Mahesh Ram

🚀 Driving Customer Success Excellence: The Power of One 🎯 At Pulse 2024, I had the privilege of joining Dan Maimone from Harri and Mark Deegan to share how we’re redefining customer success by weaving the "red thread" through the post-sales lifecycle with Gainsight. Here’s the journey we shared: 💡 Harri’s Challenge: Balancing hyper-growth with operational efficiency, maintaining exceptional GDR (95%) and NDR (112%), all while scaling a high-touch customer success model. 🔎 Our Approach: - Through Project Lando, Wigmore IT partnered with Harri to: - Optimize Harri’s Gainsight tech stack (CS, PCX, CC and CE). - Define multi-product customer journey stages. - Prioritize customer outcomes with personalized success plans. - Foster cross-functional collaboration and implement change management. 📈 The Results Speak for Themselves: - Gross Dollar Retention: +4% - Net Dollar Retention: +9% - CSM Efficiency: +30% - Customer Health Score: 8.5 - eNPS (CS Team): +27 points 🔥 Key Takeaways: 1️⃣ Start small, think big—pilot programs drive scalable success. 2️⃣ Use data to guide strategy—CSQLs and financial insights were game-changers. 3️⃣ A unified approach integrating people, processes, and technology creates lasting impact. As we look to the future, Harri is investing in AI for predictive analytics and global scalability—setting new benchmarks for CS excellence. 🌎✨ Grateful to share this story and to help organizations turn customer success into a true growth engine. Let’s keep the conversation going! #CustomerSuccess #Gainsight #ThePowerOfOne #CSLeadership #GrowthStrategies

43

4 Comments

Hot Take… RIP #PLG, Long Live #SLG But before you throw shade, let me explain… 🔹 There are undoubtedly exceptions, I’m sure many will highlight monday.com, Freshworks, etc. 🔹 PLG works well for low ACV deals with low CAC… think SMB and mid-market customers. Target CAC payback <12 months 🔹 PLG is a fantastic top of funnel marketing channel for enterprise sales ⭐ But for 6-figure enterprise sales, you need enterprise salespeople pressing the flesh with customers

81

16 Comments

📊 It’s not just about having data; it’s about having the *right* data. That’s what Hive found by adopting Gong Engage and Gong Conversation Intelligence. This powerful duo surfaced insights and next steps for John Furneaux and Hive’s sales team. They can now breeze through deals, navigate discovery calls with ease, and uncover more opportunities. The result? A 44% increase in meetings booked and 30% rise in sales opportunities. And that’s not even the full extent of Hive’s wins! Read about the rest here: https://lnkd.in/gh-7X7jG 

37

The first version of the SaaS GTM playbook was written twenty years ago. Salesforce championed it. Mark Roberge published The Sales Acceleration Formula about Hubspot’s journey. Over the next two decades, we analyzed, quantified, instrumented, & optimized many aspects of the SaaS GTM. Account executive to SDR ratios, sales cycle lengths, conversion rates, customer acquisition costs, customer lifetime values, net dollar retention. The new software GTM playbook has yet to be written. But the companies who figure it out will become the next wave of massive businesses. On Tuesday, Theory held an event with [Dave Morse] formerly at Hebbia & Scale AI, Flo Crivello from Lindy, Paul Yacoubian from Copy.AI, & Chris Changfrom Gradient to discuss how AI changes these practices. These were my take aways : - Selling AI is being discovered because the technology is new. Buyers don’t know how to use it or how to buy it. - Because the sales motions are new, we can’t apply the previous playbook to the new sales process. The CEO/founder should hire a sales leader that they fully trust who focuses on ultimate success. The sales process is a part of the product : using both the customer’s language & the ultimate use of the product through success efforts - Between PLG vs sales led, more companies were sales-led. If starting with PLG, the template sells the product. Fight the empty box problem with great concrete templates that demonstrate how to use AI. If selling top-down, most of the conversations today are at the C-suite rather than the mid-market predominantly because the buying process is new. - Figuring out how to consistently produce wow moments with non-deterministic software is essential. - The room was split on pricing model : seats, usage, or some hybrid. Ultimately, pricing captures 15-30% of the value the software/AI creates. Developing a strong case for this with buyers will be key because the ROI question from buyers is real especially as the broader software market feels pressure. - Only VCs care about the word agents / agentic : for most enterprises, agents mean a customer support agent. Many teams don’t care about the underlying technology, they seek a solution to their problem. Tomorrow, we’ll be publish the results of the 2024 GTM Survey which we’ll reveal at Saastr in which we dig into the use of AI on sales processes & the impact to efficiency. Thanks to the panelists & attendees for a great discussion.

