Women in Customer Success Podcast

131 - Career Transition: Moving From Sales to Customer Success - Sara Arecco

• Marija Skobe-Pilley • Episode 131

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What's it like to move from sales to customer success? My guest Sara shares her career journey, how she moved from sales to CS, and how she's building strong customer relationships.

Sara Arecco is the head of customer success and experience at Antavo, and a mentor at Women in Customer Success. Sara shares her experiences of moving from sales to customer success, the challenges of transitioning from a peer to a leader, and the importance of collaboration across departments.

We also talk about her approach to building strong relationships with customers and how she fosters a supportive team environment, how she deals with leading a diverse team and imposter syndrome.

In this episode:

  • Sara's career journey
  • Transitioning from sales to customer success
  • Building a customer success team
  • Building relationships with customers
  • Leadership strategies and team dynamics
  • Collaboration across departments for success
  • The importance of customer feedback


Tune in to hear more about Sara's journey and how she approaches the challenges of customer success in a tech company. You’ll also hear about Sara's personal motivations, including maintaining work-life balance with the help of her beloved dog. Lots to take in and be inspired!

Follow Sara!

This episode was brought to you by Vitally.

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Host Marija Skobe-Pilley


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Speaker 1:

This episode is brought to you by Vitaly. Vitaly is bringing in a new era of customer success productivity. With their all-in-one customer success platform, vitaly gives you unmatched visibility into your company's health and success, and now you can measure operational strategies on customer outcomes at scale with goals, directly in Vitaly. Exciting news for all the listeners Vitally are also giving away a free pair of AirPods for all Women in Customer Success podcast listeners when you take a qualified demo with them. If you're in the market looking for a CS platform, make sure you visit vitallyio slash women vitallyio slash women to book your demo and get your AirPods. And now let's get into the episode. Hi, welcome back to the Women in Customer Success podcast. I'm so glad that you're tuning in and listening from week to week and I really appreciate you for that.

Speaker 1:

Today I want to introduce you to Sarah Areco, head of Customer Success at Antavo and recently awarded Top 100 Customer Success Strategist. We talk about Sarah's career journey and something very interesting how does it look like to leave a company, then come back after just a few months to be instantly promoted to manage a team of people who were your peers just until yesterday? Have you been in that situation before? How did you handle it? Sarah has some great recipes for success and I'm sure you're gonna love this episode. Let's get into it. 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. Hello, hello, this is a new episode of Women in Customer Success podcast and it is a wonderful day and privilege to introduce you to Sarah Areco. Sarah, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, Hi everyone.

Speaker 1:

Sarah is a head of customer success at Antavo and also a newly awarded top 100 customer success strategist. Sarah, congrats for that. How do you feel?

Speaker 2:

Thank you. I feel pretty honored, to be honest. There are such great names amongst which yourself, by the way in the list. It's incredible. I am very, very honored.

Speaker 1:

Well done to you and now tell me, what do you think is the reason you're there, like, what is your uniqueness or something that people really recognized about you? Yeah, I know there are many things, but I would like to hear from you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, absolutely. I think from my side is about what work that I'm doing with customers, about hearing them out and making sure that we implement what is relevant for them in terms of initiatives that we run internally, and I'm constantly talking with other leaders in the market about ideas on how to do that. What are we doing? And, yeah, I think it's just. You know, it's just such a great community to express yourself and to exchange ideas, and I think that was what was recognized.

Speaker 1:

I love it Already. You're giving us some great career advice, like speak with other leaders, constantly exchange those ideas and validate what you're doing. But okay, let's take a step back. Not everybody probably know it, but where are you based and where are you from? I work in a way that I have to put things in geographical perspective firstly, and then I can have another conversation. So tell us more about it.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. I am originally from Italy, from Milan, but I am based in Amsterdam for the past three years, but before that I actually lived in Budapest, in Hungary, for another three years.

Speaker 1:

Beautiful, okay, beautiful cultural experience and background. So tell me more about the time, about your studies. So I like to ask the question, you know, would the 16-year-old you be surprised to see you in this current role? Because I also want to understand, like, what were you thinking? You know, what did you want to be when you grew up and then how did that path evolve when you entered universities? Or, you know, you don't need to start the story with the day you were born, but, like around teenage years, I'm really interested. What led you to where you are today? Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

Um, in Italy, you can decide what to study, and I decided to study languages against everyone's advice, although my teacher was not convinced that I could learn English, which is very funny right now Like sorry, guys Mi dispiace, exactly, mi dispiace molto.

