Succeed with Relationships in Revenue, With Christina Woronchak

The CRO Spotlight Podcast, powered by the Sales IQ Network. Hi and welcome to the CRO Spotlight Podcast. I'm Warren Zenna from the CRO Collective and I'm here with my co host, Lupe Feld. Hey, Lupe.

Hey, Warren. This is Lupe Feld and I'm glad to be here with you.

So this podcast is really for aspiring CROs and CEOs and current CROs whom are interested in learning from not only us, but the great guests that we're going to have.

We're here to tell you that there is other areas of the business that can drive revenue and we're going to look and inspect and come up with some great ideas for us to bring in as much revenue as we can and drive some meaningful change for the business.

So tune in, we have some exciting opportunities coming up for really amazing conversations and any B2B leaders. I think you're really going to enjoy it. So thanks for tuning in and we look forward to seeing you.

Hi and welcome to the CRO Spotlight. I am Lupe Feld and I am missing my co host today, Warren Zenna, but we are going to progress without him. I am excited to have Christina Warrenchak as our guest. She is a passionate world traveler. She has devoted her career to business travel in leading sales and client management teams for leading global companies. She is now the Chief Revenue Officer for Deeming. And as the Chief Revenue Officer, Christina leads the sales and customer experience teams. Christina started her career in Canada and relocated herself to Northern California. So we'll talk a little bit about that. But without further ado, let me introduce Christina. Hi, Christina, how are you?

Hi, Lupe. It's wonderful to be with you in the audience today. Thanks so much for including me.

Absolutely. It's great to see you and it's nice to have you in the US now. So. So tell me a little bit about that.

Well, you know, I am Canadian by birth and I spent most of my life in Canada and I had a really good opportunity to lead a team in the US and reporting to someone that we both know, Colin Temple. So I, you know, I've always been one where if opportunity knocks, I feel like I need to answer the call and take a chance and try something different. And it was a great decision for me. It. It really helped me advance my career and it also exposed me to a lot of things that I wouldn't have had the opportunity to explore. So I highly recommend, you know, some type of an international role for anybody that is serious about taking their career to the Next level.

I completely agree. I actually did the reverse and it's so funny that we both worked for the same person. So Colin is amazing and I'd love to get him on the podcast at some point here. But, but you know, tell me a little bit for our audience, a little bit about your journey. You know, as we think about the CRO position, it's fairly new and there aren't that many CROs worldwide. However, they tend to be more men than women. So one, I'm excited to have, you know, a female in a role and to have you as a guest and love to have our audience get a little bit of a description of your, you know, career journey and how you achieve this role.

Sure. Well, you know, it was a really interesting journey. I have to say that I was really fortunate that I spent about 17 years with American Express, which was a great organization. I had a lot of opportunities to grow there. I started as an individual contributor working with really large enterprise sized customers. And then I had an opportunity to work in a leadership role where I was responsible to retain the top 5% of the overall customer portfolio, which was definitely interesting and a lot of pressure for sure. That led to other opportunities to lead both sales and account management teams. And eventually I landed an incredible opportunity to lead the global, multinational and the upper end of the mid to large market segments within American Express Global Business travel. So that was great experience and I had an interesting, you know, I feel like when you meet people along your career journey, sometimes, you know, there isn't an immediate opportunity, but maintaining that relationship can open some doors down the road. And we were working with deemed reseller partner to deem. So I had a relationship with the CEO of the company and saw him at a, at a very large industry event and he was a little frustrated that he couldn't find the right CEO for CRO, for the organization. And one thing led to another and we had a conversation and before I knew it I was interviewing a deem. So it happened a little faster and under different circumstances than I probably would have imagined, but it was definitely very exciting and I feel like all of the experience that I've gained over the years has really set me up for this role.

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I think it's important for us to think about not just the work that we do, but the people that we interact with on a day to day basis. You just never know when you're going to run into them in another life, in another opportunity and doing the right thing. Likewise, I spent a Lot of time at American Express, and I know that's one of the tenets that they taught us there is, you know, customer first and making sure the experience is positive and maintaining kind of your word of doing what you say you're gonna do.

