Monday Guest Haydar Al-Saad-Y3-W42

Mohammed Alqaq October 14, 2024October 21, 2024

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Get to know Haydar Al-Saad

By: Mohammed Alqaq | October 14, 2024 | Year 3 – Week 42/2024

My name is Haydar Al-Saad, I’m the CEO and Founder of RevSetter, a modern Customer Platform for managing and growing customers. I’ve been in the Customer Success & Account Management space for the better part of the last 15+ years – managing, scaling and growing teams & customers on a global scale. During that time, I’ve had the opportunity to work across markets including North America, LATAM, Europe and the Middle East.

I’m currently based in Dubai after spending the last 12 years in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Outside of work, I spend my time with my wife and three young children, exploring travel, sports and other activities.

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

Enjoy reading this interview

Tell us about your career path?

As mentioned, I’ve been in the CS and GTM space for 15+ years. Initially I started my career in Private Equity managing a team of 10 financial advisors working with corporate and private customers. I decided to make the move over to the tech space to be part of an exciting, growing space.

I started by managing a small team of a few people, and quickly grew my career. Over the next decade, I had the opportunity to manage sales, CS, and AM teams ranging from 10-12 people & $10m ARR up to teams of 200-300 people and $400m+ ARR. I’ve also always loved to innovate and build teams, so outside of my regular “day job”, I also found time to start different entrepreneurial projects. I’ve started two companies – one in real estate and one in healthcare – that had successful exits.

These two passions – Customer Success on one hand and building teams & companies on the other hand – came together a few years ago when I started RevSetter with the vision of changing the way CS, AM and GTM teams use great technology to better manage, retain and grow their customers.

How did you join Customer Success?

I like to say that I have been in customer success long before it was called “customer success”. In my early days as a team lead, the job was to manage and grow customers, ensuring they saw value and success. When I moved over to the tech industry, I initially started on the sales side, but pretty quickly was asked to also work on the account management side, working on expansion and customer growth.

My success there quickly led to me moving into customer success as a Managing Director. The company I worked for at the time viewed Customer Success as a revenue-driving organization – owning both customer health and customer revenue, which made the transition very smooth.

At the end of the day, customer success is all about relationships, creating value and ensuring customers are successful so they want to stay with, and grow, with you. So my path into customer success was there from day 1 based on the work I was doing at the start of my career.

How would you describe the ideal CSM candidate?

For me, customer success is about creating real, tangible customer and business value. So the ideal CSM has traits that can help them do this effectively. They are organized and analytical. They have high business acumen. They are usually very good communicators and can build trust & relationships effectively.

I also think being proactive and comfortable with being uncomfortable are great traits to have for driving customer value & revenue as a CSM.

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

Be proactive! The best CSM are proactive in everything they do. They are proactive with customers: they learn about their customers’ business, the key people and their goals. They think about how to create value for customers and do not just wait for the customer to ask for something.

They work and think ahead. But it doesn’t stop there, it is equally important to be proactive internally, thinking about things like: are you creating great internal relationships and proactively contributing to great culture? The more you do that, the better positioned you will be to help your customers and team.

And lastly, be proactive with your own learning and development. Don’t just settle for the internal training you get. Oftentimes, that won’t be enough. So go out there and learn from others in the space, join great communities like Customer Success Middle East and keep yourself educated throughout your journey in customer success.

Be proactive with your own learning and development.

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

My day-to-day will often look different as someone running a company that is remote-first, with both employees and customers in North America, Europe, and the Middle East.

So while my hours can be long and all over the place at times, I do try to make sure that I’m consistent with what I get done each day. Most days, I will meet with my leadership team as well as with the lead product & engineering team, and the commercial team. I want to make sure that our work is aligned and on plan, and see where I can help or remove roadblocks for them.

Most days, I will also spend time talking to customers, whether that is potential new customers or existing customers. As someone that has “grown up” as an operator and in CS, I still love to talk to customers and feel there is so much to learn from those conversations as well.

Outside of that, I’ll work on things that I believe will either impact our long-term vision and success like strategic planning, meeting partners etc or can help further our efforts today like engaging with the CS community in different ways.

What makes you feel inspired or motivated?

I really get inspired by working with people and by building something. Which is probably why I love Customer Success and entrepreneurship, and why I’m doing what I’m doing today.

These things are also so connected, people are at the core of customer success and building things translates directly to what we do. So that inspires me a lot. I also get inspired by the possibilities we have ahead in our space and with the emerging technologies around us in general. We have a very exciting time ahead.

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

I think in general, new people I meet are surprised to learn what the people I’m close to already know – that I’m an introvert at heart, living in an extrovert’s world of sales and customer success.

I do think that this is one of reasons I’ve been able to have success throughout the years. The ability to form close relationships, value trust, and enjoy deeper bounds – all hallmarks of introverts – translate really well to customer success and working with people. Combine that with embracing being comfortable with being uncomfortable and you probably get a good recipe for success.

Who do you look up to the most?

I think there are a lot of inspiring people to learn from. My parents are a big source of inspiration for me – they moved across the world, worked hard, had successful careers, have been successful entrepreneurs, and are always building to enable and uplift others around them.

I think in the public arena, some great people to learn from and draw inspiration from are Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx, Mark Cuban, entrepreneur, Jason M. Lemkin, founder SaaStr, and Dharmesh Shah, co-founder HubSpot.

What are your top 3 priorities now?

Right now, many of my priorities are tied to my work at RevSetter and in the overall, global CS community.

One of those top priorities include expanding RevSetter’s presence in the Middle East region, cementing our position as the only global, full-scale Customer Success Platform that is locally in the market, and providing tailored offerings for the Middle East market.

Another top priority is enabling every CS professional and team to get great CS technology to help them do their jobs better. That is why we launched the first and only Freemium version of a full-scale CS Platform so anyone can get access to a free-forever plan. Getting that out to as many people as possible is a top priority.

Lastly, I want to continue to further the Customer Success profession as a whole and the idea of how customers are, and will continue to be, every company’s revenue engine. We do this through different partnerships, collaborations, sponsorships and more, which will continue moving forward.

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

Learn the skills needed to provide real business value to customers. Do this so you can translate that value into customer revenue and in extension company value. These things are all connected.

When you know how to create and show real customer value, then your customers will not only want to renew but also grow the relationship. When you do that effectively at scale it will create tangible, revenue value for your company, which will help you get more responsibilities, career advancements, higher earnings, and a seat at the table.

What’s your favorite book, and why?

My favorite book is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. It is not a business book obviously, but I think it is an inspiring story with many learnings that really apply to business and entrepreneurship. I would highly recommend the book to anyone.

» 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?

No, I have not and I’m not sure when – and if – I will regardless of the success I’m having at any given moment. I’m someone that usually looks ahead, even though I try to live in the present and make sure we celebrate the steps along the way. But in terms of the big picture, I always feel there is more to do, more to achieve and work hard for.

What should I have asked you but didn’t?

I don’t know, the questions are great!

Maybe if there are any fun facts about me? I speak a few languages including English, Arabic and Swedish. I’m a huge Taylor Swift fan, yes count me in as a #swiftie. And I’ve lived in 10+ cities, across 3 continents to date.