Wynne Brown’s Post

Over the past 2+ years, I’ve had the opportunity to work with five amazing professionals who transformed both my understanding and appreciation of customer success at scale and more importantly drove real quantifiable success outcomes for the DS customer base. Candidly when I started this journey with Alec Radusovsky Jaclyn Deveau Spencer Cross Starlisha Saum and Victoria Escobar, I had zero context–much less practical experience–with the concept of parsing large volumes of customer data to create highly customized adoption and growth campaigns directed to specific tranches of similarly situated customers.  Star, Jaclyn, Alec, Spencer and Vicky educated me and took me along for the journey as they designed and deployed a wide variety of digital campaigns that ensured the individual success of thousands of our customers and delivered millions of dollars in renewal and upsell revenue across a wide range of business sectors–from small SMB customers to enterprise organizations–and a variety of products and solutions–from e-signature to complex CLM and AI enabled offerings.    While Star, Jaclyn, Alec, Spencer and Vicky set the standard for how we scale and expand digital customer success, they are unfortunately looking for new individual or collective opportunities to change the way organizations approach customer success at scale.  If your organization is looking to design, deploy or optimize a data driven customer success strategy, I cannot recommend these folks highly enough. Each of them brought invaluable insights and skills to the table while developing and managing complex campaigns that changed the success trajectory for a wide swath of our customers.  They would be a fantastic addition to any team, capable of moving the needle and delivering exceptional outcomes. To Star, Jaclyn, Alec, Spencer and Vicky, thank you for being such amazing professionals and even better colleagues and friends.  Because of you, I am a better (and smarter) CS professional (and can at least fake my way through a discussion of “telemetry driven selection criteria”).  To all the folks in my network, don’t sleep on this team and please hit me up for additional information of how they can supplement and optimize how you engage with your customers.  Tagging the smartest people I know in the customer success space for reach John O'Melia Whitney Littman Kevin Meeks Kim Peretti Wynne Brown, EMBA Dale Jones Sarah Urbanski Florence Eden Kristi Faltorusso Verity Winfield

Retention ~ Part 6 T-shaped professionals, with their deep expertise in one area and a broad understanding of related fields, bring significant value to customer retention teams. Here are some key benefits: 1. Holistic Customer Understanding: * Customer Journey Mapping: T-shaped professionals can map the entire customer journey, from initial acquisition to post-purchase support. This deep understanding enables them to identify pain points and opportunities for improvement. * Personalized Engagement: With a broader understanding of the customer's needs, T-shaped professionals can tailor their interactions to provide a more personalized and satisfying experience. 2. Effective Cross-Functional Collaboration: * Bridging Gaps: Their ability to understand both sales and marketing functions helps bridge gaps between these departments, ensuring a more aligned approach to customer retention. * Improved Communication: T-shaped professionals can effectively communicate with colleagues from different teams, fostering better collaboration and problem-solving. 3. Data-Driven Insights: * Informed Decision Making: With a strong foundation in marketing analytics, T-shaped professionals can leverage data to make informed decisions about customer retention strategies. * Predictive Analysis: Their ability to analyze customer data can help predict future behavior and identify potential churn risks. 4. Enhanced Customer Experience: * Proactive Support: By understanding the customer's journey, T-shaped professionals can anticipate their needs and provide proactive support, reducing customer churn. * Upselling and Cross-Selling: Their knowledge of the product or service line allows them to identify opportunities for upselling and cross-selling, increasing customer lifetime value. 5. Versatility and Adaptability: * Agile Problem-Solving: T-shaped professionals can quickly adapt to changing market conditions and customer needs, ensuring the team remains agile and effective. * Skill Development: Their broad skill set allows for continuous learning and development, keeping them up-to-date with industry trends and best practices. In conclusion, T-shaped sales and marketing professionals offer a unique blend of skills that are invaluable for customer retention teams. Their ability to understand the customer journey, collaborate effectively, leverage data, and provide exceptional customer experiences makes them a valuable asset to any organization.

