Welcome to the EVP Talent blog! This blog series exists to demystify common startup roles, create clearer pathways and tell the stories of exceptional operators within the EVP Portfolio.
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Connor Conzelman is the Director of Customer Success at ClearCalcs, are on a mission to empower those who need engineering calculations to design with confidence. They achieve this by providing a ‘no code’ engineering calculation builder that structural engineers, architects, and designers use to perform the complex calculations required for residential and commercial building designs.
We had the pleasure of (virtually) sitting down with Connor to learn more about his experience and what he does as a Director of Customer Success.
How do you explain what you do?
I build relationships, I understand people's problems and ultimately make them happier. For example, for us at ClearCalcs, there's a lot of people who are spending a lot of money on engineers or if you are an engineer, spending a lot of time doing their structural calculations. So being able to understand where they could be more efficient and helping people to do what they do better.
Broadly speaking, can you give us a sense of what activities you’re accountable or responsible for?
At a startup you wear a lot of different hats, but my two focus areas are sales & customer success. As we’ve been growing there has been a balance of working on the business and working in the business. At the end of the day making sure our users are successful and increasing revenue is the end goal. It has been great working with our new Head of Growth to lay the foundation of our sales framework. On the customer success side I act as the main point of contact for our customers, making sure that I’m there to answer any of the questions they have once they’ve purchased our product.
What could a day, week or month look like for you as a Director of Customer Success?
I block out 30 minutes at the start of every day to prioritise what I need to do for the day. At 10:00am I have 30 minutes blocked to do the daily tasks I need to do. That might be closing out our sales queue on our support page or answering questions coming through. I spend an hour each day focused on delivering a demo or on opportunity follow ups to hopefully close sales. I have an hour blocked out from 2-3pm each day that's focused around working on the business. For example preparing agendas for future meetings, having one-on-ones with sales team members, things like that. You need to be strict with your time especially being an American working for an Australian company, the back end of my is usually stacked with internal meetings.
Tell us about your past experience and journey to ClearCalcs.
My background is in mechanical engineering and my undergrad focused on biomechanical prosthetics and orthotics. My first job after graduating was as a mechanical design engineer. I struggled with sitting behind my computer and just designing for long hours, constantly meeting deadlines and rarely talking to other people. My favorite part of that role was when I would go on site and manage the projects. Dealing with contractors, property managers and condo associations. I knew I eventually wanted to shift into a customer facing role, but wanted to ensure I could take advantage of the fact that I have a technical background.
After two years my then girlfriend, now wife and I decided to quit our jobs. I enrolled to get my MBA full time online and she took a gig travel nursing and we travelled around the country. I worked in coffee shops and breweries meeting people and building relationships. After two years I wanted to figure out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life and found ClearCalcs. I started working for them 10 hours per week in technical sales and built the role into what it is today.
What prior experience set you up to succeed at ClearCalcs as a Director of Customer Success?
Definitely my experience managing projects, dealing with contractors who might have been 40 years older than me, going on site and having to tell them no, what you're doing is wrong. Dealing with condo associations. And understanding how to communicate effectively. Working in in San Francisco for a few months while we were travelling I learned how to communicate with people more effectively - no better customer service training than behind the counter at a coffee shop!
More than anything, coming from an engineering consulting company and technical background, I know the mindset those engineers are in, I know what dealing with contractors is like and those are the types of people we're selling to. Often on a sales call, you’ll get a tone from the engineers that they think I don’t know what I’m talking about. When I tell them that my background is in mechanical engineering, immediately they have a level of trust, they know that I can speak their language.
Was there anything that you needed to upskill in or unlearn from your prior experience that was no longer serving you?
Working for an engineering consulting company, it was very much nose to the grindstone. In my experience at ClearCalcs, everybody encourages you to take a step back, think outside the box and ask questions like; is what we’re doing the best way of handling this problem? Is this problem even the top priority to be handling right now? Whereas in that previous experience it was very much “this is how we do it, just get it done”. Even if it took 10 hours, and you had a suggestion to do it another way to take 5 hours it wouldn’t be well received. When I first made the jump to ClearCalcs I had to learn to think more critically about problems.
Who do you work most closely with?
When I first started, our Head of North American Engineering Content, Laurent was working only Thursday and Fridays so we would chat then. But Monday through Wednesday it was just me and then maybe a few hours with Chris, our CEO as the OG salesperson.
As we've grown things have changed. I work closely now with our Head of Growth. I have weekly meetings with marketing, product and engineering to close the gap as one of the main customer facing people in the company hearing the qualitative emotional feedback from users on what we can improve on.
