrepreneurial are you with your customers? In today's episode, I'm talking with amazing and energetic Giorgia Perenzini, customer Success Manager at Gainsight, who is finding really creative or entrepreneurial and different ways for engaging with her customers. She is incredibly focused on building communities around her customer base, meeting them where they are and creating and facilitating connections between them, because ultimately, that is helping them all grow and it's helping her grow her book of business. I'm sure that you're going to enjoy this episode. Join me in welcoming Giorgia Perenzini. Hi everyone, this is Maria Scobepile and you're listening to Women in Customer Success podcast, the first women-only podcast where remarkable ladies of customer success share their stories and practical tools to help you succeed and make an impact. If you want to learn more about customer success, get career advice and be inspired, you're in the right place, so let's tune in. It is such a pleasure to welcome Giorgia Perenzini to the show today. I will tell you all about her, but so far, giorgia, welcome finally to the Women in Customer Success podcast.

Speaker 2: 1:22

Thanks so much, Maria. I'm really excited to be here.

Speaker 1: 1:25

Women in Customer Success podcast. Thanks so much, maria. I'm really excited to be here. So Georgia is a Customer Success Manager at Gainsight. She's based in London. I'm based just outside London and if you're watching us on YouTube, you could just see that there is sun shining outside in London, which is awesome.

Speaker 1: 1:39

I think we both are so energized this morning and I love working with Georgia every time on every project. So she's my partner in crime in delivering power-up masterclasses from Women in Customer Success and Gay Insight. So whether it's macaroons evening or masterclasses or any other events that we are doing, I just enjoy being in her presence because she is I don't know. She just energizes me. So I can imagine what kind of Georgia effect she has on her customers, and that's also what I would like us to talk about today. How do you really manage to have those deeper relationships with customers? As I know, georgia is having to help them really strategically steer their business in the right direction. But before we come to that main part of the episode, georgia, let our listeners get to know you a bit better. I said you're based in London, but tell me where did you live before London? Because I know you have an amazingly rich cultural background.

Speaker 2: 2:41

Yes, so I had the privilege to move around quite a lot, maria, as you know. Um, I started my adventures right after bachelor, had the chance to live in New York for a couple of years. Then I decided to go back, studying between Vienna and the Netherlands, and then I started working again between Milan, but then Dublin and now I'm finally in London. Uh, so this is also probably why I'm also loving being with people. I've seen many, many cultures. I put myself through a few tests, also living with other people and meeting new cultures, so it all comes in handy, at the end of the day, for being a CSM, absolutely, and you were born and brought up in Italy, right?

Speaker 1: 3:27

Correct, yes I forgot the most important part. Okay, tell me now, how many languages do you speak?

Speaker 2: 3:35

Oh, I mean, if we have to keep it honest fluently, only two. I can get around just a few other ones. So let's say five if you really want to lie on our resume, but two if we need to get back to business.

Speaker 1: 3:49

Okay so it's Italian and English, but I know you have working proficiency, at least in German, because you also started in Austria. What are those other ones? Spanish and French.

Speaker 2: 4:00

French. French is actually a big one During, you know, growing up in Italy, you can choose French or German growing up, and usually French is the most selected one, and Spanish for the similarity with Italian. It's an easy one to pick up Wonderful.

Speaker 1: 4:15

Okay, georgia next. What is the most adventurous thing that you have ever done and would do it again?

Speaker 2: 4:26

Well, the most adventurous I think it's been moving to New York when I was 21 years old with a job that I knew a little bit about, but it was my very first experience abroad. I knew no one in New York. I've never lived abroad. When I told my mom she almost had a heart attack. That staffs me adventure. But I think, everything you know, every trip, every new something that I do, I feel like a bit of adventure. You're always a bit, you know, nervous but excited to try something new, so it could be something really big as moving to New York for me. But also, as you know, I started a pottery course, uh, late last year, so that was also adventurous, because I'm not creative at all. Um, so who knew? You know what it turned out, uh, but it is, it's being really nice.

