Episode #2 - Liz: Biotech Customer Success Manager
I’m Kristen. An HR and Recruitment leader in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Interview Project is a Podcast Series where I get to interview candidates for a job, but there’s no actual job…. Wait, what? Instead of actually applying to a real job, we use the opportunity as a tool to provide feedback… you know? The thing most Recruiters are hard pressed to give to candidates.
In this podcast episode, I’ll be interviewing Liz, and experienced Business Development, Account Management, and Customer Success professional in Chicago. Here’s some additional content if you want to follow along with the visuals.
From Liz:
“I'd been connected with Kristen on LinkedIn for some time before seeing her post about The Bossy Sauce's Job Interview Project and I thought, ‘What an exciting idea!’ As someone who works in staffing and resourcing, I do my best to provide honest, quality candidate feedback to those who go through the interview process so that they can improve and grow as an interviewee. However, this isn't always the case. I hope that everyone tuning in gets some key takeaways from this and is able to improve their own interview game as a result!”
The Job Description
Role Summary: Customer Success Manager
XYZ company believes in putting our customers at the center of everything we do. To keep up with our rapidly expanding growth, we are building a team of seasoned Customer Success Managers with experience in Life Sciences, who can help grow the organization, develop our processes, and drive execution.
Our Customer Success Management (CSM) team works alongside our Professional Services, Product, and Sales teams to help customers maximize the value of their investments. CSMs will work directly with our customers, and develop strategies and tactics to drive adoption, promote usage of new features, recommend best practices, and ensure there is ongoing expansion of our product offerings within our customer base. CSMs will know how to identify areas of improvement, and how to work with customers and internal teams to drive progress on customer initiatives.
Responsibilities
Build and maintain productive relationships with key stakeholders at our customer’s organizations
Align and collaborate with Sales on renewal forecasts and up-sell strategies, with a focus on customer retention
Define and implement customer lifecycle touch points, including business reviews, customer sat surveys, reference programs, case studies, and others
Develop programs to drive adoption and retention of XYZ company solutions
Create goals, action plans, playbooks, and key metrics based on each customer’s objectives, and review progress on a regular basis with the customer and with CS leadership
Demonstrate and promote the latest features and capabilities XYZ is releasing and ensure customers are utilizing key product features to maximize success
Identify client challenges and risk areas, develop solutions, and execute proactively to avoid churn, collaborating with other teams including Support, Services, Product, and Sales, as required
Lead strategic, cross-functional initiatives such as customer journey mapping, voice-of-customer, and product feedback sessions to drive a seamless customer experience and foster a company-wide culture of Customer Success
Partner with Solutions Consulting and Product Marketing to determine how to define, drive, and demonstrate customer ROI
Job Requirements
BS or M.Sc. in Biology, Molecular Biology, Genetics, Biotechnology, Bioengineering or similar Life Science field is ideal with 2+ years experience in Life Sciences, ideally in a lab or research setting
5+ years of Customer Success, Professional Services, or Consulting experience in a SaaS software environment
Deep understanding of Life Sciences R&D processes and scientific concepts. Must be able to immediately interface and build trust with Scientists, as well as Director & VP Level Business and IT leaders in top-20 Biotech and Pharma companies
Strong project management skills and the ability to influence without authority, hands on enterprise implementation experience strongly preferred
Excellent communication skills, able to communicate confidently and concisely in verbal, written and presentation formats to all types of audiences
Self-motivated, independent, adaptable, and can thrive in a fast-paced startup environment
The Resume
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Company: Faux Pharma
Business Development Manager, R&D Technology, Chicago, IL 06/2019 – Present
Technology teams across the life sciences industry spanning West Coast, Midwest, East Coast, and Canadian markets
