Building Your Customer Success Practice

#customersuccess

Webinar Series

Dan SteinmanChief Customer Officer,

Gainsight

Nello FrancoCustomer Success

Executive and Influencer

Our Panelists

http://blog.nellofranco.com@nfranco

http://www.gainsight.com@GainsightHQ

Customer Success Mission

Proactively engage with your customers to ensure that they are receiving value from your solution(not just your product).

Customer Success

Churn Risk Potential Upsell / Strong Advocates

A B

Num

ber o

f Cus

tom

ers

©blog.nellofranco.com 2013

Optimizing your resources for revenue impact

Customer Success

Churn Risk Potential Upsell / Strong Advocates

Num

ber o

f Cus

tom

ers

©blog.nellofranco.com 2013

A B

Delivering value across the board moves the curve

By delivering value to your customers, you will see tangible results.

1Customers will stay with you longer. (Higher LTV, Lower Churn)

Customers will act as advocates for future customers. (Lower CAC)

2 3Customers will want to buy more. (Higher ACV, ARPUand LTV)

Sales to existing customers are common to fastest growing SaaS companies

What are you trying to achieve?

1Are you an early stage company who wants to proactively manage your customer base?

Are you trying to scale your CSM offering?

Do you want better forecasting and predictability?

2 3 4Are you trying to improve performance for a specific metric?• Churn• Upsell• Reference

Customers

Based on what you’re trying to achieve with your CSM organization…

identify the measurable objectives of your next phase of investment.

The plan you deliver to your CEO should consist of more than just adding headcount.

1

Quantify the results you are trying to achieve.

Articulate how processes, people and technology are going to get you there.

2 3

Explain how you will measure the results.

Determine how you’ll apply across your customer segments.

And make sure the whole company is with you on this journey.

Should you…

Charge for Customer Success? Not charge for Customer Success?

Left to their own devices, the natural tendency of all customers is going to be towards churn.

Customer Success is not an option in a recurring revenue business.

It’s something you do because it protects revenue and generates growth.

A typical CSM has a level of product and domain expertise that makes them extremely valuable to customers.

1. Customer relationship skills2. Product expertise3. Domain expertise4. Conduit to all other company resources

There’s a word for providing product and domain expertise to customers for a fee:  Consulting.   

Also known in the industry as Professional Services. 

Success with the product is a right.

You don’t have the power.

If you don’t deliver success, your customers will find another vendor.

You don’t want the fee to be the focus.

Not charging fees places your CSM organization in the value-added position of developing deep, long-term relationships with your clients.

Not charging for this role does not mean “Cost Center.”

Hard metrics such as churn, renewals, growth…and ultimately the improvement to your company’s valuation should justify your

investment.

Your Customer Success team should be the best lead-gen engine for your Services team.

And you can pay them for doing it!

Not charging for Customer Success does not mean:

1. That it’s not valuable2. That Consulting is a promotion3. That you are not driving revenue

Pressure to charge for it may mean you aren’t tying yourself to the right metrics like renewal and upsell $$.

Thank You!