Speaker 1: 5:11

Tell me more about pottery. How come you you pick up pottery from from everything out there?

Speaker 2: 5:17

I guess yeah, I guess it's a, I don't know, it's a sort of a passage as well. Um, having worked um with COVID and after COVID, like our job especially is is very demanding on the screen time and sometimes, you know, there are deep, intense periods of work and I felt I just needed a break which was not maybe going for a run or doing some sports and definitely seeing friends always helpful for me. But I just wanted to create something else. I wanted to test myself. I was curious to put myself a bit into the game and doing something that I knew nothing about with my hands and just seeing an end result, and that was pottery. I had a couple of friends that was also good witnesses of the good that it could do. So I started it and I'm very much into the weeds. I'm still not good at it, but I get more benefits for myself emotionally than I actually get out of it. I mean, the mags are nice but they're still a bit wonky, so we'll perfection that, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 6:21

There is time for perfection, but the journey is what matters, right, just sitting down, being mindful in the moment when you're creating pottery. I think there's so many benefits of it. I, or anyone in my family, we don't do pottery, but my kids really love pottery painting. They used to have some of those birthday parties and sometimes we just go and I can see how, what is the great effect of it on them, just sitting mindfully, you know, putting little dots, being focused on it and how they feel so much better from it. So definitely for everybody listening, if you haven't tried it yet, just try pottery or pottery painting a few times and just see how, what is the effect that it would have on your wellbeing, onbeing on that day. Excellent, georgia, I really love this. I love your background, your cultural experiences and picking up amazing different hobbies. One thing that I'm interested also would the 16-year-old. You be surprised to find you in this current role?

Speaker 2: 7:24

16-year-old, you be surprised to find you in this current role, massively, I would say, and not too much, but for two reasons. One, I didn't even know this role existed when I was younger. You know, I kind of stumbled upon it when I was looking for a job after my master's. And probably, yes, she would expect it, because I always liked working with my head and working with people. I always enjoy that sort of like building a relationship. But what I'm good at is some sort of like business stuff, so understanding how an organization works, what kind of model they have, how they deliver the product, their services, what do the people internally do. So it's quite a good match. I mean the 16-year-old myself and completely different expectations.

Speaker 1: 8:13

Okay, moving away from the teenage years, you already mentioned bachelor's and master's knowing business. Now take us through that journey after your bachelor and master's. When you said you started looking for a job, you came across customer success. So what was that journey like? How come you ended up in customer success? How did you even find it so?

Speaker 2: 8:36

I think the first touch point that I had in between my studies, between my bachelor and my master, was getting to know the tech SaaS world, business. And that was when I was working in New York. I was working at an interior design firm and we decided to implement CRM, so I was helping the ops manager. Of course it was commercial, so a lot of feedback even there, but it was the first time that I actually saw from the other side what this meant for the company, what type of value we were expecting. And then going into my master's with it was international management, so I had time to space out more about the people side of it. But also, of course, you know, financial management and economics and everything, economics and everything. And then I was lucky enough to have an array of corporate partners that were supporting this type of master's and they presented or gave us information about the type of jobs and roles that they had available.

Speaker 2: 9:36

And in that case for me it was Salesforce I was most interested in, and they had two paths either a pre-sales solution engineer role or a customer portfolio success manager was called at the time, but the first six months were really the same training for both of the roles. So I thought that's great value just to get an understanding. But, maria, to be honest, the first month or two it was still much of a blur. When I started in there, you know, it's like it's still got like I had. So I needed so much time to just get a grip on what SaaS was, how we were working internally, what exactly was my place. And when I found it, it was the best thing ever because I'm like, yes, I'm really really sure this is my place. I love working with all the roles internally, but I know that my place is in customer success.

