Charlie Page

Our revops “team” at Chili Piper does A LOT OF automations. If you’d see our list, you’d think we have a full train of rev ops folks working here at Chili Piper (spoiler alert, we have 1 and a half). Here’s an example of an “unconventional” automation We assign churned accounts to SDRs. Yep, we automate outreach to churned accounts Here’s why and how First, let me tell you, it breaks my heart to see any customer churn. I feel like my heart is asking but always aim to learn from it and make everything better for them if they were to come back. Hence, we want to learn what made them leave, fix the problem, and win them back And the good news is that we win many of them back . Here are the nitty gritty on how we do this : We setup these rules for assigning churned accounts to our SDRs: – Account Status = updated to Churned – Transaction End Date = 91 days – Round Robin across SDRs and update SDR Owner – SLA: after 12 working hours, check if there was activity yesterday AND ROE phase ≠ unfit to work, send Slack notification – SLA: after 12 working hours, check if there was activity yesterday AND ROE phase ≠ unfit to work, reassign – Provide a Slack notification to the AM (80 days post-contract end date) – Provide a Slack notification to the SDR once the Account has been assigned (91 days post-contract end date) – Provide SDRs with information on why the account is churning in SFDC to give them the context to sell into the account effectively. If you are curious about more details on this, let me know!  

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In less than a week I've had three friends get laid off with decent sized companies (1k+). The job market is tepid at best for a SaaS salesperson. If your company is having RIFs, if your company is still bringing up efficiency in every quarterly meeting, it's time to have a fall out plan. Here's a few ChatGPT prompts to get your messaging out there if your back on the hunt. DON'T BE SHY. There's tools, people, and resources for you..use them. 1. LinkedIn Profile Optimization for Job Seekers Prompt: Enhance profile for job hunting, focusing on [Title] role in [Specific Industry/Field]. Highlight experience in [Specific Field/Technology] to attract recruiters at [Company]. 2. LinkedIn Connection Message for Job Opportunity Prompt: Draft a LinkedIn message to connect with someone working at [Company]. Express your interest in the [Title] position and discuss why your background in [Specific Field/Technology] positions you as a prime candidate. 3. Creating Professional Resume Prompt: Construct a resume for the [Title] role at [company], detailing [X] years of experience. Include 3-5 bullet points per position and incorporate 10 key phrases from the job description. Past positions: [Company A-Y years, Company B-Z years]. 4. Crafting a Cover Letter: Prompt: Compose a cover letter tailored for the [Title] position at [Company], highlighting your expertise in [Specific Field/Technology]. Reference your past achievements at [Previous Company] and how they relate to the job's requirements. 5. Email for Submitting Resume and Cover Letter Prompt: Craft an email for submitting my resume and cover letter for the [Title] role at [Company] to [employer email]. Highlight significant accomplishments at [Previous Company] and convey enthusiasm for the position. 6. Interview Question Compilation Generate a list of [number] potential interview questions derived from the job description for preparation purposes. Job description: [paste text/link]. Good luck out there. Let me know if I can help. #salespeoplehelpingsalespeople #SaaS #Rifssuck #Leanonyournetwork

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You have to listen to be heard… My name is Michale Sanchez, a sales trainer for Growth Genie who works with revenue leaders to hit their “daunting” quarterly goals. Last year I was working with “Alison” a salesperson from the cross-sell team, whose leadership team told her she would have a new key performance indicator(KPI). 120 dials a week. I have the luxury of working with both Alison and her VP of sales, I realized a mistake he and other sales leaders committed, they do not look to understand their team before making a drastic decision. Alison and another teammate immediately pushed back on why that number would be a challenge. She told leadership that she currently has a lot of other tasks for which she is responsible. This was Alison’s “objection”. The sales leader tried to overcome this objection by saying, “We have other senior team members who are meeting this metric and getting those same tasks completed” This answer was not good enough for Alison because deep down the team was faking some of those numbers. The sales leader had “0” idea this was going on and Alison walked away frustrated. During my 1 on 1 with Alison, I used an objection-handling framework that shifted her mindset: Acknowledge: “Alison I appreciate the frustration that comes when being told to make 120 dials that you feel may lead nowhere.” Question: “You mentioned you have been doing this for the last couple of weeks, how has the experience gone?” Alison: She told me the data she had was terrible leading her to feel demoralized because of lack of success. Question: “Cold calling outside of the data can be demoralizing in itself because you will also deal with other challenges. Let me talk to leadership about what other data sources we can get you. How do you feel about how cold calling aligns with your skill set?” She then completely opened up about how she did not feel this aligned with her skill set. There was a complete lack of confidence and rightfully so. Story: “Alison I hate to say this but 90% of my clients today are asking their revenue teams to make more outbound calls. Your colleague Jonathan had a similar concern so we shifted the focus of our training to be more outbound focused and he is top 3 on the leaderboard. How open are you to shifting our trainings to be more outbound-focused so we can find you some wins?  ‘ Openly there was a bit of crying in between but Alison walked away feeling listened to and heard. Since I was able to put her in this mindset she now could be more receptive to the path of making 120 dials. The next 3 weeks Alison came in and hit her mark. The biggest thing she changed was not batching all her outbound activities in one hour and dedicating that time to calling. This would not have been possible without first seeing a mindset shift. Working with salespeople I have seen that whenever a team is asked to do a new task there is always a knee-jerk reaction of “I can't do this I already am doing all this”. 

