✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽 Knowledge Share

Hi everyone, welcome to another episode of Black History Month for Afroflare UK. Just to introduce myself, I'm Chad.

I look after the Sub-Saharan Africa market for Cloudflare from a commercial perspective and I'm also the Afroflare leader in the UK office.

And for this Black History Month, what we've done is arranged a program of events that covers external speakers as well as some internal speakers to share their knowledge and share their skills with everyone watching.

I would like to introduce Stephen Thompson.

He's one of our star BDRs, Business Development Representatives.

I don't want to steal his thunder, he's going to explain to us a little bit about what he does.

But his skillshare topic today is how to build relationships online.

We think it's super relevant, especially with the pandemic happening today.

How do you, you know, use that skill in today's climate? And Stephen's going to help us, you know, get more knowledge and learn more about that.

So Stephen, thank you for joining.

So could you just briefly introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about what you do?

Hi everyone, lovely to kind of be here and to be speaking with you today.

I'm Stephen Thompson. I've been part of the BDR team here for now approximately four years at the end of this month.

It's a very proud achievement of mine and I'm delighted to kind of be part of this organization and able to impart some of the things that I've learned across my time that I can bring to the organization.

It's a wonderful opportunity to be able to speak to people within the sphere that will listen.

I kind of help and educate my colleagues as well in the BDR team.

We're a team of 49 within the UK and we expand and evangelize about Cloudflare and our services.

And we're the first point of call that the customer actually interacts with.

So it's important, I really do feel it's important for us to kind of get across our personalities and to show kind of the richness of our company and that is mirrored throughout the chain as we introduce more and more individuals.

It's proud, like I say, I'm proud to represent the company and I take that very seriously and that's one of the first indications of how we communicate with our customers.

Fantastic, that's certainly an important role especially as the company grows and you know has a more visible presence in the markets.

I think just to start off with, I wanted to understand what brought you to Cloudflare and how does your role help customers?

So you know as I said we are the first port of call when a customer fills in a form, picks up his telephone or as an existing customer kind of reaches out to understand more about Cloudflare and our services and thus we play quite an important role within the organization and it's our point to articulate our solutions and our functionalities as well as we can to be able to truly kind of understand the customer needs.

But as we go into you know our further conversation, I think it's very important to also recognize that we listen to our customers and listen to their needs, their objectives and to be able to truly understand kind of where to direct them within our solution portfolio.

I was once told by a former boss that we have two ears and one mouth and we need to use them in that order.

So yeah that's always stuck with me since I came into this wonderful industry and it's served me well so far.

So on that point of listening, what kind of advice would you kind of give and where does the skill of listening you know begin?

So it begins in listening and we do a lot of internal training with regards to this to try and help those that have a natural ability to develop them further and those that don't have the ability to kind of begin to learn in their journey of how to articulate and it's very important from the outset.

We help to train all of our business development reps to be able to ask the key sort of pertinent questions.

That's key really is asking kind of the right questions to be able to help a customer to unlock their requirement in more detail and it's asking sort the good open-ended questions without trying to be too intrusive but to be trying to be understanding and cognizant of a customer's needs.

As the Cloudflare portfolio has grown each call is excitingly different.

So you know when I first started the calls were certainly with regards to our content delivery and to our mitigation of DDoS but actually like I say we've expanded our services like I said each and every single call can be different.

So it's truly important to listen to the customer's requirements and to try and understand their kind of basic need and to be able to direct them further.

Yes so I think what I can certainly gather and observe from what you're saying it's certainly about having that empathetic approach and asking the right questions and then unlocking those you know with those questions unlocking the answers that allows you to listen to a more in-depth kind of feedback on the requirements which you then kind of build on from there.

It's true and I think even in times like this in this global pandemic that we're currently experiencing it's made that even more important as more businesses become reliant or more heavily reliant on their online presence and securing and protecting their properties but also accelerating their services and making sure that all of their online visitors customers and clients have that ability to access their services and that's become a key kind of concern.

So during the pandemic at the outset with the wonderful services and facilities that Cloudflare released we did as much as we could to kind of evangelize that to customers to be without the prospect of a sale as well just being the good Cloudflare citizens that we are providing for example our access solution for free right the way through to our enterprise level products to be able to enable that for customers to be able to use and evangelizing that was quite nice because we got a lot of customer feedback.