Speaker 1: 10:29

Oh, you know what? It just sounds actually very, very poetic, but it's just a beautiful way how you managed to enter such a huge and incredibly important organization when it comes to customer success. I mean, salesforce is the mother of customer success, right? The leaky bucket concept. It all started there. It's really wonderful. So tell me more about your journey from Salesforce towards today. How did it happen and what is, at the end of the day, that makes you feel, oh, it was really a good day as being in customer success yes, I love that, that question, and so the journey for itself.

Speaker 2: 11:10

I so I started as um portfolio success manager, so it was mostly in the scale um. In the scale segment we were looking after emerging accounts of different markets. And then I moved more into the mid-market and eventually I did my couple of years into the enterprise financial services team and that's when I moved to London from Dublin and that's also when I got in touch with Gamesart. So I started having some conversations and I realized that there was so much more that I wanted to learn, that I wanted to challenge myself with. That felt like the right role at the right time for me.

Speaker 2: 11:53

And to this day, when I close my laptop at the end of the day, you do have that butterfly sometimes just saying, oh, if I could have this at least once a week, every week, it would honestly just make me sparkle, and I think I do most of the times. And that depends on the work I do with my customers, with my team. So it's the people that I work with and the quality of that work, but also the fun that we have, the value that we have delivered. So it depends, but it's both internal and external. It just depends on people.

Speaker 1: 12:30

How wonderful to think of the work in terms of, or through the lenses of people. It is very obvious that people, in any sphere customers or internal or community that they energize you and that they are the main motivators for you doing the work. One thing that I have noticed about you in the past year, as I've been observing you and had a chance to be present in some of the situations with you, is how much work do you actually do within customer success community. For me, that is really inspiring. From one hand, okay, you are a CSM for CSM, so there is like a pressure in itself, with a job just by default. But on another hand, I've been in the space for what a decade.

Speaker 1: 13:17

And I don't remember knowing a person who would be so much involved in the community. And that's why I'm just showing all of you, just because I know it's not easy to schedule it around your work with customers, because there is always so many things, so many competing priorities, of course, but I'm just inspired seeing how you do it all. So tell me more about how did it all start, how come you are engaged so much in so many different types of communities and different locations? It's really all around Europe, and that's just my observation. It's probably so much more than what I can see, so tell us more about it.

Speaker 2: 13:56

So I think it comes from the background of having lived and having enjoyed meeting people from all over the world, and definitely from all over Europe, having a huge passion. I'm a bit of a nerd in terms of behavioral psychology, so I love to know why people do what they do, what makes them big, what makes them motivated. And I, you know, when I first started my job experiences, my work experiences and especially then in Salesforce, I had the opportunity to present and, you know, dip my toes into more of this sort of like one too many and sharing or facilitating, moderating sessions, sharing my knowledge, and I really enjoyed it. I had good feedback, I had the time to refine and every time I refine, you know, presentation skills and just what type of message you want to communicate, and I think I just selfishly, I get a lot of energy and I get a lot of motivation out of it. But it definitely helps me being a better customer success professional in the industry. It helps me because I can take ownership of the discussion.

Speaker 2: 15:09

If I meet a customer, if I meet other companies in the space where I work, that helps me understanding what their challenges are. It helps me build stronger relationship. It helps me understanding what value use cases are we talking about? Because maybe what I know is a bit obsolete. Maybe now we have new challenges and, as you know, I mean Europe is a gem because we have based on the markets. We have completely different perspectives.

Speaker 2: 15:35

So I think that's also like I'm trying to get a bit of a grip, and every time you're trying to understand and you have an understanding of what that market looks like, then it changes, so it's never boring it. It's like we have a value in games, that which we call stay hungry, and I think that's absolutely one of mine. It's just I love being curious and speaking to people and I mean we work in tech. As you said, I'm in a niche matrix kind of spot. I'm a CSM for a CS platform, so I deal with CS teams, which is beautiful, but also everybody goes through different challenges and being in person or trying to engage at least one too few or one too many it helps me understanding how I can do my job better and I can deliver more value to my customers.