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Top H1 takeaway from QBR's about our Rev Org: "We're an ecosystem, not a hierarchy." (h/t Alexandra B.) We collaborate, everyone's voice matters, and we strive to put people in roles they love so they can be madly successful. Hearing this statement was validation that what we are building in the Revenue Org at LibraryPass is unique, and scalable, and contagious. And we have roles coming soon! So if you're interested in being part of an ecosystem, let's chat. Here's to an even better H2!

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Everyone in your revenue org has a different view of what's going on. Learn how to leverage it: VPs: “We’re tracking behind on our Q3 revenue target. We need to increase our ACV by doubling down on Enterprise opportunities.” Sales Managers: “We’re tracking behind our Q3 revenue target. We don’t have enough opportunities to double down on. We need to increase our outbound activity to drive pipeline.” Account Executives: “I’m behind on my Q3 target. Building more pipeline isn’t going to help me this quarter. I need to close at least 50% of my open opportunities to get back on track (even though my average is 25%).” Same Problem. 3 Completely Different Approaches. If you work in revenue enablement, you have the unique opportunity to be a bridge between team members at every level. Here’s what that sounds like… To VP’s: “If we want to increase our team’s ACV by moving up market, we’ll need to audit how we qualify opportunities and make sure we’re getting the right stakeholders involved in discovery. Do you have time to collaborate on a new rubric for our SDR’s and AE’s to qualify champions? I’d expect this to take about 3 months before we start seeing consistent results. Is there any opportunity to focus on mid-market win rate in the meantime?” [Once approved, go to your sales managers] To Sales Managers: “I understand we need more activity, but until our reps are identifying the right people to get on a call, it’s going to be wasted effort. Leadership is working on a new qualification framework for next quarter, but in the meantime, you can still hit your target by focusing on moving more of your existing pipeline in S2 & S3 into later stages in the sales cycle. What are some high-value deals that you feel are stuck right now?” [Then, go to your reps] To Sellers: “Your managers have identified some deals that are stuck in the early stages of the sales cycle. In the past, I’ve noticed you tend to use discounts as a lever to push deals through faster. How would you go about advancing these deals if you weren’t able to discount them at all?” By taking the time to listen to different perspectives from across the org, Enablement becomes a force multiplier that get’s everyone moving towards the same goal.

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CS teams NEED to start "managing up" with execs and the board by talking about REVENUE. Yes, you can keep talking about sentiment and feelings, but start with the $. Don't lead with churn- Bottom-line-focused execs don't like that headline, so you need to tell the story better. An informal poll had CS teams owning over 50% of the revenue of many SaaS companies. Lead with this and have it be your first talking point. From there you will be able to get more things done with other departments, as your requests will be revenue-focused Need to get a Customer Success Platform as you scale? Point to revenue and the potential to lose revenue without efficiencies Need to hire more to prevent burnout? Point to Revenue potential with renewals and upsells Talk in the language your execs and board want to hear.