I'm always delighted to receive customer feedback good bad or indifferent but in this circumstance it was really positive because we've got a lot of customers who saw the need for that service at that particular time and the fact we enabled it complementary was very good to be able to deliver that kind of good news to customers who were reaching out for solutions as everyone went to be working from home and to that point I mean it's with people working at home as human beings I think it's very important to connect as a human being to another individual as well so ahead of all of my professional calls that I've made since the pandemic started it's always nice to connect as a human just to try and find out how that individual is how they're coping what their situation is like it's a tremendous degree of empathy because we're all going through something which is unique at the moment and we've all had to adapt and it's how we can speak about that adaptability which I find makes the conversation more comfortable as well remembering that we're talking from one human to another yeah so I think you know just while listening to this already some clear you know lessons it's listening asking the right questions and providing a solution and on the topic of the pandemic obviously it's changed everything and trying to adapt from you know doing business in person to online what was what would you say the biggest lesson from that transition and you know how were you able to adapt?

Well the first transition was that we all put our cameras on I've always had the camera on to a certain extent I like to see the whites of people's eyes so to speak and to you know see my face see my personality and to get an understanding of ourselves it's really it's really a shift and a change that we would go from conversing with people over the phone to now people wanting that physical interaction which I think led the drive to the prominence of Zoom of other kind of meeting contexts as well so it's really interesting that opening up the camera and inviting people into kind of your space we have these wonderful backgrounds as well but I've spoken to a lot of customers who are in bespoke offices who are in the child bedroom who are in the lounge in the living room this has all become the new normal so myself we you know we experience challenges with regards to kind of your home working situation so I feel it's inevitable to actually communicate that to human beings to the customers the clients and the prospects I've been speaking to just to try and understand you know what's your situation like my situation is good we will try to make the best of the situation but it's yeah connected with the human being is is good to get that insight to start off with before we we jump into a professional conversation.

Of course and what would you say like was the key skills that you brought from you know before Covid before online and moving into the online space what were the kind of those key skills you know that kind of helped you build relationships online?

Yeah well if we talk a little bit about my background I come from a background of not being in this industry at all.

I came into this wonderful industry in 2012 but my training was very different and I share that with a lot of people in this industry a lot of people didn't train in in this wonderful vocation.

I trained in to be a personal gym instructor so my university degree was with regards to sports science I was quite a proficient sports person in my younger years and it seemed inevitable that I would go into working in that field as well so I didn't necessarily see myself working in laboratory testing people's blood and testing people's physical abilities for the remainder of my career and I although I adore children I didn't think that teaching was a good prospect either so I wanted to give something back and I started off working in a gym based environment and very quickly progressed to personal training so helping people attain their goals and this is really where I cut my teeth I really do think with regards to how I communicate with people we've all done it we've all gone and joined a gym at certain times in the past and they can be wonderfully wonderfully intimidating paces the clangor of metal the sounds of machines the people who absolutely know exactly what they're doing but the truth is it's quite the opposite it's a place full of people who don't know what they're doing and people who are shy timid and nervous despite their kind of wonderful titles which they may bring into the the gym so I saw every individual as a human being I keep referring to that and I keep saying it as well but if you take off a suit an executive tie if you take that all that off the person is just a human being and so I found it my task to kind of engage with them right away from the initial outset the more I understood that person the more I might be able to help them in their terms of their goals aims and aspirations so yeah I found it wonderful wonderfully comforting to to make someone feel comfortable as they come into the gym based environment and to have that that that comfort that they can come back they're not being intimidated by anything so then it really honed it with the personal training and then we've gone on to a key sort of one-to-one and group kind of sessions as well so like I say I've got some notable people I remember working with and one particular individual was a very nervous shy guy would hardly sort of maintain eye contact until I worked out I was asking a few questions and he was a sales manager and he was a European sales manager for a large insurance group and demanded three thousand people but was incredibly shy so I think for myself from that moment on I was no further intimidated by any particular title or level I give the the absolute respect to the individual at the level that they are but they do just like I say again going back to communicating with the human being in scientists to try and find so it's it served me very well the ability to approach people and to feel comfortable talking to people and to find a a common bond and those as we all do we work on those experiences and we we use them and I use that to the highest degree when I'm talking to customers.

Yeah well that's a really fascinating background I think you know certainly when lockdown ends and the pandemic ends I think the gyms are going to be packed so you know it's also quite relevant in that sense but it's really really fascinating like using those analogies because you are right when you're at the gym you're kind of in your your gym kit you're not in you know any suit or any kind of corporate clothing and your title kind of goes out the window and it's just about you know getting into shape or getting healthy and at that point it's a human element you're kind of looking at that human element and connecting with that and making them feel comfortable and you know helping them then achieve that goal right?

Yeah absolutely. So they also come in with an intention of getting a problem solved.

Fascinating and like with that experience taking that into kind of the the space that you're in now like what was that like?

Tell us a little bit about that. Oh the transition was tremendously scary.

