UJET recently strengthened its Executive Leadership Team with Vasili Triant joining as Chief Business Officer. The SalesTechStar team had a quick QnA round with him to ask him about his new role and plans, and to also draw some insights and tips that can help businesses deal with the current Covid-19 pandemic better.
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Hi Vasili!
Tell us about some of the biggest highlights you are most looking forward to in new your role here at UJET?
While I’ve only been at UJET for a short time, I’ve been in the contact center and customer service industry for over two decades. Already, there are a handful of things at UJET that excite me and stand out from others in the industry. First, the product is far beyond any CCaaS product I have seen in the industry. Usually you find decent products, lots of third party augmentations and what makes one company better than the other is their sales and marketing. Its same old same old… however at UJET the product is already far beyond what is out there and its the sales and marketing which is the opportunity for us. What excites me about UJET is that the product is able to meet today where the market is going in the next 3-5 years while the company, and the people all put the customer first.
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Every business leader, especially marketing and sales leader, is taking things one day at a time given the effects of COVID-19. How would you advise teams through these current economic and business challenges?
Today’s economic and business climate is unlike anything we’ve seen before. It is important to recognize it, vocalize it, and lean into it. In times of crisis, it is easy to solely focus on short-term fixes and quick wins. However, companies that are able to balance that with a long-term approach to customer and employee safety, experience, and assistance will be the ones who come out of this on top. We will come out of this and leaders have to be ready to be more empathetic to the location and work environment of their teams. This may forever change the balance of how we physically interact – be aware, balance it and take advantage of the ability to be versatile to adapt.
Besides sales and marketing, what advice would you share with small to mid-size tech companies that can help ensure better business continuity through these times?
Start identifying ways to digitize your business and begin investing in digital transformation. Now more than ever, cloud technologies can help reduce operational costs, make it easier for teams to share information with one another, and most importantly, make it so employees can safely work from anywhere without compromising their health or productivity. Everyone is mobile now – find the ways to connect to your customers where they are – and digitization can do just that!
Any specific ideas on managing a remote team during this time? How is UJET ensuring a streamlined process during this entire COVID-19 pandemic phase?
As someone who has worked remote for years now, one of the things I have found to be most effective is something as simple as making all meetings, video meetings. It might not seem like a big deal, but having your video on can go a long way in helping individuals and teams feel more connected, inspired, and driven to come together, collaborate, and ensure that even during unique times they can still do great things. Also, don’t afraid to just be yourself. We all have environments at home where dogs or kids may be running around – don’t apologize for it – instead integrate it. Have your daughter who is bugging you at your office door to come into the video and say hi… Say who your dog’s name is… Personalize your communications because one thing is for sure – we are all becoming more unified as a people.
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What are some of the must-have sales technologies or other tools that teams should be using during a challenging environment such as the present?
At this point, everyone likely understands the value of having a great CRM, but now, having a tight CRM integration is more important than ever. Second, having the proper security tools, protocols, and certifications in place are critical to protecting corporate and customer data now that teams have moved into remote settings. Password managers, two-factor authentication, and ensuring operating systems and configurations are up-to-date are just some of the steps that individuals and teams can take to ensure that data is protected no matter where they are. Last, having a great collaboration tool to message and communicate is key – Slack or Teams is a productivity tool you can’t be without.
What are some of the top things that sales, marketing, and business leaders should be focusing on more during this time when creating goals for their remote teams?
Explore ways that you can weave personal growth into the goals you set for your employees and your teams. If employees are interested in exploring different parts of the business or learning new skill sets, give them the space and flexibility to do so. It’ll not only make them feel better and more confident about yourself as a manager and the team as a whole, but will likely be reflected in their work as well.
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Could you share your thoughts on how you see the rest of the year playing out for tech given what’s already happening globally?
COVID-19 has fast tracked the transition to cloud software and technologies. Prior to the crisis, the cloud was viewed by some as an immediate investment and a majority others as a nice-to-have. Now, everyone is seeing that moving to the cloud is not only essential for navigating this crisis, but will be core to the future success of their business. This presents tech companies with a unique opportunity to lead this charge and be an example to other businesses of how investing in the cloud can help them to not only get back on track, but potentially come out of this crisis in a position of strength and ready to charge in a post-pandemic world.
