Ep 86 | Konstantin Kleemann

Speaker A: Foreign.

Speaker B: Welcome to Mastering CS Candy Leader Insights, the podcast where we dive into the world of customer success within the three leaders. I'm your host Irina Chismash and today I'm joined by Konstantin Pleman, senior customer success manager at uh ESAPE Tolia, a working capital platform that helps companies pay suppliers faster while freeing up cash.

Speaker A: Constantine, thank you for having us. Having me.

Speaker B: Thank you, thank you for joining. Before we dive in, you came in from the banking world after years at uh UniCredit. Now you are a senior uh CSM. Paint us a picture of your day to day. Who are your customers and what does the work actually look like?

Speaker A: Yeah, sure, yeah. So as a customer success manager here at SAP Taglia, it's a very, I would say a very crucial role for internal and external processes. At the end uh, we are right there from the start. So once a client signs with us with our sales team we are uh essentially one of the first. The program is being handed over to. It can be different solutions. As you mentioned most of our solutions are based on, based on or focused on working capital free up, uh working capital optimization. So we have the supply chain finance dynamic discounting which is where the customer uses his own cash to support his customers. But we also have uh, receivable finance so factoring some color factoring as well. But yeah so we, we are right there from the start. We get to know the customer from the implementation phase and then post implementation and kind of the rollout of the program and then I have some customers I've had as a bank in my banking relationship and I took over when I moved to SAP Taolia. But yeah through the whole life cycle I'm essentially then in charge and working with my customers. So the relationship gets very strong on a day to day basis. From our part we are bridged between essentially our internal teams and the customer. So from my end I work internally with our financial operations team, technical support team when it comes to the implementation. Right at the beginning it's our technical consultants and the project manager. So we work very closely with those teams uh to make sure that the uh strategy the client has in mind and the uh essentially the goals, the KPIs that he has envisioned when signing with us that they are essentially met in the future. So we roll out the strategy in the beginning we define processes, we make sure that the technical integration aligns with the business objectives which is one of the uh, I would say crucial and most hardest part sometimes because technical integration and business doesn't always align. But this is the Part where we early on really dive in with our customers. So this is the implementation phase. Once a program is live, our day to day is very much making sure that the program is smooth, the client is engaged, we are there for escalations and so on. That is one of the parts we look at what is driving the value of the program and then how can we access further essentially expansion opportunities for the client if we, how do we reach essentially a certain working capital goal? Is it via uh, yeah, I would say term extensions by the customer with the client and that's with the suppliers. I think this is where our supply chain finance program, supply chain finance and discount is a crucial part because it strengthens at one part, it strengthens the relationship between supplier and buyer. But uh, it also helps the treasury team unlock working capital and for procurement on the buyer side, it's a vital tool in their pockets to have a better negotiation with their suppliers. So yeah, it's core focus I would say is that strategic uh, environment for the customer, but then also working with both parts on the internal end and on the customer side. I think that's the difference you mentioned before. That's the difference between a customer success manager, Talia maybe and maybe other customer success managers. I, on a daily basis I work on a customer side with procurement, with treasury, with the finance team, with the IT team. So while my IT knowledge is far from perfect, I do have to have a good understanding of who do I need to reach out to internally, which people do I need to integrate into certain process flows to then get the, let's say get the job done and deliver the value to the customer.

Speaker B: And help me understand in that setup most of your time is in discussions, in understanding, in negotiations, in calibrations, uh, in report building, in where how does a day in your life look like?

