One size fits none | Danny Luu | Ep. 81

[Rob] (0:00 - 0:11)

I think that's brought a lot of wisdom, where this might be your first time in CS, but it's really your first time. I remember my first time. My intro was not 46 seconds.

Anyway, so...

[JP] (0:11 - 0:15)

He can't help himself. He can't help himself. They think it's me!

[Dillon] (0:22 - 0:33)

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 here. Rob, you want to say hi?

[Rob] (0:35 - 0:35)

Hello, Lifers.

[Dillon] (0:36 - 0:41)

From the ruins. From the ruins.

And we've got JP here. JP, you want to say hi?

[JP] (0:42 - 0:45)

From the home of the Bruins. JP, what's up, baby?

[Dillon] (0:46 - 0:50)

From the home of JP. And we've got Danny here. Danny, you want to say hi?

[Danny] (0:51 - 0:53)

How's it going, everyone? Bay Area represent.

[JP] (0:54 - 0:55)

Oh, oh, oh, oh.

[Dillon] (0:55 - 1:05)

Bay Area represent. I love it. And I am your host.

My name is Dillon. I'm struggling. Danny, thank you so much for being here.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

[Danny] (1:06 - 1:51)

Yeah. First off, thanks for having me, guys. Sorry to be here.

A little bit about myself, and I'll promise I'll make this less than a minute. I started off my career at Wells Fargo back in 2011, and then eventually in 2019, I hit a plateau where I felt like banking wasn't really as fun and as challenging for me. And on top of that, I was tired of commuting.

One of my best friends at that time, he recommended me to join the tech world. Applied a few times, and eventually, I landed my first SDR job at a company in Santa Clara, California. And then since then, I've been in the tech space.

So I've been in SDR. I did marketing. And then most recently right now, I'm a first-time TSM. So I'm learning a lot of things and taking everything I learned from Wells Fargo and then just really propelling in my career right now.

[Dillon] (1:53 - 1:56)

So that was less than a minute. I'm glad you stayed true to your word.

[Rob] (1:56 - 1:58)

It was 46 seconds, but who was counting?

[Dillon] (1:58 - 2:36)

Exactly. Rob was. Geez.

Stickler. Stickler for the rules here. Danny, what I think is interesting is, you've got an interesting background.

So you know how people do the like X Slack or X Microsoft. Yours is X Wells Fargo. And the one you didn't mention is X Catalyst.

Really this interesting dichotomy here of two different worlds colliding. Anyway, Danny, thank you so much for being here, for sharing your expertise. You know what we do here?

We ask one simple question of each of our guests, and that is, what is on your mind when it comes to customer success? So why don't you tell us what that is?

[Danny] (2:37 - 4:45)

Yeah, definitely. So one of the things that's been on my mind recently and even to this day is CS is actually a really tough role versus, especially in like the tech or B2B or D2C space, it's actually tougher than managing like a book of business at Wells Fargo. And the reason why I said that is because when I was at Wells Fargo, I did not use LinkedIn.

So everything that I've learned was all from my colleagues and just being in the office, right? But now most of my customers are active on LinkedIn too. And then on top of that, there is a lot of great CS leaders who post a lot of good content.

Every day I'm always learning something. But one of the things that I realized is that not every playbook or every advice will work in your company. Like, for example, right now, right, the company I work for, I appreciate you, Dillon.

You can't use like a, for example, HubSpot playbook to like a 30 employee size company. But one of the things I know that anyone can do, especially for myself, is that you can consume it and then try to make it your own. And just like sales or like any other like role, right?

CS is not like a one person show. Like I heavily depend, well not really depend, but I heavily work closely with my solution architect. He's knowledgeable.

And at the same time, I'm like, how do I really be that knowledgeable like him? Because there are times when like I'm on customer calls and they're asking me like a very technical question and the conversation is going well, but I don't want to be like, oh Dillon, I actually don't know the answer. I still see it every now and then, but like I really try to understand like the product and how I'm solving their problems every single day by reading articles and like just talking to our product team to really see how do I really articulate this in a better way for them to understand without me being, oh, this is my solution architect.

So that's one thing that like I've, that's been on my mind lately. One, not every CS playbook is a one size fit all. You can consume it at the same time.