What do you love about your role as a Director of Customer Success? What is hard?
I love working through the initial friction points that users have with our product and gaining their trust, helping them along the journey to find that aha moment. On the flip side, there are definitely sometimes when I need to take a step back and take a deep breath when people can't navigate the software or if they're not willing to. It's really hard to break through when an older engineer has their mind made up.
What misconceptions do people have about your role as a Director of Customer Success?
I'll speak for myself. Before I started in a sales role, I always thought engineers did all the work and sales people got the recognition for it. But going into sales you realise it's a really hard job. Making sure you have volume in consistency, staying disciplined, making cold calls, getting rejected over and over. You have to build up thick skin and ultimately you’re driving the business forward.
What does good look like as a Director of Customer Success?
The obvious answer is a day making many sales, or delivering really good demos. But the days I feel most fulfilled are when I have enabled somebody else to do their job better. That can look like putting documentation in place, making internal help videos that enable SDRs to understand the product better, or creating processes that close the gap between user feedback and what engineering is doing.
Do you have a moment, day, team or piece of work that you’re immensely proud of since starting your current role as a Director of Customer Success?
I’m incredibly proud talking to friends and family and showing them the progress we’re making because you really feel like you're a part of building something. My wife and I recently moved to Colorado Springs. We sold ClearCalcs to the local building department in Colorado Springs last year. To know that the people who have jurisdiction over your neighborhood use ClearCalcs and everytime we walk down the street and see a renovation being done, to know ClearCalcs was involved in some way is really special.
What advice would you give yourself or a friend starting as a Director of Customer Success?
Before I joined I was nervous that people might ask me questions that I didn’t know the answer to. What I've learned is it doesn't matter. People don't expect you to know every answer off the top of your head. If you don't know any answers, that's a different story, but you're not expected to know everything. People appreciate honesty a lot more than just BSing them and making up an answer. Just saying “I'm not familiar with the answer to that, let me talk to the engineering team”, then making sure you fulfill that promise and get back to them as soon as possible. I’ve found the most success in really just listening and understanding the problems that our customers are trying to solve. If you can solve the problem that they’ve expressed to you, they’re going to buy the software.
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Interested in Customer Success roles? Check out Talent_OS to see opportunities across the EVP Portfolio, or reach out to Fred or Charmaine from EVP's Talent Team!
Welcome to the EVP Talent blog! This blog series exists to demystify common startup roles, create clearer pathways and tell the stories of exceptional operators within the EVP Portfolio.
****
Connor Conzelman is the Director of Customer Success at ClearCalcs, are on a mission to empower those who need engineering calculations to design with confidence. They achieve this by providing a ‘no code’ engineering calculation builder that structural engineers, architects, and designers use to perform the complex calculations required for residential and commercial building designs.
We had the pleasure of (virtually) sitting down with Connor to learn more about his experience and what he does as a Director of Customer Success.
How do you explain what you do?
I build relationships, I understand people's problems and ultimately make them happier. For example, for us at ClearCalcs, there's a lot of people who are spending a lot of money on engineers or if you are an engineer, spending a lot of time doing their structural calculations. So being able to understand where they could be more efficient and helping people to do what they do better.
Broadly speaking, can you give us a sense of what activities you’re accountable or responsible for?
At a startup you wear a lot of different hats, but my two focus areas are sales & customer success. As we’ve been growing there has been a balance of working on the business and working in the business. At the end of the day making sure our users are successful and increasing revenue is the end goal. It has been great working with our new Head of Growth to lay the foundation of our sales framework. On the customer success side I act as the main point of contact for our customers, making sure that I’m there to answer any of the questions they have once they’ve purchased our product.
What could a day, week or month look like for you as a Director of Customer Success?
I block out 30 minutes at the start of every day to prioritise what I need to do for the day. At 10:00am I have 30 minutes blocked to do the daily tasks I need to do. That might be closing out our sales queue on our support page or answering questions coming through. I spend an hour each day focused on delivering a demo or on opportunity follow ups to hopefully close sales. I have an hour blocked out from 2-3pm each day that's focused around working on the business. For example preparing agendas for future meetings, having one-on-ones with sales team members, things like that. You need to be strict with your time especially being an American working for an Australian company, the back end of my is usually stacked with internal meetings.
Tell us about your past experience and journey to ClearCalcs.
My background is in mechanical engineering and my undergrad focused on biomechanical prosthetics and orthotics. My first job after graduating was as a mechanical design engineer. I struggled with sitting behind my computer and just designing for long hours, constantly meeting deadlines and rarely talking to other people. My favorite part of that role was when I would go on site and manage the projects. Dealing with contractors, property managers and condo associations. I knew I eventually wanted to shift into a customer facing role, but wanted to ensure I could take advantage of the fact that I have a technical background.
