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I was recently asked, "If you could implement one process as the first CS hire in a business, what would it be?" For me, it's a no-brainer: a customer value framework. 1. 🤝 Define Ideal Customer: Collaborate with other departments to identify our ideal customer and determine how we help them. Develop example "desired outcomes" for these customers. 2. 🗺 Map Product Features: Align product features with the core value proposition. Identify which areas of the product help customers achieve their outcomes, guiding adoption efforts. 3. ✅ Capture Desired Outcomes: Implement a process to capture customers' desired outcomes starting in the sales process and ensure they are carried through the entire journey. 4. 📋 Create a Success Plan Template: Develop a template that includes desired outcomes, success criteria, timelines, and deliverables. This should be a mutual plan created with the customer to hold both parties accountable. 5. 👨💼 Build Success Plan Reviews: Integrate success plan reviews and outcome tracking into our workflow. Regularly ask, "Are we still delivering your desired outcomes?" and adjust the plan as needed. 6. 🎯 Set Core KPIs: Make the achievement of desired outcomes a core KPI. We can add additional layers later to further support customer success. Focus on the fundamentals and what drives value for your customers. Is there anything you'd add or do differently? #customersuccess #saas #csp

Most Customer Success strategies are built on guesswork and generic solutions. And guess what? That’s why they fail. 1️⃣ Stop Guessing: You think you know what your customers value? Think again. If you're not aligned with their metrics, you’re walking them to the exit. Listen deeply or lose quickly. 2️⃣ Cut the Cookie-Cutter BS: One-size-fits-all strategies don’t work. If you’re giving the same roadmap to every customer, you’re setting yourself—and them—up for failure. Customization is the name of the game. 3️⃣ Make Success Loud AF: Your customers should feel their wins. If they’re not seeing ROI immediately, why should they stick around? Deliver value that smacks them in the face, not the kind they have to hunt for. Time to rethink CS? ……………………………………. PS: Wanna become better at customer success - retain, grow and help your customer, visit --> https://successguardian.in #customersuccess #saas #cco 

Customer success is quite a relatively new profession but many teams are already stuck in the "old ways". That’s what I’ve come to realize after talking to hundreds of CS leaders and CSMs. Everyone wants to become more proactive, it's their top priority. But they keep following the practices that put them in the reactive hamster wheel. You don't have to do the same things better, you need to change your perspective and build everything around the customer. Here are a few examples: Old question: How can we improve our customers’ health scores? New question: How can we make sure our customers achieve their goals? Old question: How can we scale our onboarding? New question: How can we reduce the time to the first value? Old question: How can we re-engage customers that went dark? New question: How can we build better relationships so we don’t have to? The list is far from exhaustive. The old ways become more obsolete every day. You either adapt or become obsolete too. PS: Join 6.6k+ CS professionals learning the new ways and sign up for my weekly newsletter --> https://lnkd.in/dtC7MEjP #saas #customersuccess #customervalueledgrowth #netrevenueretention

Some great thoughts explaining how to move towards more proactive work!

🚨 The Big Question for SaaS Companies in Q4 2024: "Does my Customer Success organization truly maximize customer revenue?" As SaaS businesses strive for growth, more and more leaders are starting to ask themselves this critical question. Customer Success has long been about retention and satisfaction, but is it enough to unlock the full revenue potential within your customer base? 💡 It's time to rethink Customer Success as a revenue driver, not just a retention tool. ✅ Are we focusing on growth opportunities within existing customers? ✅ Is our CS team positioned to influence expansion, upsells, and higher lifetime value? ✅ Or are we stuck in reactive mode, solving problems rather than driving results? (❓And what does "Industry Expertise" have to do with it?) What steps are you taking to ensure that your customer strategy maximizes revenue, not just renewals? #CustomerSuccess #SaaS #RevenueGrowth #CustomerRevenue #GrowthStrategy Sheila Makleff, Amir Keren, this one's for you ✨

The simple truth is this. A customer never buys a product without a specific goal in mind. The job of Customer Success is to find out what that goal is and help them achieve it. The problem is that CSMs don't know the right questions to ask -- which leads to a disconnect between what they deliver and what their customers truly need. And asking "so... what are your goals with this product?" won't get you very far. 🟪 These 4 questions should be asked as a baseline in the Goal Discovery process: 1. What made you buy our product now? It's easier for a customer to remember why they started the process of buying a product than having them straight on think about what their strategic goals are. 2. Why is that important to you? A good follow-up that gives more context and a deeper reasoning behind their goals. 3. When will you evaluate the product? Rather than the more straight on "What is your goal deadline?", it's more likely that they have talked about when they will decide if the product "worked" or not. 4. What will have needed to happen then for you to decide that the product was successful? This is usually when the customers start giving you some concrete KPIs to work with. When you have the KPIs, you can go ahead and set targets on them. For instance: Customer: "We would want to see a big decrease in our churn" CSM: "Great! Shall we set a target for how much the churn should decrease?" Build upon your Goal Discovery framework from here. A good rule of thumb is to keep asking followup questions rather than new questions. Go deeper by asking "why?" "how come?" and you will get better answers. 🟥 And also: Every. CS-team. should. master. this. It is one thing to read the questions of a paper like a robot. Another to have them ingrained. The customer will feel safer and give better answers. -- 🟦 At Startdeliver, we recognise these challenges and are always working on better ways to integrate guided frameworks within our platform to help CS-teams navigate the goal discovery process efficiently. Our team is also ready to assist our customers in refining these strategies to ensure their success. Would love to hear your tactics on setting customer goals. Comment below. #saas #customersuccess #csm #customergoals

