Skip to content

This blog has been adapted from two LinkedIn articles written by Spectralink Client Engagement Managers Lyndon Earley and Jay Lenoce.

CEMs are an integral piece of the puzzle to customer satisfaction, retention

At Spectralink, we pride ourselves on our people – they are one of the biggest keys to our success. Two of our more unsung heroes on the job are our talented North America team Client Engagement Managers (CEMs), Jay Lenoce and Lyndon Earley. Jay is one of our longest-tenured and most respected Spectralink employees, part of our company for 23 years. Lyndon joined us in 2018 and has made an incredible impact in his short time.

In this multi-part blog series, we will explore the role of the CEM, what they actually do, and how they are important to the team’s success and to customer success. CEMs are such a source of incredible knowledge. This deep dive will prove insightful into some of the “special sauce” that makes Spectralink a lasting leader in enterprise mobility with a reputation for scrappiness, resourcefulness, service, and professionalism to make mobility work for our customers.

So what does a CEM do?

According to jobhero.com, Client Engagement Managers build positive client relationships during projects. They assess the client’s needs, identify customer requirements, and develop cohesive projects that improve the operations of a business through more efficient procedures and systems.

In essence, a CEM is “the leave behind,” the person who is amply prepared to do the “Day 2 work after the sell.” And a successful CEM is one who loves to do all of these things and who does them well in order to keep your customers happy.

Why would a company need a CEM?

As Jay explains, the easy and quick answer is customer retention and protection of your customer base. According to the Harvard Business Review, it is anywhere from 5x the cost to 25x the cost to sign a new customer rather than retain an existing customer. Beyond the financial aspect, someone needs to manage and own the customer’s daily requirements.

Customer’s needs are generally in a near-constant state of evolution, and a CEM is the glue that holds a customer close to an organization. The customer’s needs really begin after the sale, and if your organization is not placing a CEM on an account, the door is left open to your solution failing, your relationship tarnishing and allowing your competition an opportunity.

A successful CEM is great at building customer satisfaction, establishing customer loyalty, fostering account growth, gaining key insights into accounts, and gaining exposure to influencers, decision-makers, and/or key leaders in the business.

The CEM and cross-functional alignment

The ability to effectively align and partner with other people, teams, and departments is critical to the success of the Client Engagement Manager. As elementary as

it sounds, this skill set is a major differentiator because it builds a homegrown synergy amongst teams that you just cannot find at many companies. The CEM must have the trust of the account owners who brought the customers in, as well as many other teams across the company. To build that trust, CEMs must be able to do four things:

  • Instill a sense of value upon their accounts, customers, sales partners, and leadership teams by focusing on tasks that benefit them.
    • Beneficiaries: your customers, your sales partners, and your leadership team
  • Investigate what needs to be done to improve your brand’s image in your customers’ minds; help determine the issues your customers are facing that have not been addressed.
    • Beneficiaries: your customers
  • Identify which time-consuming tasks prevent your sales teams from being freed up to go out and hunt for new business, and take those tasks off of their plates.
    • Beneficiaries: your sales partners
  • Implement new tasks and assignments no one else wants to own, nor has time to perform, as those issues that also have a major impact upon customer satisfaction or your own internal KPIs.
    • Beneficiaries: your customers, your sales teams, & you!

If a CEM takes the time to build relationships and learn from their ASMs who owned the account pre-sale, as well as other key stakeholders involved with the customer during the process, plus identifying all the “dos and don’ts” of the account, this will build the necessary cross-functional alignment for customer success.

Remember, the aim of any great CEM is to become the “leave-behind” on the account. Once the CEM becomes the “farmer” that continues to nurture and grow the customer, the ASM is then free to once again be the “hunter,” to go out and search for new business opportunities.

It’s important to remember that healthy cross-functional relationships hinge upon trust. CEMs who collaborate with their account owners to set boundaries and establish freedoms, frequently meet with both their internal teams and their customer, and provide sound deliverables all help to build trust and alignment across the aisle between sales and client engagement.

And, as Lyndon sums up so succinctly,

“If you want to make your team successful, learn your role, work it well, build trust, destroy your annual targets, and by all means, meet frequently. Become the best Client Engagement Manager you can possibly be and watch the power of cross-functional alignment and synergy propel your performance, your sales teams’ performance, and that of your entire organization to new heights. You’ll work much better together, and your sales team will love you for it!”

 

For more information on our mobile communications solutions, visit: https://www.spectralink.com/products/ 

About our CEMs:

Jay Lenoce has over 25 years experience in the wireless technology industry. He has been with Spectralink for over 20 years in various roles, and has been a Client Engagement Manager since 2018.  He has worked with customers, partners, and the channel, providing knowledge and leveraging his vast expertise to help them realize their organizational missions through best-in-class mobile communication. 

Connect with Jay on LinkedIn!

 

Lyndon Earley brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table having served in multiple consultative roles in the technology, service and philanthropic sectors for more than 20 years. He has mastered the task of leveraging data to weaponize the voice of the customer in order to enhance the customer experience. As a client engagement manager, he is currently managing some of the largest healthcare systems in the country to ensure they remain highly satisfied with Spectralink’s products and services.

Connect with Lyndon on LinkedIn!