Beyond the Product: Delivering Client Value with Customer Success

[00:04:05] Jeff Williams: Amazing. I, I knew most of that, but it’s always interesting, you know, in this format to, to get it for those that don’t, presumably the listeners, because you always learn something. So it, and one thing that jumped out to me is, I think last time I heard about that, the sort of relevance of like what FEC does in public markets probably wasn’t quite as, high is, it just seemed to me now with, with some of the stuff that’s, going on in privates and some of the stuff we’re thinking about, in any case, I wanted to have you on because I think that one of the things that’s really difficult, and I’ve seen a lot of it, is, really understanding what it’s like to work with us, right?

[00:04:47] So we’ve. All these customers, they, they speak so highly of us. They love working with us. And you know, you can tell that to somebody who hasn’t worked with them. I mean, this is like a huge differentiator for us, right? Like the, the way that, that we partner with our customers and the service we provide. You can tell that to people who, who are considering working with us and stuff.

[00:05:08] But, but of course it’s just, it’s like one of those things you just don’t know what you have a baby, right? It’s kind of like, Yeah. You know, people told you it was hard like to have a baby, but you really didn’t appreciate it until you had a baby. Yeah. Is that fair?

[00:05:21] Ray Grant: Yes. Fair enough. Yep. Still appreciating it.

[00:05:23] Yep.

[00:05:25] Jeff Williams: Wait till you have two. So I, maybe we can solve that problem here on this episode of Preferred Return and you can just say whatever it is that makes customers feel that way and what makes us special. And then everybody here listening

[00:05:39] Ray Grant: will just know. And, and, and so I think the way I think about it and sort of sum it up is adding value, you know, and everyone says that and it’s a very cliche, it’s a buzzword.

[00:05:51] Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you know, to actually add value means that you are, you know, in their, helping the client use the product in a better way, providing best practices, fixing things, you know, just getting in there, training and. You know, I think a lot of SaaS firms, they have the customer success organization and it’s this person who, you know, is there, you can reach out to them, but they’re not really helping you.

[00:06:20] You know, they don’t understand your industry. They don’t really understand the, the nuts and bolts of the product. And so, and this comes I think, a little bit from the facts to experience, but I’ve always wanted our client facing team to be technically savvy as well as industry savvy. And so when we’re working with our clients, we can provide real best practices about how to use the product.

[00:06:43] We can, you know, look at how you’re using it and immediately tell you five different ways that you could, you know, things in the product you could be using to get more out of it. And so that’s, that’s always been my mentality is, get in there, and, and add real value. Yeah. Right. I think that’s, that is what we do and, and to a degree sets us apart for.

[00:07:02] Yeah,

[00:07:03] Jeff Williams: I, I think I actually just had an experience like this, maybe one or two of recent memory, but, which it, you know, actually as you were saying that, I was like, ah, I think I had that, and I have to give a shout out to Aaron at Crossbeam because, that was one of the experiences. And so she’ll never hear that.

[00:07:23] But I’ll, I’ll make sure to tell her I shouted her out anyway, but, It, it was interesting. It came in the form of like a bunch of emails from her, right? It, it’s a product-led growth, application product. It’s an outstanding run by the way. For anybody that ever has a need for kind of partner, management and stuff like that.

[00:07:42] Wonderful software application, very well done. Product led growth of, so I’m, you know, selling the free version and, and I’m getting these emails that are typical with product led growth. It’s like, Hey, you know, here’s the next thing to try and all that. And, I think to your point, like, you know, adding value, like one might define.

[00:07:59] It’s, Hey, we have this customer success team that adds value. But it was like, it was clear with some of the emails that it was actually really attempting to help. And so I, you know, that was enough for me to say, okay, well, you know, I do have a few questions here. And then I spent 30 minutes with Erin. She was unbelievable.

[00:08:19] And I definitely left like Wow. And, and one of those things, for example, was not only answering some of the questions, Based upon the question, she kind of knew these other things that might be interesting to show me, and in the end talked me out of what I thought was gonna be the need to kind of move to a paid tier, which I was, you know, more than happy to do.

