Chris Hoffman

SaaS leaders spend a lot of time on the micro. When will this feature ship? Is that customer churning? What led to that production issue? Even the most senior leaders often get caught here. Then you see OKRs to match. Trailing churn, grow revenue from new features, maintain x% uptime. And processes and tools spring up to measure all of this with drilldowns and rollups to match. Sure sometimes this starts with a strategic vision, identifying areas of opportunity, and then breaking that down into manageable tasks. Planfully creating process and the organization to execute. But I reckon that's less common than we'd like to admit. The secret is, it's often more like this: - Oh bleep, I just got a call that super important customer threatened to leave! - Let's get five people in an emergency meeting with the customer! - The customer said the competitor has a better version of a highy specific feature! Is an upgrade on our roadmap? How can we rally the team to execute on it sooner? We need a swat effort - who can we pull into a team without making any sacrafices? - We need a r/y/g to discuss customers with this issue. And other customers with issues. And other issues we've noticed internally. We'll go through the list item by item, thrice weekly at 8 am. - etc. And this is of course all common and natural. Once the firehouse starts it's hard to fit in anything but more reaction. So the products and processes adapt to fit reality. And they grow. So we attempt to make that process we don't have time for twice as fast. And the overwhelm sets in, and the to do list gets too long. Since so many very succesful companies experience this that we assume it must be the way. There isn't a magic fix, but I don't think it happens by saying "I'm going to spend less time on the micro by optimizing the time I spend on the micro." It starts by carving out time for macro strategy. This may be the 30 minutes that doesn't feel urgent researching your place in the market. Maybe it's a call with a customer that doesn't need anything right now. Or - I hope - a solution like Rabble AI which can put the strategic priorities right in front of you in plain language. Will this turn the firehouse of micro off? No, nothing will. But at least it prevents the micro from completely washing the strategic away.

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Tired of losing hard-earned deals? Solve for Revenue Leak. In Clari’s 2024 Revenue Leak Report, RevOps leaders said leak happens at every stage of the funnel. - Creating: Poor and slow upsell pipeline tracking - Converting: Unsure where pipeline is dropping off - Closing: Slipped deals Don’t let Revenue Leak drag down another quarter – or another year. Download the Revenue Leak Report for more: https://lnkd.in/g9gnGrdz  

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I did an informal poll on CSM vs Sales commission splits. I was pleasantly shocked to see that over 95% of companies do not have Sales take a commission on renewals unless it’s a particularly challenging one; the AE is there to help with it as a “bounty renewal”. in this case, the AE gets a % but is not taken from the CSM. Other interesting data points: "Commission on upsells and renewal made up 30% of the total compensation package. However, the exact commission % was determined by dividing the 30% by $$$ into the total ARR managed by the CSM." What metrics should this be based on? Most followed this model to Typically, companies that are earlier in their CS maturity will base this off a few leading indicators (adoption milestones, EBRs, etc.), and then move to comping on lagging indicators (retention, expansion, NRR, etc.) once their leading indicator activities have been proven. The following are examples of metrics you can use, not an exhaustive list: Leading: QBRs and/or EBRs (attained vs scheduled) Product adoption milestones (product dependent) Lagging: Net Revenue Retention (NRR) - this is likely the most common Retention Expansion Advocacy (hard to make this scale across large teams and mixed portfolios - this is better as a SPIFF or annual metric to Bonus on) From there, you can determine the weight of each metric on the bonus. I'll give an example using a bonus that is achieved by a renewal retention goal and an NRR goal. Criteria for 100% Bonus Attainment: 90% Renewal Retention (50% weight) 125% Net Revenue Retention (50% weight) "This keeps it pretty simple with two priorities. Retain and Expand Revenue. The Retention goal being assessed separately ensures CSMs don't have significant churn masked by massive upsells. In this example, if a CSM had 85% Retention and 115% NRR, they'd end up at 93.22% to goal for their overall commission/variable comp."

