Our 'Humans of Wise-Sync' are the super-skilled and passionate ninjas behind the scenes, the warriors that champion to put our customers above and beyond, to enable one seamless sync after the next - the A1 team that makes the dream work. Next up, meet our US-based Customer Success Manager, Sarah!
Meet Sarah
Q: What attracted you to the role, and to Wise-Sync?
Sarah: Overall, since I've been in the MSP space for a while, or I guess you could call it the technology service provider space, I was already aware of Wise-Sync and Wise-Pay as a solution, and I've always thought it was a really great product; I'd heard great things about the service, and so I already believed in it - that's so important to me.
I guess that's what really drew me to Wise-Sync; it was the ability to solve such big problems for partners - there's so much innovation in the product that's never been done before.
And as far as my CSM (Customer Service Manager) role specifically, I really like interacting with partners everyday -
Q: And what would you say is your favourite part about working at Wise-Sync?
Sarah: I really love working with our partner base, and on the other side of it, I have an awesome team behind me that's really supportive - it's not just me servicing customers, it's the whole team, and I really believe in the product and the solution we're providing. And of course, I really like the people we work with, it's all super fun!
Q: How do you see the future of Wise-Sync and Wise-Pay?
Sarah: I think I like that's it's kind of unknown, I mean, it's very clear what we're working toward because we use EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) right, but we're ultimately solving a problem for something much bigger than this - and I love that.
Q: In bringing greater financial efficiency to our customers through the integrated solution that we provide, how would you say that customer success journey is personally rewarding for you to see?
Sarah: I come from a family where everyone's an entrepreneur; everyone owns a company (except for me and one other family member). Having personally seen the need for financial efficiency upfront, and knowing what kind of time sacrifices are involved, either on behalf of the business owner, or part of their team; being able to then bring that financial efficiency is actually really personal to me. I know the kind of impact that's going to have at home, the kind of information that they need in order to make decisions moving forward, so it's really personal, and it is really rewarding.
I was fortunate to go on family vacations. On these vacations, I would often see the family processing invoices and payroll while the kids were taking a nap. I'm really fortunate to have had that experience and to see what it's like to run a business.
And just to be clear, none of my family are in the technology space, they're all in different sectors of the market but regardless, it's really cool because I know what a big impact having financial efficiency makes in any company.
Q: Having grown up in such a business-oriented environment, what would you then find most rewarding about working with one-man MSPs and smaller businesses, whom form a significant part of our customer base? How would you comment on the succession rate that you're seeing?
Sarah: It's super rewarding to see that. There's a book called Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine, and it's the story of a business owner and basically automating his business in general; it's a different way of looking at accounting -
The cool thing about MSPs, is that the size of them doesn't dictate the impact - there could be one person in an office, or it could be 20 people in an office, and they could still be what keeps a whole community up and running. So, it's a big deal -
I love our partner space, because usually the people I'm working with, at some point, have done every role in the company and so this is one more thing that they can automate and streamline, and ultimately, provide a better service to their customers; there's not this back-and-forth of being paid, we can just put it on file and take care of it, and it's a better experience for their customers.
Our customers are really important because they keep whole communities going. Technology is behind everything, so whether it's a football game and making sure people can get in via tickets, or restaurants (there's a lot of our partners that are behind point of sale products), or a school system and making sure everyone can go remote... they're just really powerful, and they impact whole communities.
Q: How do you feel about our company culture and values?
Sarah: The best part is that everything is really clear. As far as our metrics of success, what our future success looks like, and where we're going, - it's all there, I just love that everything's super clear -
And that's one of the reasons why I decided to join Wise-Sync, the values (Believe, Engage, Collaborate, Innovate, Own It) really align well with what I personally believe in.
Q: Are there any motivational resources or icons that have led and inspired you to pursue the role that you're in now?
Sarah: Aside from Profit First, which is a book I really love -
I love that every day is different, and that every business that we interact with is different to a certain degree (even though they're all usually in the technology space, they're still different; they're solving different problems and they have different customers), and I get to work with people and solve problems - that saying still stands today, even years later!
Q: What does the term 'customer success' mean to you?
Sarah: It's a long-term relationship; it's implementing a true invoice and payment solution but it's also a partnership moving forward that we're constantly evolving to make sure that they're getting true financial efficiency all the way through.
Q: What would be your advice when guiding a potential customer who's looking at Wise-Sync and Wise-Pay?
Sarah: I once heard, "You should set up your business today with what you want it to be five years down the road." So, today, you can manually create an invoice, you don't necessarily have to have all of your agreements set up in ConnectWise or your contracts set up in Autotask, you absolutely can do it manually but where your business should be in a year, in three years, in five years - is worth setting up the automation today (when you only have a few items), and then you can scale.
It's about setting up your business today for how you want it to run five years from now when you're going to hand off the billing to someone else, or when you're going to have an accounting team, it's about making those choices today.
Q: As we know, the two main goals for any MSP are to scale to sell, or scale to merge, and so surrounding M&As, what would you consider Wise-Sync's main role in preparing an MSP for that endgame?
Sarah: Sure, I've been apart of several mergers and acquisitions - it's a huge payoff but it's definitely an intense process, but how much more leverage will you have coming to the table knowing that you don't have accounts receivables?
Instead, you're cash flow positive from day one of the month, and you're not only collecting before your vendors are billing you, but there's already that expectation that your customers are going to pay and that it's going to happen ahead of time; they don't even have to worry about it.
You're just going to have so much more leverage in that discussion coming to the table with being so cash flow positive and so automated; you're not acquiring a human, you're acquiring a process, and that's what's really powerful about it.
Q: If someone told you to relocate to a single location of your choice, what would be your top five picks for consideration?
Sarah: I would live in either Salt Lake City, Utah, Southern Utah, Tampa's always in the picture (because that's where my family is, and they are everything), San Diego, and part of me is unrealistic, but...
