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At Momentum, it all comes down to people. In the series 'A Momentum With', we hand the floor to the colleagues themselves: about their role, what they are proud of and what Momentum means to them. This time: André van Schaik, Customer Success Manager EMEA, and part of the team for more than nine and a half years.
More than nine and a half years, and still enjoying it
André van Schaik has been at Momentum for more than nine and a half years, now as Customer Success Manager EMEA. What makes you stay that long? "I love being here, because I really enjoy the culture. People make the difference. I have known that my whole career in telecoms: that is the essence of working together. And over the years it has been the common thread through every role I have had."
That culture is best described as a genuine can-do mentality. "People are always there for you, you can always talk things through, the doors are always open. And that is not just the colleague next to you at your desk, but just as easily the director or someone from finance. Everyone makes a bit of time for you. And if it does not fit right then, it does later in the day."
Sales is not about selling, but about creating
André started at Momentum in a sales role, but always with a broad range of interests. "To me, sales is not about selling something, but about creating something. And that always comes down to being human. I never thought: you have a product and you sell it somewhere. No, you sell a solution, and that solution is not the technology. It is above all the people behind that technology who make sure you get the most out of it as a customer."
In more than twenty years in the field, one lesson has always stuck.
"People talk to you because they like you, but they do business with you because they trust you."
Building trust is where it all starts. And for André, that lives mostly on the human side. "The technical substance I happily leave to colleagues who can convey it far better. The strength is in connecting: bringing together different people with their own expertise. You cannot know everything down to the last detail, and that is not where this organisation's strength lies either."
One team, no islands
What makes Momentum unique for André is that it really is one unit. "You have the specific expertise, but above all you are part of the team. At other organisations where I worked, those were separate silos: very good within their own domain, but they really stayed inside it, without taking the room to look at things from another perspective. Here, working together comes naturally."
It is an observation that keeps returning in this series. Support Coordinator Malte Helm earlier described his team as a family too.
All the room to reinvent yourself
After a while in sales, André wanted to specialise further. When Momentum shifted its strategy, from mainly selling products to genuinely matching what a customer wants and needs, the room came to design a new role, on the pre-sales side. "A matchmaking role, which I got to shape entirely myself. And it does not have to be a hundred per cent right from the start: you can begin at sixty per cent and refine it as you go. If you believe in something and think it is the direction we should take, you get the room to make it happen."
Today André is a Customer Success Manager, for the second time a role that could be shaped anew. "If I have to sum up pride and growth: that is exactly why I have been here so long. You get all the room to reinvent yourself. And that is not a given, certainly not in sales or telecoms."
Customer success starts with experience
The common thread in the current role is right there in the name. "It is about customer success. And not whether someone can use a service well, but what their experience is with us as a partner. The essence of my role is making customers even more loyal than they already are, based on that experience."
"Companies do business with companies, but people work with people."
That, to me, is Momentum
What does it all come down to? "Always start from the person on the other side. Someone represents an organisation in a certain role, but first and foremost they are simply a person. That is what connects. It is not so much about what exactly you sell or how you get in touch, but about connecting with each other."
In the coming episodes of 'A Momentum With', we hand the floor to more colleagues. Read why we let our own people tell you what it is like to work at Momentum, or read the previous episode with Support Coordinator Malte Helm.
