The most terrible response can be silence. In 2016, the Swedish Academy announced that it was awarding the year’s Nobel Prize in literature to Bob Dylan. The world turned expectantly (and reasonably) to the musician for a statement, and for that satisfying feeling you get from hearing a person warmly express their gratitude. Instead, he

There’s a best practice that sets apart the most successful products from the rest and it’s simpler than you think. Back in February, I attended SaaStr 2019 in San Jose. If you stopped by the Expo Hall, you might have seen me with the rest of the Gainsight crew at our booth. This year was especially

Are the right people driving product experience in your company? The Age of the Customer has increased the importance of delivering exceptional customer experiences and outcomes. With the onus falling upon the entire company to produce a great customer experience, more and more functional departments are claiming ownership. Marketing, customer success, support, product—each team plays

We all know how it works…a fledgling SaaS company releases a minimally viable product and starts bringing on customers. Early customers help shape the direction of the product and before you know it, a Customer Success team is created. The CSMs start doing Executive Business Reviews (EBRs) and the product road map is the crutch used

So it’s starting to look like a pretty ingenious career move to get into the customer success profession. On LinkedIn’s latest jobs report—the most promising jobs of 2019—Customer Success Manager clocked in at number six. And that’s all part of a larger, worldwide trend toward customer success as a new frontier of business—and gainful employment.

I frequently hear from customer success and sales leaders that two of the most common reasons for churn or downsell (revenue compression) are executive/sponsor change and lack of perceived value (for your product/service). When I dig into this some more, the most actionable root causes turn out to be a few things: We are not

Last month, I quit my position as head of Customer Success at my company, RD Station. It was a dream job for a CS leader, if I may say so myself. In those six years leading the team, I’ve led its growth from one person to 180 people that are now spread across five different

I had a great time at SaaStr this week. I hosted a panel on “How to Take Customer Success from Idea to Action” with three incredible customer success leaders: Ashley Fryar (VP of Customer Success at NAVEX Global), Bernie Kassar (Chief Customer Officer at Xactly), and Mary Poppen (Chief Customer Officer at Glint). In case

What’s the one question people are always asking you about your job? If I had to stack-rank all the questions I get asked by customer success leaders, the question of who should own renewals bubbles to the top—no contest. But when you peel the onion a little bit, this is actually a layered question. Let’s

Ask, “What’s next on our product roadmap?” and you might find yourself drowning in an overwhelming amount of opinions. There’s a tried-and-true way to cut through the noise and it’s hiding in plain sight. Your customer data is a goldmine wrapped in a bow covered in glitter. Why? Because your customers are the most important source