Welcome to our ‘Meet the Team’ blog where we introduce you to some of the fantastic, talented people from across Adthena’s search intelligence business.
We’d like you to meet Shar Janetschek, our Customer Success Manager Team Lead. Shar leads the Customer Success team in the US at Adthena and joined in August 2020. Shar is a passionate, enthusiastic, and driven Customer Success Manager with demonstrated experience in Client Engagement and Customer Success within marketing and data analytics.
About the role of a Customer Success Manager
What do you love most about what you do?
Shar: I’ve always wanted to find a role where I could help people solve strategic pain points, in an industry that is fast-paced, and changing with the ever-evolving business landscape. With Search Intelligence and data I have found both of these things.
I really enjoy helping people find out how they can achieve their strategic business objectives, which alongside data and technology, pairs the two things that I love the most.
What’s one of the best things about working at Adthena?
Shar: The size of the company means it has a really welcoming culture. I like that we’re small enough to have friends throughout departments and large enough to have teammates across the globe.
The open culture at Adthena means we’re able to collaborate cross-functionally, which enables us to all build solid relationships with each other.
How do you measure success in your role?
Shar: I know I’ve been successful when a client tells me how they’ve implemented the insights that I’ve discovered for them in the Adthena platform.
Not only are we there to encourage our clients to use the Adthena platform, but we’re also there to be a resource, almost an extension of their team. So when they do find value in the things that we’re able to offer them, I find a lot of personal success in that.
What is the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Shar: One piece of advice that is really useful for a Customer Success Manager (CSM) is to remember that: “You will always know more than the client.”
As a CSM, you are the ‘product expert’ and you feel like you always need to have the right answers. However, we sometimes face very tough questions on the spot that we may not know the precise answer to. It’s always good to bring that question back to the wider team so that everyone can learn from it, and then go back to the client with further information once you’ve had a chance to dig into it and discuss it with fellow experts.
“You will always know more than the client.”
What do you enjoy doing when you are not working?
Shar: Well, recently, I’ve been trying to become a reader. I haven’t been reading as much as I would have liked in the past. So I’m currently reading Atomic Habits by James Clear for the Adthena book club
We have a number of clubs across Adthena for different topics of personal interest (cooking, running, etc), which you can join and are a great opportunity to get to know colleagues from other teams better.
As an Adthenian we live by four values, which one resonates with you the most?
Shar: Professionally, the value of ‘Get Shit Done’ resonates with me the most. I am really a doer and a go-getter. So when I see something that looks like it needs to get done, I will strategically prioritize and hit the ground running and make sure it gets done, or I will find the resources that I need to make sure that it gets changed.
The beauty of working at a smaller company is that your voice gets heard. So when myself or one of my team discovers an area for improvement, we are free to go ahead and implement the changes. Of course, centric to our roles are our clients, and we’re always getting shit done for them!
Freedom with Responsibility is another value I embody. Currently, I’m working from the UK, although my role is in the US, I still ensure I am collaborating with my team, clients, and management. It really does help to maintain a healthy work-life balance.
Tell us a surprising or a fun fact about you.
I have all 50 state capitals in the U.S. memorized!
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Take a look at our current vacancies for Customer Success Managers at Adthena here. If you’re interested in joining our Customer Success team and would like to find out more, please reach out to me at josh.mzirahi@adthena.com
