“Just knowing that so many people rely on us is rewarding”
Allon Marom, Strategic CSM Operations Manager at Webbing, shares his story of choosing between Israel and the US, explains why sales operations turned into customer success management as he joined the company, and tells how his interest in the automotive world helps in his work.
Between Israel and the US
It’s not that easy to tell where I’m from. I was born in Kibbutz Negba in Israel, but when I was 5, my family moved to the US. We lived in New Jersey for 11 years and then decided to return to Israel.
I finished high school in Israel, served in the army for three years and then moved back to the States. I worked there for several years before coming to Israel again to get my college degree. I completed my BA in Communications at IDC and have stayed in Israel ever since. Now I live in Kfar Saba with my family.
I’m a petrol-head, I’m really into cars and everything automotive, anything with an engine always interests me and fascinates me. It helps in my work sometimes, as we have a few customers in the automotive space. My background helps me with understanding the use cases, knowing the customers better.
I felt that Webbing was the place where I could grow
I found Webbing at an early stage; back in 2019.
What originally drew me in was the solution and the service that Webbing was providing, the fact that it’s so unique and the outreach can be for any kind of use case you can imagine today. When I came for the interview, I already felt that this is a place for me, a place where I could grow and showcase my abilities and talents and become an asset to the company.
When I joined, I was the first customer success manager. It wasn’t even a CSM position – originally, the job post was simply “operational sales manager”. I was the first CSM and created the department: I set it up from scratch, had to come up with a lot of procedures, all the guidelines and everything from day one. With time we hired additional people, the team grew.
Things are dynamic at Webbing
I’ve changed a few positions over the years. “Sales Operations” quickly became a Customer Success Manager, and then, once we had a few CSMs joining the team, I became the head of customer success at Webbing. Later, I was promoted to Strategic CSM Operations Manager, where I am more in charge of handling procedures and overseeing different kinds of cross-department decisions. I’m also responsible for managing specific strategic customers.
Many other things have changed since I joined. The complexity of customers was a big change. We were focusing more on enterprise mobility and less on IoT, and once we became an MVNO that has their own IMSI and SIM cards, we were targeting the high-consumption IoT use cases like autonomous cars and mission-critical applications.
The way we learn things has changed, too. When I came to Webbing, I had to learn everything from scratch. I would join calls with the customers and try to listen in, and every time there was a word I didn’t understand, I would write it down and google it afterward. Now, every time there’s a topic that needs to be covered to enrich the education of the CSMs, we set up a training session with our internal teams.
What makes me feel Webbing’s success is my success
I think anyone who has worked at Webbing agrees that this company is very special.
Webbing’s employees are very respectful to each other. Everyone here is extremely approachable, whether it be a colleague of yours, someone who is managing a team or even a CFO, COO and the founders as well. I’ve worked closely with one of the founders from day one, and his guidance over the years has really helped me understand exactly what I need to do and push me forward in the right direction. This open-door policy where you can just go and ask a question without feeling intimidated, makes a great environment and a nice workspace here at Webbing. Once you have this nice working atmosphere and everyone comes to the office with a smile, I think that’s the basis for having an environment where everyone is motivated and wants to achieve, and a lot of people feel that the company’s success is their success.
What I like about Webbing
I like to arrive early. This allows me to have a few uninterrupted hours of work to answer any emails from the night before, plus get a head start to the day. That’s one thing that I like – being able to make my own hours, having the flexibility. I schedule my calls when it’s right for me, because I have customers all around the world. I also like the hybrid system that we have incorporated since covid, allowing us to work from home as well as work in the office three days a week.
I like the people, how friendly everyone is, and willing to help. The morning interactions with everyone are always nice, seeing everyone, hearing some stories about how their weekend was. The trips arranged by the HR team are always fun. Also the volunteer work, any opportunity to spend time with people outside of work is always positive and creates great relationships. And of course, ping pong downstairs is a great addition to the office – every time you let loose for a few minutes and hit a ping pong just to clear your head is a great way to relax. Overall, it’s good to know you’re taken care of in many different aspects.
What I also love about Webbing is that no two days are the same. Every single customer has their own unique use case, and everyone has their own unique requirements and sensitivities. I enjoy working directly with the customers, I get a chance to feel firsthand how the customer appreciates all the efforts that we make for them to be able to succeed and reach their goals.
It feels good knowing that your services and the connectivity you’re providing to these customers are allowing them to perform their duties, whether it be mission-critical applications like performing surgery or factories that rely on our systems. Just knowing that so many people are relying on us to perform their jobs correctly, efficiently and successfully, for me that’s something very rewarding.