Yeah.

And those are key things that I think are helpful in furthering and retaining those relationships. Well, that's exciting. That's exciting. So how are you liking your move away from Canada?

I love it. I love it. It's definitely different. I love the weather here. The weather in Northern California is absolutely fantastic. It's nice and warm, just the way I like it, but it's not too humid. My mom always says I could never come back to Mont because I don't know how to deal with the cold anymore. So it's been great.

That's so funny you say that. I remember my first year in Canada. I was actually one of the silly people that did snow angels. You know, I was so excited. Have never lived in snow. And by my, you know, fourth year in Canada, I was ready. And of course, I moved to the other extreme end. I'm in Arizona. So, you know, my saving grace during the hot summer here is you don't have to shovel heat. You don't have to shovel heat. So I keep it top of mind. So that's exciting. Yes. Northern California is near and dear to my heart. I know it really well. Lived there for a long time, and it's a great, great place to live and work. Lots of things happening in Northern California from a technology standpoint. Talk to me about travel and kind of the impact that has happened over the last couple of years and how you're coming out of of that. I saw recently some articles are saying, you know, business travel is back, it's growing, it's changing. And so talk us through. How do you maintain a focus on revenue when things come to a screeching halt?

Yeah, that's a really great question. It's been really challenging because, you know, when everything shut down at the start of the pandemic, that was a real challenge for us because, you know, we were down to three, about 30% of pre pandemic levels in terms of transactional volume, and the entire industry was impacted. A lot of companies put travel restrictions or limitations. So it was a very challenging time. But I have to say, in retrospect, it was a really good time for us as a business to continue to enhance the product and to, you know, build our organization and to really prepare ourselves for the travel comeback. And what's really Exciting. Now, you know, we started to see a little bit of business travel recover in, I would say the beginning of the fourth quarter of last year. But then things contracted a little bit. We started to see some, some travel pickup in January and then February, you know, double digit growth over the previous month and then all of a sudden March, April and now May. Very, very strong months. So we're at about 90% of pre pandemic levels, which is really, really exciting. We've seen that business travelers have changed a lot. So if you think about your own personal life and some of the changes in your daily habits as a result of the pandemic, there's a much greater use of technology and much greater use of mobile devices. So travelers are coming back and they're wanting to book their business travel on a mobile device instead of on a computer. There's a big focus on manag and ensuring traveler safety. So we came up with some solutions to address that. That basically presents information to travelers in the palm of their hands so they can assess if there's, you know, what is the COVID risk of traveling to any particular location. Because as you know, unfortunately we see, you know, ebbs and flows as far as, you know, the different infection rates across different destinations. And what we've seen is a really big focus on sustainability. And again, this was an area that, you know, we, we identified as, as being of great significance as travelers got back on the road again. So we were able to develop our product, you know, and offer recommendations to travelers that align with some of the eco goals that a company might have. But also, I think we're all trying to do the right thing and make the right choices that are environmentally friendly. But from an overall revenue standpoint, you know, we never lost focus on, you know, what we needed to do. And we had incredible growth throughout the pandemic. So a lot of companies were taking advantage of that lull in business travel to actually revisit their program and whether it would meet the needs of their travelers in the new normal post pandemic. You know, we just continued forging ahead. We continued to build channel partnerships and strengthening those channel partnerships and you know, targeting very large enterprise sized customers. So we had a lot of success over the pandemic.

Well, that's great to hear and I think it's important for us to maybe touch upon as a CRO for deem. What areas of the business do you manage under your leadership?

Basically the entire customer journey, starting with when we first engage with a potential customer. So lead gen right through the Sales process through onboarding and then customer support and customer experience. So all of those different areas fall under my areas of responsibility. Some companies have marketing as part of the CRO remit. It all depends on, you know, different companies have different needs and different goals. So sometimes that makes sense for a company and other times it makes sense to keep the two functions separate. But I would say that the alignment between marketing and sales is of critical importance. You have to be, I'd like to say, singing off the same song sheet or you have to be on the same page in terms of strategy.