I recently mentioned that sales was leading Product Discovery. But let's give due credit to the other Discovery powerhouse: Customer Success. While sales brings insights from prospects, Customer Success is where you’ll find the voice of the customer who’s already using your product. CS bridges the gap between your product’s capabilities and customer expectations, providing insights that are equally crucial for product discovery. If you're building a product, you MUST crunch the following insights from CS: 👋 𝗢𝗻𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 & 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 Customer Success teams onboard new customers and they know exactly where users are getting stuck or dropping off. These insights are invaluable for refining your onboarding process and driving key features adoption. 📈 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝘀 During QBRs, Customer Success gets direct feedback from customers on their goals, challenges, and long-term needs. This forward-looking feedback helps product teams understand what customers need to grow with the product over time . 🤬 𝗖𝗵𝘂𝗿𝗻 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 Digging into why customers churn or stay can reveal gaps in the product that are impacting the business. By focusing on the insights from churned accounts, you can identify critical product improvements that keep customers successful and engaged.. 🆘 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗧𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗲𝘁𝘀 Every support ticket represents a real-life challenge or friction point. Analyzing support data uncovers trends and recurring pain points, giving product teams a clear view of areas needing improvement. If you’re not tapping into the treasure trove of insights from Customer Success, you’re missing out a big part of the story. Let Customer Success be your ally in crafting a product that not only attracts new users but keeps them loyal for the long haul 🤝

Imagine a world where sales, marketing, and customer success teams are not just aligned but seamlessly integrated. This world is not a fantasy—it's RevOps. Revenue Operations (RevOps) is rapidly becoming the backbone of growth strategies for ambitious tech companies. Here's why you should pay attention. RevOps is all about synergy. It breaks down the silos that traditionally exist between sales, marketing, and customer success. But how does it achieve this? → By aligning all revenuegenerating teams under a single umbrella. This alignment fosters communication and collaboration, leading to efficient processes and strategies. The integration of AI and data analytics is a gamechanger here. AI can analyze vast amounts of data to provide insights that were previously unattainable. With these insights, companies can: Enhance pipeline visibility ↳ Understand where prospects are in the buying journey. Improve forecasting accuracy ↳ Predict revenue with greater precision. Optimize customer interactions ↳ Deliver personalized experiences that convert. But the benefits don’t stop there. RevOps also empowers teams to: → Make datadriven decisions quickly. → Identify and rectify bottlenecks in the revenue stream. → Streamline customer handoffs between departments. This holistic approach to operations ensures that everyone is working towards the same goal: sustainable growth. And let's not forget the impact on customer satisfaction. With a unified RevOps strategy, customer needs are met more efficiently and effectively. Happy customers mean repeat business and referrals! So, how can you start? Evaluate your current operations. ↳ Identify where silos exist and why. Invest in AI and data analytics tools. ↳ Use technology to bridge gaps and enhance visibility. Foster a culture of collaboration. ↳ Encourage teams to work together, share insights, and learn from each other. RevOps is not just a trend; it's the future of growth strategies. Are you ready to transform your revenue operations? Share your thoughts below!

🚀 Focus on Getting the Job Done: The Secret to Customer Retention and Growth When it comes to driving customer retention and growth, one principle stands out: helping your customers get the job done. At its core, this means understanding the real outcomes your customers are aiming for—not just what your product does, but how it enables their success. Here’s how this mindset impacts retention and growth: ✅ Retention: If your product consistently delivers value and helps customers achieve their desired outcomes, they have no reason to leave. You're not just a vendor; you’re a partner in their success. ✅ Expansion: When customers see measurable results, they’re more likely to deepen their investment. Why? Because your product isn’t a cost—it’s a growth driver.   Here is an Example: A RevOps leader isn’t looking for “data dashboards.” They want insights that help them align sales, marketing, and customer success teams to hit revenue targets. When your solution becomes the tool they rely on for this job, you’ve secured their loyalty—and opened the door to cross-sells or upsells. 💡 How Partners Fit Into the Equation 💡   The right partners amplify your ability to help customers get their jobs done. 🤝 Co-Delivery of Value: Partners bring complementary skills, products, or services that enrich the overall solution, ensuring customers achieve their desired outcomes faster and more effectively. 🌎 Extended Reach: Partners often have deeper insights into niche markets or specific industries. They can tailor your solution to unique customer needs, ensuring no job is left unfinished. 📈 Enhanced Customer Success: By collaborating with partners, you create a network of expertise. This ensures customers always have the right resources to overcome challenges and achieve growth. Here is an Example: Imagine your platform excels at generating actionable insights, but onboarding and data integration are hurdles for some customers. A partner specializing in seamless implementation can eliminate those pain points, ensuring the customer gets results—and sticks with you for the long term. 🔑 The takeaway: When you pair a “get the job done” mindset with the right partner ecosystem, you don’t just meet customer expectations—you exceed them. #CustomerRetention #GrowthStrategy #GetTheJobDone #CustomerSuccess #PartnerEcosystem