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I did an informal poll on CSM vs Sales commission splits. I was pleasantly shocked to see that over 95% of companies do not have Sales take a commission on renewals unless it’s a particularly challenging one; the AE is there to help with it as a “bounty renewal”. in this case, the AE gets a % but is not taken from the CSM. Other interesting data points: "Commission on upsells and renewal made up 30% of the total compensation package. However, the exact commission % was determined by dividing the 30% by $$$ into the total ARR managed by the CSM." What metrics should this be based on? Most followed this model to Typically, companies that are earlier in their CS maturity will base this off a few leading indicators (adoption milestones, EBRs, etc.), and then move to comping on lagging indicators (retention, expansion, NRR, etc.) once their leading indicator activities have been proven. The following are examples of metrics you can use, not an exhaustive list: Leading: QBRs and/or EBRs (attained vs scheduled) Product adoption milestones (product dependent) Lagging: Net Revenue Retention (NRR) - this is likely the most common Retention Expansion Advocacy (hard to make this scale across large teams and mixed portfolios - this is better as a SPIFF or annual metric to Bonus on) From there, you can determine the weight of each metric on the bonus. I'll give an example using a bonus that is achieved by a renewal retention goal and an NRR goal. Criteria for 100% Bonus Attainment: 90% Renewal Retention (50% weight) 125% Net Revenue Retention (50% weight) "This keeps it pretty simple with two priorities. Retain and Expand Revenue. The Retention goal being assessed separately ensures CSMs don't have significant churn masked by massive upsells. In this example, if a CSM had 85% Retention and 115% NRR, they'd end up at 93.22% to goal for their overall commission/variable comp."

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Hey RevOps - here's a hack for you to eliminate all the time and money you are spending on your sandbox environment 👇 Test in production. 😏 Follow me for me RevOps hacks...and have a good weekend y'all ✌️ #revops #revenueoperations #salesops #salesoperations #sfdc #salesforce #salesforceadmin #sfdcadmin

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In SaaS, not all customers are worth keeping. Jeff Kushmerek, in a recent post, talks about using the data to do a deep dive into customers and determine - are they likely to churn - and then you can save them. And Jeff is an expert on CSM topics - go look him up / follow him - he has actually done the work, learnt the lessons, and speaks from experience. Companies like #Totango and #Gainsight provide great systems to track this data, and drill into each account. You can build dashboards to facilitate discussion and next-step actions. Gainsight has gone a step further and sponsored a series of books on Customer Success: ‘Customer Success’, ‘Chief Customer Officer 2.0’, ‘Digital Customer Success’, ‘The Customer Success Economy’, and a handbook for CS professionals. Sure, it takes time to read books, but you might learn a little more than just scrolling all day. In your CS data you can track hard facts. How much did customers spend? Do they login? You can also quantify subjective opinion - colored coded in a RAG. You can even play doctors and nurses, and provide health scores based on factors important to your product usage. And for the really smart folks, you can partner with Product Management and have them build telemetry into your product to see how customers get lost and confused. But above all, your customers are the main thing. They are all you have to work with. Scott Sampson, a Sales Leader I worked with, used to say ”Progress, not perfection. Progress not perfection”. Or some such. Absolutely right. Let’s make progress on this hill. The hill we are standing on. Not that random hill over there. As a start-up you are fighting for your first 10 customers. Just sign-up anyone - Just prove that you can provide value in exchange for revenue. But beyond that, you are a small, medium business - doesn’t sound so sexy, right - but you need to get choosy about which customers you sign up, and why. You need to get intentional. And this is where Cost of Sale, and Cost of Operation become so important. Cost of Sale is already spent money - you have a customer. But running that customer’s environment on your SaaS platform, on your cloud, costs you real money. Typically you are paying an ‘AWS’ for that cloud environment. They charge annually. Upfront. They don’t care what your revenue from the customer is. So if you jumped to another hill just to win a negative margin logo, you are just chasing instant gratification. Know your hill. Know the profile of the type of customer you need to win. And know your Cost of Operation. And for customers who don’t belong on your hill, work with them. Maybe they already know it. Maybe there is a different solution for them. Maybe there is a friendly competitor you can direct them towards. Because all you have to work with is your customers. You made them a customer. If they don’t fit, strategically drop them, but don’t ‘churn’ bridges.