Absolutely. I think that's a great point. And you know, as you work through the customer journey, there's so many different things that you have to factor in as to the contact rate, the, the level of engagement and even through the later life cycles through customer experience. A couple of things that you mentioned earlier make me think that you probably during the pandemic spent a lot of time talking to your existing customers.

Yes.

And making, you know, some, getting some insight from them and I think that's probably helpful. And a lot of companies sometimes don't talk to their customers. So what, what are your thoughts about that and how do you manage your existing customer base?

Yeah, it's so important. You know, we, we just had a client advisory board meeting last week in Dallas and that was a great opportunity for me to hear firsthand from some of our top customers in terms of what their expectations expectations are. What are some of the trends that they're seeing as travel recovers for their respective companies? Just getting their validation that the things that we're working on will resonate with them and with their travelers. So I think that's really important. I try to speak to our customers and partners as often as I can. I think sometimes things get lost in translation, you know, if there's an intermediary. So I'm very hands on and I definitely like to hear directly from the customer. But we also look very closely at any of the customer feedback that comes in and I'm very, very much involved in, you know, assessing the different issues that our customers might have and resolving those issues for them and ensuring that we have, you know, the best possible customer experience. So I think that communication is absolutely critical and there's just so many different priorities to juggle as a CRO. But I would say that, you know, listening to your customers oftentimes they have really great ideas in terms of how you can further enhance your product. So you can't overlook that.

That's great, that's great. So if you were looking to replace yourself and help your CEO hire, you know, somebody, say you moved into a different area of the business, et cetera, what advice would you give to a CEO in general as to what to look for?

Yeah, that's a great question. And it's interesting because I have an active with quite a few CROs. A lot of them are with technology companies. And, you know, it's interesting because we're all different, and I love that. I think that there's. I think Sometimes, you know, CEOs have preconceived ideas of what the ideal CRO looks like. And, you know, oftentimes, you know, a CEO might not have come up the ranks with a sales and marketing background, right? So they might have more of an operations focus or from a tech company perspective, usually a very strong technical background. So I think oftentimes CEOs are looking for someone super expressive. They're looking for somebody that is really great at pitching the product. And I think they overlook some of the key skills, which in my opinion are, you know, being analytical, being strategic, being really good at forging relationships both internally and externally, building a following, you know, being really passionate. So I think those are. Those are some of the important attributes. So I would just say that for any CEO to really be thoughtful and just consider what are your strategic business priorities and really ensure that you interview a lot of different candidates and that you look for those key attributes that are going to be of critical importance for your specific company and ensure that you're really hiring the best person for that role.

That's great advice. That's great advice. Now I'm going to flip that on its head and say, if you were going to be coaching someone interviewing for a CRO position, what advice would you give them?

Oh, wow. I love mentoring people and giving advice. So, you know, just a couple of things come to mind. You know, the whole sales process is changing dramatically, and there's so many solutions out there that can really drive efficiency, productivity, and results. So I would say be curious and, you know, keep abreast of what's going on in the industry because it's evolving really, really fast. And I think if you rely on some of the traditional methods that you've used over the years, I think it. I think you, you know, other competitors will surpass you. I think you have to leverage everything that's available to you as a resource. I think that for me, it always starts with talent, having the right people in the right role. So, you know, making sure that, you know, the people on your team that you've assessed whether they're the right fit, that you help them from a coaching and development standpoint to be all that they can be, and then that you create a great culture. Because, as you know, with a great resignation, it's very challenging to retain top talent, whether it's sales or customer experience. Right. So I think it's really important to build a really good culture where employees feel that they can thrive and grow. So it's creating mentorship opportunities. It's getting them excited about, you know, what you're trying to achieve, having really clear goals, really good communication. And then the last thing I would say is, you know, I have really good relationships with all of my peers across our E staff. And one of the most important relationships, or two of the most important relationships, are the relationships that I have with our head of product and our head of engineering. And it's really, you know, sometimes, you know, there are members of my team that are hearing certain things from customers and we can identify something that is going to be a trend. And it's really important for me to align with a BP of product, for example, and kind of share some of those things that we're hearing from our customers and, you know, aligning with our engineering team as well, so that we can build something that's really great. So I would say it's really, you know, having those relationships and having really strong communication, I think those are all really important attributes that I would coach somebody on.

