I recently gave the below talk at a CEO conference on Sales and Marketing on Customer Success. My goal was to convince them that Customer Success, when done correctly, can be a major driver of growth. It was very well-received (I was pretty much mobbed afterward 🙂 ). I made points including: 1. The fastest-growing
Some of you may have heard this story. Boy walks into a store, puts a coin in the telephone, makes a phone call, trying to convince the person on the other end to buy his grass cutting services. He talks about why his services are the best, what he can do, the wonderful recommendations that
I think everyone understands that a Customer Success team never stands alone in its quest to improve retention. In fact, it’s my claim that Customer Success requires more cooperation with, and assistance from, every other organization in the enterprise than any other group. Think about it and I believe you’ll come to the same conclusion
Often people may not want to move to a new job out of fear. My life is comfortable, I have worked hard to gain trust from my colleagues, my life is too full as it is, I am having fun and do I really want to move into another field? Not to mention these questions: How
Congratulations! Customer Success positions can be some of the most rewarding and challenging positions at any company. After companies spend all that money to acquire customers, keeping them delighted, renewing and wanting to buy more is absolutely critical to long-term success. So how can you hit the ground running in your new CSM position? Well
Solution Reviews and Business Reviews? They are not the same thing? Nope. Conducting a quarterly or annual review is critical to the ongoing development of a partnership, but the content must be relevant and important to the audience. Over the past couple of years, I have seen many templates floating around and admittedly, looked for that perfect
This is a topic that always gets a lot of attention when I talk about it. Invariably, when I mention the phrase “Quarterly Business Review (QBR)”, I’ll get requests for a QBR template or get asked a number of questions. It’s a classic case of something that sounds really good and often gets mandated by management,
I have been in Customer Success for many years. During that time I have seen many changes and my role has morphed in many directions. One thing is common with all the variations of the Customer Success position: the slow approach of your CEO with his/her eyes focused on yours. This walk is usually followed
As companies mature, organizations that were at one time encompassed in one person, become separate and distinct. Early on at many software companies, one person might be responsible for training, implementation, Customer Support, Professional Services, and Customer Success and perhaps even renewals and upsell. Over time, each of those will likely become a separate organization.
It is useful to think about Customer Success providing a roadmap and motivation to do more and Professional Services as the arm to help customers execute on that roadmap. If you are doing both, your customers are demonstrating commitment to your product and continuing to build on the value that your product provides. So how