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The best distribution channels for content on LinkedIn: Spoiler it's not your company account 🚫 1. Execs - execs have tons of credibility & they get a lot more engagement. The LinkedIn algorithm even prioritizes their posts (see Todd Busler, Peter Caputa & Udi Ledergor 🏳‍🌈) 2. Your sales team - AEs and SDRs are out in the wild connecting with your ICP. They serve as a direct distribution channel to qualified buyers 3. Pretty much everyone else

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Game time! This is a great test from Auth0 (Okta). Can you guess the winner? Every SaaS brand likes to show off the customer logos and the impact they have for customers. Okta tested adding these variables to their sign up page. Guess what they tested into by leaving a reaction or comment and we will DM you to let you know if you got it right. #cro #conversionrateoptimization #growth #plg #marketing #saas #pricing #saas #forms

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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!

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I did an informal poll on CSM vs Sales commission splits. I was pleasantly shocked to see over 95% of companies do not have Sales take a commission on renewals unless it’s a particularly challenging one, the AE is there to help with it as a “bounty renewal”. in this case, the AE gets a % but not taken from the CSM. Other interesting data points : "Commission on upsells and renewal made up 30% of the total compensation package. However, the exact commission % was determined by dividing the 30% by $$$ into the total ARR managed by the CSM." What metrics should this be based on? Most followed this model to Typically companies that are earlier in their CS maturity will base this off a few leading indicators(adoption milestones, EBRs, etc.), and then move to comping on lagging indicators(retention, expansion, NRR, etc.) once their leading indicator activities have been proven. The following are examples of metrics you can use, not an exhaustive list: Leading: QBRs and/or EBRs (attained vs scheduled) Product adoption milestones (product dependent) Lagging: Net Revenue Retention(NRR) - this is likely the most common Retention Expansion Advocacy (hard to make this scale across large teams and mixed portfolios - this is better as a SPIFF or annual metric to Bonus on) From there you can determine the weight of each metric on the bonus. I'll give an example using a bonus that is achieved by a renewal retention goal and an NRR goal. Criteria for 100% Bonus Attainment: 90% Renewal Retention (50% weight) 125% Net Revenue Retention (50% weight) "This keeps it pretty simple with two priorities. Retain and Expand Revenue. The Retention goal being assessed separately ensures CSMs don't have significant churn masked by massive upsells. In this example, if a CSM had 85% Retention and 115% NRR, they'd end up at 93.22% to goal for their overall commission/variable comp."

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"How many CSMs do we need?" "How many customers do my CSMs manage"? We've dug into our nearly $2 billion in client revenue data, analyzed industry standards like the Jason M. Lemkin and Gainsight suggestions, and crafted our own Infinite Renewals approach. Whether you're managing too many accounts or wondering how many CSMs you need, this is for you. A sample is below, but the good stuff is in the full report. The Infinite Renewals team of Kate Mazzini, Kristine Vallila, and Renee Murphy really dug in, and also put together a "choose your adventure" approach, which accounts for ACV, ARR, and allocated time per account. Next Thursday, October 3rd, from 1-2 PM EST, we'll be hosting an exclusive Ask Me Anything session. 📈 Drop "REPORT" in the comments to get the report. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to gain invaluable insights! 🗓️ Spread the word!

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F*** is my favorite four-letter F-word. F*** = Free...obviously. 😏 Speaking of free, here's something I'm really excited about. Over at RevOps Co-op, we've got not one, but TWO complimentary RevOpsAF conference passes to give away courtesy of our friends at Enlyft. 🎁 Maybe you're a revenue operator in between gigs who wants to expand your network? 🤝 Or an employed RevOps pro who wants to attend #RevOpsAF 2024 in San Diego but your company isn't able to sponsor you? If this sounds like you then throw the 🙋 emoji in the comments and DM me to toss your name in the literal raffle hat. Sound like someone you know? Tag 'em on this post and have them do the same! Big shout out to Michael Schultz and Phil Gray from Enlyft for making this happen. ❤️ PS - learn more about RevOpsAF 2024 at revopsaf(dot)com #revops #revenueoperations #salesops #salesoperations #marketingops #marketingoperations #mops