[00:08:43] But it was sort of like maybe one of these moments where I was like, wow, like, you know, she really, really. Like trying to help me. And it was a matter of me, you know, being willing to kind of engage and then just, you know, a number of things. It was clear she was thinking along the same lines and actually, went to a place that I didn’t even know that, that I, you know, could have benefited from.

[00:09:05] And then made this very sort of clear stand of like, you want to pay me money? You shouldn’t, I shouldn’t let you. Because you, you know, you, you still have access to this free tier and the value there and, and you know, look, hey, you’re, you’ll get there to the, to pay tier. It’ll be great for everybody, but for now.

[00:09:25] And so I kind of, a lot of parallels in there, right? Like, I think you kind of mentioned maybe like, you know, thinking along the same lines that point that I made where it’s sort of like we’re, we’re trying to really not just sort of respond to you and be reactive. To really kind of be thoughtful and think about, what you’re trying to do and, and be creative about ways that, that we can help you and not, you know, sort of motivated by like, wow, I’m only gonna do that if you, you know, sign this upgrade contract

[00:09:56] Ray Grant: ahead of time.

[00:09:56] Fair. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely always, always nice when you can kinda have a good experience to draw from from another vendor too. And yeah, I think that’s exactly what we’re going for is, you know, Client facing team. They’re not, motivated by, checking boxes or getting little commissions on things.

[00:10:15] I think, we’ve got experienced technical professionals intrinsically have this long-term. You know, mindset with our client relationships and making sure that the product is fully adopted and always trying to find new ways that the product can be valuable for our clients and make great use of that time, every time we talk to ’em, busy people, and that they are in private equity, venture capital.

[00:10:40] That’s exactly what, what we’re going for there is. You know, it’s, it’s valuable to us to see the, the product being used properly and to see our clients being successful with it. So that’s free of charge as much as

[00:10:53] Jeff Williams: we can. Yeah. Well, and I think that, so, you know, I, I’m thinking about the, the question I asked you and how I would answer it.

[00:11:02] I think there’s something that is important about. Culture of the company and stuff like that, but the individuals that come to work here, which, you know, are impacted by the culture and stuff, but it’s super important. I mean, like, there’s these individuals, amazing team actually legitimately want to help.

[00:11:23] Like, I don’t think many of them would call it a job, but, but they’re sort of really. Engaged and driven by connecting with people and, and being helpful. Like, and that’s specific to them. That’s not something that, you know, the sort of mandate is naturally, we, we’ve hired a lot of those people, but, it’s really the individuals at the end of the day.

[00:11:41] Right.

[00:11:41] Ray Grant: Yeah, that’s exactly the kind of people we look for is, you know, The kind of people we like working with and that we feel really comfortable, you know, putting in front of a, private equity firm and building that relationship. And I’d say the other sort of core component there is people who love to solve problems and love to get in there, get their hands dirty with the client’s problems and workflows, and ask good questions.

[00:12:06] And, you know, people who are thoughtful which I think you’d find in, in all of our customer success managers, is they enjoy the relationship building aspect of it and understanding the industry and the business, but also they take pride in what they build, you know, for our clients

[00:12:21] Yeah.

[00:12:23] Jeff Williams: Uh, well, you and I were in the mountains I guess last week. Doing some team building right. With the team. And it was kind of cool because if you recall when we got to dinner that night, this topic came up and, and in the form of one of the CSMs Lala, talking about how like, you know, she knows, so her, her name is Gabriela, and, uh, she goes by Lala and she’s amazing.

[00:12:49] And Lala just is like perfect name for her. And she, I think she says something to the effect of like, she knows when she really knows, you know, the, the customers that the accounts that she has, because they, you know, they call her Lala and other people just sort of don’t know better and they, they call her Gabriela.

[00:13:08] And I, I have to imagine she didn’t, you know, say this, but I have to imagine the vast majority of them actually refer to her as Lala and everybody gets her as they get to know her. But like, You know, maybe not, doesn’t seem like much, but it’s a subtle little thing that I think kind of talks to this of like there’s this formal relationship with your CSM and you as you know, somebody at our account, but really these are like human beings interacting and sort of becoming frat, right?

[00:13:34] It’s almost like what’s implied in what she’s saying. Definitely.