After two years my then girlfriend, now wife and I decided to quit our jobs. I enrolled to get my MBA full time online and she took a gig travel nursing and we travelled around the country. I worked in coffee shops and breweries meeting people and building relationships. After two years I wanted to figure out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life and found ClearCalcs. I started working for them 10 hours per week in technical sales and built the role into what it is today.
What prior experience set you up to succeed at ClearCalcs as a Director of Customer Success?
Definitely my experience managing projects, dealing with contractors who might have been 40 years older than me, going on site and having to tell them no, what you're doing is wrong. Dealing with condo associations. And understanding how to communicate effectively. Working in in San Francisco for a few months while we were travelling I learned how to communicate with people more effectively - no better customer service training than behind the counter at a coffee shop!
More than anything, coming from an engineering consulting company and technical background, I know the mindset those engineers are in, I know what dealing with contractors is like and those are the types of people we're selling to. Often on a sales call, you’ll get a tone from the engineers that they think I don’t know what I’m talking about. When I tell them that my background is in mechanical engineering, immediately they have a level of trust, they know that I can speak their language.
Was there anything that you needed to upskill in or unlearn from your prior experience that was no longer serving you?
Working for an engineering consulting company, it was very much nose to the grindstone. In my experience at ClearCalcs, everybody encourages you to take a step back, think outside the box and ask questions like; is what we’re doing the best way of handling this problem? Is this problem even the top priority to be handling right now? Whereas in that previous experience it was very much “this is how we do it, just get it done”. Even if it took 10 hours, and you had a suggestion to do it another way to take 5 hours it wouldn’t be well received. When I first made the jump to ClearCalcs I had to learn to think more critically about problems.
Who do you work most closely with?
When I first started, our Head of North American Engineering Content, Laurent was working only Thursday and Fridays so we would chat then. But Monday through Wednesday it was just me and then maybe a few hours with Chris, our CEO as the OG salesperson.
As we've grown things have changed. I work closely now with our Head of Growth. I have weekly meetings with marketing, product and engineering to close the gap as one of the main customer facing people in the company hearing the qualitative emotional feedback from users on what we can improve on.
What do you love about your role as a Director of Customer Success? What is hard?
I love working through the initial friction points that users have with our product and gaining their trust, helping them along the journey to find that aha moment. On the flip side, there are definitely sometimes when I need to take a step back and take a deep breath when people can't navigate the software or if they're not willing to. It's really hard to break through when an older engineer has their mind made up.
What misconceptions do people have about your role as a Director of Customer Success?
I'll speak for myself. Before I started in a sales role, I always thought engineers did all the work and sales people got the recognition for it. But going into sales you realise it's a really hard job. Making sure you have volume in consistency, staying disciplined, making cold calls, getting rejected over and over. You have to build up thick skin and ultimately you’re driving the business forward.
What does good look like as a Director of Customer Success?
The obvious answer is a day making many sales, or delivering really good demos. But the days I feel most fulfilled are when I have enabled somebody else to do their job better. That can look like putting documentation in place, making internal help videos that enable SDRs to understand the product better, or creating processes that close the gap between user feedback and what engineering is doing.
Do you have a moment, day, team or piece of work that you’re immensely proud of since starting your current role as a Director of Customer Success?
I’m incredibly proud talking to friends and family and showing them the progress we’re making because you really feel like you're a part of building something. My wife and I recently moved to Colorado Springs. We sold ClearCalcs to the local building department in Colorado Springs last year. To know that the people who have jurisdiction over your neighborhood use ClearCalcs and everytime we walk down the street and see a renovation being done, to know ClearCalcs was involved in some way is really special.
What advice would you give yourself or a friend starting as a Director of Customer Success?
Before I joined I was nervous that people might ask me questions that I didn’t know the answer to. What I've learned is it doesn't matter. People don't expect you to know every answer off the top of your head. If you don't know any answers, that's a different story, but you're not expected to know everything. People appreciate honesty a lot more than just BSing them and making up an answer. Just saying “I'm not familiar with the answer to that, let me talk to the engineering team”, then making sure you fulfill that promise and get back to them as soon as possible. I’ve found the most success in really just listening and understanding the problems that our customers are trying to solve. If you can solve the problem that they’ve expressed to you, they’re going to buy the software.
****
Interested in Customer Success roles? Check out Talent_OS to see opportunities across the EVP Portfolio, or reach out to Fred or Charmaine from EVP's Talent Team!