Speaker A: Yeah, so when the, once the program is live it's yeah, we need to essentially track and monitor where the program is going. So when it comes to working capital free, which suppliers can we engage for the program? So we work with the client, with the procurement team on how does your supplier relationship look like? How strong are you engaged with your suppliers? How can we engage with your suppliers in the best way possible? It varies from customer to customer. So their we essentially. It takes sometimes a lot of time to have a smooth process where procurement is fine with us talking to suppliers, us, uh, joining supplier negotiations. Uh, that is one part of the treasury team. It is about how do we monitor track successes. At the end they signed up for our solution. They want to See progress, they want to see results. So how do we track those? There's different. Every client has a different I would say way about it. A lot of times it's how do we track the working capital improvement for client in terms of kind of terms extension so payment terms being extended. But at the same time suppliers need to be happy and uh, need to still have a good relationship with the client. So we track a lot of these supplier outreaches. How do these conversations go? And we track supplier onboarding then on our platform, which we might talk about later as well. But yeah, supply and supplier outreach.

Speaker B: This because you touched upon this, this subject. What does good onboarding look like? The uh, in your case, what are you aiming for in the first month? Yeah.

Speaker A: Uh, so there's two sides to that. There's the buyer side and there's the supplier side. On the buyer side once they sign the contract with us it's two to get to implementation as quick as possible. So we aim within the first 30 days after signature, start the implementation process. Uh that means we have to have the IT team from the buyer. We have treasury and procurement to be aligned and be present and have the resources and then have a smooth implementation process. We aim to yeah deliver that within I would say depending on the client, six to 16 weeks. Yeah in between best is six weeks. But again the team needs to or uh, the client needs to be ready. On the supplier side it's really have uh a smooth process from engagement to the supplier, a quick onboarding to us and again we are third party coming into a relationship between the buyer and the supplier. Now nowadays that is I um, think a part where a lot of suppliers are cautious. So there needs to be trust built. So communication needs to be set up in a way that it's trusted. We need to be aligned with the procurement team. And I would say one big part is timing. So when do, when does the customer communicate to the supplier that there is something coming from SAP? Talia and when do we reach out to the supplier? And then we have to have the same kind of communication at the end to uh, the supplier.

Speaker B: And once they are past the onboarding, how do your things are going well? What does health is like in um, your case?

Speaker A: Sure. So on the supplier side it we don't. It's not a click or click per uh click tracking or anything. It's really how does the supplier use his opportunity to take early payments. So on our side the supplier essentially doesn't have to pay to be onboarded to t platform. The SAP Taglia platform that is essentially just he accesses, there's no usage fee. The big opportunity here is that the supplier can actually see his invoices where they process from the supply, from the buyer side. So they see if an invoice actually reached the buyer, if it's processed or if it's approved and then it's really taking that early payment. So he gets an invoice with a payment term M of 90 days, but he can already take that invoice and pay it out after let's say five to ten days because the buyer already approved that invoice. So for us tracking is does the supplier take an early payment on an invoice on all invoices. So that is one part. The uh, other part is of course does the supplier enroll to the T platform. Some suppliers are more strategic. They onboard to the Telia platform. They want to see the invoices, they want to be have a transparent process in terms of where does my invoice lay or where's uh, my invoice right now with the buyer. And then they, they don't take early payments for all invoices, but more strategic at the end of quarters. So they are essentially all the really large suppliers and strategic suppliers. They might not take all the invoices for early payment but at the end of the year for bail, accounting, treatments. Uh, so that those are the two ways we can track it on the supplier side, on the buyer side of course it is. How do your initiative, how does that initiative work out in six, six months, one year, two years or five years? Then how many suppliers have we been able to kind of onboard um to the buyer, to the platform? And how many suppliers agreed to new terms, to new contracts with the buyer? So that's a very close engagement here with the buyer as well because we kind of need to align. Where does the buyer stand on procurement side and where do the suppliers stand?

Speaker B: I'm curious, what is the operational infrastructure behind all of it? SWOT platforms are central to how CS actually runs day to day. Astolia Yep.

