Ryan Fitzpatrick

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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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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Incentives matter... and there's an "incentive paradox" at play when product-led meets sales-led. When you are doing a great job with product education, have transparent pricing, and make it easy for anyone to get started, you will have inherently less meetings as a percentage of traffic. If you are measured on short term performance on meeting volume, it can be tempting to start to add friction back into the process. This is often a mistake. Product-led companies with a sales-led component will often do far better in the long run; as an easy to use, helpful, easy to learn product often attracts more champions, awareness, and funnily enough... demo meetings. You have to work transparently with other teams and to align on the goals and have the tough conversations with the stakeholders ahad of time so you don't find yourself scambling and making rash decisions. #productmarketing

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𝗣𝘂𝗹𝘀𝗲 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰: 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗦 𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗛𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗣𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 After an inspiring two days at Gainsight Pulse 2024, I'm amazed at but not surprise by the rapid pace of innovation happening in the Customer Success space. This wasn't just about new tactics or efficiencies - the content pushed us to entirely reimagine how we drive value, empowerment, and human potential in CS. A few themes resonated deeply: 𝗔𝗜 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗠𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗿 AI was easily one of the hottest topics at Pulse. The AI roadmap session by Shantan Reddy spotlighted Gainsight's vision for an AI-enabled knowledge layer and intelligent assistants to automate workflows and surface insights. IBM's Janine Sneed and her team showcased how generative AI can power meeting assistants to prep for meetings, automate notes, action items, follow-ups, and more. The consistent refrain: This AI transformation will be human-first, not human-free. As the Kobiton team outlined, the power will come from human-AI collaboration where we leverage technology to augment our strategic abilities. 𝗛𝘆𝗽𝗲𝗿-𝗥𝗲𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗝𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆𝘀 The most effective organizations mapped out intelligent, hyper-personalized journeys tailored to specific roles, industries, and desired outcomes. Rather than generic messaging, they used predictive intelligence to construct self-guided experiences attuned to each user's current context. Autonomous journeys meet people where they are. 𝗦𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀, 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗧𝘄𝗲𝗮𝗸𝘀 To truly transform, organizations must move beyond incremental CS changes to holistic transformations. They redesigned entire engagement models, created centralized workflow engines, and made CS a catalyst for broader organizational changes around customer obsession. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗛𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 Transformations aren't just about datasets and impressive technology - they are about leading and inspiring people to be open to change and to use their skills to transform together. Kate Peter and Nikki Bishop did a fantastic job of detailing how implementing a human-first culture drives both employee and customer satisfaction, leading to collaboration and business excellence. The challenge for many organizations is achieving the clean datasets needed for these transformations. If you've navigated this journey, I'd love to connect. Reflecting on Pulse 2024, I'm excited about the immense opportunities we as an industry have at this time to shape the future of Customer Success. We're in the midst of a CS renaissance, catalyzed by the convergence of human ingenuity and AI. I'm leaning into this era of collaboration, eager to harness the transformative potential of technologies like generative AI while cultivating extraordinary relationships with our customers. #Gainsightpulse2024 #AI #HumanFirst #CustomerSuccess #Leadership

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LinkedIn doesn't let you share-quote comments, so I'll just manually share quote this thing Bill Staikos commented on a post about evolving beyond NPS: "I would argue that the only metrics that actually matter are business outcome metrics (revenue, expense, etc.). The actions that lead to these outcomes are likely hidden in your customer data, even within your NPS survey if you’ve implemented it correctly." There is no "magical CX/VoC metric" that's going to help your business succeed or "prove" that your customers love you more than they love any other brand/business that provides a similar level of service for a lower cost. The truth is that there are multitudes of reasons why customers choose a certain product, a certain service, a certain company through which to spend their hard-won dollars, and NPS/CSAT/CES isn't likely to capture it. Tagging tickets, gathering experiential data, and paying attention will help your CX team provide CORRELATIVE data that will help you stay aligned with your customer's needs, certainly. You SHOULD do those things. But the only metrics that really matter are the ones powered by your customers' actual BEHAVIOR and the ACTIONS that they take, not the things that they say. Say it with me, y'all - actions speak louder than words. #cxleadership #cxoperations #datadriven

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Attention San Francisco! Join me and other RevOps pros at RevOps After Dark to discuss some of the hottest topics in revenue right now: -- AI & Tech. -- Strategic alignment. -- Collaboration. -- Market trends. -- The future of RevOps. Don't miss out on this opportunity to join the conversation & network with like-minded professionals. Check out the link for more information and feel free to share! #RevOps #SanFrancisco #Networking

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Engaging the right buyers at the right time is critical to sales success. ZoomInfo Copilot's Target Account Digests alert you when your most promising suspects are showing the right buying signals. 🔔 Get personalized daily digests — delivered via Slack or email — with AI-powered recommendations for next steps. Never miss a sales opportunity with ZoomInfo Copilot: bit.ly/3yxBNes #ZoomInfoCopilot

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If you've worked with me, you know that product launches are my FAVORITE thing. Want to make sure your reps are prepared for your next one? 🚀 Providing contextual guidance is key 🔑 Highspot customers who use Sales Plays for their product launches report a 12% increase in win rate ✨ Luckily, you can learn how to build an effective enablement plan to ensure every single one of your customer-facing teams is ready for launch 👇 https://hghspot.co/3XAxWqU

