Jeff Rosset’s Post

For the last 10 months, I have been leading a project to help a brand buy and implement SaaS products to completely transform the way they operate and improve their customer experience. In that time, I have been interacting with CSM's and Implementation Consultants. Here are my observations now that I have lived both sides of these roles. 1. CSM's have way too many accounts to do a good job. The amount of layoffs and conversations in CSM communities tell this story anecdotally. It is also now my experience as a customer who knows what a great CSM with a manageable workload can accomplish. 2. As the CSM role has shifted to a heavily revenue focused one, the voice of the customer has suffered when it comes to operational and usability challenges. Their comp plan drives their behavior. The issue here is that unhappy customers don't grow. 3. A poor sales to services handover process is immediately obvious. The post-sales team should already know why a customer bought the product, and the outcomes they hope to achieve. Alignment in the GTM team is critical. 4. Get on a call! I have been on so many email threads that go back and forth multiple times without meaningful progress. Days have been lost troubleshooting, testing, and waiting. A 30 minute live session would have fixed the issue and led to a different perception of the "partnership" B2B companies claim to want. 5. Have a documented escalation path. On more than one occasion, I have had to use LinkedIn to find someone in a senior leadership position and ask for help as a current customer. This is also in the best interest of the account team. No one wants to get blindsided by bad feedback from multiple levels above. Walking a mile in a customers' shoes has been an invaluable learning opportunity. If I find myself leading a post-sales team again in the future, these are the experiences that I will be bringing with me.

Solid points by Daphne. If your outreach does not include why I should talk to you, I am not going to talk to you. Same applies when I am trying to get you to talk to me. When sales/CSMs craft outreach emails, it needs to include the following upfront (first or second sentence): - Purpose of the outreach - Expected Value from engagement

𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝟭 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿: - Ask the CSM who took over an account which has been in a year-long implementation, only to hear how inadequate, underwhelming the support from your org has been - Ask the CSM who meticulously prepared for the EBR/QBR, built great relationships with the “previous” champions & sponsors only to be ignored by the “new” exec who didn't bother to show up/ worse, openly questioned their competence, product ROI - Ask the CSM who worked hard to identify & put ARR retention strategies into play but was repeatedly undercut by market conditions, pricing changes & internal politics, making them look inept - Ask the CSM who worked tirelessly to retain customers, only to see them churn due to the product's failure to deliver on basic promises 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝟭 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵: - Ask the CSM who had to restart an entire month's work on implementation because the sales team over-promised capabilities - Ask the CSM who had to reschedule a crucial QBR multiple times due to customers' indifference, turning a strategic account red - Ask the CSM who watched multiple accounts' renewal month unleash hell(on ARR) because of a tech/support glitch that could have been avoided 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝟭 𝗱𝗮𝘆: - Ask the CSM who spent a full day on a conference call trying to explain why the latest software update ruined the customer's setup, why your bugs are a priority - Ask the CSM who lost a significant account in 24 hrs due to a careless mistake by another department, turning retention efforts into a farce - Ask the CSM who had to do damage control for a day when a key account threatened to pull out, all because of a billing error 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝟭 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗿: - Ask the CSM who wasted the last 60 mins listening to a customer's complaints just because the customer was not trained properly on the product(right features & how to use it) - Ask the CSM who lost a customer's trust within an hr. due to a botched product demonstration that showcased not the product's strength but the org's lack of coordination - Ask the CSM who spent an hr. trying to reach a higher-up for an urgent decision, only to realize that their urgency matters to no one else in the org 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝟭 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱 - Ask the CSM who, in 1 fleeting second, realized that all their efforts to retain, nurture that account could have been saved with 1 timely follow-up & action - Ask the CSM who knew instantly that this logo will churn eventually because of wrong sale You see Time in the SaaS world is a mirror reflecting not just failures & successes but the very soul of an org. Each tick of the clock is a judgment, each second a verdict, in the unrelenting court of business. #customersuccessmanager #csleaders #founders #b2b #saas #CS #CSM #customeroutcomes #customersuccess #CX

For all my CS warriors, past and present... You hold one of the most challenging, yet crucial and often underappreciated roles in a company. I want you to know that I see (or saw) and deeply value the vital work you do (or did). So, a simple Thank You. 💖🙏👊💪 #customersuccess #CS #CSleadership