That's great. That's great. So following along on the coaching, what types of questions do you think a CRO needs to ask before they take the job so they don't end up with buyer's remorse or maybe not having the job that they thought they were getting or the responsibility level that they were getting?

That's such a great question. I think, you know, it all depends on your background. And it also depends on whether you believe that sales and marketing should come under the purview of a CRO or not. Right. So I think you need a clear understanding of whether that's going to be the environment that you're walking into. And if you favor one over the other, you know, you need to have that alignment, I would say, really understanding where the company is, you know, in terms of the, you know, financial health, in terms of competitive landscape, you know, because if you don't know those things, you're not going to be really prepared to effectively compete in the market, or you need to know what you're getting yourself into. So you know, I would talk to the cfo, I would talk to the CEO. Try to meet as many senior members of the organization as you possibly can. And I think it's important to do that as well so that you can make a determination as to whether you feel that there's a really good cultural fit. Because at the end of the day, we spend lot of our time, you know, working with our colleagues. Right. And when I interviewed at deem, they made me go through about seven different interviews. So I interviewed everyone from HR to the CFO to the person who was in the role of Chief Revenue Officer at the time. And that was really great, because by the time I started my job, I knew everybody, and I already felt comfortable with them. And it just. It just allowed me to hit the ground running a little bit faster.

That's great. It sounds like from everything that you've described so far, relationships are a key component of everything that you do and building and fostering and developing those relationships. Any tips and, you know, advice that you might give on, like, what's important in building that strong relationship with your cfo, you know, with your head of product, et cetera?

I think it's about, you know, asking a lot of questions. It's trying to understand their point of view. It's having that transparency and open dialogue. And I think you have to be genuinely curious. You know, you have to have a keen interest in really understanding someone else's point of view. So I would say not being arrogant and not assuming that you have all the answers. Right. You know, usually the best ideas that have been successful for me are things that a member of my team or one of my colleagues came up with. But I knew I knew how to make something of it or do something with it. So, you know, that's my advice.

That's great. That's great. I remember years ago, somebody told me, you have two ears and one mouth, use them in the right proportion, and also listen to hear, not to respond. And so often we're so eager to just have the next, you know, talking point in there that we forget to listen and absorb and digest. And I think that's. That's really important. And then obviously, it sounds like you have a great working relationship with your team that they feel comfortable to come up and bring up any tips or any issues or any challenges that they're encountering in the marketplace.

Yeah, I do. I really encourage a culture where people are completely honest and transparent with me, and there are no repercussions for that. Even if we don't agree, we'll talk it out. And at the end of the day, we might not agree, but we move on. And that creates a really healthy environment. And I don't profess to have all of the answers, and I'm not embarrassed by that. I think being vulnerable in that way is. I think it's a great leadership skill, and I think a lot more people are embracing that. As you look at different leaders posting different things through social media, I think that vulnerability is now considered to be a strength. And, you know, that's. That's kind of my compass, I guess, as it relates to how I interact with my team.

That's great. That's great. I think, you know, the. The human factor of work is so important. And you mentioned the great resignation, which is, you know, very near and dear to my heart. I've never seen anything like this in my entire career. And you know, where companies are, some companies are being paralyzed by their lack of being able to find talent. And culture has become so important. And that communication and that component of going to work somewhere that you feel engaged, supported, and respected is more meaningful than ever. So I think that for me, continues to be a resounding comment that I hear from everybody. So that's good to know. The interview process, it sounds like you were being interviewed, but you also interviewed in that process, and that takes a lot of confidence to make sure that you're asking questions and not just, you know, showing up to delight. How do you prepare for that?