Speaker 2:

I did it. So I think, with me living abroad, having a dog, having a husband and working with amazing people that I really enjoy working with every day, she would be jumping up and down. So, which languages did you study English? I did study English, german and Spanish. I was very proficient in Spanish, german. Honestly, I don't think I ever cracked it.

Speaker 1:

Gosh, it's same with me. Like I can say Auf Wiedersehen and I can, you know, see a few other reasons. That's it. But I have to ask you how did you cope in Budapest? Did you learn anything from any Hungarian, like it's one of the most ever difficult languages in the world? Like, how did you cope?

Speaker 2:

Hard. I was fairly hard to integrate, but I've learned some Hungarian keywords. I cannot form a sentence, to be honest. I'm missing all the verbs, so I'm just going with keywords and a lot of hand gestures. Being Italian, that's how I make myself clear, but it was a challenge in the beginning.

Speaker 1:

I can imagine, just before we press the record button, I was telling Sarah how I'm Croatian and I went to Italy as an exchange student. I spent 10 beautiful months in Bologna, but I never learned any Italian previously. I just was learning some Spanish and I thought that I will be telling people a little bit in Spanish. You know, it's so similar. Of course they will understand. And it ended up no one wanted to talk to me at all, either in Spanish. They would all respond only in Italian. No one wanted to talk to me in English and I was just like, oh my gosh, I actually have to learn it. And I remember one day I just took a book about Lang Lang, you know the famous pianist in Italian and I started reading it and I thought like, okay, I understand something. But yeah, kudos to you for living in Hungary and kind of getting through all of it with some keywords. But I'm not going to disturb you more from telling us a story. You were studying languages.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I was studying languages, and then my parents were sending me abroad every year for a couple of weeks, for a month, to study English or Spanish. They never bothered to watch me German because they realized that it was not the case. It was not my language. And that's funny, because I actually learned really English when I was in Spain, because I was the only Italian surrounded by Swedish and Finnish people, and so my six-year-old self would be jumping up and down. She wouldn't believe it. She wouldn't believe it just because it's coming from me, but otherwise she would not believe me.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's hilarious and so awesome, so awesome how life takes you in very unpredicted and different directions, and I'm so glad that it took you in a different direction that maybe your teacher taught for you, so you studied languages and then how did you end up? In customer experience and in tech world? It's not always such a smooth transition from just languages, which is awesome.

Speaker 2:

That makes sense. I studied political sciences at university and then made my way to business, and that's when I started to develop a little more interest for tech. And one of my professors at university she was the founder of Heron Tech Startup, and I was very interested in that. That's something that I could want to do, maybe. So I started getting a little bit more knowledge in the world of tech and ultimately I moved to Budapest right after university to start a career in sales Sales, oh lovely. How was that.

Speaker 2:

Well, great, I'm still working at the same company, so I think it was great.

Speaker 1:

Obviously, I moved roles from sales to customer success, but you know it changed a lot from cold calling and cold emailing, so it's good to assume that you have been actually in one company for a pretty long time, or not that long, but from the university and you changed the roles within it. So tell us more about this journey. Firstly, also about a company like just give us a little bit of a context. How big is the company, what do you do? And then what were those opportunities for you to move around? I really always like to understand how people move in their careers. Is it something that you know? Opportunity is just there, you jump into it, or you're creating for yourself, or you are somebody recognizes that you are so good in this particular thing, and then they say this other role is better for you. But instead of me talking, you tell us your story about moving throughout one and just progressing so nicely in your career in one single company. And just progressing so nicely in your career within one single company Makes sense.

Speaker 2:

Antalya is a MarTech company that produces ledger programs for retailers out there. We are about 100 employees now, but when I joined we were 30. So it was very much startup phase, which I loved. I love startup phase. I think you can bring so much to the table and just really see everything that you do have an impact, and I personally really, really love that. And I started as an SDR, made my way into account executive position because I was reaching quota very easy, very simple, very straightforward and then, honestly, I decided to change my job. For five months you went to another company.

Speaker 1:

Yes, hey, how was that Actually? I really wonder when you go out and then you realize, oh, the grass is not always greener and then you're entering back your company. I don't think I actually interviewed anyone on podcast who has done that, so that's like a unique thing as well, a little bit different. Tell us, how did it go and what are the maybe different things you do the second time? I don't know. Wonder, what was your experience?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, when I changed, I changed because I wanted a faster sales process and so I thought that more corporate environment with more structure and more you know, established products in the market would do it for me. That was absolutely not the case. That actually produced the exact opposite result and made me realize that, because I was an account manager result and made me realize that because I was an account manager so I was in post sales but still upselling all the time I realized that I really did enjoy having those relationships with the customers. And that's when I wanted to move to customer success.