Now, how do you really take the like little bits of it and make it your own?

[Dillon] (4:47 - 5:40)

So it's one thing for me and Rob to say that over and over and over again, and JP too. It's really interesting to hear that from a first time CSM. Really, if I'm feeling selfish, it's a bit validating to hear that.

If I could give you one piece of advice, you didn't ask for it totally unsolicited. So if you tell me to kick rocks, totally cool. It's okay to say you don't know the answer.

As long as that's the last time you say it and you go and figure it out specific to that topic, right? I think that level of transparency engenders a lot of goodwill from customers versus trying to tap dance around it. They read right through that.

Or you give them the wrong answer and they go and act on that. That's a big no, no. But saying, yeah, I've never encountered that before.

Let me figure it out for you. JP, tell me how you think my advice was wrong since you're laughing at me.

[JP] (5:41 - 6:31)

No, no, I think it was good. And Danny, welcome to the CSM party. I think what Joe said was pretty validating in terms of, yeah, the one size fit all doesn't work.

And I think that's why there can be a lot of confusion on the platforms like LinkedIn, where people are like, I don't understand these businesses, these things function very differently. I think that there can be some things like if you're like SMB or commercial or enterprise, sometimes you can find some advice that works along those sort of lines. And sometimes it can work by industry.

But I think what you said was perfect. You have to learn to digest what you can and use it in a way that makes sense. But I know that Rob does consulting for a living.

[Rob] (6:33 - 8:00)

Yeah, no, Danny, I got to say there's wisdom beyond your years in CS because what's really cool and unique about your background is I don't know pretty much anybody. I can think of one person off the top of my head who's spanned those three departments, marketing, sales, CS. And my hat's off to you for making those transitions.

I think that's brought a lot of wisdom, right? This might be your first time in CS, but it's really your first time. I remember my first time.

I'm just saying my first time in building a play button. I'm just saying. But anyway, the reason I've been thinking about this a lot lately is because it's been upsetting me and JP and Dillon know also it's been upsetting me so much when I go on LinkedIn and I see this all this absolutist advice that you have to be doing things this way, you have to be that way.

And I've been working and I'm also realizing I'm working on a template gallery for my consulting business. And it's 40, 50 templates for like how to run kickoff calls, how to run renewals, how to run QBRs, all this other stuff. And the thing that's in the back of my mind is I know all the reasons why these playbooks are wrong in so many situations.

So there is value in having those templates, but it's just the real value of the adaptation to the specific situations. And I think that's probably a similar thing that you saw in those other domains and sales and marketing and whatever other areas of SaaS that you've been in before.

[Danny] (8:01 - 8:51)

Yeah, one thing that I also like to add to is that I've been pretty fortunate enough to be able to be in the SDRC. So I went from pre-sales to post-sales. And then on top of that, when I was at SDR in marketing, I really had to get better at team collaboration.

Because for me, I consider myself as an intro, even if I'm working remote. But sometimes I feel bad for asking for help to my other colleagues. But one thing that I remind myself every single day is that, hey, all of us are working towards the same goal.

And it's okay for me to ask questions as long as I'm not asking the same repeat questions. So anytime I ask a new question and I get the answer, I'm going to put it under my CRM or my notes list. That way, next time that question comes out again, I don't ask the same question where I will lose credibility to my colleagues.

So that's been super helpful for me, too.

[Dillon] (8:54 - 9:18)

Right on, man. I was going to ask you what your number one tip is, but you did it for me. So that's awesome.

That is our time. But thanks so much for being here. This is an awesome perspective.

It's not one we get a ton of. And I love that you played to Rob's and my heartstrings. Kudos for that.

We'll send you some swag in the mail. Danny, we've got to go for now, but we'd love to have you back in the future. Until then, we'll talk to you soon.

[Danny] (9:18 - 9:21)

Appreciate y'all. Thank you so much again for having me on, guys. Cheers.

[Voiceover] (9:25 - 9:56)

You've been listening to The Daily Standup by Lifetime Value. Please note that the views expressed in these conversations are attributed only to those individuals on this recording and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of their respective employers. For all inquiries, please reach out via email to Dillon at lifetime value media dot com.

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