[00:13:36] Ray Grant: Yeah. And Lala’s definitely. That the, the friendship specialist, she’s friends with every client she’s ever worked with. Mm-hmm. Cuz she can’t help it. Neither can they. She’s, she’s great. Yeah. And that’s the kind of thing that, you know, you can’t, you can’t teach or manage, you just find great people like that.

[00:13:53] And, she’s lala to about, uh, everybody she works with and, yeah. And even if we try to move her off of an account or. You know, she’s changed roles a couple times here. Those clients still always reach out to her directly and probably have her cell phone number and, you know, yeah, she’s great with those personal, relationships with clients

[00:14:15] Jeff Williams: as is obviously the, the entirety of the team.

[00:14:17] They just don’t happen to have the same, kind of name dynamic. So, but, but I think that’s a good, uh, sort of representation of it. Not just that, I mean, you know, that isn’t the sort of thing where, okay, well, like, you know, people calling her Lala is like, we’re good to go. I mean, it, it, is backed up. You, we constantly, you know, we look at these together as leadership team, the customer satisfaction survey results as they come in and, no one’s ever said, In a c in all of that about Lala in her name as the thing that, you know, was the reason for like 10 out of 10.

[00:14:55] Ray Grant: I love Lala. It’s usually the comment. Something like that. Yeah.

[00:14:57] Jeff Williams: And, you get there by, by way of like really building the relationship and being helpful and solving problems and being proactive and knowing about the thing that. The user in question didn’t ask about and didn’t know to ask about, but, you know, presenting it as, Hey, here’s that sort of next thing that’s related, and maybe that’s probably what, what, uh, you’re kind of thinking about.

[00:15:18] So that, that’s really cool to see.

[00:15:20] Ray Grant: Yeah. And yeah, like we talked about, you know, the, the ability to connect on a personal level is something that I think all of our CSMs or client facing people are good at and enjoy. But then also, you know, Wanting their clients to succeed with the product is sort of just an intrinsic thing that, that drives them and, and they’re good at that as well.

[00:15:40] Yep.

[00:15:42] Jeff Williams: I, I think I said this maybe in a video interview recently or something, but, I know that, uh, the customers. Well, I guess what the big point here is that customers become friends and, you know, vice versa and, and all this stuff. And that’s amazing because that professional relationship now has opened up, in new ways, you know, that, that, uh, they otherwise wouldn’t be.

[00:16:05] But so much so that, like I know that there’ve been customers that have come to employees weddings and vice versa. And I, myself, when, when I got married, Received a, an item from a customer of ours, uh, off of our registry, like with, and, and didn’t know until it like physically arrived and my life unpacked.

[00:16:26] It was like this beautiful, entertaining set that my wife was really wanting. And it was like late innings of, you know, engagement and. That sort of arrived and my wife teared up, but like, you know, because she gets it, but she could only get so much, she’s neither an a CSM or customer facing person here nor, a customer.

[00:16:49] But it, you know, like in that moment it was like really heavy for her. Like, wow, that’s pretty incredible.

[00:16:54] Ray Grant: Yeah, and I think it’s awesome to see the relationships. The people on the leadership team here at Alvia have built, including you, especially you and, um, yeah, we’ve scaled a lot since then, so whether you like it or not, Jeff, I know you do like it. All of our new clients in some way get to engage with you or Bree, or our Chief Revenue Officer.

[00:17:16] And I think that’s another thing that’s pretty special

[00:17:18] Jeff Williams: Yeah, no, I do. And, and that’s why I say I don’t wanna put words in anybody’s mouth, but the culture of this company is, is difficult to, to explain that to, potential, you know, new hires as well.

[00:17:31] Right. So same dynamic, but, but, well, it’s the same dynamic in the sense. New customers don’t understand this until they do, and new employees don’t either, but they all, you know, end up getting it. And that’s what’s really cool, is I feel like most people that come to work here end up feeling like this is way more than like a quote unquote job.

[00:17:52] And you know, that’s always been the case for me for a lot of reasons, right. This was like something that has always been near and dear to me and. you know, a bigger part of my life has been spent doing this than really anything else. But it’s never felt like a job, you know?

