Haley Alvarez

Territory design is crucial to setting up your sales team (and business!) for success. But with so many strategies to choose from, how do you decide on your approach? The folks over at RevOps Co-op get into the nitty gritty 👇 https://gag.gl/Nm2xoO #RevOps #Data #DataQuality

3

What do I mean when I say I’ve been doing contract work? Here are 5 examples of different consulting gigs I’ve worked on lately: • Customer Experience - Weekly check-ins with a CSM who is the only one in their department at a small company, offering guidance/strategy on customer retention and scaling. • Substack Strategy - Weekly check-ins with an early-stage Substack author on how to grow and scale her audience and optimize analytics and tools within Substack. • Content Strategy - Conducted an audit of previous Pinterest + blog content and offered SEO tweaks/improvements, which led to managing visual and written content. • Education Curriculum Standards Alignment - Aligned a startup’s scope and sequence with state standards. • Marketing Content Calendar - Coordinated with several teammates to ensure aligned content was published on various channels. Years ago, when I heard "consulting," I used to think, “What do they mean? What are they actually doing?” So I hope that de-mystifies it a bit. All your work doesn’t just need to be in one niche either! I love contributing to a new, small team that isn’t ready to hire someone full-time but needs a little expertise to keep them on the right track. Is there anything I can help you with? Let’s chat!

17

3 Comments

The feeling of status quo, and the disgust of being pitched to, is real. Sales professionals first and foremost need empathy, and to lead with insight about the problem they help with. If it resonates, you'll earn the right to ask more questions.

6

The key to productive meetings? Pre-reads! I send pre-reads to share key context ahead of time and set the stage for meaningful conversations. 🗣️ What do you typically include in your pre-reads? Do you record a Loom or send a document with key info? Let me know! #BetterMeetings

9

1 Comment

If you’re running an Outbound motion and only looking at 1-2 pieces of data with a loose reason to reach out, you’re only looking at a fraction of the picture. Your team (and audiences) are probably more frustrated than you know. All the credit to the Pocus team who have evolved prospecting to be more data-driven and repeatable. Helium 10 can now deliver the right insights to prospects and show them how to make a bigger impact with solutions for EVERY e-commere need. Alexa Grabell Claire Seaver Brandon Latteri 👏 👏 #PLS #PLG #Signalbased #Automateoutbound #GTMengine #Customerjourney

12

3 Comments

1 RevOps team or separate CX, Sales, and Marketing Ops teams? I spoke with 4 RevOps leaders this month who all had the same painful story about this decision. Here’s how it usually goes: ✅ Start with separate teams: Sales Ops, Marketing Ops, CX Ops. It makes sense early on: - Processes and reporting are function-specific. - Each exec gets their go-to ops person to execute more quickly. But then the cracks appear: ❌ Siloed data and processes. ❌ Finger-pointing due to misalignment. ❌ No clear view of the customer journey. ❌ Ops becomes order takers and firefighters instead of strategic partners. In the worst cases? Ops teams are stuck defending execs instead of being the truth tellers your business needs. What happens next? Painful consolidation. All 4 leaders shared how they had to merge their ops teams into one RevOps function, rebuilding processes and data foundations from scratch to match the customer journey. The results? Functions work together seamlessly: Marketing generates leads that Sales actually works. Pipeline forecasting gets easier. Sales focuses on customers that retain. RevOps becomes a strategic, empowered truth-teller, and finally gets a seat at the table. My takeaway is that it’s much easier to launch RevOps with this foundation upfront than fix it later. But it takes discipline and alignment, which is more challenging in high growth environments. How has your org thought about this decision?

9

2 Comments

🚨 Gainsight has acquired Staircase AI 🚨 Why is this game changing? Relationships with your customers and accounts are complex - they are multidimensional. They are rarely one person to one person, but rather interactions are often occurring between many people at your company and many people at your accounts. Those interactions are seemingly invisible to everyone except the people they're occurring between and key details get lost across chat, email, calls, support tickets, CRM, etc. Missing those details is what causes surprise lost revenue, surprise churn and missed growth opportunities. That doesn't happen with Staircase AI by Gainsight because it analyzes every interaction across every channel occurring between you and your customers - and surfaces customer insights directly to where you're already doing your work.

