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While building TestBox, there have been moments that altered the course of the company: sometimes a hire, sometimes a customer, sometimes a product decision. Typically, I haven’t recognized those moments until after the fact. But that's not the case this time.
This time, I know we’ve made a company-altering and future-defining decision.
The importance of a solution-oriented mindset at TestBox
TestBox was built to make buying and selling software an enjoyable experience; one where the buyer is central to the story and the seller can give an exceptional buying experience to make everything faster and more efficient.
Whether that’s giving the perfect personalized demo every time, getting a customer into a hands-on test drive within seconds of a demo finishing, or enabling an entire buying committee to get confident in the tool they’re evaluating, TestBox is designed to get out of the way and just make our customers and their software buyers successful.
To build a truly buyer-centric solution, we’ve decided to take a solution-oriented mindset.
My background prior to starting TestBox was in management consulting at Bain. I spent six years learning that my job wasn’t just to answer the specific questions my clients had. Instead, it was to solve their largest challenges — whether they were in the scope document or not.
If something major changed, like an acquisition, sudden launching of a new product, or a major organizational realignment, we’d mobilize and ensure the most critical and important topic was worked on and resolved. It meant every day we were delivering a premium service to our clients and ensuring their success. This is a true solution and customer-oriented mindset.
Recently, I’d been thinking about how to bring this culture and mindset to TestBox. How can we deliver this level of customer centricity? What are the key moments that matter when working with us?
Exceptional customer orientation starts from the moment you jump on our website:
- If you look for pricing, it’s there.
- If you want to talk to us, you can schedule time right away.
- If you're interested in TestBox, we’ll build a proof of concept to ensure we can show you we do what we say and that there is no risk of us not delivering on our promises.
- When a company onboards with us, they have dedicated implementation experts who reduce the workload on our customers. In fact, we do everything within our power to minimize the work required by our customers so we can create a white-glove experience.
- For ongoing support, we constantly monitor usage so that we can provide group or one-to-one training to users to ensure they’re getting the most out of the platform.
- Sometimes, we even step out of our lane and find ways to help customers with their own marketing efforts, whether it’s promoting a post on LinkedIn or shouting them out on a podcast.
All of this is in service of enabling our customers to solve the problems they have in any given moment — not to sling TestBox's software.
To deeply instill that type of culture into the company and everything we do, it needs to come from the top. I personally must not only set this example but also deeply invest in it, whether that is how we build our marketing, revenue, or customer success functions.
To ensure this is a major focus of the company — and not just something we say — we’ve decided to make a significant hire.
Introducing the newest member of the TestBox team
TestBox is fortunate enough to have one of the first Chief Solutions Officers. Perhaps more significantly, James Kaikis has taken up this mantle to lead this experience for our business, our customers, and the demo automation space.
James has uplifted the solutions community through his founding of the PreSales Collective and his leadership at Showpad and Salesforce. He's been a cornerstone for what solutions leaders wish to aspire to. We’re fortunate to have him as part of our team to set the standard for the exceptional impact solutions leaders can have on their businesses, their teams, and their customers' lives.
I have asked James to join the team at TestBox to partner with me on instilling this deep solutions-oriented mindset into everything we do with our customers.
The software category we exist in has lacked deep solutions leader experience. It’s high time that software vendors who support this critical function deeply understand the needs and nuances of the role and deliver an experience that fits and catapults what they can deliver.
I strongly believe James’ appointment into this role will further not only our product and customer experience but also the importance of the solutions professional in all SaaS companies.
Thank you to James for the partnership you have shown already and the expertise you will bring to everyone who interacts with TestBox.
If you want to learn more about what it means to have a Chief Solutions Officer or are having challenges delivering exceptional buying and selling experiences, please reach out to either me or James on LinkedIn, or schedule time with us through the TestBox website.