[00:18:07] Uh, And so that’s just really cool for me. I feel all that it’s really cool to see other people, Get into that too. And then it’s really cool to, to see customers sort of say these things or refer us to, you know, to trusted people within their network because they’re feeling something too. And that’s, you know, just very fulfilling, very fulfilled right now, just talking about it.

[00:18:30] Ray Grant: Yeah, definitely. I feel the same way. And. You know, you, don’t ever wanna make it, too personal. But I think we do take it a little, you know, personally, like wanting to take pride in these products and in this company and having a good reputation and building strong relationships, you know, is, something that you take personally here and that, you know, we take a lot of pride in, our products and, and those relationships.

[00:18:56] Yep.

[00:18:59] Jeff Williams: So I guess on that note, we, have, you know, always taken pride in these things. It’s always been special and we’ve done a lot of things to try to, you know, kind of better promote that or better, you know, help, help people who haven’t experienced that and understand it. Oh, we’ve given it names, you know, sorts of names.

[00:19:20] I remember this very early name of kind of ground crew. Which I, that was a cool name, but I didn’t think did well at, you know, actually telling the story. It’s very difficult. I guess if anything, you know the point of the conversation thus far. It’s very difficult to have one word that would describe all this, anyhow.

[00:19:37] Ground

[00:19:37] Ray Grant: crew, pit crew, pit crew. Yeah. Yeah. Give me ideas. Yeah,

[00:19:42] Jeff Williams: yeah, yeah. H hit us on Twitter with the next great name for this. But one of the things that has kind of naturally evolved as the result of that is attempts to, you know, kind of provide and highlight this service, in many different ways and, and for many different, you know, styles.

[00:20:03] And one of the great outcomes. Has been what we refer to as Tam, internally, you know, technical account management, managed services, whatever. And that is, I, you know, from my perspective, having seen it largely the result of people saying, you know, working with us, getting to, to sort of see what, what that’s like finding value and then saying, Hey, could we like kinda hire your people basically right now?

[00:20:30] Like portions of your people divvy them up in, in portion. So anyway, long way of. Let’s talk a little bit about the support models that we have. I mentioned Tam, that’s one of them. Let, let’s kind of maybe first just lay out like at a high level, like what, what are the ways that, that we offer to support

[00:20:44] Ray Grant: our customers?

[00:20:45] Yeah, yeah, definitely. And I think we, we mentioned it before, wanting to, you know, add that value free of charge for all via clients. And we do that. Every single client, big and small gets a dedicated customer success manager for that very purpose to ensure. The product’s working for you and you’re getting the most value out of it possible.

[00:21:06] And along with that, you get access to our support team. That’s a team, that we work closely with. The customer success team that is, works closely with here in, Berfield and Denver. And they’re mostly available over email and through our help center. But, you know, really, fast response support for all technical questions.

[00:21:28] Help using the product, you know, training, live training over Zoom, as much as you, you need or want the support teams there for that kind of thing. Building reports, you know, help making little tweaks and customizations to the product. Onboarding new people. It’s a really. Resource that comes available, you know, as part of your ALT Via subscription with that customer success manager.

[00:21:51] And so we’d like to think, you know, we provide that great, awesome, you know, base layer of support for every, every single one of our clients. But then, like you said, sometimes like, you know, You know, how do we, get even more of you, on board here and, you know, doing more work for us and, and outsourcing more, you know, to you guys and, and getting more hands on deck here.

[00:22:12] And that’s where we offer the TAM service, which stands for Technical Account Manager. Uh, I think you’d hear this called Managed services in a lot of places. So we, we dub it tam or Managed Services and that’s where we have a separate team here, that TAM team that is more senior technical resources and they.

[00:22:32] Are an additional resource that we can add on in addition to that c s M and support resource for clients who are demanding, you know, more outsource technical advisory services. And so that includes just general administration of the system. Outsourcing that to a senior technical person on our team has proved extremely valuable for a lot of clients.

[00:22:55] Um, Having that extra sort of technical expert on staff, to handle, system administration, data administration, you know, a lot of that data work that can be a little complex and time consuming that’s, you know, another great, sort of value that our TAM team provides in addition to just that technical, strategic advisory.

[00:23:17] And, you know, system architecture, you know, you can come to them with a really complex problem or an idea you have and, you know, you don’t have to engage in a sort of consulting project for that cuz they’re just sort of your dedicated, resource and, and system architect. And so you can work with that person.