Speaker 2:

And coming back to my old company, I basically I always had a very amazing relationship with my previous manager, so I called him and in a very awkward way, I said, hey, hi, tell me more, by the way, I'm thinking about changing jobs. And I didn't even have to say anything, which made me very grateful to him. He said, oh sure, come back. Oh, wow, that's so nice. Yeah, so no for me. I was very I think I was lucky. I was the right person at the right time. I had worked with him before and he made the transition from VP of sales to chief customer officer, so it was literally right person at the right time, I think in that sense so that was basically your path into customer success.

Speaker 1:

So as you came back into the company, you were a CSM right and then you progressed after only again a few short months.

Speaker 2:

That's correct. After a few months I was promoted to head the team. I think what was the real reason for that is I brought a fresh approach to customer success. Customer success in our company didn't have a lot of space before and it was managed by C-levels, which meant that the CSMs had basically very small guidance and didn't have a lot of processes documented down. And I do love MS because I get to tidy it up. So for me it's a privilege to tidy things up and I came from a sales perspective, especially on Radio Walls, and I just tackled that one specifically. And I think I had also some communication skills that were a little bit more customer-friendly and that brought me ultimately to get my promotion. They were looking for somebody they were looking to hire externally, but again after a few months they decided to promote me.

Speaker 1:

Which is perfect and looks like they're pretty happy with that decision. You have been on that position for what? Around two and a half years already, as a head of customer success, Exactly Okay. So Antabo is a company of around up to 200 employees, right? 100. 100. Okay, so it is a nice, decent size, small company.

Speaker 2:

And how many nice decent size, small company, and how many like what's the size of customer success team? Yeah, right now I have six people with me. We are six, but one of them is actually a customer experience manager, so we're not all in customer success pure customer success but one is in the customer experience, which for us means that she overlooks customer newsletter, but also any surveys that go out, and she does all the customer data analytics part. That is really great and that ultimately drives customer experience.

Speaker 1:

So you transitioned from a CSM to lead a team of CSMs. Were there any other CSMs alongside you? Yes, Okay. So I'm very interested in that approach. That has been also, you know, one of our teams on our recent masterminds. It's all about like different parts into leadership. So I wonder for the listeners, what are some of the tips that you would give them when you're transitioning from an individual contributor to a leader of that team and now you know it's overnight. One day you are peers, the next day you are their manager. How do you set the ground rules and how do you even establish yourself and your leadership style? Because, like you, all have been just peers until yesterday it's not always easy. What worked for you?

Speaker 2:

I think what worked for me was, first of all, the announcement was done separately on a team level before going public to the rest of the company. So the CCO came into one of our team meetings and announced that I was going to be the new manager and there was silence, which was great. Like what now? Love the silence. But ultimately I prepared a quick presentation on how we were going to work together, that I was going to schedule one-on-ones with everyone and that really I understand that it's difficult and if they have any questions they could talk with me or with our CCR.

Speaker 2:

Why did Sarah get promoted and not me? Maybe let's not discuss that with me. That's also fair. I understand that point of view, especially because people were there for a couple of years and I had been there just for a few months. But at the same time I think what I usually try very hard to make everybody feel comfortable and cheering and that ultimately helped. And it was one of my main satisfactions to have one of our team members that now she's on maternity leave. She was with me when I was promoted and she is now my most brilliant star in the whole team and I'm very happy because she developed a lot since I took over.

Speaker 1:

I'm so interested in those moments. So you'll be with a company again, okay, for five, six months, and then others have been there longer, and then the CCO comes and tells everybody oh, sarah is now a new head of CS. Do you know of some people in the team that really wanted that position? Was there anyone who was vocal about it that you needed to? You know, sort out those situations.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think there were some unhappy people, but at the same time just more like a surprise, because they knew that they were not going to be selected to be the team leaders, but they thought that we were hiring externally. So that was the last update that the team got. So definitely there were some of those conversations, especially because the levels of performance of everybody was different, so we also had to address that. Interesting.

Speaker 1:

OK, I really wanted to clear that air, just because it's not always easy and very often people are in a situation where you simply have to deal with everybody else who wanted your job but they didn't get it, and I'm really so happy to hear how kind of the tenure had nothing to do with all of this together, as you said, some people have been there longer, so what you know what is the impact that they actually had on the organization. So it's great that you have been recognized and promoted, so for everybody sorry, go ahead.

Speaker 2:

I think this is one of you know, this is where my imposter syndrome comes out a little bit more of like. I'm so young and all of my team members are older and I was promoted etc. So but you know, I think it's, I think it's. Ultimately we're a very meritocratic company and everybody has their space to grow and that's that's really important. That's why I'm staying here so long.