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Here are four signs your GTM alignment is out of whack: 1. Fragmented Customer Lifecycle View If your team lacks a comprehensive view of the customer lifecycle, you're likely missing key opportunities for upselling, cross-selling, and customer retention. A unified perspective is essential for seamless customer experience and strategic decision-making. 2. Disparate Data Sources When every department has its own ops person with different data sets, it creates a fragmented picture of your business. Without a single source of truth, your strategies will be inconsistent and less effective, leading to misaligned goals and metrics. 3. Inconsistent Terminology If the same terms (e.g., "SQL," "MQL," "Funnel,") mean different things to different people, communication breakdowns are inevitable. This inconsistency can lead to misaligned expectations and strategies, undermining your overall GTM efforts. 4. Unclear ICP Definition and Belief If your team is frequently questioning, “Should we sell to this company?” it indicates a lack of confidence and clarity in your ICP. I like to think of it as who is my "Market of 1?" Can I define a single person who I know is the absolute best market? Then I build my ICPs off of their persona. 5. Sales & Marketing are sending inconsistent messaging to the same people every week. Your sales team is going to work the MQLs, your marketing team is going to work them too. If the messaging is disjointed - you're setting yourself up for failure. Start there. Or you can take our Revuhnew GTM Assessment to get a crystal clear view of where you're at right now! https://lnkd.in/gb936XbN

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If you are a #CSM then ask yourself this question every morning when you start work: "Why...?" And no...it is NOT: "Why...am I here?" 😅 As every CSM or #CS leader knows - every day in CS is a busy one. You have a long to-do list. Many KPIs to hit. Customers reaching out. Leaders asking you for things. Meetings back-to-back. It's easy to get overwhelmed. It is even easier to get distracted. And almost impossible to optimize your time. That is where "Why?" comes into the picture. When you start your day (or finish the previous day): 📆 Look at what you have on the calendar 📋 Look at your inevitable to-do list 📲 Look at your meetings for the day 🕺🏽 Look at how much "free" time you have that day Now consider your short-term goals & KPIs: weekly/monthly And consider your medium-term goals & KPIs: Quarterly/qualitative Here is where you ask yourself, "Why?" - Why should I spend time on this activity? - Why is that meeting important (or how to make it important)? - Why is this task at the top of my list? - Why, why, why... If the answer does not include something in line with..."because it best helps me get to this goal or KPI"...then you probably should not prioritize it. The reality in CS is that you never have enough time. There is always more. You can even spend TOO much time on GOOD activities. So don't waste it. Ask "why?". And maximize each day. *** 🛎️ If you enjoy my content, follow me for more ♻️ Repost to share with your network #CS #customersuccess #accountmanagement #timemanagement #csvalue #revsetter

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How much retention would go up? If... - The Customer Success org starts with Solutions - There's a Chief Solutions Officer on the board - AEs consult with SEs on all ongoing deals - Customers talk 80% in conversations - Focus is on adoption, not renewals I'm guessing by A LOT. That's the GTM SaaS world I envision. P.S: True customer adoption nearly guarantees renewals. #presalesevolution #customersuccess #saas

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In sales, it’s important to have transparent—and sometimes tough—budget conversations early and often. In custom software development, it doesn’t help the buyer to hold their budget cards close to the vest. Costs can increase quickly if we don’t understand the most impactful requirements and determine an MVP that fits within a realistic budget. "Realistic budget" varies by buyer. We need to talk about it...even when it's tough. Here’s how to approach them confidently (without breaking a sweat): Know Your Stuff Get the Numbers Right: Be clear on both your budget and the client’s. Break down where the money will go and why that allocation makes sense. Show the Data: Back up your recommendations with data—how past investments led to growth or how future spend will deliver returns. Spell Out ROI: Be specific about how each dollar spent contributes to the overall outcome. The math will sell the value. Keep It Real Manage Expectations: Be upfront about what’s possible within the budget. No one likes surprises, so it’s better to be candid than face frustration later. Explain Trade-Offs: If certain features need to be cut to stay within budget, explain what will be impacted, helping the client see the trade-offs. Be a Problem Solver Offer Flexible Options: If budget is tight, suggest scalable solutions. Start with essentials and add more features over time. Help Prioritize: Collaborate to figure out what’s most important so you can focus resources on what matters and get more out of the budget. Tie the Budget to Big Picture Goals Link It to Strategy: Show how the budget ties into broader goals—sales targets, efficiency, or growth. People are more likely to approve when they see the bigger picture. Highlight Long-Term Benefits: Remind them the budget is an investment, not just an expense. Focus on things like customer retention, productivity, or gaining a competitive edge. Listen, Empathize, and Be Patient Hear Them Out: Understand their concerns. The more you listen, the easier it is to address pain points. Stay Calm and Respectful: Budget talks can be tense. Stay patient and respectful. Focus on Building a Partnership Be a Partner, Not Just a Vendor: Frame the conversation as a team effort. Work together to find the best solution for everyone. Stay Flexible: Be willing to adjust to meet their needs without compromising quality or results. Know When to Hold Your Ground Stick to Your Bottom Line: If the budget becomes too tight to deliver value, don’t be afraid to speak up. Don’t Overpromise: Avoid overpromising things that could hurt quality or cause issues down the road. In closing, having effective and meaningful budget conversations will build trust with the buyer and certainly increase your close rate. #sales, #budget, #toughconversations, #customsoftwaredevelopment, #baytechconsulting, #roi, #sellwithconfidence