Speaker 1: 16:24

This episode is brought to you by Gainsight, the complete customer success platform. Grow your business faster and more efficiently with a single, ai-powered suite that enables you to deliver value to customers at every moment of their journey. With Gainsight's customer communities, product experience, customer success and customer education products, it's never been easier to scale your business, grow your revenue and retain your customers.

Speaker 1: 17:02

It's not always easy to be in front of customers, especially post-COVID. So many different reasons, right From people not being back in the office or just working constantly remotely to just sometimes not having opportunities to put so many people at the same place, because you know the work has really changed. But you managed to do it. So what are those different communities or events that you are now typically involved that give you the opportunity? I know some are gainset driven, some are not, some are partnerships, but it seems that you're really proactive about, you know, going out there, looking for the opportunities where you can meet your customers, because you see how much benefits you get from those interactions and, obviously, how much does it help you helping those customers later on. Where are you involved at?

Speaker 2: 17:52

So the type of events, as you said, sometimes are gains that organize, sometimes are sponsored by gainsight, sometimes are just meetups of customer success needs or professionals or passionate people that want to talk about the post sales words of today's SaaS businesses, and they're more regional. So it really depends. I am lucky enough to have my customers spread out all over Europe. It's a region that we call EMEA, so events that we either sponsor or organize in those regions allow me to travel and actually then meet my customers and either invite them to the event or actually just meet them, see in their office and spending some time with them. So either it's a customer meeting, so it's a one-to-one. I try to do those milestones in-person events as EBRs, executive business reviews or any sort of executive alignment. If we have also our own leadership traveling, it's an extra reason to go. Or we have those sponsored ones where I mean Gainsight. Of course it's in the mix, but it's mostly about hearing those industry trends, customer challenges, customer needs, really understanding more on the industry side and the perspective of what's going on in that market and, of course, raising awareness about the brands that are available to support the customer success news. That might need a platform, but it really is, then usually we have a lot of follow-ups, so it's extending the network and that's what I love.

Speaker 2: 19:31

Everywhere I go now I can grab a coffee, I can talk about CS, about gains I am more than happy to help at any event but also in partnership with you, with the macarons events is like something for women's international weekend day, celebrating everything we can from a CS perspective and, as you, after COVID especially, it hasn't been easy when you travel.

Speaker 2: 19:55

There's a lot entailed in terms of planning logistics. Of course I'm giving up some of my weekly duties as a CSM, but it's all about the time management and the planning and I'm not saying I'm great at it, but it is a bit of a stretch of an exercise and I know that I get a lot out of meeting that customer rather than stay always on my screen and when really we can't do in-person events, what I've always tried to do, and what my team also does and we support each other with, is one-to-few online. So try to create that safe space and strong engagement and relationship building feeling, even online, with a selected group of customers that maybe are trying to achieve the same thing. You know, like a cohort accelerator, looking to achieve or improve a specific risk management process. So that definitely also helps to have a bit of that safe space connection among each other, which eventually will extend their network and for us to build, of course, better value for our customers and then use for advocates.

Speaker 1: 21:02

Let's double down on this a bit. You are CSM. You could tell that you are kind of high touch CSM, right? You're working one-to-one with your customers and very often when we start talking working one-to-one with your customers and very often when we start talking about one-to-many, it is typically spoken in the context of scaling customers, where very often that human connection almost goes out of the window. And I love how, in fairness, I just came across that, maybe just a few years ago. So I want to understand from you even better what do you mean by those focus groups and how even a strategic, you know, high-touch CSM could and should utilize the tools of one too many, let's say, focus groups or other types of events to really bring customers together for everybody's benefit. So it's definitely not a scale tool only. How are you doing?