Speaker 1:

Oh gosh, something struck me now. You are so young and you are, which is amazing but everybody else are older than you. Oh my gosh, how, what a privilege is that? Mm-hmm, because, firstly, not only is it about the tenure and the experience, it is about the skills and the ambition and the attitude and the mindset. All of it together makes a great leader. But it's really good to put it in the context. So what are some of your tools at the moment when it comes to managing people, people that, well, essentially, have more life experience than you. Many of them have more work experience and business experience than you. So how do you like, what do you do, to make sure that they feel supported and cared for and challenged, and that you feel supported and challenged, but like, how is the dynamics now?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's an interesting question. We almost have a very we have a very different team from when I started, to be honest. So I think ultimately, in the long run, that helped. But also I think I'm leaving them all the space to you know, do their own things and show their expertise, and I'm there just to catch them. That's how I usually phrase it to them. I'm here to catch you if you fall or if you need anything, and give you a boost when you need it, and even do things for you, like the presentation if you're late, whatever, it doesn't matter. I think that's the collaboration. We have a very strong team spirit because we are all 30-something. Even if I'm the youngest, we're all 30-something and I think that helps. We have all a shared background, even if we are all from different cultures. There is no two people from the same country in our team.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's amazing. That's amazing. I love that. Multicultural teams Interesting.

Speaker 1:

You said something because it reminded me of a long time ago when I used to report to a person who was I don't know how much younger than me, and I guess that was like the first time when it happened to me, because I was also typically, you know, you feel you are or you feel you are younger, and I remember how many times I was like impressed by her and how many times I thought, oh, this is good, Like this is good, this is a good skill to have.

Speaker 1:

Or she challenged me. There were also some times which is interesting when I look back when I felt you know, why is she telling me that, Like you know, I kind of know it just lets me do the work. So I love when you are talking about your leadership, as like I'm here to catch you if you fall, because, like I trust you so much that you're doing a good job, I'm just here to you know, move those obstacles and catch. I generally feel that's like the best approach for the team to allow them to really trust them and allow them to develop the most that they can, and they can do it only when they are in a good environment where they are allowed to do what they feel is the right thing.

Speaker 2:

Exactly and ultimately, you know, I think what really matters is the way people think, and it often happens that I am the youngest person in the room, but at the same time, I know I can hold my ground and it's important to remember that. And it's about how people think. It's not about age, ultimately, and how many connections you can make and how many different perspectives can you adopt and how quickly. So I think that's a secret.

Speaker 1:

That's a secret and I want to hear more of your recipes for success or recipes for head of customer success. What is unique about your approach, your leadership approach or your approach towards customers Like? What is it that makes you being on the top?

Speaker 2:

I think I said this a bunch of times by now, but I try to be friendly with literally every person that I meet and because we work with enterprise businesses, we have a very high touchtouch customer success team, which means that we also have very personal relationships with all of our customers and I really want to hear them. What we do with customers is really try to hear them as much as possible. We put together most of the customer structures that are very unique to our company. Really, we've put together surveys. We've just launched our first company event with EMEA customers to really make sure that we listen to them, we close that feedback loop and implement what they need.

Speaker 1:

What is the role of some of your peers and other departmental leaders in your success.

Speaker 2:

I think you know. For me, collaboration is fundamental because we have a very complex product. It's not just plug and play and onboarding takes three weeks. I wish it's not. It's very complex. We all really need each other and it's really important that we collaborate with each other. We all listen to the customers and find strategies together to move forward. And I know it's a little bit of a cliche right now in customer success to say this, but it is the company's success and every time I'm talking with all hands meeting, et cetera, I make sure that I'm always stressing that, because if customers are happy, it's also the merit. Also goes to engineering. It goes also to the product team because we're implementing the right features. It goes to support, because there is all the tickets on time, et cetera, et cetera. So we're all part of the same game really.

Speaker 1:

I love this approach and I would also say that when I was a CSM for a product that was the most complex, I feel that that was my best customer success team ever, because you are aware that you have to rely on everybody else so much and it's awesome, and you don't want to, I mean, even if you have to rely on everybody else so much, and it's awesome and you don't want to, I mean, even if you want to, you can't just be the only hero for the customer.