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You're thinking about renewals wrong. 66% of your renewals will be decided when you’re not in the room. Want higher NRR? Here’s the non-obvious CS strategy that's key to SaaS renewal: Hold customers accountable! In our current economy, customer acquisition is harder than ever. Every board of directors is obsessed with net recurring revenue (NRR). And they should be. After all, close rates are down (18%) and so are deal values (21%). There is no easier source of revenue than an existing customer. And nothing more painful than losing a customer, when all of the time, effort, and expense of building the relationship goes to waste. So of course we invest in the process. We hold our weekly meetings. We educate our champions. We have quarterly QBRs. We find success stories. But too often, we’re talking to one part of the organization. And we lose visibility to what happens when we aren’t in the room, when our champion needs to roll out or deliver using our stuff. It’s hard to see around corners in companies. A simple question suddenly gets hard to answer: Did they train the users they said they would? Did they share out the data or results? Did they get the feedback needed to tune the offering? When I worked at Ariba, which went from $0 to a $4B IPO in 4 years, we had a saying: Success has 3 ingredients: your people, your process, and our software. In other words, 66% of success depends on the customer. If they don’t do their part, they won’t get the value they bought from you. That’s a problem for them. But also a problem for you, because that’s a customer who won’t renew. Why should they, when the value didn’t happen, whoever’s “fault” it was? You need to flip the script. Accountability means asking the hard questions. Was the data delivered? Was it understood? When is the feedback coming? If the answers weren’t there, escalate to the economic buyer. They are at risk of not getting the value they bought. That should be a red flag for them and us. Are they still committed to the project? How do we get back on track? With all of our weekly tactics, we often lose sight of the most important question of all. Why did the customer buy in the first place? If the customer didn’t do what they said they would, that's bad news. And it’s 100% our fault. Want the renewal? Hold customers accountable.

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How can RevOps be more strategic? How can we drive more revenue with less resources? Right now, coming off "Growth at All Costs" we're all strained for budget and resources. Meanwhile, it's harder than ever to land and expand customers. What can we do as revenue and operations leaders to better utilize what we have, to build more efficient Revenue Engines? My team and I have spent years thinking about this. Here's a preview. 𝟭. 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝗮𝗹 𝗶𝗻 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱 2. 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗢𝗽𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝟯. 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗢𝗽𝘀 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲: 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 Where do we start? On 𝗠𝗮𝘆 𝟭𝘀𝘁, I'm joining Ben Murray to dive into this. In this webinar, we’ll introduce the: -> 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝗘𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 𝗣𝘆𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗱, a proprietary model designed to measure your company’s operational maturity and identify the most critical bottlenecks hindering growth. We’ll also show you how to: -> Prioritize projects and align your teams towards large strategic goals using a 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗢𝗽𝘀 𝗥𝗼𝗮𝗱𝗺𝗮𝗽. And we'll dive even deeper into a tangible example: -> How to conduct 𝗣𝗶𝗽𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝘀, a process used to spot issues in the sales process and reinforce optimal pipeline management. Register here: https://lnkd.in/e3qqMEaf ✌️