Speaker A: There is a number of tools we use. Them both I would say are quite well known. Is Jira, um, Confluence. JIRA is our essentially day to day life when it comes to technical support. We work a lot with our technical support and then through jira, uh, tickets also our clients use ticketing systems where we also get involved. Confluence I would say is our main page when it comes to how is a customer set up on a technical side. This is important for us because we need to Know the basics and our technical support team needs to know where. What are the specifics for our customers? So these are, I would say the two major tools. Of course there is some other tools that we use in terms of just automizing all processes. AI comes to mind as well. I use AI nowadays.

Speaker B: Let us know. I'm. That was my. That was my next. That was. That would be in my next question. How do you combine the tool stack with the uh, AI per layer and what's the role of the AI in your.

Speaker A: I think one. One major tool that we use with Salesforce as well, just for. That's especially on the supplier outreach. How do we track supplier outreach and the kind of the. I would say the success is through Salesforce. We track everything. We have a dedicated team that is essentially reaching out to suppliers. So I don't do that myself for specific suppliers. We as customs access manager, we do get involved because we are the most trusted. I would say part because we talk to our customers every day, they trust us the most, I would say because they know us best. Uh, we are involved in expansions with the client. We are involved in the different stages of the life cycle. So yeah, Salesforce is one part that we also use to uh, correct the supplier success. And then. Yeah.

Speaker B: Does health scoring sit also in. In Salesforce? And Salesforce is the central p. A central platform that basically where you guys have a uh, client overview. A customer overview.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So we. We have our account planes in Salesforce. We. Yeah, we have the history of kind of supplier outreach, which suppliers that we talk to. What are the kind of. To track that and then to also share that with the customer at the end.

Speaker B: And how does Salesforce integrate with the AI layer? What are the automations that you guys are. Are building? How do you leverage AI on top of the tech stack that you have?

Speaker A: Yeah, we leverage AI in terms of kind of. Yeah, automating processes. So when it comes to managing account plans, updating those, uh, making sure that. Personally I use a lot of agents when it comes to making sure that my daily tasks are in order. I get notifications on kind of what is due today. Once I've done that, it's updated. There is uh, we have AI in terms of kind of making sure that we are on track with certain tickets, uh, with the customer. So there AI helps us kind of making sure we are aligned and we also are on time with the customer because one of the cool parts is being responsive to the customer, but not. But actually with the relevant data. I think that sometimes nowadays where there's a lot of data, it needs to be the right data that we present to the client. So there, I think AI helps us kind of sift through a lot of the data pool we have. We gather a lot of data on our platform. The buyer has a platform as well that he can look into and we analyze spent data from the client because we have a direct integration into their SAP system. So we can analyze the data and then work with the customer on essentially expansion plans and so on. So their AI helps us kind of. Yeah. Have a basis and then it's very individualized per customer, depending on their strategy.

Speaker B: Ah, so for all the mandate or manual tasks, you guys have built CS agents that basically help you on the, on the day to day, correct?

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.

Speaker B: And those cs, did you build your, those CS agents on your own or was it something that you requested it and the uh, technical team basically implemented it?

Speaker A: I think so. There's some that our technical team created for us based on just, I would say the knowledge that is behind those technical teams versus us. But I have one or two agents that I use that I built myself that I use. They're more specific to myself. And then within our csm, I would say team, which is global, we do have just certain CSMs. Building an agent and then sharing it with the group and just. Yeah, collaboration within the team as well.

Speaker B: Yeah, because that was my, that would have been my next question. How do you make sure that is the information that you share is consistent? Consistent? Because as we all know it, it all depends on. Even if you have the same source of data, the way you look at data is, can depend. And the data tells you the story that you want to, that you want to tell. Ask different questions and the data will tell you a different, A, uh, different story. I wanted to know how do you make sure that into the global CS team basically you have the same common understanding or sharing of. Okay, what does, what does healthy mean? Uh, what are the reports that you are looking at? How do you keep this consistency into the team? Because you are a global team.

