Communicating with Customers, the CloudBees Way
Learn more about Mike Youssef, the senior enterprise account executive in California
There are a few common expectations most people have on their first day of work. For some, it means shaking the hands of their new coworkers, or having their boss take them out to lunch.
Not for Mike Youssef, senior enterprise account executive at CloudBees. Having joined the company at the onset of the pandemic, his first day on the job was marked by a lot of virtual hellos – and lunch at home by himself. With so many colleagues working from home and a workforce scattered around the world, Mike knew that connecting with people virtually would be the norm.
But thanks to a slew of new communications tools, Mike has had no trouble staying in close touch with everybody despite the geographic and pandemic hurdles. "One thing that isn’t lacking at CloudBees is communication,” Mike says. "Not just in my group, but in every other team across the company.”
In fact, Mike’s job is all about constantly communicating with people to get customers exactly what they need. "My responsibility is to coach both customers and internal support teams to achieve a successful business outcome,” he says. "This means having conversations with prospects early on and deciding if CloudBees has the right products and services to meet their needs.”
Not surprisingly, working virtually presented challenges for Mike, such as video call fatigue and losing the ability to read people when cameras are turned off. But that hasn’t stopped him from building successful relationships with customers.
For Mike, a successful sale is more than just a simple transaction. "We have to look at this through the lens of services,” he says. "Implementation is critical to a successful outcome for the customer.” Although he says it’s important to understand what the customer needs to buy CloudBees, what’s more important, he says, is “understanding what needs to be done after it’s bought.”
To make everything come together, integrity and trust-building are essential, Mike says. "Because I work with a lot of people, sometimes my job requires me to push back when the right people – stakeholders and decision-makers – aren’t involved. People appreciate it when I call that out because it does end up benefiting everybody.”
Mike’s job also involves assuring customers they’re in the right hands with CloudBees. He says it’s hard for many companies to "hand their baby over” and allow us to come in and change the way they’ve been building software. Other prospects are spread too thin and don’t have the time to explore new approaches. Showing them how CloudBees can save time is an ongoing “exercise in trust,” Mike says.
Mike always returns to the value of good communication. "We need to connect with each other and share our knowledge so that we can really develop the ‘champions’ that help CloudBees evolve,” he says. “This really drives everything I do at CloudBees.”
We are looking for new-bees to join the hive today: https://www.cloudbees.com/careers