I came into this wonderful industry in 2012 and so I was talking at the point where you know we were talking about content filtering we were talking about email filtering and we all had juniper fireballs at that point and when I cut my teeth in that world it was I never left the office so I was a telephone warrior as a lot of people were initially at that point and very quickly had to form again sort of miniature rapports with people around the time of their renewals of licenses and letting them know that things were going to expire.

So the good schedule that I did was kind of timing so professionalism is something which you need to be able to to have as well alongside that you don't just have to be a nice person to talk to you have to be a trusted advisor and that's very much what you try to make the person do.

So within our roles as business development reps we have a kind of a broad knowledge of our solutions that we provide and are able to articulate them to an extent where we can bring a customer on board and to be able to understand and want to see the vision that we've set and to be able to expand and develop that further by taking them to kind of the appropriate departments whether that be our account executives whether that be our solutions engineers we're very much a port of call so I try and get the team and myself to understand that we represent Planfair as we are speaking to them and especially as the customer team I can help the customer to view the broader aspects of our entire solutions that we do right the way from our free pro business plans through to the enterprise and some of the exciting services that we have but also to help customers who are in a bit of misdirection and don't know where to kind of look for the appropriate amount of information so you build rapport and build value and build some trust by delivering that and helping the customer.

If they ask a simple question then we can just try and help them with no determination or kind of not upset about helping them in any way shape or form.

Of course, so I think kind of summarizing that piece it's also just about communication skills in a professional environment so building upon all the lessons and skills that you've developed throughout your career it's also about kind of synthesizing that into a professional communication skill.

Yeah very much so. Yeah and just on that kind of topic of communication you obviously a very good public speaker and I've personally been delighted to you know work with you on a few of your calls so I'd love to understand and you know learn a little bit more about your kind of speaking background and experience.

Oh the background experience well we all have heroes and kind of people that we lean on who got us to this point and for myself it's my father, it's my dad.

He is a wonderful speaker, always has been. It's effortless with him and from a very young age polygon coattails I would be at family events, be at social events and my dad would always find a mic.

In the Caribbean culture we refer to it as the MIC, he's the master master controller, the man in charge we call it the MC and he does it like I say effortlessly.

It's a great skill that he's had.

He wasn't particularly coached, he's just become that person.

He very much speaks, I'm incredibly proud of his achievements. He's recently retired as serving as a justice of the peace as well so he was a magistrate and you are voted to be or put forward to be a magistrate by your peers so he's always sat on councils and always driven to push forward and advance the excellence and the service of Caribbean and blacks and people of BAME ethnicity so he sat on various different councils and he's pushed himself beyond his realms.

He's a tradesman by take and yes he's given me that gift as well and it's not just a gift that I just have that I've taken, it's all my siblings we have that as well.

My younger siblings are performers and we're very happy to sort of be on stage and I do have a younger sibling who exceeds my levels of confidence significantly as well so yeah we learned from my dad.

He would talk in front of a great amount of people and he's like I say an upstanding member of the community and it's just made me feel you know to a certain point it's quite comfortable although with the same intimidation having a dad that publicly speaks all the time.

I was crippled with shyness when I was younger and that's something that's hard to believe now but yes indeed I was.

Yeah I would never say that I can't imagine you being a shy person at all.

No I say it but it's very true.

I didn't used to enjoy talking publicly or speaking in front of anyone at all but I think in life as you progress you just we've all been in the scenario where you know there's a an attractive person that you want to talk to and it's your confidence to go and talk to that person and I never had that confidence.

I have a beautiful wife and child now so I finally did pluck up the courage to go and do that but yes it's the ability to to go beyond yourself and I think as human beings and especially all of us at Cloudflare here we're a very clever team, a very educated team but we all push ourselves daily to become better as our platform and the solution that we have and this wonderful company we work for pushes and strives us as well so yeah we're fantastic with the innovation that we do and each as individuals we keep learning and growing as well so I think that it's really important to keep growing as an individual as well and certainly this shyness which I still experience at times certainly you push yourself to become better just to be the best version of yourself that you can be.

Yeah so now like because obviously you don't come across as a shy person at all and your confidence and the way you speak certainly makes me feel comfortable as well so thank you for that.

I want to like now I'm curious about what that first speaking experience was like when you decided or maybe if you're not decided but you were kind of pushed into that situation like you know that first time you had to do it.

Well there was a particular time, university, so with my business degree I did a sports science degree like I said but I also did it combined with human resource management so there was a particular lecture that we had to go to and it was a solitary presentation to an audience of 300 people and it was recorded and up until that point I have never experienced such fear and terror in my life and as I said as a junior I was quite a sportsman and I've actually played football in front of over a thousand people so that was a walk in the park compared to doing this presentation for 10 minutes in front of the 300 people.