You know, I think I always do a ton of research. Sometimes I say I must have been a former librarian in my previous life, but I do a lot of research. I really, I love to try to understand what a company is all about and how they tick. And so a lot of my questions just start there. You know, I really want to understand what was the history of the company, how far are they along, you know, the ultimate goals that they have set for themselves, et cetera. You know, what is the vision, moving forward in the direction. And that's where everything starts, really. And then, you know a lot about culture and you know, how the. How the company feels about culture and who owns culture, because, you know, it's interesting, sometimes I've interviewed some potential leaders to join my team, and I'll ask them who owns culture? And if they say hr, that's the wrong answer because, you know, I feel like every leader owns a culture for their respective team, and they have a responsibility to ensure that that culture is thriving. So things like that, that's great.

And I Think you're right. If HR owns culture, then everybody kind of absolves themselves of that responsibility. And you can't have a cohesive culture within a company if everybody's doing it and delegating it to somebody else. It has to sit with you in your team and your employees, and you're accountable for that and sharing that in your exchanges with everybody. So that's. That's really an important component of being successful. So one of the things that, you know, we talk about, too, is, you know, working in an office or working remote, you know, with. With that. Do you find any. Any balance of that that's. Has been interesting or more? Well, obviously, during the pandemic, I think we were all remote. But has things kind of leveled off and become any kind of percentage over indexing the other?

You know, it's interesting because when I worked at American Express, I worked remotely for the entire time that I was with the organization. And when I joined Dean, most of my team was scattered across the country. So I started In January of 2020, I think I went to the office for a total of seven weeks. And then, you know, we were all in a remote work environment, so I'm really comfortable with it. And I've led team teams remotely for a really, really long time. And I've never had any issue with it because, again, it's all about communication. Right. And trust and transparency. But, you know, I personally enjoy working from home. It. I actually end up being more productive, I think, because, you know, I can plan my day and. And pretty much follow that plan. And I feel like the time that I'm not spending commuting is time that I can also allocate to, you know, some projects or, you know, things like that. So I personally like it, but I know a lot of my CRO peers out there are struggling a little bit with that because it's completely new territory, and they haven't had the opportunity before to either be remote or to lead teams remotely. So I think it's a little bit of an adjustment. There's definitely a learning curve, but I think today employees expect a pretty high degree of flexibility, and they pretty much dictate, you know, whether they want to be in an office environment or not or, you know, whether they, you know, prefer some kind of a hybrid or not. So, you know, it's. It's a different time. And I think in order to accommodate, you know, great talent, you need to be flexible.

Absolutely. Now, what about leading in a virtual environment? Obviously, you know, both of us kind of grew up in virtual environments in our early, you know, career and spent a lot of time being part of remote environments. And you know, as you think about a CRO that might be struggling, you know, now being remote full time or part time work or what have you, what, what advice would you give? How do you engage your team in a remote way and how do, how do you deliver meaningful coaching, meaningful direction and get that level of engagement that you would face to face?

Yeah, I have a weekly one on one with all of my leaders and that meeting is sacred to me. I never reschedule or cancel unless there's, you know, a customer facing event that I, you know, I absolutely need that particular time slot. But those meetings are really, really important. And so, you know, it's an opportunity for my team to engage with me, to ask any questions, questions for me to check in with them. And one of the things I learned as a leader over the course of the last two years was just to be a little bit more sensitive to the different struggles that people are having in their personal lives as a result of the pandemic and the aftermath. Right. So, you know, it's checking in and asking people first and foremost how they're doing and then getting down to business. So I think that's important and I think it signals to your team that you care about them and I think that that goes a long way towards building a relationship. I think the other thing that's really critical is I always want to get to know every last person in my organization. So I'll do a skip level with absolutely everybody. And one of the questions I always ask them is what are some of your career aspirations? And you'd be amazed at how many people have told me that they've never had a senior leader like me ask them that question. So I'm genuinely interested in their career development. And sometimes I might have someone absolutely fantastic that reports into one of my leaders and they have the potential to be in another role. And just having that one on one with them gives me an opportunity to really plan my entire organization. So I think that that outreach because in a virtual environment I think sometimes people can feel lost and they can feel that they don't have the same opportunities for career advancement because they're just not as visible. And as you know, being visible is really important to get those career advancement opportunities. Right. So, you know, I don't wait for people to try to get onto my radar. I actively seek people in the organization so that I can put them on my radar.

