Rob Zambito’s Post

Layoffs in Tech are slowing down But with the ZIRP mindset gone (thankfully, we can now get back to the basics of running sustainable businesses) as a CS leader we still need to be very focused on driving our companies forward. So, how can CS continue to add value? ✅ First, own your teams revenue targets. CSM’s should be owning their portfolio and the financials around their book of business. As a CS leader, you should be focused on driving these numbers. NRR, Expansions, Renewals are all a company-wide effort but the CS leader should be focused on driving the numbers ✅ Invest in your pipeline processes. A CS team should operate just like their sales counterparts. Having a weekly pipeline review meeting to cover renewals and expansions is critical. Have each CSM commit their deals and tighten up your process. Each deal should have concrete next steps and the right activity to keep it moving ✅ Focus on the cross-sell. For every account spend the time to map out the company and key stakeholders. Are there potential opportunities to have another division use your tool or another team? Dive into your accounts deeper to find cross-sell opportunities ✅ Do you have monthly accounts? Put together a program to convert them to yearly! Yearly customers have a 6.2x lifecycle vs monthly customers A majority of revenue in SaaS comes after the sale. We all know this and it’s still a big opportunity for many CS team to drive forward. What else can CS do to help drive the numbers? Let me know your thoughts 😃 

Curious on peoples thoughts on the current B2B SaaS market. One shift I have noticed is a lot of companies are being extremely critical on software spend. I feel like if you are not a must have software more than likely they customer will churn or you will need to justify how you are directly bringing profit to that company. Given that it feels that CS roles are more crucial than ever. It is extremely important that your team is not just showing metrics but the metrics are more important that they are focused on what revenue return is happening with your software. How is your team handling these conversations? Have you set them up for success? Are they having to run around the organization to gather key data metrics or have you created a system for your CSM's to quickly gather the data they need so they are spending more time with customers versus admin work. Just trying to stir up some good CS convos. If people are aligned with my thoughts above then why are there so many CS layoffs happening.

🚨 Public Service Announcement 🚨 You better get extremely good at what you do! In a world where layoffs are continuing to happen across the board And AI is not just a cool tool you play with on your phone every now and then Only the best will thrive! Here are 4 trends I am observing: 1. Lean - Startup Mentality Reevaluate how you do everything. From process to hiring to onboarding to training to prospecting. It all has to be reevaluated. "Doing more with less" is here to stay! Evaluate it, break it, innovate it, implement it, test it...Repeat! 2. Every role is revenue producing Yes, even you customer success 👀 Every role has a revenue responsibility. At least they do at the companies that are thriving right now. Every role owns prospecting. Every role owns setting meetings. Every role owns the pipe gen number. Every role owns the customer outcomes. 3. Close to the Business Im seeing a lot of orgs get extremely flat right now. The amount of times I am hearing "let me ping my CFO/CEO really quickly to run this by them" this year is INCREDIBLE. Hell, Im feeling it too. Ive spoken with and collaborated with my 4th and 5th line leaders more times this year than any other year in my career...COMBINED! Execs pinging me about about potential targets in accounts, where they can help, proactive outreach, leaning in on CSAT issues, etc. WORLD CLASS stuff! 4. Closest to the Customer It's no longer about meeting customer expectations. There is a MAJOR emphasis on exceeding customer expectations and beating the customer to the destination. You need to stay ahead of customers, ahead of trends, and constantly be working to communicate your perspective to as many stakeholders as you possibly can at your customers. If you are not in growth mode constantly looking to improve your mental game, your skillset, and your customer relationships, things may get weird fast What else are you observing out there?

When we announced we were shutting down Outbounder and launching an inbound-led outbound firm, the feedback was mixed. There were a lot of questions that I thought I’d answer 1-by-1: 1 - Is outbound really dead? No, outbound is alive and still performing. And while Outbounder was doing just fine, we wanted to pivot because we felt as though inbound-led outbound was the future of our space. If you want to continue hammering out your power dialer, do your thing. 2 - What is inbound-led outbound? Inbound-led outbound is a hybrid of organic marketing and sales development. It’s done by creating demand and capturing it through signals. It’s been around for a while but never had an official name. We put together a guide to explain how it works: https://lnkd.in/gPgaNbFC 3 - Why is it “better” than traditional outbound? When you create your own demand and find high-intent leads, your prospects will make faster decisions, close at a higher win %, and will ultimately generate bigger deals more frequently. 4 - Are SDRs safe? No. Not at all. Despite all the job postings, SDRs are in the worst place we’ve seen for years. At the end of the upcoming quarter, we’ll see more layoffs. The market is saturated and more competitive than ever. SDRs need to start stacking skills now. Otherwise, they will likely not make the cut.