180

15 Comments

Relationship depth, health, and relevance! They're critical in delineating transactional contacts from real, authentic, meaningful, and mutually value-based relationships. They're instrumental in your performance, execution, and results, with agility, through lasting change and material impact in your organization. Unfortunately, relationship depth, health, and relevance are also critical insights most of us can't get from the current platforms where we capture our contacts. After reading over 100 books on business relationships, I realized there was a gap. No existing scale could accurately measure the depth and relevancy of my relationships. That's when I created the Relationship Value Pyramid, a unique tool that has been guiding my relationship-building for almost two decades. And now, with the launch of Avnir, we've introduced the Relationship Signature Index, a revolutionary approach to understanding and enhancing the value of our relationships. Read more about both in my latest The Nour Group, Inc. blog: https://lnkd.in/eGHFFsGG

9

2 Comments

Want to transform the way your channel partners quote? Join Eran Gross (VP of Customer Success America) and Mohammed Fadel (Customer Success Manager) on Thursday, September 12, and discover game-changing strategies to streamline your process and fuel growth. Here's what’s coming your way: ✅ Channel Partner Playbooks: Watch how easily your channel partners can create complex quotes with DealHub’s custom playbooks. ✅ Salesforce Community + PRMs: See DealHub in action on Salesforce and other partner platforms. ✅ Success Story: Hear how one of our customers is crushing it by integrating DealHub with their PRM system. 🔜 Sneak Peek: Get a first look at our upcoming "Headless Quote" feature from Alon Lubin, CTO. This is one webinar you don't want to miss 🎉 Register here > https://lnkd.in/d3f4jvVK #ChannelPartnerSuccess #DealHubWebinar #SalesInnovation #NextLevelQuoting

112

20 Comments

Sales enablement company 6Sense gathered info from over 2,500 companies that had recently made significant B2B purchases to see how the buying process continues to evolve. Some of the findings of the 65-page report echo other studies of the past five years, but others paint a picture of a buying journey that may surprise many Annex Business Media marketing partners. Confirming what we know? -             B2B buyers are more than 70% through the purchase process prior to engaging with vendors. -             Buyers already have a short list of roughly five vendors prior to reaching out. -             Purchase cycle times average almost a year. -             More than 10 people can make up the typical buying team, depending on company size and complexity, among other factors. -             The C-suite is involved less than 50% of the time. Changing our perspective? -             Buyers initiate first contact 83% of the time. Moreover, vendors that attempt contact prior to buyers being “ready” do not fare well. As a result, even the best lead gen program is counter-productive without a broader reach. -             Detailed purchase requirements are set ahead of the First Point of Contact (FPOC) 85% of the time. -             Buyers already have a preferred vendor at FPOC more than 80% of the time. In fact, 85% of the time that preferred vendor is contacted first, further stacking the deck. -             Previous experience with a vendor is critical for success and can encompass more than having been a client before. It’s all the interactions with that brand leading up to selection. The authors lay out a two-phase process that differs from the classic funnel. The first “Selection Phase,” which comprises 70% of the process, is where the shortlists and favourites are built and requirements finalized. If a vendor is not on the radar in this phase, selling is difficult. Phase 2, or the “Validation Phase,” involves at most five vendors with demos and meetings, but the preferred candidate likely already exists, and the process can skew to rationalization. That doesn’t mean B2B vendors are powerless to affect the outcomes. It just means success requires consistently casting a wide net. Chasing Market Qualified Leads (MQLs) is only part of the equation, and often a frustrating one for sales. Here is the authors’ suggestion in their own words: “This research highlights the need for organizations to understand their buyers’ needs, and to create content and experiences that answer every critical buying group question, and which buying group members can consume on their own.” From our own research, the format and channel each buying team member prefers will depend on their age and seniority, with younger more junior members preferring webinars and virtual events that can be accessed without budgets, while older members may prefer in-person events or peer roundtables. B2B buying, like life, is messy and complicated.