Things I know I won't go into it because it's a hideous embarrassment of mine but the thing to note was that it was recorded and I was standing in front of a table and for myself in that 10 minute recording I touched the corner of the table without engaging and looking into the whites of the eyes of the audience I touched the corner of the table over 100 times in 10 minutes so it was it's always been burned into my memory of this was if you if you sink or swim I sank really badly but I learned from that I watched the recording and took the embarrassment and I thought I'm never going to be this bad again so preparation some commitment and kind of you know pushing yourself and like I say underneath you can hide shyness and you can learn to overcome shyness and you can learn to be of value and I think that's kind of a good way to sort of circle around to being of value to your customers as you talk to them and as you talk either having the good education the good access to knowledge of the products or good access to resources to be able to help to follow through with customers when they ask you for requests for information and that's where you begin to become a trusted source and I try and utilize that and utilize that with my social media profiles as well with my LinkedIn we share good messaging about the company and try and make myself a resource that if you are in need of understanding about the Cloudflare solution stack then yeah I could be a person that can help you.

Of course, I love how you always able to tell a story and bring Cloudflare back into it and kind of bring the purpose back into it which is I think also an important skill being able to you know answer the question but also create that that golden thread throughout.

So I guess my next question would be is let's say there's someone like kind of looking at Cloudflare to join the company in maybe a similar role to you you know what advice would you give them in terms of you know what kind of skills would they need to develop within themselves to kind of you know take on the role that you're doing?

Yeah sure we have certain skill sets we look for and strength and confidence is certainly some of the strong ones but arrogance that can be left at the table and we want strong enthusiastic hungry to learn individuals.

I think you have to be like I say in the time that I've been with Cloudflare we've changed which very fast-paced changing company and bringing out products and solutions rapidly so you always need to maintain that curiosity and we thankfully we have a kind of a wonderful enablement team internally that provide those resources that we can continually learn and understand.

So as an individual comes to join Cloudflare they have to know that they're going to be part of a team that is really striving for success because like I say we're the first port of call to reach out and to speak to customers whether they inbound to us or whether we reach out or evangelize to them.

So it's important that you have that confidence you have the charisma and you have the ability to articulate or to speak well about our solutions but also just to be you know a good humble person as well.

There are many solution stacks out there and one thing which is important which our team do is we're actually on a regular basis is to why are you better than the competition?

Why are you better than insert X solution? And that's an invitation to denigrate the competition so to speak.

So we're very confident and the team are taught to speak strongly about what Cloudflare does and about the wonderful ability that we've extended our network and the strength of our network as well.

So I'm delighted to kind of share some of those insights with the new starters to make sure they keep that and maintain that curiosity.

It's technical curiosity really and that serves us well when we're talking to customers as well and just trying to understand what brought them to the conversation, what brought them to Cloudflare and what they would like to achieve because then we can try and direct and help them with the solution stack that we have.

Of course, so I think you touched on some really important points there I think just to kind of close it off in summary some of the lessons that I've got in while speaking to you and I hope the audience has learned as well in terms of building relationships online.

The first thing is obviously to listen more than you speak, ask questions with empathy and in a way that makes a person feel comfortable and connecting with the human side of that person to understand what their goals and aspirations are and then providing a solution to help solve those and then kind of wrapping all of that up with kind of the professional communication skills in order to be confident, have courage, be prepared and always be curious and learn and willing to grow yourself.

It's very true, I mean it's very true.

Now more of my role is around customers that we already have and trying to understand them and their businesses so you identified the preparation and we do a tremendous amount of preparation around clients to try and understand their markets, to try and understand their verticals and to try and understand what the day-to-day pressures are of that role and then if we can, there are a lot of challenges out there that teams have and without Shadow without Cloudflare can help to alleviate a lot of those challenges and to wrap it up and to centralise them and to present them with reports that makes their lives tasks easier.

So it's yeah, we're very comfortable and we expand that.

Members of my team and members throughout the team as well, we have a wonderful team of account executives including yourself Chad, solutions engineers and customer service managers on the sales team as well.

So and this is duplicated in global offices we have all around the world so yeah, delighted to be a part of it and it's something which I've been asked to speak about today but there's certainly many others within the sales environment at Cloudflare that also have these same abilities.

Awesome, well thank you Stephen, let's leave it there and I just want to thank you once again for taking part in this Skillshare session.

I certainly learned some new things and I hope the audience did too.

Our next session follows on from Stephen's segment which we will be welcoming Jay Henderson, one of our account executives and he's going to be talking about the sales cycle and how to connect with customers and I'll usher them to the next step.

So thank you for joining. No problem, thank you, take care, bye.