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How do you spot churn risks? One of the biggest overlooked sources of churn risks is right in your CSM’s meetings. Sure, we all have health scores, usage metrics, and surveys to gauge customer health. But some of the most telling signs actually come up in those casual customer conversations. A customer might mention something in passing—maybe a leadership change on the horizon—and it can easily slip by unnoticed. These small hints can be huge red flags if you’re not prepared to handle them. Lately, I’ve been using Avoma AI to help track and categorize these subtle churn signals. It’s been amazing to get real-time insights and tackle potential risks with my team as soon as they pop up. Another perk? I’m able to pinpoint the most common types of risks and build out some objection-handling training for the team. It really helps us focus on the areas that need attention first. I’ll be sharing some success stories soon! If you’re curious about setting up something like this with Avoma, just let me know. 😊

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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 

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🚨 Most CSMs don’t have a system that works, and it shows. ⛔ They’re constantly juggling emails, catch-up calls, and putting together QBR decks, hoping it all sticks. Sometimes, it does… but often, success comes down to luck. For every CSM that lucks out, hundreds more struggle and fail—and many of those failures could have been avoided with a better plan. 😅 Feeling overwhelmed as a CSM? Want a proven strategy to take your career to the next level? After more than a decade of refining my strategies and playbooks, I’ve created something special just for you. Introducing CSM RevUP Academy—my flagship cohort course designed to help CSMs LEVEL UP their careers! 🚀 This course took 5 months to build, and I’ve packed 6 weeks full of valuable content, actionable frameworks, and game-changing insights. What you’ll learn: ✅ Build revenue-focused customer success plans ✅ Handle objections and nail upselling ✅ Understand your impact on the business ✅ Shift from traditional CSM mindsets to strategic thinking ✅ Overcome common challenges and pitfalls ✅ Establish yourself as a trusted advisor … and so much more! Don’t leave your career up to chance. CSM RevUP Academy will give you the blueprint to unlock your full potential as a CS Pro. 👋 Say goodbye to overwhelm and hello to a clear path to success. ⬇️ Check the comments below for details on how to enroll! There are only 10 spots available, so don’t wait—secure your place today! Ps. This is your LAST CHANCE to build a system that works in 2024.... ________________ ✍️ Comment 'send me more' for more info on CSM RevUP Academy. ♻️ Reshare this if you think it could help others.

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Thank you for the shoutout Tom Ryan ☁! Getting into Tech / #MarketingOperations can seem daunting. Especially when you dont even know what questions to ask! Here's my quick Guide to entering into operations / Salesforce. 1. Follow Sara McNamara, then Signup for her Newsletter. There is so much value here, and she gives it away for free. (Link in comments) 2. Signup for a Salesforce Developer Account 3. Head on over to Trailhead for Salesforce, Go through all the basics to start, hone in on what part of the basic trails you enjoy... and then dive deep! 4. Sign-up for a Husbpot Org. 5. If you would like to learn any kind of coding (HTML, CSS, JavaScript etc...) Code Academy is GREAT. But Also there's TONS of free content on youtube. I would START with Youtube to start... 🤝 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐉𝐨𝐢𝐧: 🤝 1. Ohana - Salesforce Slack 2. Marketing Operations Professionals - Slack 3. Wizard Of Ops - Slack Group 👷‍♀️ 👷‍♂️ 𝐀𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰! 👷‍♀️ 👷‍♂️ 1. Sercante (Salesforce / Marketing Cloud) 2. Digital Reach Online Solutions- Hubspot 3. MarCloud: Expert Marketing Cloud Consultancy 4. DESelect (Salesforce Marketing Cloud) 🎙 𝑷𝒐𝒅𝒄𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒔: 🎙 1. Humans of Martech 2. Ops Cast 3. Indie Marketers Podcast 3. Salesforce Ben - (linkedin Lives are amazing...) 📚 Blogs 📚 Salesforce Ben Jenna Molby Sercante MarketingOps.com Neilpatels What did I miss?!?!?! I know there's more out there that i'm not thinking of this very moment... Please share in the comments 👇 #MarOps #MarketingOperations #SalesOperations #RevOps #Salesforce #Hubspot #podcasts #CareerGrowth

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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

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📞 It’s time to set some boundaries around contact preferences. I have spent over 20 years in marketing, much of it working in enablement. If I were to stitch together every talk track I've written for sales over the years, it would probably stretch from here to the moon (more than once). As someone who has partnered to write this content, I respect that sales professionals want to reach out. However, calling my cell phone without a soft introduction or context—especially while I’m picking up my child from school or handling other priorities—is intrusive and unacceptable. Unless it’s an emergency (e.g., someone is in the hospital, I have won the lottery), I have absolutely no interest in phone calls that hijack my attention without warning. A message through this site or an email is far more respectful and allows me to respond thoughtfully when it fits my schedule. I would tell our sales team the same thing. Make outreach effective and respectful by giving prospects control over how we’re contacted. Please prioritize professionalism and respect. I promise it will help your conversion rates.

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🚨 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.

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Is there anything more validating than seeing a 5-star review from a customer? It's just a few lines of feedback, but it represents countless hours of work from hundreds of people. All of the product development, engineering hours, marketing campaigns, sales calls, legal review, and customer success meetings have led to this. Congratulations to the whole Kong Inc. team for creating a product and experience our customers give 5 stars to! Head of API Platform & Governance in the Banking Industry gives Kong Gateway 5/5 Rating in Gartner Peer Insights™ API Management Market. Read the full review here: https://gtnr.io/64AWPA6SL #gartnerpeerinsights

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