i think* (*know) we've been saying this for a while, but. in case you a refresher is needed ... CUSTOMERS 👏🏼 OVER 👏🏼 EV👏🏼 ERY👏🏼 THING 👏🏼 after a year+ of bewildering layoffs, headcount slicing left and right, economic uncertainty, and a f*ck ton of pressure from all angles: customer success became supreme. it's not surprising that there's a (small but important) shift towards cx/cs roles being the main focus, because? companies are in recovery from the last year. maybe they lost customer trust because of layoffs, lack of funding, less headcount = less support; whatever it may be. so now? they're course correcting. they're focusing on making sure customers are satisfied, supported, and are happy enough to stay well-beyond those initial contract terms. simple as that! so, if you're looking to break into cs/cx — now's your time!! and if you're *still* ignoring cs/cx? keep swimmin' at your own risk 🙃 p.s. thank you LI for this little stat hitting my inbox this am 🙏🏼

The most expensive mistake in SaaS is building a product that nobody really wants to pay for. The dev hours wasted. The top salespeople leaving. The lost deals. The market share lost to competitors building sellable products. The negative culture that ensues. People feeling deflated. The top performers quitting. You're left with those who just complain. The lasting impact this has on sales and product is massive. If you're a CEO, I'd ask your head of product and head of sales how they're agreeing on sellable features. How sales reps are forwarding usable feedback. How product teams are using this feedback for roadmap decisions. If you see sales consistently losing deals for similar product reasons, or your competitive win rate declining, it means there's a problem. The focus in recent years was on optimizing everything. In 2024, turn your attention to fixing this feedback and prioritization process. Focus on filling market voids with features people are willing to pay for. It will have much more impact on profitability than just cutting costs (software + layoffs).

It's no April Fool's joke. This risk is OBLITERATING software dev shops around the USA... 😱 What am I talking about? ⚠️ Customer Concentration Risk ⚠️ A customer constitutes a risk if you derive 10%+ of your revenue from them But 50% or more from one customer?! Yikes! 😱😱😱 Here's why this risk is a killer for your dev agency: 🥚 All your eggs in one basket 🥚 When you lose one, layoffs are close at hand 🤝 ZERO leverage at the negotiating table 🤝 I hate this for you 😖 Hard to get healthy margins & good payment terms when that whale knows they have all the power ⏰ Wasted time ⏰ They don't prioritize you or the work you're collaborating on. You're just a vendor, and they've got way too many other irons in the fire. Diversify your revenues. Mitigate this risk.

2023 lowered the bar. If you are a customer-facing leader, this can be your year! -> CX dropped across almost every industry -> 3.2k VC-backed businesses gone - poof! -> CS/Service layoffs galore and, of course, Customer Expectations (and attrition) rose This is the definition of opportunity. Seize it. CX always has been part of growth. But never more than right now. Your business will thank you. Think different Prioritize Customer Service Be better than your competition Stop CX churn and fuel new Sales Carpe Diem! --- Hello—I'm Shane. Propel Growth and Perfect Your CX: Unlock Growth and Retention with Customer Experience Excellence! DM me to learn more!

SaaS sellers face constant noise every day: - Layoffs - Bad news - Inner chatter - Leaderboards - Customer complaints - Comparison to “the experts” - Product learning and enablement - Distractions (On avg, interruptions occur every 11 mins) This continual barrage of noise carries a HEAVY weight on your mental health. And when you’re unwell, it’s hard to sell. It’s time to filter out the noise and develop a better (and calmer) approach. A while back, I shared a system I used to reduce the daily noise in my high-pressure strategic sales role to gain more peace and control over my craft. This way of operating helped me consistently achieve 7-figure earnings for 3 years (even when COVID halted new logo acquisition activity in my sector) without sacrificing my mental health and well-being. Give it a read for free here: https://buff.ly/47BFr4t 🐝

For the 3rd time in 3 weeks, I saw layoffs—3 different IT consulting firms. The last one happened Tuesday, right before I jumped on a call with an account manager to talk shop. Before the call, I reviewed their website to learn about their BizDev efforts. This is what I saw: 130 Employees 11 Sales representatives 4 Marketers 94 SEO Blogs 4 Unverified Testimonials 0 Case studies 0 Unique positioning statements This is a team throwing people at a problem. They probably started with 2 - 3 SDRs who went through the meat grinder, trying to generate new business, finding minimal success. Then, they probably added more and more bodies, thinking that volume would solve the problem. But those teams have no value to share. If they did, it would be on the website instead of SEO blogs and generic positioning like (literally) “We solve challenges and scale growth.” Those teams have to work harder to close deals. Pressure increases because of higher overhead. That leads to desperate tactics. Prospects see desperation and run, making it harder to close. Everyone loses. As a marketer at one of these firms, you gotta fight for your team: Clarify your positioning, narrow your ICP, review client data, build case studies, verify testimonials, create sales enablement, and thought leadership. All this empowers your sales team, driving success—and protecting everyone's job. If you don't, your team will end up on the chopping block.