Why Competitor Obsession Can Derail Customer Success It's tempting to monitor what others in your field are doing constantly. However, an important truth often needs to be noticed: Your competitors' features and roadmap aren't proxies for customer needs. This mindset is pivotal because the more you talk about your competitors, the less you talk about your customers. The essence of business success lies not in outdoing competitors but in understanding and fulfilling your customers' unique needs. The Pitfall of Competitor-Centric Strategies When we fixate on competitors, we risk developing a tunnel vision, prioritizing driving out competition over solving real customer problems. This approach can lead to a reactive business model, where decisions are made in response to competitors rather than proactive customer engagement and innovation. Understanding Your Unique Customer Value Proposition Each business has a unique value proposition that sets it apart in the eyes of its customers. By focusing on what makes your offering unique and how it addresses specific customer pain points, you create more value than simply trying to out-feature a competitor. Listening to Your Customers Direct customer feedback is gold. Engaging in ongoing conversations with your customers can provide insights that no competitor analysis ever will. This helps craft solutions and experiences tailored to actual needs, leading to higher satisfaction and loyalty. Innovation Over Imitation True innovation comes from understanding your customer's future needs, sometimes even before they do. While keeping an eye on the competition is necessary, it should never overshadow the importance of pioneering unique solutions that reflect your company's strengths and customer insights. Building a Customer-Centric Culture Lastly, cultivating a customer-centric culture within your organization ensures that every team member, from product development to sales, prioritizes customer needs and experiences. This unified focus can drive more impactful and sustainable growth than any competitor-focused strategy. While it's essential to be aware of the competitive landscape, it's crucial to remember that real growth and differentiation lie in understanding and innovating for your customers. Let's not let competitors' focus overshadow our most important asset: Customer relationships. #CustomerSuccess

Let's dig into the crucial role of Customer Success in tough times. Economic downturns amplify every line item in a company's budget, including your customer success initiatives. Your team's role in this challenging period is essential and indispensable. How do you ensure your team is not seen as expendable but as a critical driver of the company's success? Focus on PRESERVING and PROVING value. Here's how: Shift from Reactive to Proactive: Don't wait for customers to complain. Take control of the situation by proactively analyzing their usage data, identifying potential churn risks, and reaching out with targeted support and resources. Remember, prevention is cheaper and more effective than trying to win back lost customers. Embrace Outcome Obsession: It's not just about your product's features. Relentlessly focus on the OUTCOMES customers achieve with your solution. Can you quantify the cost savings, increased efficiency, or competitive advantage you provide? Make that impact undeniable. Double Down on High-Touch Relationships: Economic uncertainty puts a higher value on trusted partnerships. Invest in solid relationships with key decision-makers at your client companies. Understand their evolving challenges and adapt your strategies to help them navigate the storm. Prioritize Existing Customers: While new customer acquisition is important, your current base is likely your most valuable asset during a downturn. Reassure yourself by exploring expansion opportunities, helping them optimize usage, and demonstrating your unwavering commitment to their long-term success. Collaborate Across Your Organization: Partner with sales, marketing, and product teams to align messaging, share customer insights, and create a seamless experience. A unified front amplifies the value you deliver to customers. Downturns force companies to make critical choices. As a Customer Success leader, your job is to ensure that your solution is positioned as indispensable to their success. What are your top strategies for demonstrating customer value during challenging economic times? #CustomerSuccess

