Kumbaya | Kristi Faltorusso | TDSU Ep. 50

(0:00 - 11:21)

I haven't had time with JP in forever To see him right now. This is like i'm in although his personality is bigger than mine. So it's a little tough Well, you're not really giving him any oxygen right now.

That's the thing you just smother him right from the get-go Kristi That's what I do. I smother them and I just wait until no one can breathe team black, baby All right, all right, all right cool cool cool Yeah, well you got all the beats look at you man All right. Hey, man, don't tell my business man.

Don't tell my business. Come on They ain't paying me yet well, if it was like The amazon brand I wouldn't air you out, but you got the good don't say their name. Even no No, nobody must be paying this man.

Come on I like that. I like this attitude All about his money. All right, you guys ready? Let's do it What's up lifers and welcome to The Daily Standup with Lifetime Value where we're giving you fresh new Maybe a little irritated customer success ideas every single day i've got My man incognito JP JP.

Do you want to say hi? team black baby And we've got rob rob. Do you want to say hi? How you doing lifers? How you doing and we've got Kristi Kristi. Do you want to say hi? I do want to say hi Does that count? Did I say it? I know.

Oh, hi And I'm your host my name is Dillon Young Kristi like we even need it can you introduce yourself, please award-winning customer success executive currently chief customer officer at client success You are brief enough, was that good? No, well, so and I want to give you your flowers You're on a couple of podcasts, too. Do you want to call those out? Okay. Okay Yes, we had two podcasts cs and bs with Jon Johnson and josh schachter And then I also have my own podcast.

She's So Suite where I get to interview c-level women, uh in tech Which has been a lot of fun Cool. All right Love it Kristi. You know what we're doing here.

We're asking you one simple question What is on your mind when it comes to customer success so hit us with it Collaboration with sales Okay, like as much as I feel like we're getting like centimeters closer to this not feeling like a Broken home divorce and i'm like the child in this custody. I mean it is like brutal. I can't figure it out I don't know what it is That just doesn't feel good despite everything right roles and responsibilities alignment on objectives pay everybody It still feels like this Tension that like it's got me in a choke hold.

Am I the only one? no, I would guess it's because No matter what you do to define it. It's Two children vying for the love of one parent, which is the cro typically I mean in your case cco maybe but it's Even if they both get paid Then it becomes a competition of who's doing more who's responsible for more revenue, that's my assumption yeah, I don't i'm not even gonna go as far as making assumptions because I know every org has got a different setup here and Everyone's getting paid differently and some people aren't getting paid at all But I will say even just the personalities, right? What I don't know. It's not even just the the companies It's like the people like cs and sales and I know even the teams that want to pretend like they are all buddy buddy They're not somebody's not sleeping at night.

Someone hates somebody Someone's talking to slack right now About the salesperson that they're working with and how frustrating it is and how the last customer that they got Wasn't a good fit. They don't know what their goals are. No one did discovery They didn't show up to my sales handoff like there's stuff there's stuff What's up, guys? It's Dillon here and you know why i'm here hat in hand I got a favor to ask of you If you like what we're doing Give us a like on whatever platform that you find us on and if you want to know when we're dropping new stuff Give us a follow give us a subscribe and maybe best of all You want to give us some feedback drop a comment and let us know what you like What you don't like or how we can get better.

We want to make sure we're giving the best content We can to you and others within the community. Thanks so much guys. I'll let you get back to the show So speaking of personalities, why don't we give it over to? Wesley snipes, maybe is that what we should be calling you? Hey team black, I like it.

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you.

Let's be clear. Hold on. I just want to clarify Don't do it.

Don't do it. Just let me go. This is in no way racially driven I just well, but look hey for anybody who's not on a visual medium.

Let's just be clear Okay, you know what I was I was wrong because yes, there are some people who cannot see us so yes Uh, Kristi is famous for wearing black Yes, I only wear black. I love that JP came to represent team black. Love it.

We don't do color. We just show up We are all shades. We're just shades.

We don't do colors. We just do shades. Okay, perfect.