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CSM, here are 28 reasons to be thankful for in 2024: 1- AI tools are reducing administrative grunt work 🤖 2- CEOs understanding the importance of retention 💡 3- Predictive analytics are getting much more robust 🔮 4- Remote work expanding global CS opportunities 🌐 5- Retention metrics at board-level conversations 📉 6- The flywheel is overtaking the funnel as a GTM engine 🤲 7- Measuring Customer Outcomes is a top priority for CS 📊 8- Automation is handling repetitive customer interactions 🤖 9- Salary ranges for CSMs are becoming more competitive 💰 10- Customer health scoring is more sophisticated than ever ❤️ 11- There are so many learning programs for CS professionals 🎓 12- More companies budget for professional CS development 🏆 13- Customer feedback loops are faster and more transparent 🔄 14- More start-ups are tackling CS challenges and opportunities 🚀 15- Diversity and inclusion are improving in CS leadership roles 🌈 16- Tech stacks are becoming more integrated and user-friendly 💻 17- Executive leadership values emotional intelligence more now 🤝 18- CSM burnout prevention is getting more leadership attention 🧘‍♀️ 19- Technology is making personalization easier and more effective 🎯 20- The first CRM that supports the CSM work launched (HubSpot) 🧡 21- The skills learned in CS are highly transferable across industries 🌍 22- We're finally unifying the data to tailor the customer experience 🏅 23- The job market for CS professionals is showing genuine recovery 📈 24- The CS community is more supportive and collaborative than ever 🤙 25- Customer success is recognized as a revenue-generating function 💸 26- Networking opportunities have expanded through digital platforms 💻 27- Learning resources for CS professionals are abundant and accessible 📚 28- The stigma around customer success as a "nice to have" is disappearing 🔥 Customer Success is growing and it's becoming better. Despite the hurdles, there’s nowhere else I'd rather be. Who's ready for another revolution around the sun, making a real impact? Let’s go! - 📧 Join thousands of others learning to ace their CS roles by subscribing to my newsletter. (link below) #CustomerSuccess #SaaS #CustomerExperience #CSM #revops

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I don’t think I’ve experienced more challenges in my RevOps career than trying to build GTM for 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 companies. Myself, Bernardo Alves (our head of RevOps strategy), and Kyle Himmelwright sat down to discuss all of the challenges we have faced and some tactical solutions that we've seen work. Bernardo and I started working together at Emailage, a company fully built on a consumption based pricing model where we faced our first challenges building GTM around this model. With LeanScale, we’ve also worked with multiple AI-as-a-Service companies that are typically built on consumption based pricing, and we know this is where most companies are going in the future. Kyle has had an impressive operations career and has also been an operator in multiple companies with consumption based pricing models, bringing a unique and practical perspective to the conversation. 𝐃𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐥𝐥 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 🎯 How to 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭 in a consumption based model 💰 How to set up 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐬 and quotas 👷‍♂️ How to 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 your sales and CS teams 📊 How to articulate your “𝐀𝐑𝐑” - the metric most companies consider their north star ⚙️ 𝐓𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐬 you can use to help make the process easier

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Are you building an SDR/BDR function? Stop what you are doing and read this. Megan Hardy is some you need to learn from - I’m stoke I get to learn from her EVERYDAY She’s really brilliant. She’s freaking cool. She’s got a fire to win like no other. She’s a builder. She’s a wife and mother with an awesomely cool family……..ask Chester Hardy….he’ll agree 😁 She cares about her people……..but doesn’t put up with nonsense. She done this multiple times….. She’s been an SDR (multiple times), AE (multiple times), run enablement (multiple times)…… Built a kickbutt SDR/BDR organization multiple times……… Read the dang thing….. She knows her stuff……. https://lnkd.in/gFG7qSem. #sdr #bdr #sales #saas #enablement #rockstar #leadership #restauranttech #wfm #leader

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Conquer is a great fit for a company with many inside sellers. Here’s why: 1. Conquer helps organize and streamline processes 2. And here are a few of the value drivers Conquer delivers: a. Reduce manual activities b. Time back in their day to be proactive c. Prioritization of higher revenue opportunities d. Visibility into what is working and what is not in order to make adjustments to process e. Reduce training time and fast ramp up time for new team members If you're looking to make your inside sellers more productive and you all currently use Salesforce, send me a direct message and I'm happy to share some thoughts.

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ZoomInfo Copilot is working 24/7 — surfacing important updates you should know about your top accounts.  With breaking alerts delivered via Slack, you'll never miss when a buying group shifts or a key account spikes on intent. 🔔 Have a question about one of your accounts? Ask Copilot's interactive, AI-powered chat and get answers in seconds.  Ready to give Copilot a try? Request a demo: bit.ly/3Kj4myP #ZoomInfoCopilot

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Many sales organizations spend days or weeks on account prioritization and territory planning exercises. There's got to be a better way... If you're heading to Gartner CSO next week, don't miss Ami Arad's presentation on May 21 at 2:05pm! He'll contrast the traditional ways sellers prioritize their accounts and the new way made possible through buyer intent and predictive models. Get the details here: https://okt.to/GhFXdQ

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Here is the current version of my best practices for kickoffs. It's really an intro call - This is not requirements call. NOTE THE CSM interaction! Take about success criteria, not the weather Assign them homework that they need to do in order to "start" the project. This can help your metrics if you report on when project "starts" vs kickoff Are you doing any of these?

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