CSMs: My customers are disengaged😢 Also CSMs: Hi, it’s me, let’s book time. 👍🏻 I recently received this email from a CSM that stopped me in my tracks (and not for a good reason). It was a 4 liner saying: - I am your CSM - Let’s talk And I was baffled at how little effort this person went through to get my attention. Even GenAI would do a better job, and trust me… I’ve been getting some really poor GenAI messages 😂 There’re 3 things wrong with this email: - Doesn’t grab my attention - Doesn’t position the value of the CSM - Isn’t tailored to what I am trying to achieve or where I am in my journey as a new customer A few bits of context: - I am a new customer and I never talked to their team before as I bought completely touchlessly. This is my first human experience with this brand. - I have already completed my basic set up in the system and have integrated to 2 other systems. This CSM had a bunch of information at their disposal to write a message that would make me want to engage. Not to mention that a quick LinkedIn search would have brought them to this page and they would have learned a lot about me and my use case. But they didn’t use any information. A much better version of it would be: “Hi Daphne, It’s Jenny here from [company]. I see that you have hit the ground running with your set up and have already set up your [feature] and integrated to [tool 1 &2], well done! I will be your Customer Success Manager, my job is to make sure you see results with your subscription. I help my customers with: - outcome 1 - outcome 2 - outcome 3 I would love to schedule a 15 mins chat with you to understand your goals and connect you with all the resources you need to crush your targets this year!” I would have answered this email. I didn’t answer the one I got. So here’s the lesson: If your customers are not responding to your emails, there’s a chance you are not writing compelling messages. Take 10 minutes to write a good email instead of copying and pasting something generic. A machine gun approach isn’t going to help you get engagement. 📥 If you're interested in Customer Success, consider joining 9k+ CS Professionals who read my weekly newsletter on how to build and scale a CS Team [sign up in the comments section]. #csm #customersuccess #customerengagement #revops #saas

For those of you who don't know what it is I do, I stop exactly this from happening 💀. Being in Digital Customer Success means building email templates, automations with dynamic tokens, triggers and campaigns(like a new customer onboarding), adoption campaigns, community/ 1:many opportunities, and ensuring this all goes smoothly at scale. But, above all..... I'm making sure communication is consistent, meets our brand standards and communicates clearly to an international customer base! That also means understanding what plain English standards are localizing comms as much as possible. I can't say that this company didn't have a digital success team for sure but I do know this is definitely a use case for one. #customersuccess #digitalcustomersuccess

Someone used the word "basic" to describe my work. Good! My goal was never to teach things that were overly complicated and not actionable–I wanted to share things that were simple and easy to apply. And I'm recognizing a pattern with some CS professionals (and teams) I work with: Because they skipped the basics, they'll try to patch things up with value-less outreach and strategies like QBRs. This causes frustration for the team and customers. So here are some "basic" things that can get you closer to becoming a strategic partner for your clients: 👥 Get to know your stakeholders Duh! Right?! Getting to know the stakeholders, what's important to them (and what's not), and tying it back to their persona so that you can use this information to position your conversations in a way that resonates with them... That's basic BUT impactful. 💬 Thorough client discovery The clearer you have your client's objectives, individual goals, needs, and challenges, the easier your job will become. Whenever you feel like information is missing, go back to the drawing board and start asking questions. 📍Make your role and value known This one is so basic that it's silly. Don't assume that your client knows what a "customer success manager" is and what part you'll play in the partnership. Work on your introduction and make sure your teammates know how to introduce you to a client. 🏆 Always lead with "what's in it for them" I call this "value-first engagement." When we want to set up a QBR, send out a check-in email, or position a renewal, the message should always take into account what's the value-add to them. This is something marketing does so well to get people to take action! Let's borrow this strategy! ---- That's a wrap on my basics! If you're into that, you should absolutely sign up for my newsletter 📫 #customersuccess #cs #csm

As a CSM, your job is to understand 3 things about your customers. Here they are: 1) Their priorities 2) Their company's priorities 3) How they perceive your solution Because when you don’t understand this: → You can’t position your product correctly → You can’t identify if a customer is about to churn → You can’t save a customer about to churn → You can’t upsell or cross sell → You can’t get them to show up to your meetings Understanding all this starts with having more strategic conversations with your customers. It’s why clients of mine have saved 5 figure customers from churning. And identified and closed 5-figure upsell opportunities. It’s why they’ve found that everything they thought about their customers was wrong. It’s why they found insights that led to huge growth opportunities. It’s why they now have deeper relationships with their customers. It’s why they now have customers that actually want to come to their meetings. If you’re not getting enough of the above… your customers are not the problem. The problem is that you’re not having enough strategic convos. p.s. If you’re a CSM interested in solving this problem, read on. ——- Special $59 CS Upskill Offer til 10/31 Want all the tools and skills to get customers to open up like never before about their 3 P's (problems, priorities and perceptions)? Check out The Radically Authentic Discovery (RAD) Online Course. (special offer below) The RAD Online Course includes 25+ truth-sparking questions, deep listening techniques, and tips you can start using immediately to uncover what matters most to prospects and customers - so they stay longer and spend more. On average, when you use RAD, customers will open up like never before, talking 70%+ of the call. So you can understand what's most important to THEM. Here's a special offer for you to learn and leverage RAD in just 2 hours: Buy The RAD Online Course for Just US$59.00 - that’s 80% off the regular price of US$297.00 until midnight US Eastern on 10/31/24. DM me the word “convo,” and I’ll send you the link for 80% off. #customersuccess #accountmanagement #churn #renewal #csm #cco

If you’re a CSM, here’s how to engage your customers on your first approach

This is a great reminder of the length of the Buyers Journey. Every. Single. Step. Must. Be. Connected. Otherwise, you'll get messages like this. Now, this could be just a rushed CSM... but it warrants a deeper look into the entire organizational #strategy and systems to see why this happened. If you want to create a sustainable #businessmodel, you need to make your customers want to stay because of the value... not stay in-spite of their experience.