Speaker 2: 21:55

it Absolutely so at the end of the day, it's about mostly having clarity about what value we can deliver to our customers. So the more we get to know them, the more we get to know their challenges, the more we get to know what the path to a good health for that customer would be. But even in high-tech and strategic accounts we see many of the value drivers are similar to the rest of our client base, independently of the customer segments that they're in. So if we can foster an idea of what good looks like, agnostic of the type of vertical and the type of segment that they're on that they're in, we can then create this sort of connect. So what I love to do is to understand what some of my customers are doing really well and use them as referentives, because I love celebrating wins with my customers, I love celebrating their successes because there's so much work put in and even internally they don't know how much work you know they've been put and what kind of value they deliver to the business. So if we can use them as inspiration and then use this one too many.

Speaker 2: 23:03

So, for example, you know, pulse is our biggest European marketing event where we have all sorts of customers from all sorts of backgrounds coming together and just having either inspiring with their presentations and their talks other customers, or just listening in. They want to learn. It's such a beautiful three-day conference that we have and what I'm trying to do every time is put in touch customers that do something really well with other customers that I'm trying to do and achieve that same results and outcome, and that literally is a one-to-many. Sometimes we do that online. We have them having a webinar where they present what they've done, you know. So what was the challenge, what was implemented and what was the outcome, and that's a one-to-many that most of my enterprise customers would you at use as an inspiration. So it definitely less jobs for me as a CSM, because I don't need to do every time for every enterprise customers a best practice or a workshop about it, because we have good practices already that are taken from real customer stories.

Speaker 2: 24:12

So, even having a roundtable based on personas, you know how important personas are for us. We work with specific profiles in post sales organizations and an executive like a CCOs will have different motivation than a CS director or a CS manager rather than a operations leader. So understanding what they need to do, what they're interested in what kind of challenges they go through on a daily basis and giving them the content and the right spaces on a one-to-one, on a one-to-many platform, even in person or not in person. It's key to really make them feel that they're not the only one going through that issue. Other people have been there and that's how they tackle the problem. But also, if you do achieve a success, let's celebrate it together in our community. So I love it on.

Speaker 1: 25:01

So many different points. I could go on forever. As the leader, I typically encourage my team to do the same. There are just so many benefits. But I have my theory. Even if you're an enterprise or you know the largest customers, in a way, if everything goes well, you don't have to speak with CSM or anybody else. But we still do it because it's a typical part of the cadence right, and being engaged with a CSM only, it's great, right, there are so many benefits for customers. They can learn from you. They can learn about best practices. You know it's great, right, there are so many benefits for customers. They can learn from you. They can learn about best practices. You know it's awesome, right, it's a white glow. It's what we typically call traditional CS management. It's great.

Speaker 1: 25:42

However, everybody learn better in the group, in the social environment.

Speaker 1: 25:48

So when you're creating those opportunities for, let's say, one customer presenting their pain and challenges and solutions to a group of few other customers, they all are extending their network.

Speaker 1: 26:00

They all are learning from each other. They all feel better about the work they are doing because they hear a validation of things that they have done as well, or even challenges that they had, you are automatically increasing or elevating their personal brand and their company, as you're giving them opportunity Straight away. That is leading you to advocacy, because having those, let's say, 10 customers in the same call, you know they are definitely your advocates that you can use for references, for quotes, for case studies, for any other types of advocacy. I would like to encourage everybody listening even if you're an enterprise, even if you have, you know, 10 accounts only or or even a bit more, you can still make those one too many connections and opportunities because, trust me, that is just so beneficial for customers on so many different levels. I think we sometimes I feel CSMs are almost shying away from connecting some of those customers where, at the end of the day, everybody long for even more network, even more connection and even greater learning within the group setting.

Speaker 2: 27:06

Absolutely agree, and you said something that triggered a thought in my mind, which is I know how much is on a CSM plate or a CS anyone plate, because we basically take care of the customer in its entirety, in all its facets, after they engage with us and they decide this could be a partnership. So I know how much is on our plate, but this will make your life a bit easier in the long run. So, for example, if I manage to meet a customer in person or if we create this space where we can all share learnings and challenges, what I love about it is that I not only establish a strong relationship with them but I pick up on, maybe, feedback that I wouldn't have otherwise access to. I pick up in-person events. Definitely there are non-verbal cues, there's language and culture barriers that don't come through the screen. So it's also about proactively creating a space where you can get to know your customer better, hear their feedback and strengthen that relationship so that maybe risk is a bit lower or you will know about the risk sooner rather than later.