18

1 Comment

✨ Imagine a future where your sales performance management is unified, adaptive, and seamlessly collaborative.       🧬 Where resilient growth initiatives are fueled by flexible planning that evolves with your business.       🎯 Where incentives dynamically optimize channel partner performance amid shifting market conditions and misalignments are pre-empted through integrated workflows.      This isn’t a long-awaited dream. It’s reality.       At Varicent, this future-ready sales performance management guides our advancements in the industry we helped pioneer. 🚀 It led us to completely rethink sales planning, creating a purpose-built solution that adapts with your changing approaches to GTM.         As we continue to innovate and evolve SPM with the Revenue Performance Engine, the path forward rests on the three strategic pillars guiding our future-ready approach at Varicent.      3️⃣ Strategic Pillars for Future-Ready SPM:      Resilient Growth Initiatives 📈   Sales planning today demands flexibility - balancing territories and quotas, adapting sophisticated go-to-market models each year. Purpose-built, unified solutions like ours rewrite the rules to support your most complex planning needs.      Agility and Flexibility 🏎️💨   In a world of rapidly shifting channel incentives, legacy systems fall short. You need to detect and swiftly adapt to market changes. With AI-powered agility, our platform revolutionizes partner engagement and performance.      Enhanced Collaborative Efficiency 🤝   Eliminating cross-functional misalignments and “costly patchwork” is vital. We embed workflows that sync planning, execution and motivation, enabling unified objectives across your teams.      📣 The future of sales performance management is resilient, agile, and collaborative. Realizing the opportunities of tomorrow requires shedding the limitations of yesterday. Is your sales performance management strategy ready?    Join us on this journey to redefine sales performance and lead the charge into a future of unmatched growth and potential. See how you can build a high-performance revenue engine: ▶ https://lnkd.in/g6C8MZPA #SPM #RPE #revenueperformanceengine #salesperformancemanagement #salesplanning #varicent

168

True revenue growth happens when sales, marketing and customer success are aligned and supported by a unified RevOps and enablement strategy. When RevOps and enablement work together, we enable our teams to focus on what matters most: delivering value at every stage of the customer journey. Key steps for effective RevOps and enablement alignment: 1️⃣ Unify data and insights – By giving teams a single source of truth, we empower smarter, faster decision-making across the board. 2️⃣ Integrate tools and technology – A cohesive tech stack keeps teams connected, enabling streamlined workflows and deeper collaboration. 3️⃣ Prioritize training and support – RevOps and enablement should actively guide and coach teams, ensuring everyone has the skills and insights to succeed. 4️⃣ Measure and adapt – Regularly assess what’s working and pivot where necessary to stay aligned with evolving customer needs. How is your organization aligning RevOps with enablement to drive better outcomes? Read more tips from Highspot here: https://lnkd.in/ga7HFF8R #RevOps #Enablement #RevenueGrowth #SalesAlignment #GrowthMindset

5

1 Comment

What does 'Execution Excellence' actually mean? And why are Marc Benioff + Amit Bendov obsessed with it right now? Killer insights from Charlie Moss on how category leaders like Salesforce & Gong are resetting expectations to win despite headwinds!! 💥 “More rigor, more discipline, focused enablement, and a refined GTM strategy are a major part of their approach.” Specifically, Gong is investing in the following: - Greater accountability for the sales team + sales management - Weekly KPIs, weekly results, + monitoring key activities - Tracking every single deal with MEDDIC Achieving 'execution excellence' when it comes to running revenue teams is the WHY behind founding Accord... Ensure rigorous execution across each deal, and translating the winning strategy to the field in a way that actually works for sellers! Including tracking MEDDIC without feeling like homework, automatically updated in your CRM. Sales + CS Leaders using Accord to drive execution excellence understand what it takes for their sellers to win in 2024. Eg, we pulled data across 500+ Opps for a customers at their QBR, and saw: - 28% Win Rate across opportunities without Accord - 56% Win Rate across opportunities with Accord .... 100% increase in Win Rate when using Accord. This market isn’t about doing more with less. Its about doing the right things – consistently.