36

3 Comments

Today is a big day for Product Marketers who use Gong. Because today, Klue is launching our new Gong Integration. Here’s the scoop: ⬅️ Before: It was a challenge to track how often competitors come up over time ➡️ After: Gong tracker data is visualized within Klue so you can track competitor mentions ⬅️ Before: Deal support was reactive based on individual requests ➡️ After: Sort your calls by # of competitor mentions and prioritize deal that need support ⬅️ Before: The sales team was responsible for updating the competitive fields in the CRM ➡️ After: Automatically update these fields in your CRM based on competitor mentions ⬅️ Before: Klue content couldn’t be accessed in Gong ➡️ After: Sales can experience any Klue battlecard from Gong Engage Check out our landing page to learn more and test drive the product. Link in the comments.

38

2 Comments

❌ Manual errors are more common than you'd think, and when they occur, the blame game begins. Is it the AE who closed the deal without updating details in their CRM? Rev Ops for not validating the contract? Or Revenue Accounting for closing the books with incorrect data? The finger-pointing can be endless! 👉 Avoid the blame game entirely with Klarity's GenAI platform. Our advanced AI eliminates manual errors and automates complex tasks such as document review, data extraction, validation, and analysis (all while staying compliant with accounting standards 😉). ⚡ Let Klarity handle the details with precision, so your team can focus on what they do best. #accountingautomation #accounting #klarity #revenuerecognition #revops #contractreview #monthend

51

3 Comments

Far too often, I see organizations relying solely on quantitative measures of success, which leads CSMs to focus on activity rather than meaningful impact—just as Kristi Faltorusso describes here I get the intention But does it really matter if a CSM sends 100 emails and conducts 20 QBRs if they can't clearly articulate five stories of how they've helped customers achieve their desired outcomes? I don't think so It's essential to couple quantitative metrics with qualitative measures of impact and outcome. When CSMs can showcase how they've guided customers along their hero's journey and helped them realize their goals, that's when true value is delivered. Organizations need a way to monitor, measure, and scale those qualitative stories of success outcomes. Focusing on that rather than just activities ensures that we're not just busy, but actually making a difference. Absolutely agree with your points Kristi Faltorusso

7

3 Comments

Effective communication is the cornerstone of building strong customer relationships. A strategic approach ensures clarity, trust, and long-term success. Very insightful post Carly Agar

2

At Amplitude, we talk a lot about Product, and how to understand user behavior within your product experience. But my team of Customer Success Managers - and all of our broader partners within Go To Market teams like Sales and Account Management - also have critical use cases to understand our users' behavior within the product. Earlier this week, Amplitude and HubSpot launched a strategic partnership just for GTM teams like ours. With HubSpot and Amplitude's expanded integration, GTM teams can easily track product usage alongside traditional CRM data. Joint customers can see Amplitude charts in their HubSpot dashboards and target customer cohorts based on product usage or other key buying signals. This empowers teams to engage users with the right message at the right time. Learn how we're helping teams prioritize leads and close more deals: https://bit.ly/3MQP4mg 

7

🛑 STOP. If you're a Customer Success Manager using a script, it's killing your discovery process. The best discovery comes from developing a genuine understanding for your customer and adapting quickly to understand their priorities and challenges. ➡️ Listen for cues like this: 🚩"We struggle with" 🚩"We use" 🚩"We need to" 🚩"We wish we could" 🚩"Is it possible to" ⬇️ And start uncovering customer needs like this: ✅ "Tell me more about ______" ✅ "Help me understand how you ______" ✅ "How critical is it that you ______?" ✅ "Why do you want to ______?" ✅ "Who is affected by ______?" Soon enough, you'll be strengthening your customer relationships and achieving their desired outcomes more quickly, all because your discovery process was grounded in a true understanding of their problems. 💡 What cues do you listen for, and what questions have helped improve your discovery?