Speaker 2: 28:18

And definitely there are opportunities, hopefully, for advocacy out of this, but also best practices. You strengthen the community, you strengthen their, you know their loyalty or the stickiness to the product, because maybe they understand it better after they engage with you. So it's an unconscious training or an unconscious workshop that you're doing with them. So there's a lot of benefits and, if you can, maybe ask internally to the various teams that can help. Sometimes I have teams from the digital team, from the marketing team. They're huge assets to me. I'm not doing this alone. This is also important to mention. Maria, I'm sure you know like you also work with a lot of us in games. It's definitely a team sports internally and it needs some logistics. So it's not going to be easy peasy, but it gives a lot of benefits in return.

Speaker 1: 29:08

Absolutely, and I would say especially to the folks who feel that they have too many accounts in their book of business, which I know it is a case for so many CSMs across the board, thinking about approaches that are one tooto-many can absolutely straighten your overall book of business because you don't have time, let's say, talking to all of those customers. But when you create few opportunities for them to talk to others, the effect of it is probably much better than even if you spoke one-to-one to those people. So it's just a food for thought. Please have a thought about it and try to organize one to a few, even Zoom, sessions. It can be really beneficial. Georgia, I love your creative approaches to driving growth in your book of business. What are your recipes for becoming, or being, more strategic and more entrepreneurial as a CSM? So how do you approach the growth of your book of business?

Speaker 2: 30:07

The first thing that I would say is always having a curious beginner's mindset. Beginner's mindset love it.

Speaker 2: 30:17

A beginner's mindset in the sense that sometimes, you know, I get to know a customer or a new customer in my portfolio and I might you know of, of course, I do some research about them so I might have an idea of what they do and how they do things. But really asking those questions, that might feel stupid on my side, like oh, I should know this, but right now I'm just asking really basic questions, because sometimes nobody's asking those questions. So, really really understanding the business, and not just how big is the team, but even how does the customer flow from the pre-sales to the onboard Some of the teams that I deal with might not have a clear idea what the customer goes through, but then we want to improve the customer journey. So I'm like, okay, there's a bit of a disconnect here. They're really asking basic, simple question to understand the business that we work with, because if we need to speak their language and understand their challenges, we really need to understand what they go through, and not just what the business is going through, but what their customers is going through, because at the end of the day, we need to create value for our customers, which is creating value for their customers.

Speaker 2: 31:28

So that is probably the first one, and then to be more strategic, I think we need to have a bit of a thick skin sometimes because in most occasions we know what's best for the customer, so it's a balance of educating them or asking questions. I think a really good skill that I appreciate so much in amazing CSMs is asking the same questions in 10 different ways. Ooh, that is a good one. We don't speak the same language in terms of understanding things from the same perspective, so if I can ask you a question in different ways, I can get the answer that I need. That it's clear that I understand what your problem is, what the you know reading through the lines. Basically, so definitely asking the questions about strategic challenges, but in different ways and to different people, because we have different pieces of the puzzle to build.

Speaker 1: 32:28

I like how your emphasis the importance of skills of asking questions. It's something that is absolutely necessary for CSMs to practice. I would say you know, if you're a CSM listening, write down questions and I'm sure you are doing it but write down many different questions around the same topic because that can just help you out. You have it always as a toolkit. I always like to say that how Keep on discovering. Every single interaction with customer is almost like a discovery call. You always need to be ready with a set of questions to ask every single time because circumstances change, point of reference from customer changes, so information that you may have three months ago may be different today. So thank you for this, georgia. I love how you are emphasizing on the beginner's mindset.