[00:23:37] They know your org, they know your business and you can work with them. You know, building out new parts of the system or optimizing things, and keeping the data and system fresh, which, especially at larger organizations is sort of an ongoing thing that never ends, as part of any sort of, reporting platform or CRM system.

[00:23:57] So, yeah, it’s, I I would say it’s, you know, a lot of our larger clients take advantage of that service, but then a lot of the smaller ones too that, you know, really want, to. Lean on our team for that extra level of support. We, we have that, available, for them and, talked about this in our internal meeting yesterday, but I think once they see and experience the value of that technical account manager, on their staff.

[00:24:24] It, it sticks pretty well.

[00:24:27] Jeff Williams: Yeah, I mean, I, I realize as you started answering that question, to be clear, really everything we’re talking about, you know, in terms of, the, the experience of working with us over the years and stuff is largely based upon not having this right. So like, like that’s all available to your point, like, you know, this, this sort of partnership is available.

[00:24:46] You know, at sort of no marginal cost, um, via support. And then we, you know, have, have effectively learned that people, to your point, want, want even more. And they want it, in ways that, you know, it, it would be very difficult for us to sort of maintain that same type of support. And, and then also almost like come in, I mean, you know, Rob, I remember years ago, you know, Rob.

[00:25:10] In one of our customer’s office in Houston, and some of us from the sales team went down there and like kind of just didn’t even realize And we like bumped into Rob, you know, in their office in Houston. Yeah. He’s got his desk there. Yeah. And um, you know, so it was like quite literally taking our people and, and you know, giving ’em to you and that to your point, right.

[00:25:29] Offers all sorts of things above and beyond, but like, and the thing I, I think is so magic. It’s one thing for people to know what they, need to ask for and what they’re looking for and what the problem is. It’s another, when somebody becomes so entrenched in what you’re trying to do and like a strategic, you know, kind of viewpoint that, they’re able to kind of predict and, and sort of take, you know, steps that, that they’re not waiting on people to ask for, but saying, Hey, here’s, here’s really what we could start doing.

[00:25:59] And, and I know that this goes well. Our products, right? I mean, like our team is, has got all sorts of skills and you know, when they, when you kind of engage ’em like this, they’re suddenly working on all sorts of, you know, other things that are, related but, but not so directly as you’d expect.

[00:26:19] Ray Grant: Like having a fractional employee is another way to think about it. You know, and a lot cheaper than a full-time one, obviously. And, but then, Just that sort of level of expertise with our products and just private equity technology stacks in general. You know, we’re trying to help you be successful and a lot of time that goes beyond, our products, that goes with the other softwares that you’re using, how they integrate, how the data flows back and forth, you know, piping in data from another system or integrating something like a LinkedIn or a marketing platform. You know, we’re there to advise on all that.

[00:26:53] And I guess you. Kind of riffing off the tam, subject. You know, like we said, the clients who don’t, have Tam, we still have the same end goal and make sure that you’re, you know, successful with the products. And so for some, that’s overkill. But we have the ability to engage in consulting projects for those like larger team, you know, onboarding, app integrations, data work.

[00:27:19] As sort of one-off engagements with, that implementation team too. So, I think, you know, sometimes people see it’s on the, the Salesforce platform and, you know, you imagine larger projects, you’ve gotta go find some outsource consultant to help you build on any sort of custom functionality or integration that your firm’s interested in.

[00:27:41] You know, Alvia is kinda the one stop. For that, which I think is, sort of a unique value add we provide as well, regardless of if you’re a managed services TAM client or not.

[00:27:52] Jeff Williams: Yeah. There’s like a couple things in there that are super interesting, right? One is the sort of, you know, the, the kind of project need, right?

[00:28:02] That’s like this acute thing. So you’ve got the support where it’s like, oh, I’m having an issue. Right? Right now. Probably going to, you know, solve other things or, you know, come up with ideas and stuff in that context that, that really kind of highlight the, the value of our team. You’ve got the kind of like, oh, we’re really kind of struggling with this thing.