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After onboarding 30+ SDRs at SpotDraft, I’ve learned that a good onboarding process is key to reducing churn and improving performance. SDR is a high churn function — this is a fact we can’t change. But what we 𝘤𝘢𝘯 control is how we onboard new hires to give them the best chance at success. Here’s what I believe a strong SDR onboarding process should include: 𝟭. 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀: Every tool they need to use, from sales navigator to CRM, should be documented with 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘩 written instructions and video walkthroughs. 𝟮. 𝗘𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴: Be hands-on. I review the first 50 emails they write, giving feedback on tone and structure. For cold calling, I make them practice with 5 team members before they’re allowed to call prospects. 𝟯. “𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲” 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆: Create a collection of your best emails and cold calls. SDRs need real examples to learn from, not just theory. 𝟰. 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴: Automate product learning as much as possible but keep it ongoing. Use your best AE demos and make sure they pass an internal test before getting into action. 𝟱. 𝗢𝗻𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: Don’t stop training once they’re onboarded. Keep the learning going with monthly updates and enablement sessions. You can’t eliminate churn, but you can reduce it with the right process. Set your SDRs up for success from day one. What’s one thing you’ve found critical in your onboarding process? #onboarding #sdr #sales #growth #spotdraft

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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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There is a murder scene happening in your GTM org right now. 🎃 But not with people (phew). But with FY2025 budgets getting dished out, many GTM leaders are slashing and redlining their current expenses to adapt to the change in budget or getting rid of things that didn’t work. 🔪 Now, if you are a new CMO/CRO, be careful not to just slash for slashing sake. Especially on operations support. Take the time to dig into what is useful for the team and better yet, lean on your operational support to give you the insights to make these “cost-saving” slashes. And on that topic of “cost-saving” here are places I would look into “slashing” first to save money instead of reducing on brand programs, operations, and consultants that provide value. 😊 • The full GTM tech stack  This is the very first place I would look to find tech bloat. It’s likely you might have tools that do similar things, tools no one has touched in ages, and tools that you could easily replace by building functionality within existing tools. • “Lead acquisition” data vendors Buying lists of “verified buyers” or buying “meetings” is not the way to go. Trust me. • Syndicated Content Maybe you don’t need to completely get rid of this channel (although I would think about it based on all the data I have seen). But the better thing is to invest in building your own content program that your team can consistently stick to and that resonates with buyers. • “Silver-bullet” reporting tools This kinda relates to point #1 but just letting you know - there isn’t one. • Any channel that you have invested a lot of time into but see little pipeline $ Use your data to the best of your ability when making cost changes. But know that marketing takes time and pipeline attribution is a lagging indicator. But if a certain channel or program is just not working - then make the case to stop and invest in an experiment instead. Any others you would add? Would love to hear it!

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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?

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CSMs, your customer is ignoring your emails for these 5 brutal reasons: 1️⃣ They Don't See Your Value - Your check-ins feel like interruptions - Your QBRs look like vendor reports - Your "touching base" emails add to their workload Fix: Stop reporting. Start solving. "I noticed your team's login dropped 40%. Here's a 3-minute fix." 2️⃣ Wrong Audience, Wrong Altitude - You're talking features to a CEO - You're talking strategy to an end-user - You're sending technical updates to business leads Fix: Match message to role. CEOs get ROI. Users get quick wins. Managers get team impact. 3️⃣ Their North Star Shifted - The champion who bought your solution left - Their Q4 priorities just changed - Their budget is under scrutiny Fix: Realign or die. "Let's review your new objectives and rebuild our success plan." 4️⃣ They're Drowning, Not Swimming - 121 unread emails - 47 Slack notifications - 9 "urgent" projects And you want a "quick sync"? Fix: Make every interaction count. Send: "I found $50K in savings for you" Not: "Hope you're doing well!" 5️⃣ You're Not Speaking Business - You track activity metrics, they track revenue impact - You celebrate feature adoption, they care about business outcomes Fix: Translate everything to dollars. "Your team saved 82 hours this month using our automation = $12,300 in recovered costs" The harsh reality? Your customers don't owe you their attention. You have to earn it. Every. Single. Time. Your Next Move: Look at your last customer email. Does it solve a problem or create one? Does it save time or waste it? Does it show value or ask for attention? - Ready to elevate your game? ✨ Join thousands of others learning to ace their CS roles by subscribing to my newsletter. Discover broader horizons today! (link below) #CustomerSuccess #SaaS #CustomerExperience #CSM

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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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