That's great. That's great. I think more leaders should do that. You know, I had the benefit of having some great sponsors in my career that took the time to care and listen and ask those questions. So it's great to see you and I'm sure you did as well. So it's great to see you kind of paying that back to your, paying it forward. We, we obviously want to hear what's new and exciting with deem, with you and the company. So I'm going to give you a few minutes to kind of brag about yourself. Anything that's exciting and the company.

Sure. Well, as I mentioned earlier, you know, business travel is back, so we're really excited about that. It's been really tough for the last two years. Excited about the continued growth that we see from travelers using our mobile platform. We have a really big focus on sustainability, as I mentioned. So this week we're launching EcoCheck, which is an incredible solution that will inform travelers when they're booking their different travel options on the, the impacts to the environment. And it, it does it in a very simple to understand way. So, you know, by making this choice, it's the equivalent of X number of plastic bags, for example. So I think that's going to be really, really popular and really well received. You know, I, I know you've traveled a lot for work over the years. I've traveled a lot for work over the, you know, the environment for road warriors is really different right now. And I was traveling last week to Dallas and I had a great reminder of that. But, you know, airfares have gone up significantly, hotel rates have gone up significantly. So, you know, we're definitely seeing the inflationary impact on business travel. And based on some of the data that I've been following, the travel categories like air, hotel, even car rental are among some of the leading categories that are, you know, most notable in terms of higher cost. Right. To consumers. The other thing is that, you know, there are fewer flight options. And, you know, before I would, you know, walk into a hotel restaurant 30 minutes before my meeting and I could have a full breakfast, whereas now there just isn't enough staff for that. Right. So it might take an hour or even an hour and 15 minutes to have that exact same experience. So what I've noticed is that business travelers are a little frustrated and, you know, I've seen a few examples of, you know, what not to do when you're traveling and interacting with people in the service industry. But I think we all have to readjust our expectations at least in the short term and, and you know, perhaps have a little bit of an appreciation for the people who, who have stayed dedicated to, you know, the service and hospitality industry.

It's so true. You know, having been a bit of a road warrior myself, recent travel has been, I wouldn't say painful, but it has been a little bit more challenging. Even packing, you know, I used to have my go bag ready to go with everything that you needed, and then you just literally threw a pieces, you know, a few pieces of clothing and you're out the door. And now it seems to be, you know, the labor of love, so to speak, and then just the whole process of traveling has changed. So I'm so excited about your platform, your kind of dedication to making the experience better for travelers. You know, business travel needs to continue. I mean, obviously Zoom and other platforms that allow you to have, you know, face to face meetings virtually are great. Yeah. But there's there nothing will ever replace meeting face to face with a prospect. And I think any company that allows people to do that and being mindful on, you know, the all aspects of travel, the comfort, the ecosystem of, you know, the experience of travel and the expense travel and everything, I think that's good work and much needed in, in today's economy anyways.

Yeah, I mean, all those platforms are great, right. And they're complementary, but they're no substitute for face to face meetings. So, you know, business travel is really important. You know, it drives growth for companies. And I think, you know, based on what we're seeing as early indicators, I think that most companies agree with that statement. So we're excited about that.

Yeah. And I think the one common thread that I've seen is if you knew somebody personally before the pandemic, it's very easy to communicate via Zoom or any kind of a platform. And so, I mean, case in point, I knew you before the pandemic, haven't seen you in years, but yet connecting with you feels very real and very easy where when you've never met somebody, kind of building up that level of trust and experience with them is a little bit more challenging.

Absolutely. Yeah.

Well, I'm so excited about, you know, getting to see you again. I'm so excited to have you on the podcast. Congratulations on everything that's been going on. I'm so excited that business travel is kind of getting back into the positive and exciting growth numbers. Expect to see it, you know, boom significantly. I think people are pent up and ready to travel, eager to travel both personally and professionally. It's high time that, you know, restrictions got a little bit, you know, looser and people were able to be on the move. So this is exciting. So thank you.

Most definitely. Well, thank you.