When Jahnavee and I pivoted to build in the space of customer retention, we didn’t want to just solve for challenges in retention; but make the workflows more efficient and productive. When you look at SaaS companies that do around $ 25 Mn ARR, CSMs handle the bulk of retention, in larger SaaS companies with an ARR greater than 50 million, you have dedicated teams handling retention. During our product research we interacted with both retention personas (CSMs and Retention Experts) and here's what we learned : Manual data tracking: Retention personas often spend significant time manually tracking customer health scores and engagement metrics. This process is not only time-consuming but also prone to errors. Reactive support: A common pitfall in retention is operating in a reactive mode. The retention personas find themselves constantly firefighting, addressing issues as they arise rather than proactively preventing them. This reactive approach can lead to customer dissatisfaction and increased churn rates. Scalability: As the customer base grows, maintaining high-quality, personalised interactions becomes challenging. Managing a growing number of accounts without the necessary tools can lead to burnout and subpar customer experiences. Data silos: Retention personas often struggle with data scattered across multiple platforms, making it difficult to get a holistic view of customer engagement and health. This fragmented data landscape hinders their ability to make informed decisions and provide timely interventions. Identifying churn risks: Without predictive analytics, identifying which customers are at risk of churning becomes a guessing game. Retention personas need tools to help them foresee potential churn and take preventive measures. Retention personas are the unsung heroes of customer retention, tirelessly working to ensure every customer finds value in the product. But without the right tools and support, their work can become overwhelming and inefficient. 😓 What are the other challenges that you think retention personas often face? Drop your thoughts in the comments below. #Customerretention #Customerretention #kale

Another Layer to "L-A-E-R" You've probably heard of the L-A-E-R engagement model (Land, Adopt, Expand, Renew) for a successful #XaaS/subscription business. Here are some reminders (also in L-A-E-R mnemonic!) to help you excel in each of those LAER stages: LISTEN to Land: Actively listen to potential customers during the sales process to understand their unique needs and challenges.  Then tailor your solution to ensure they address the pains of your target user persona. ASSIST to Adopt: Don’t just hand off the product! Continuously improve your onboarding process and resources to help new customers adopt your solution quickly and effectively. Personalized onboarding sessions can lead to faster time-to-value and must be complemented by effective customer support. ENGAGE to Expand: Keep existing customers engaged with regular updates on new features and success stories to encourage them to expand their user base or adopt additional solutions. Be able to demonstrate (and deliver!) the ROI of expanding their usage. REVIEW to Renew: Review your solution with customers and design touchpoints throughout the subscription period. This will make it easier to renew when the time comes. Promote “Proactive Retention” by conducting regular health checks or quick surveys to help identify and mitigate your churn risks. Keep these L-A-E-R (Listen to Land, Assist to Adopt, Engage to Expand, Review to Renew) reminders in mind to help ensure a successful outcome in each stage of your engagement model. #customersuccess

You're navigating customer expectations from pre-sales to post-sales. How can you bridge the gap effectively? Bridging pre and post-sales expectations: Learn effective strategies to align customer experiences, from product-led growth to customer success. Leverage the "Sales Learning Curve" Approach Use a measured approach during the go-to-market stage. Instead of overstaffing the sales force upfront, start with a small team focused on learning from early customer interactions. This allows you to: Refine the product based on real customer feedback Understand how customers will truly use and derive value from the offering Develop guidelines for identifying, communicating with, and selling to customers Iteratively improve positioning, messaging, and the overall sales model This learning process bridges the gap by ensuring pre-sales promises align with the actual post-sales experience and value delivered. Adopt a "Product-Led Sales" Strategy Rising trend of "product-led sales" which combines product-led growth with a sales-assisted model. This allows customers to: Experience the product value through trials/freemium before purchase Get guidance from sales reps during evaluation and purchase process Receive support for onboarding, adoption, and expansion post-purchase By letting customers realize value pre-sales through the product itself, it becomes easier to deliver on expectations post-sales. Emphasize Customer Success and Retention The importance of customer success in driving growth and retention. Customers now expect a consistent, high-quality experience across all touchpoints - pre and post-sale. To meet this: Have a robust customer success function focused on adoption and expansion Provide seamless handoffs between sales and customer success teams Implement capabilities like performance guarantees and real-time support Nurture the relationship through continuous value realization By taking a holistic view of the customer journey and prioritizing success, you can ensure expectations set during pre-sales are met and exceeded post-sales. The key is fostering a customer-centric experience bridging the pre and post-sales phases seamlessly.  #Startup #Sales is hard, very hard.