7

Using ChatGPT as a CSM Your day as a CSM can be spent doing tons of prep work and research before a customer call. If you have a brand new account and need some additional details here are a few quick prompts that you run through AI to help get you up to speed quickly. 1️⃣ Company Overview and Industry: ☑ What is the company's core business, and which industry does it operate in? ☑ Who are the company's primary customers or clients? ☑ What are the latest news and updates about the company (e.g., recent funding, major projects, product launches)? 2️⃣ Key Stakeholders and Decision-Makers: ☑ Who are the key stakeholders and decision-makers within the company? ☑ What are their roles and responsibilities? ☑ Are there any notable career achievements or backgrounds of these individuals that might influence their needs and expectations? 3️⃣ Current Challenges: ☑ What are the primary challenges the company is facing in its industry? 4️⃣ Existing Technology Stack: ☑ What software and technology solutions is the company currently using? 5️⃣ Competitors and Market Position: ☑ Who are the company's main competitors, and how do they compare in terms of market share and product offerings? ☑ What differentiates the company from its competitors? ☑ Are there any industry trends or competitive pressures that could influence their decision to use your SaaS product? Remember to be as specific as possible with the prompt. I also would start with some context such as: "I'm the CSM for a SaaS company and have a new customer in my account list named Gainsight. I need to do some research on the company. Can you let me know who are the key stakeholders and decision-makers within the company?" The more context you provide the better job any AI tool will be able to perform! Hope this helps, let me know your best prompts for account research :)

40

8 Comments

One of the best ways to make outbound fun and effective is by adding a little creativity—and that’s where themed outreach comes in! 🎉 At RollWorks, we use themed weeks to guide our outbound efforts. Here’s how it works and why it’s been a game-changer for our reps: 🔍 Focused Messaging: Each week, we pick a theme—maybe it’s targeting a specific competitor, reviving closed/lost opportunities, or tackling a common pain point. By having a theme, everyone is on the same page, and reps can focus on refining their messaging for that topic. It takes the guesswork out and allows them to go deeper rather than wider. 🤝 Shared Learnings: Because everyone’s working from a similar playbook, we share the wins and lessons as a team. Did that industry trend resonate with VPs? Did the new angle get a response? These shared insights help everyone level up—faster. 🎯 Prospecting with Intent: Themed outreach isn’t about casting a wide net; it’s about bringing laser focus to our prospecting. It aligns our entire outbound motion with intent, making personalization easier and more genuine. And the best part? Themed outreach has turned prospecting into a group sport. 🌟 The team gets to experiment, compare notes, and, most importantly, learn together—which makes outbound a lot more fun and a lot less daunting. Outbound doesn’t have to be a lonely grind. When reps feel supported, focused, and aligned, they prospect with purpose—and that’s where the magic happens. Have you tried using themes for outbound? What’s your favorite one so far? 🤔 Drop your ideas below, and let’s make outbound a little more interesting! 🚀✨ #OutboundWithIntent #SalesEnablement #ThemedProspecting #SalesLearning #TeamWins

15

11 Comments

Big news from Gong! 🍾🥳 It’s inspiring to see how these innovations are giving teams better ways to manage their pipelines, forecast, and coach—all while staying focused on what matters most. Can’t wait to hear from industry leaders about how they’re using these tools to transform their businesses! 🚀

2

No risk, no reward. Especially in Customer Success.  Early in my first CSM role, I noticed some gaps in our renewals process. It lacked structure, leading to missed opportunities and unnecessary churn. Rather than wait for someone else to step in, I took a risk—I volunteered to create our company's first renewal playbook. After diving into the data and collaborating with our CS, RevOps and Sales teams, we rolled out a strategy that not only streamlined renewals but reduced churn dramatically. On top of that, we started unlocking new upsell opportunities at renewal time, turning what was once a transactional moment into a chance to grow relationships. 🚀 This experience taught me that innovation in CS is crucial. It's not just about solving problems here and now—it's about creating opportunities to impact your customers, your organization, and your career. #customersuccess #innovation #renewals  #leadership

13

1 Comment