[00:28:23] Maybe it comes through like a support channel or whatever. But, you know, it’s much bigger than like an acute sort of, yeah, I can, you know, help you with that right now. And that’s like this sort of quote unquote project, what we’ll, For the purposes of this conversation, but, uh, needs to be thought through, maybe even kind of drawn out, need to bring in other folks on the team, need to, you know, integrate, you know, this, this other thing whatever it may be.

[00:28:49] Um, And so you know that that’s kind of one thing. Well, we’re talking about tam, so you know that that’s really kind of all we had for many years. That was like sort of how we rolled in, in the, you know, kind of consulting and the project based stuff. We took it, we, you know, we, we gathered requirements to, did some scoping, stuff like that.

[00:29:08] And, and then Tam comes along and that’s almost like, you know, that and then a lot of other things and much more strategic and advice and best practices. Across the business almost really. Um, And so, you know, the, the, the evolution of TAM was, was probably more about, well, well certainly was more about kind of wanting that all, all of the time, always on.

[00:29:33] And, you know, again, we, we said it many time, but almost like taking parts of our people and putting ’em on in your

[00:29:40] Ray Grant: desks. Yeah. And I think, you know, engaging in one of those little add-on services projects is a good way to sort of, you know, Rob went to, you know, denim’s office in Houston, or Creststone in Boulder and, and did a couple days on site working on a single project for them, and, and they were like, all right, we need you to come back.

[00:29:57] Mm-hmm. Every single Monday, you know, they thought

[00:30:00] Jeff Williams: about kidnapping him but didn’t Yeah. You know, want to go down that path yet. Exactly. Yeah.

[00:30:05] Ray Grant: We didn’t. Yeah.

[00:30:07] Jeff Williams: Yeah. We, we have an ankle monitor on Rob. He’s that important. Never would’ve been successful kidnapping. Um, So one other thing that you mentioned there that, that I think is super important.

[00:30:22] I mean, you know, so p people have this perception of salesforce.com of, oh, you have to, you know, do this now and the other, and let’s be honest. You do that. Really what this business has been built upon, you do have to kind of find somebody to make you successful with it. Uh, I think what a lot of people don’t, you know, always understand until they have a chance to work with us, is that we aren’t, you know, a Salesforce consultant.

[00:30:49] Like we don’t, you know, sort of just kind of implement you and move on. And we have. Built a, you know, a product, right? Like that is all of that stuff already, right? So it’s like, well, let’s not take the, you know, ILS. Software development kit and figure out how to, you know, build an app for you that, that does this thing.

[00:31:10] Like, that’s done, that’s ready, you install that from the app store. Now we take it and, and kind of really configure it and, and specialize it for you. And, you know, people say like, oh, it’s like the nine, the last five, 10%, you know, 90% complete out the box, whatever. We, we stick with it. So, you know, we support it, but we don’t just sort of leave you, we don’t change our phone number.

[00:31:32] I did early in my career have a Salesforce, implementation and the project manager of the folks we worked with changed their phone number, uh, made it very difficult to get ahold of them. We don’t do that. But you know, that this perception of, of that quote unquote need for Salesforce is real.

[00:31:52] And that’s the problem we solve with the product and with our team and stuff. So people sort of feel like, oh, well you, you know, you have to have this sort of, you know, implementation and all this stuff. And that really what they’re saying is like, you have to constantly go like, you know, hire. The person and Pam, all these services and you know, they may not have the industry context.

[00:32:13] So it’s clear in these conversations that that’s, you know, not, not being super successful for people. That’s not at i’ll, obviously how we roll, I wanna make that super clear, but I wanna flip it even more and say that’s one of the things that makes Salesforce great, is if you thread that needle from that, you know, kind of perception that people have.

[00:32:35] Cool. You’re, you’re there, but you’re never really done. That’s the power of Salesforce, right? Like 18 months from now, your investment team wants to take on like this sort of new initiative, or you’re, you know, you’ve added some capacity and resources into the IR team and they want to, you know, kind of get really.

[00:32:54] Creative about a new fundraiser, something like that. The power of Salesforce is, is that’s really where it is. And so I, I, I guess, you know, said simply, I want to change that narrative from have to, to like get to, or there’s an opportunity to, you have access to that because that’s all really stuff that’s like less kind of defensive and, and more like going on the offensive and, and taking advantage of the.