Speaker 1:

It is such a huge strength when you are introducing all of those other teams and departments to your customers and they know who they are and they know they can rely upon all of them. They feel so much closer to you as a company when they have access to those different departments rather than only a CSM. So I really love how you're emphasizing the importance of really collaborating with other teams and having that narrative that it is really a company of success, the success of a company of all of us and that's the only way that the customers could be successful as well. I love that Absolutely.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, which is why it's important also for other teams to interact one-on-one with customers, because you know, it also has a different impact on other teams If Sarah keeps on saying we need to do this, we need to do, saying we need to do this, we need to do this, we need to do this, where if a customer says it it has complete different impact and then we can collaborate more towards a solution. Because again, it's not me, I swear. I'm just repeating what customers are saying.

Speaker 1:

Well, you are truly the voice of your customers internally and that's actually such a good strategy that you said Just put other teams so much more in front of the customers because they will keep on hearing the same same same thing and you know what. It's such a different accountability when you're in front of customers and need to respond to them than only in front of head of CS, like it's I can see you nodding, like that is such a big. It's much bigger responsibilities than other teams are having in those situations. So it's always great to put other teams in front of customers rather than wanting to be that only you know, only thread or only hero for customers.

Speaker 2:

Exactly. I 100% agree. It's fundamental, which is why the way we run voice with the customer is with surveys. After every call for us, it's the CSM, or the person that interacts with the customer, that fills in a survey that reports what the customer said and then we categorize. If it's about product communication, what is it about? And one of the best achievements that I had last year was that before we only had customer success managers really doing the entries, but this year we see people from sales, we see people from product, we see people from professional services. That makes me just so happy.

Speaker 1:

Well done, Sarah. Why do you get up in the morning? What keeps you working? Okay, maybe that's not a proper question. You get up for so many different reasons, Like what makes you still always motivated at work, Like end of the day, what would mean that it was such a good day for you? What has to happen?

Speaker 2:

I think I drive most of my energy from people, so it's absolutely exhausting. Are you an extrovert? Yes, back-to-back calls. All day is so exhausting. But it does give me so much energy and especially when I'm talking with customers and I see the impact of the initiatives that we're driving on them and they are thankful. And they are grateful. That's great. When we did the event, I received flowers from customers at my apartment. So sweet, the best thing that ever happened.

Speaker 1:

That is awesome. Somebody actually sent you flowers to your apartment. Yes, somebody actually has access to your address. Sarah, I did give them my address.

Speaker 2:

I was expecting something. They asked me we want to send you a. My address. I was expecting something. They asked me we want to send you a present. But I was still surprised.

Speaker 1:

Nice, oh my gosh, that is beautiful. Sarah. As you said, it's exhausting when you speak with people the whole day. What do you do to relax after work?

Speaker 2:

I have a dog and he requires a lot of walks. Yes, exactly no, I like walking and he's very, he's, very active. So we go all around amsterdam and try to get some energy out. Um, we listen to music and when we are lucky enough and it's summertime and we go back to Italy for a month, we go on hikes, which is my favorite thing. I miss the mountains so much living in the Netherlands.

Speaker 1:

Well, were you going more around Lake Como and that area just above Milan or anywhere? I mean, there are so many mountains there for you to walk. Yeah, so many mountains.

Speaker 2:

Near Bergamo because my grandparents had a place there when I was growing up, so I was there every summer and also on the weekends sometime, and now my parents just got a place, so we've been there for the summer.

Speaker 1:

Oh my gosh, it's like the best possible place being in the south of Alps. Oh my gosh, lucky you. I take my kids there as well, especially when we are traveling through Europe. Oh my gosh, that is awesome, Sarah. Thank you so much for joining me today. I really enjoyed our conversation and learning about your recipes for success and as we are wrapping up, I'm thinking which of the questions I want to find out from you? Let's go with this one what is there that people would find really surprising about you, or that would surprise people to find out about you?

Speaker 2:

I have a secret Despite being Italian, I have never been to Rome. Oh my gosh, even I have been to Rome.

Speaker 1:

I have never been to Rome.

Speaker 2:

Oh my gosh, even I have been to Rome. Everybody's been to Rome and to my own capital city. I have absolutely never been and I don't like espresso.

Speaker 1:

Okay, that's fine, I'm there with you, that's fine. Which coffee do you drink? Do you drink coffee Latte?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I do. I usually go for lattes. There are I don't know, especially here in Amsterdam, because it's always cold. There is so much better to get just a latte and it's longer, warmer.

Speaker 1:

Yeah latte is my drink, especially oat latte, but like never espresso. I could never have a sip of espresso in my life. It's like the most disgusting thing ever. I agree, I'm so glad that we can baseline something Okay Espresso is a no, latte is a yes. Sarah, this was wonderful. Thank you so much for joining me on the show. Thank you so much.

Speaker 2:

Maria Bye-bye.

Speaker 1:

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.