Responsible for new business development, account management and maintenance, and account expansion
Serves as main point of contact for clients, liaison between client and internal recruitment teams
Responsible for negotiating contract terms, developing proposals and presentations, SOW creation, and establishment of resource planning per project needs
Provides market expertise based on skill set and geographic location
Brand development company presence – represented Faux Pharma at national industry conferences including Drug Information Association (DIA) in June 2019
Sales Training Subject Matter Expert (SME)
Areas of expertise include: Preclinical, Clinical, & Commercial Systems, Informatics, Data Sciences, Program/Project Management, Business Analysis, Software Development (full stack), Business Intelligence, DevOps, Predictive Analytics, Validation, Change Management, and Corporate/Enterprise IT
Business Development Accomplishments:
Brought in 11 new clients with fully executed agreements in a 6-month timeframe
Top 1 New Spread Gain (Company-wide) ($3,768.65 in weekly spread added) – March 2020
Top 5 Net Spread Gain (Company-wide) ($1,105.77 in weekly spread added) – January 2020
Top 2 Net Spread Gain (Company-wide) ($4,193.43 in weekly spread added) – December 2019
Broke over 7 new accounts in a 12-month timeframe
Faux Pharma LLC
Recruitment Team Lead, Chicago, IL 06/2018 – 05/2019
Responsible for leading a team of four recruiters to achieve quarterly metrics both individually and as a team, covering West Coast and Midwest markets
Responsible for internal employee recruitment, hiring, training, and managing (setting goals, managing metrics, holding meetings to discuss struggles/progress, etc.)
Collaborated with Director of Recruiting on employee retention, internal operations, and process improvement
Career Liaison for Consultants, Direct Hire Placements, and Outsourced Projects in a wide spectrum of disciplines including: R&D Technology and Systems, IT, Data Sciences, Engineering, Clinical Research & Operations, Drug Development, Project Management, Biometrics, Data Management, QA/QC, Regulatory Affairs, and Validation and Compliance
Responsible for performing user acceptance testing (UAT) and evaluating new recruiting tools and technologies as a member of a small pilot test team (1 of 10 employees selected due to sourcing abilities and skill set knowledge)
Determined usability and profitability for company investments in new technologies aimed to improve and streamline company-wide recruitment processes
Additionally, responsibilities also include those listed below in Level III, II, and I roles
National Recruiter (Level III), Northbrook/Chicago, IL 12/2018 – 05/2019
National Recruiter (Level II)/Recruitment Mentor, Northbrook, IL 01/2018 – 12/2018
Selected to mentor new internal recruitment hires
Promoted to Recruiter III in December of 2018
National Recruiter (Level I), Northbrook, IL 06/2017 – 01/2018
Responsible for full recruitment life cycle including sourcing, interviews, on-boarding, career management, termination of employment when necessary, etc. for life sciences and clinical research for both MSP and Direct/Retail client base within pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, healthcare technology, and CRO industries
Specialized skill sets included Research & Development, Clinical Research, Data Management, Pharmacovigilance/Drug Safety, Regulatory Affairs, Quality, etc.
Promoted to Recruiter II in January of 2018
Recruitment Accomplishments:
Achieved 100% to goal each quarter since starting at Planet Pharma
Achieved 54% of annual goal for 2019 by April (goal of 24 placements yearly as Recruiter III) before switching into BD role
275% to goal for April 2019 (goal of 2 placements monthly as Recruiter III)
Achieved 169% of annual goal for 2018 (goal of
267% to goal for September 2018 (goal of 1.5 placements monthly as Recruiter II)
400% to goal for June 2018 (goal of 1.5 placements monthly as Recruiter II)
Top 5 net spread gain for June 2018 (company-wide) ($1531.95 in weekly spread added)
Q2 2018 Contest Winner for Recruitment Tier (Recruiter II)
Consistently listed within the Top 5 for LinkedIn Response Rate each month (averaging 60% response rate and 130+ InMails sent)
EDUCATION
University of Iowa,
B.S., Biology, Genetics, and Biotechnology (2017)
TECHNICAL SKILLS
Microsoft Office Suite, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, ZoomInfo, LinkedIn Recruiter, CareerBuilder Recruitment Edge, Monster Resume Search, Bullhorn, Arya AI Recruiting Technology, Indeed Resume Search, Newton ATS, JobVite ATS, Workday, Fieldglass, DocuSign