[00:33:19] Ray Grant: Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, I think you’ll, you’ll hear for some other players in the market, you know, that, you know, trying to take the opposite angle, right? And if you’ve ever used Salesforce or any other crm, you realize it doesn’t matter how you brand it, you’re managing a relational database in a complex reporting system, you know?

[00:33:41] And so the, the only difference, you know, being on the Salesforce platform is that you. You know, more flexibility, more outta the box integrations, you know, ability to customize to whatever extent you want it to be customized. And, you know, obviously some firms are great with the product right outta the box from us.

[00:34:00] Others, like right now, interesting anecdote as we’re working with a, a big impact investor out of DC and they’ve been a client. You know, seven, eight years. And when they first came on, they really, you know, the nature of the impact investing side is they had lots of custom metrics, custom ways they measure things, different deal structures that we had to build in.

[00:34:23] And our product could easily support all of that. We built in lots of those customizations, complex approval processes for all their deals. Now they’re reevaluating and saying, our, our, our business is a lot simpler now. We just want to go back to sort of what you guys have outta the box. And so we’re kind of just stripping out some of that old automation and just giving them what, you know, any other sort of, private equity investor would have.

[00:34:47] And they’re like, this is great. You know, I’m like, yeah, well we’re just kind of, uh, rollback some of that stuff and you guys are good to go and all your data’s already in there. So thought that was kind of an interesting client evolution that illustrates that a little. That

[00:35:03] Jeff Williams: is interesting. I don’t, I, so I didn’t know that, number one.

[00:35:06] And there’s just something about hearing that, that’s like, oh, that’s really cool. It’s like a flex up and down a little bit. Yeah. Well, and, and I think that’s, you know, one of the differences of, of kind of, you know, taking the third party implementer, you know, model is like there isn’t the sort of foundational product to flex back down.

[00:35:25] And so, you know, that, that, that’s a total, that, that’s like not even a thing. You couldn’t really do that. Like you’d have to go sort of back to like the Salesforce out of the box, I guess. But that too, again, to demonstrate the point is like still now a gap from what the sort of basics of people in this market, would actually need.

[00:35:45] Interesting. All right, ma’am. Well, uh, listen, I’m most appreciative for many things, obviously, for you coming on and, um, helping sort this out. I, I’ve had a couple little light bulb moments. That’s what I love about hosting this podcast. Um, So that’s been really cool for me. So thank you for that. But, you know, thanks for being, you know, a sort of key part of, of this business as we built it.

[00:36:08] Um, Remember, you know, when you first came on, Knew a little bit of your story and, and mostly from, from that point till now, it’s just been sort of accolades and promotions and, you know, your team loves you to death. You’re an amazing leader, so thank you for, you know, uh, not just coming to work here, but like for, you know, coming to work here and, and like being a part of this and, and not, you know, sort of just taking it as a job.

[00:36:33] It’s been awesome to work with.

[00:36:35] Ray Grant: Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you for, for building it and letting me be a part of it and, and this, and you are very much a part of that client facing team, and we lean on you and, and couldn’t do it without you, so I

[00:36:48] Jeff Williams: appreciate that. All right, buddy. Here’s the many more. Thanks again for coming on and, look forward to, well bring it back.

[00:36:54] I, I’m hoping this episode. Yeah.

[00:36:57] Ray Grant: You know? Yeah. I’d love to be a recurring

[00:36:58] Jeff Williams: guest. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We’ll just pencil mine that. Now what what’s gonna happen is people are, You know, better understand this and we’re gonna have even more stories to tell ’em. We’re just gonna have to keep, you know, passing ’em along.

[00:37:08] Cuz this is really the magic of, uh, of the ALP via brand. Right? Right. Like, I’ve been close to the products, I’m very proud of them. Um, But the reality is, is like there’s absolutely no question that, that, it’s really about the team and the culture of this company. And that’s, that’s the brand. And it’s a combination of things, but, this is the, this is the one that’s magic and other people don’t.

[00:37:29] Ray Grant: Absolutely. Let’s do it again.

[00:37:32] Jeff Williams: All right, buddy. Appreciate it. We’ll talk soon.