Speaker 1: 33:21

I think it's incredibly important for CSMs to understand that you don't know it all and you don't have to know it all at all the time. So having that beginner's mindset gives you I mean you need humility for that as well to recognize that you have to constantly keep on learning. So I just really love how you stress it out, because it's absolutely necessary to have those really good relationships with customers and almost going back to basics every single time and then you're building up on that, georgia. This was absolutely wonderful. I am really so happy for you sharing so many tips on being more entrepreneurial, finding different ways of serving customers, finding ways to become more strategic for them. So, as we are wrapping up, I would like to understand from you what advice would you give to customer success professionals, let's say CSMs, who really want to become much better in their work, who want to develop their careers, their knowledge of customer success? What was the thing that worked for you and that you have almost as recipes to share?

Speaker 2: 34:29

I think the first recommendation is to look inside and understand what motivates you, what drives you in your life in general, but definitely in your work. So, as I said before, I I love, I get energy from working with people and not just helping them but actually create a path with them, a partnership path, and delivering. You know being accountable for things that we say we would, um, deliver. So, really understanding what drives you, what are the parts of your jobs that you value a lot, and and double down on those, because it could be that you're so much into technical so you might become a technical success architect. You know that you're just there for stretches of helping customers or anything that really drives you needs to be a big part of your job. So that's one.

Speaker 2: 35:20

And the second one is definitely maybe something we touched upon but haven't explored too much today is not being afraid to suggest examples of what good looks like for that customers if you know that that what good looks like. So really being a bit prescriptive sometimes, because you know you're good, you know you know your customers and you know what's good for them, so why not suggesting it to the customers? We don't have to be afraid, actually want to help them, so sometimes it also needs go in and tell them. I know this is good for you. So really having this valuable conversation, bring it back to the strategic side and if you can go and meet them in person, because it's the best thing, you get so much out of it. As we said, from different perspectives, and if you are like me and like Maria you thrive just being with people it will give a lot of those coins back at the end of the day in your energy basket.

Speaker 1: 36:21

Wonderful recipe, georgia, I just need to say. Just this morning, on my way back from school run, I was listening to one podcast and apparently research shows how highly successful people one of the reasons why they are so successful is that they recognize those strengths and activities that give them so much energy. As you said in your case is dealing with people and they are doubling, doubling, doubling down on those trying to create their work in a way that they would be having as many of those opportunities, because that's what makes them successful. It's just interesting how you say that and like the research is already confirming that, which is absolutely awesome. Thank you for sharing your recipes.

Speaker 1: 37:00

And just one thing I still wanted to mention, based on your awesome advice of sharing, being a bit prescriptive with customers. In a way, that is also the reason why they bought your product, because customers are aware they don't know it all. There is always rooms for improvement and they want to hear best practices for you because they trust you that you know what is best. I always say to CSMs have little customer stories ready for every single call. You should know at least three examples of your customers. What was their pain, what did they do with your product and what was the result, and you can say about it in one minute. It doesn't have to be lots of information, but share those snippets with customers and that's how you can help them as well. Georgia, this was so wonderful. Thank you for sharing your recipes and your ideas for becoming more entrepreneurial and more strategic as a CSM. I feel so energized from this conversation. I hope that the audience will feel that too, and, georgia, what is the best way people can get in touch with you?

Speaker 2: 38:03

Definitely connect with me on LinkedIn, georgia Pedenzini, and we can discuss there. I'm more than happy if you want to reach out, and I'm always happy to be involved in any sort of conversations about CS or not, or career development and being a great CSM or behavior psychology all the above. But, maria, thank you so so much for having me. I had the best time and I also do feel so energized right now. If I get a coffee, I'll probably start running somewhere.

Speaker 1: 38:33

Not a bad idea. Thank you, georgia. Thank you for listening. Next week new episode. Subscribe to the podcast and connect with me on LinkedIn so you're up to date with all the new episodes and the content I'm curating for you. Have a great day and talk to you soon.