All right gray white. Yes Wesley snipes hit us. Oh, but does it all the show good? Um so I have relationship with the sales Yeah, okay, you're lying because because I talked to them I talked to them we sync up we chat we talk I'll ask them how the weekend's going ask them about that.

Look. I don't know about how everyone does but look i'm gonna tell you Something right now JP Likes money JP likes nice things guess who also likes money and nice thing Sales so are you talking to them we figure out hey who wants to take the lead on what i'm always happy to Fall back, whatever we got to do. We'll figure it out.

Now the caveat is the way I'm still early where I am So the compensation Is not an issue right now So i'll give a caveat Yeah, but it's all good baby baby where i'm at so This is gonna be my question for you. JP is have you had a deal? Hit the skids yet or have you started you're never supposed to do this But you've got a customer who says yo, I want to buy this thing and maybe it'll 3x Your revenue like something ridiculous, right? You would get a big payout for that and you get on amazon you get on your whatever your fragrance marketplace of choices And you're already counting your money before you get that commission check and then the salesperson F**ks it the f**k up Would you have the same level of relationship with your salespeople then? um JP hasn't lived enough life. He hasn't lived enough life.

Probably not. Yeah, exactly. I'm baby I love the attitude.

Can I just say like your approach though is the right one, right? Let's all humanize each other I think when you have a common like a common ground that you're all coming from The alignment is it does feel better, right? Like you are true partners And so I do think that you're approaching it the right way And I think that there are a lot of people out there that that are and that genuinely want to partner well And I feel like organizations almost by design create Friction between these two teams like they're at odds and I don't think it's the people I think it's the companies right like if you've got competing objectives Yes, right like how are we both supposed to win? Well, so what I'm doing on the head there. Yeah And I want to give rob an opportunity here, but what I think is illuminating is somebody in your position Saying that christie. I think a lot of times you're literally pointing fingers at me.

It's not me No, no, no What I mean is at the c level the higher up the ladder because the higher you go typically they're like, oh no It's all good. It's just have you tried working like Have you tried humanizing your partners and blah blah blah so to hear it from somebody at your level like To take the the rose-colored glasses off is interesting to me. But rob, I want to give you a chance to jump in here You know JPu almost for a second there Had me inspired and forgetting reality That was fun And then I crash landed back down to earth.

I so I obviously relate to this problem We all do everybody listening to this definitely does whichever side you're on too also the product relations to same thing and and that actually made me think of another example where there was actually one time with uh, a sales team that I was like so close to Calling my uncle from staten island to go chase after somebody. I don't actually have one but you get the idea And eventually what I actually did instead I bought breakfast tacos on company budget. I bought breakfast tacos for the whole sales team And it felt like the most counterintuitive thing I could ever do.

This is good. Probably sounds crazy I can see you guys are looking at me like i'm crazy But I was like if I challenge myself in this time where I'm most pissed to Treat this company like they're gold and then give myself this Opportunity this alley-oop to deliver feedback Then I can do that. So i've Like you guys like i've got my frameworks my methodologies.

I've got like my 11 steps to a sales handoff and my seven different models of how to divvy up expansion Responsibilities and whatever but none of that really matters if you don't have good feedback mechanisms between the teams And so that's actually something that i've now incorporated with all the companies that I work with New employee onboarding we go through a training on how to deliver feedback To your co-workers and other departments and it doesn't always work But at least it creates like from day one it creates a scenario where people feel Comfortable and they feel like they have a common method and a common language to deliver feedback to each other. That's not Chatter and slack and it's not Bulls---ting over a happy hour about the other team and that kind of thing. So it doesn't always work.

But at least it helps Kristi any last thoughts before we wrap it up? It's not all doom and gloom. I know i'm just you told me to come in with something that was painful and top of mind Uh, but it's bigger than that, right rob said it's bigger than process It is about a lot of other things and so I guess i'll leave it on the point that like It's not really as horrible. I've described it but today it feels it It's hard, but it's doable.

Well, I appreciate that Kristi. Thanks so much. That's our time Love having you here.

Of course anytime we can hear your voice. It's always appreciated. Please come back soon But until then we've got to say goodbye Bye guys 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.com Find us on youtube at Lifetime Value and find us on the socials at Lifetime Value media until next time