Speaker A: Yeah, I think for us it's communication. That's. I think the main word is communication. We do have global kind of team calls. We have regional team calls where we kind of share. And then I think the most important, again going back to Confluence. Yeah, we have a CSAM site with all the say, knowledge that a CSM needs and the terminologies. How do we create business cases? How do we essentially then track the development of our business case? With the customer. So there's a common, I think a common process on the bottom that is for everyone is essentially the same. And then once it gets to more specific cases with customers, of course, there might be some, uh, some differences. The terminologies we use are the same, and I think that's the most important thing, to use the same terminology. Then the AI is quicker in picking up the, uh, kind of the general processes and then just you get the same answer. Because that's. Especially nowadays, you put one question in and you put it in twice or three times and every time you get a different answer. Yeah. And I think one part is how do you store your data? How do you store your knowledge? For, uh, us, it was a, uh, that's a big process as well. And we're now with SAP, so you do have more processes in place. So you got, have to make sure the data and the knowledge you have is stored in the right places. So we have our three to four, I would say systems or. Yeah, storage places, if you want to say. So where we gather this information from. And the AI has access to that internally. Yeah.

Speaker B: I want to take you back to your UniCredit days for a second. You spent years structuring working capital deals for corporate treasury teams, which are the same buyers you now work with Tolia. What did being on that side of the table teach you about how they make decisions?

Speaker A: Yeah, I think coming from a banking perspective, you get to know a company differently. It's a. Yeah, very huge organizations. You have a lot of resources available. I think I was lucky when it came to my banking days because I essentially started in the working capital team when it was built or kind of, uh, developed. So I was able to grow with the team. I think when I decided to join SAP Taulia, we were, I think, 15 people. When I joined, we were like three. So from a banking perspective, you have a much larger portfolio of solutions that you offer to the client. I didn't just work in the worker capital team. I also worked in M and A and in structuring teams. So you got to see the whole spectrum there. The conversation is much larger when you come to SAP, to Taglia, we are a niche product. At the end, you have to make sure that what you're bringing to the table is solid. So I think we, we talk to the same people essentially because we talk to treasury, we talk to finance. Uh, the only thing is we are now much more on the. Yeah. On the operational level as well. So we do talk to procurement, we do talk to it and so on. Because we are technical, a SAS T. Sas uh, company. So we talk on very different levels. But I do talk to the head of treasury from companies or the CFO sometimes. So you have this variance which you. At a. From a banking perspective, uh, you didn't have at the bank, you mostly talk to kind of. Yeah, the treasury and finance team. So the perspective gets. It gets larger when you go to a smaller company, when it comes to the people you talk to.

Speaker B: Yeah, you started as a business consultant running implementations, then moved into csm Senior csm. Basically seeing every layer of the same customer journey. Is there a habit, a way of thinking or something you learned the hard way early on that still shows up in how you run accounts today?

Speaker A: Yeah, I think the most crucial part is building the trust of the client. Um, if you don't do that in the beginning, I don't think the client will. And that shows later on because if you don't earn the trust from the client, if they're not fully sold on a strategy you built with them and you don't understand the specific business of the client and how they run internally, you won't get to that goal that the customer envisioned. I think that's one crucial part. So understanding the actual business processes internally of the buyer and that takes time. It's not something you learn within a day. But that's why you have to talk to the different departments, to the different people within a team. It's not just the head of treasury, it's the procurement people, it's the account payables team. So that's one part. The other part is while there is a, uh, general, I would say how you implement our all solutions is general the same. We have a standard implementation, but how you develop, how you bring that across to the customer varies from customer to customer. And you got, again, it comes down to kind of communication. So communication is key, I would say. And the. Essentially, yeah, uh, how you develop then within the. With, within the lifecycle of the program. So you have to show the customer where their business might be able to go in the future. But yeah, having that trust is important.

Speaker B: Zanin, this was a really interesting conversation. Thank you for joining and to everyone listening, thanks for tuning in. Until next time, stay curious, keep learning and mastering customer success.