The Blueprint for Customer Success in 2024 and moving forward: 1. Grasp Desired Outcomes: Dive deep into your customers' goals and aspirations. 2. Identify Starting Points: Clearly understand where each customer is beginning their journey. 3. Craft a Success Plan: Collaborate to develop a mutual plan that bridges the gap between their starting point and desired outcomes. 4. Educate and Train: Empower customers with the knowledge and tools they need for a smooth transformation. 5. Align Metrics: Track success using the metrics that matter most to your customers. 6. Monetize Success: Drive revenue through renewals, expansions, upsells, and referrals by delivering exceptional outcomes. Until next time, share what you are doing. What's working for you and what's not working? ……………………………………. First time seeing my posts? I’m on a mission to empowering Customer Success and have some fun while doing it. I post regularly about: ✅ Customer Success Leadership ✅ Ways to Improve CS Operations ✅ Proactive Customer Success Mindset 🔔Hit the bell to not miss a post 👩🏽🏫Want to improve your CS operations?- visit https://successguardian.in #customersuccess #saas #cco 

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐁𝐞𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐚𝐚𝐒? 🌐 While #CustomerSuccess is often associated with #SaaS, its principles apply to a wide range of industries—from construction to manufacturing and beyond. 𝐀𝐧𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞: 1) you have customers 2) they are an important part of your revenue model 3) you have teams, processes or systems to manage those customers If this applies - which is true for both SaaS and non-SaaS, traditional industries - then Customer Success can, and should, be a key part of your success. A few ways how CS adds value in non-SaaS sectors: 🤝 𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠: Whether in finance or logistics, the goal is long-term client satisfaction. CS methodologies can help teams proactively engage and deliver ongoing value. 📊 𝐎𝐮𝐭𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞-𝐁𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐬: In any industry, focus on KPIs that reflect customer outcomes rather than just product use or vanity metrics. 📲 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝 𝐓𝐨𝐮𝐜𝐡𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐬: Tailored engagement based on customer needs strengthens, trust and loyalty. No matter the sector, Customer Success is about aligning with the customer's goals and creating business value. So if you are in a non-SaaS industry and have not yet implement any CS function or strategy, this is the time. What are some unique ways your non-SaaS team implements and leverages CS? *** 🛎️ If you find this valuable, follow for more insights! ♻️ Repost to share with your network. #CustomerSuccess #BeyondSaaS #ClientEngagement #ValueDriven #RevSetter

Lots of great discussions and questions on how to drive customer engagement and value in SaaS so wanted to share my thoughts....... Long term customer success and retention requires continuous engagement and proof of value in a SaaS model. The value exchange between a customer and vendor must be ongoing, consistent and measurable. So how do you set up a successful engagement model that allows you to provide the best customer experience from day one and gives you the path for better visibility and growth?  Providing the following value-added offerings and support activities can help your customers drive faster adoption, decrease risk, and achieve ongoing value. ·      Assessments and Advisory Workshops – Hold joint planning, discovery and strategy sessions to guide customers on use cases, discuss industry best practices or conduct value/impact assessment on the current solution  ·      Accelerators & Quick Starts – Offer packaged implementation bundles to jumpstart deployments without the burden of high services costs ·      Implementation – Provide product expertise, deployment support and best practices to deliver successful implementations based on clear success criteria    ·      Migration – Outline and share transition frameworks and toolkits to decrease risk and minimize new technology disruption  ·      Optimization – Schedule proactive customer reviews and health checks to help decrease cost, improve architecture and performance ·      Training and Enablement – Deliver multi-channel education offerings that is easy to consume and content rich to enable self-sufficiency and ongoing product awareness The offerings and activities should be cohesive, easy to adopt, strategically priced (or bundled) and most importantly, valuable enough for customers to want to engage.   The entire organization must align throughout the customer journey from sales, customer success, product and professional services. The closer you are to the customer, the better insight you will have into their needs to better serve them and most importantly help to decrease any surprises especially at renewal time.    #customersuccess #customerengagement #sales #postsales #SaaS #customerretention #customerexperience #professionalservices #customermanagement #customerjourney

I’ve met hundreds of highly talented CSMs with invaluable skills and expertise. But many of them are not living up to their potential because they are stuck in reactive work. - no personal growth - no career opportunities - no recognition - not getting paid what they are worth - losing their motivation and it will stay this way until they stop following an outdated approach to customer success. - Customer success is not a high NPS - Customer success is not a high CSAT - Customer success is not all-green health scores - Customer success is not using the product 24/7 - Customer success is not doing “stuff” and being busy It’s the focus on the wrong things that put them into all the firefighting, band-aiding, and quick-fixing. Customer success is simple: - Understand your customers' desired outcomes - Understand where they start - Build a customer success plan to bridge the gap - Provide the education and training customers need for their transformation - Measure customer success with the metrics your customers use - Monetize the outcomes through renewals, expansions/upsells, and referrals Everything else is redundant. Go back to the basics and unlock the door to a rewarding work life and career. PS: Want to transition from reactive to proactive CSM? Check this out --> https://lnkd.in/dpTtebME #saas #customersuccess #customervalueledgrowth