17

4 Comments

There is often considerable overlap between Revenue Operations (RevOps) leadership and the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) roles due to the interconnected nature of strategy and execution in driving revenue growth. This signifies a move toward a transformation in Revenue executives where decision-makers combine strategic foresight with operational expertise that drives sustainable revenue growth. The opportunity for senior RevOps professionals to take on these executive roles is more relevant than ever. Here is my advice on considering this move: https://lnkd.in/eEp263QR

26

7 Comments

💜 Gainsight + Champion 💜 We just released a killer new eBook together on how to drive growth through your hidden customer champions. With many of us in the midst of 2025 planning, this book dives into the incredible growth engine right in front of us: our customers. The ebook has practical insights on empowering champions and learnings from top brands using Gainsight and Champion. I just re-read it myself, and it's giving me all sorts of light bulb moments (yes my phone just happened to take a 100% organic photo right when I finished reading it. And yes that is my thinking pose.) Check it out 👇

69

17 Comments

An enterprise sales kickoff (SKO) is critical for aligning the sales team with the company’s strategic objectives, energizing the team, and setting the stage for a successful sales year. Beyond alignment of company goals, product and service education, motivation and morale boost, skills development, networking and team building, marketing and competitive insights, goal setting and accountability, inspiration and vision, strategic planning, and a feedback loop from the field, there are also several consistent mistakes/NOT-to-do many organizations ignore before, during, and after their SKOs! Here is my latest post on Ten Sales Kickoff Insights shared by GTMnow - https://lnkd.in/eQxQrKuJ GTMfund Sales Community #SKO #SalesKickoff #GlobalKickoff #KeynoteSpeaker #RelationshipEconomics #CoCreate #CurveBenders #ConsequenceOfAI

29

11 Comments

"When you have time for product... then you kind of bend back into that product space and a bit less than the sales space." - Saurabh Jain of TrialKey. Product Led Growth Leaders Episode 25 features TrialKey's Saurabh Jain and dives deep into the journey of being product-led from the start of your venture. Hear how companies sometimes shift towards a sales-led approach in the middle stages of growth. Discover the challenges of maintaining the right focus, building the right products, and keeping confidence high. Finally, learn how successful organizations strike a balance between sales and product once they've established a strong customer base and cash flow. Tune in now to gain insights on navigating your growth curve and finding the right balance for success! 🎧💡 #ProductLedGrowth #StartupJourney #PodcastEpisode #BusinessGrowth #Entrepreneurship #SalesLed #Sales

9

To be an effective sales or revenue leader you need to have constructive conversations with your team. One of the most impactful aspects of scoring deals is how it can turn a manager from an activity driver to a strategic partner for their reps. #b2bsales #zebrafi

