Monday Guest Funmilayo Ojeleye

Mohammed Alqaq January 18, 2023January 30, 2023

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Get to know Funmilayo Ojeleye

By: Mohammed Alqaq | January 23, 2023

Funmilayo Ojeleye is a Customer Success Manager, Founding Member at CS Ladies- a community for Women in Customer Success and she is currently the Customer Success & Account Management, Lead at VerifyMe Nigeria- a leading Pan-African Identity tech company. She was recently recognized by SuccessHacker as a 2022 EMEA Top 10 Customer Success Thought Leaders to Watch out for.

She is a firm believer that Customer Success should be a company-wide operating philosophy for any organization looking to gain, retain and grow the value of their customers, while building a Sterling product.

Funmi is passionate about driving growth and success for businesses and individuals and in addition to being a CSM, she is a personal development and career coach for teenagers and young professionals.

She enjoys innovating and volunteering for Social Impact causes. In the last 8 years, She has worked with NGOs such as Beyond the Classroom Foundation, LifeHub Network, and Global Light Initiative, among others. She particularly loves mentoring young people and has had the privilege of serving 250+ teenagers in the last 8 years. In 2018, she founded Royal Gem Girls’ Network which provides coaching and mentoring for teenage girls.

Customer Success should be a company-wide operating philosophy for any organization looking to gain, retain and grow the value of their customers, while building a Sterling product..

We asked Funmilayo to take us through a journey telling us about her career path, how she spends her workday, what advice she can share with someone starting as a customer success manager, and many other questions.

Enjoy reading this interview

Tell us about your career path?

I started off my career in 2017 as a business development and project management associate at a Brand consulting and Human Capital development firm.

Thereafter, I joined one of the foremost commercial banks in Nigeria as a customer service executive and then in 2020, I pivoted to the Tech industry and started my journey to Customer Success.

How did you join Customer Success?

During the Covid-19 lockdown, I was reflecting on my career goals and the next challenge I wanted to take on in line with my passion, skills, and mission statement of “driving growth and success for businesses and individuals”.

I then had a light-bulb moment and thought of “Customer Success”. At the time, I had worked in a variety of customer-facing roles but didn’t know customer success was a “thing”. So I ran a google search, and voila, I saw that Customer Success was already a global phenomenon.

After going through a series of resources I found via google, I took some online courses, connected with CS professionals on LinkedIn, joined relevant CS communities, and shortly after, I landed a new role that officially kicked off my career in Customer Success.

It’s been quite an exciting journey!

How would you describe the ideal CSM candidate?

My ideal CSM candidate is one who is empathetic, emotionally intelligent, an excellent communicator, enjoys solving problems (and can come up with creative ideas for doing so), has business acumen, is easily adaptable and open to learning new things.

What one piece of advice would you give to someone just starting out as a Customer Success Manager?

I might have more than one piece. 😊

I’d say, first, clarify your “WHY” for choosing CS as a profession, go all out in search of relevant knowledge and join a CS community.

Thankfully, we have so many supportive CS communities out there.

Clarify your “WHY” for choosing CS as a profession!

Can you take us on a journey describing what your workday looks like?

Here’s a snapshot of the main elements of my workday; managing high-touch enterprise accounts and a growing team of CSM/AMs within a fast-paced and dynamic tech startup.

Internal Meetings/Calls: This could include calls and chats with my team members, presenting to C-Level Execs, sync with cross-functional internal teams such as Sales, Marketing, and Finance, collaborating with Product and engineering teams for new product releases or bug fixes, and so on.
Proactive and strategic work: Research, developing playbooks, proposals, and reports, digging into Data regarding customers’ health and performance of the book of business, following up to fulfill customer’s projects, etc.
Customer engagements: Onboarding calls, customer objectives reviews, product training/webinars, and responding to customers’ queries via email or other communication channels.
And on some days, there’s the one we don’t quite plan for; firefighting!
I also make out time within the day to learn something new as it relates to CS, tech, or general business and professional topics.

What makes you feel inspired or motivated?

Knowing that I’m making the world a better place, one successful customer, thriving business and a happy individual at a time. I’m also inspired by the success stories of others, and I intentionally follow the journey several successful men and women to draw inspiration.

Thirdly, it always gives me joy to help, and I feel a sense of pride and satisfaction when I solve problems or bring up ideas that are valuable for my customers and organizations.

I must also mention that receiving kind feedback from a customer or colleague always makes my day and motivates me.

What’s one thing that people are generally surprised to find out about you?

Most people get surprised to find out that I studied Industrial Design in the University. Of course, what I’m doing today doesn’t have a direct correlation to Industrial Design but there are lots of skills I picked up in school that I still use on my job today.

Who do you look up to the most?

My Mom. She has been my role model since I was a young girl. She taught me to care, give, serve and to always see myself as a global asset.

What are your top 3 priorities now?

Designing customer education initiatives and pushing adoption for the new products recently launched at my organization
Creating a space that connects young professionals with learning resources, mentorship, and opportunities.
Pursuing a second degree in business management and enhancing my knowledge of customer experience strategy within the Tech ecosystem.

What advice would you give to Customer Success Managers to grow and develop their careers?

It helps to have an idea of your career goals as this will help you to know what exactly you need to focus on. With regards to goals, let me quickly add that it’s important to give yourself permission to evolve and endeavor to follow where your heart leads.

Also, understand what being a valuable CSM at your organization means and focus on delivering on your internal KPIs. Always be thinking like a manager even if you’re an individual contributor, always be learning and find ways to share your knowledge with others in the CS community.

Always be thinking like a manager even if you’re an individual contributor, always be learning and find ways to share your knowledge with others in the CS community.

What’s your favorite book, and why?

This might be quite hard to pick because I’m a lover of books.

I’ll go with “How to win friends and influence people” by Dale Carnegie. I got so many practical tips that took my natural relationship-building skills to a whole new level. A highly recommended read for everyone.

» Check out the 10 Books a CSM should read to advance and improve their skills.

Have you had your “I’ve made it” moment yet?

Yes, I’ve had a couple of those moments but there’s always more to aspire to; so, I’m constantly pushing myself to believe bigger and achieve greater.

What should I have asked you but didn’t?

Perhaps what I love the most about being a CSM?

I’d say being a multi-talented and versatile individual, Customer Success offers me an exciting opportunity to wear multiples hats and utilize the variety of my skills and strengths on a day-to-day.

Where can people go to find out more about you?

LinkedIn is a great place, and Ladies in the CS profession are also welcome to follow