Aligning Sales and Customer Success by Cliff Cate
Sales Hacker Conference San Francisco - November 6, 2014
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5. EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED
Subscription Economy: customers only pay for what they
need, they stop paying once there is not good value
Customers are more knowledgeable: 80% of the buying
process will happen before any human to human
communication
Power of Advocacy: prospects, customers and former
customers are all connected and they like to tweet
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6. IT IS NOT JUST ABOUT THE INITIAL BOOKING
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New
Customers
Existing
Customers
(Cross &
Upsell)
Churn $$
7. MOST OF YOUR REVENUE WILL COME AFTER THE INITIAL
BOOKING
** Forentrepreneurs.com and Totango 7
8. .. AND IT SHOULD GET EASIER
** Forentrepreneurs.com and Totango 8
9. 9
THE POWER OF NEGATIVE CHURN
** http://www.forentrepreneurs.com/why-churn-is-critical-in-saas/
11. CLOSE NEW DEALS QUICKER
1. Go after the right customers: talk to CSMs and ask them to
identify the most successful customers
2. Learn & use customer success stories: drag CSMs into your sales
meetings, have CSM present at your weekly sales meetings
3. Teach customers best practices: document and teach the three
things your best customers do with you product
4. Connect prospects with existing customers: always find ways to
introduce them to your existing customers
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12. POST CLOSE (ONBOARDING)
5. Quick internal hand-off to CSM: checklist, move quickly
6. Kickoff call w/ customer: within 48 hours, clear expectations of
next steps, clear points of contact and responsibilities
7. Initial value check-in: quick email/call to confirm value, schedule it
in advance
8. Social Advocacy: ask for a recommendation on AppExchange,
Twitter, G2Crowd
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13. ONGOING AND EXPANSION
9. Health checks: review usage, benchmarks and best practices
10. Get customers together: happy hour, dinners, LinkedIn, etc
11. Social Sharing: consistently share content on LinkedIn/Twitter
12. Bottoms-up feedback: send surveys to get end user feedback to
review with leadership
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16. 5 THINGS TO START DOING TOMORROW
1) Buy a CSM a coffee/beer and get them to tell you about their favorite customers
2) Buy a CSM a coffee/beer and brainstorm with them the customers where you
think there is the most opportunity for growth
3) Introduce three prospects to three customers via LinkedIn
4) Have a CSM present one customer success story at your weekly sales meeting
5) Send a survey to the end users of one of your customers and then review the
results with your sponsor. Ask them to:
• Rate your service – 1-5 stars
• Top three benefits
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