8

𝗚𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗔𝗰𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗰𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗔𝗜 🎉 I couldn't be more excited to share today that we are being acquired by Gainsight, the category definer and leader in the world of Customer Success. Nick Mehta and Chuck Ganapathi, we are honored to join the Gainsight family and drive innovation in the world of CS and Post-sales together! 🚀 𝗦𝗼 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗶𝗱 𝘄𝗲 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲, 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗺𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗮𝘀𝗸… 🤔 • In 2021 Lior Harel and I set out to disrupt the world of post-sales with AI. AI was not as “cool” then as it is today and many people we spoke to were skeptical about how well it would work.  • We envisioned a new type of software platform that is 100% hands free, with no need for manual data logging that would provide visibility into the complex multidimensional nature of B2B relationships.  𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘄𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀? 💡 By analyzing all the interactions and communications between clients and vendors. We redefined sentiment analysis, came up with automatic health scores and added more channels, since in today’s world, one single channel is not enough.  • We watched our customers become excited by our developments - the intelligence, visibility, and decision-making abilities they required at zero effort. • We generated a new and critical signal to the post-sales practice complementing CRM’s and CSP’s and, while there is still a lot of work to do, we are climbing up to the next step on the staircase with a sense of deep satisfaction that we were able to deliver our customers true value and a renewed sense of joy from using software. 🚀 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗮𝘀 𝘄𝗲 𝗷𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀 with Gainsight is incredibly exciting & inspiring - helping teams become more efficient, attentive and personal with their customers while driving revenue and growth at a scale that we have not seen yet ! This has been an incredible journey and we have many people to thank 🙏 for supporting, advising and being there with us as we grew Staircase AI to where it is today. First and foremost I would like to thank our incredible Staircase team. Each a unique expert in their domain, hardworking, creative and a joy to work with. Our investors Yuval Cohen from StageOne and Yorai Fainmesser from Disruptive AI, thanks for taking that leap of faith in early 2021. Boaz Chalamish who’s experience as an operator and Industry expert were invaluable to us as we navigated the stormy startup landscape. Dione Hedgpeth, Ziv Ambar & Kevin Herzberg, each advising us in different phases of our journey. The amazing team at FWMK Law Offices, Erez Mizrachi and Nir Sadeh. Finally, I'd like to express my gratitude to our incredible customers who have partnered with us from the early days up to the present, providing essential feedback and a spirit of partnership that consistently motivates us to continue, improve, and innovate. 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗞 𝗬𝗢𝗨!

378

165 Comments

hey RevOps - wanna help us define the future of the RevOps role and the RevOps path the C-suite? 🤔 That's exactly what we're doing with our #RevOpsAF Executive Think Tank event series, Getting 25+ RevOps leaders together in the same room to: 🗺️ Define what RevOps should be in every organization ⛔ Figure out what’s standing in the way of a unified revenue operations function 🤝 Determine how to convince CEOs to respond and adapt to evolving market conditions by adopting a comprehensive revenue operations charter 🚀 What the RevOps path to the C-Suite looks like Our first Think Tank event will take place in San Francisco on August 22nd at 2pm PT. 🌉 So if you're a RevOps leader in the Bay area, then join us. 👋 We've already got RevOps leaders confirmed from companies big and small, and everywhere in between. Seats are extremely limited and we are limiting entry to senior leadership with deep experience in the field of operations. Learn more 👉 https://hubs.li/Q02F3M0X0 A huge thank you to our sponsor at Subskribe for making this event possible. 🫶 #revops #revenueoperations #salesops #salesoperations #marketingops #marketingoperations #csops #cxops #gtmops #alltheops

20

2 Comments

When it comes to what makes the Gong platform so powerful, Smart Trackers – Gong’s AI concept capture technology – immediately come to mind. Gong's AI Smart Trackers detect important sales concepts, rather than just keywords, and they can be trained by users to uncover the concepts that are most important for their unique business. Today, we’re building on this industry-first innovation by enhancing Smart Trackers to make them even more accurate. We’re also unveiling AI assessment tools that allow users to test their trackers’ accuracy before deploying them, allowing them to make adjustments as necessary. And once these Smart Trackers are deployed, we’re bringing them to a couple of essential sales workflows. AI Methodology Playbooks uncover and suggest field fills for critical sales methodologies like MEDDICC – saving time for reps and helping boost compliance for proven sales success – and AI Scorecard Suggestions, to standardize rep coaching and feedback from managers. To learn more about how Smart Trackers are bringing AI to sales workflows to help teams execute at high levels, take a look at today’s announcement https://lnkd.in/dRP2yFFZ.

23

In our latest customer conversation Shane Evans, CRO at @Gong, shares how AI is transforming sales, helping teams become more productive and future-ready. Gong’s approach—capturing complete data and breaking down silos—empowers smarter, more intentional decisions across customer journeys. Check out LinkedIn for Sales blog to catch Shane’s full interview with insights on balancing present needs with future-focused growth and how Gong’s integration with LinkedIn Sales Navigator is driving real impact. https://lnkd.in/d_DKk7Dr #LinkedIn #SalesNavigator #DeepSales #Sales #CRM #Productivity 

18

1 Comment