Customer Success - WDGLL?
The term revenue enablement is now a staple in both Gartner and Forrester’s market analysis. Forrester puts this down to the fact that “the still-young function of sales enablement in B2B organizations is evolving; its capabilities are increasingly extending to supporting additional customer-facing roles, such as solutions overlays, sales engineers, ecosystem partners, and customer success.”
Given that both Gartner and Forrester have highlighted the importance of focusing on sales competencies for “best of breed sales teams” and organisations are only just catching up to that, what about focusing on the competencies that underpin success across the other revenue focused teams?
Let’s explore Customer Success… with changes in customer behaviours and the need for Customer Success teams to adapt, it’s even more important to have a clear view of what good looks like for your customer success teams.
Blimey! We hear you cry… I’ve only just built my sales competency framework, never mind customer success! Never fear, we are here to help!
💡Hint: Don’t just use these verbatim, to achieve maximum adoption and success, you need to adapt them to fit your organisation and culture.
💡Hint: When you are building your customer success competency framework, make sure you walk backwards from the Customer Success goal. Identify your key measures, KPIs and leading indicators and then define the underlying competencies that drive them.
However, here’s a sample to get you started:
Customer Relationship Management
Building and nurturing strong relationships with customers is at the core of a Customer Success role. This involves understanding customer needs, proactively addressing their concerns, and providing ongoing support throughout their journey.
Positive Indicators:
✅ Demonstrates strong listening skills and actively engages with customers to understand their needs and goals.
✅ Builds trust and rapport with customers, leading to long-term partnerships.
✅ Proactively reaches out to customers to provide guidance, support, and ensure their success.
Example Measures:
🔢 Completed QBRs
🔢 Outbound calls into customer
🔢 ‘Listening’ Ratio on recorded calls
Problem-Solving and Analytical Skills
Customer Success need to be adept at identifying and resolving customer issues. This requires strong problem-solving skills, the ability to analyze data and metrics to identify trends, and provide data-driven insights to customers to help them achieve their goals.
Positive Indicators:
✅ Effectively identifies and resolves customer issues, leveraging a systematic approach.
✅ Utilizes data and metrics to analyze trends, identify patterns, and provide data-driven recommendations.
✅ Proactively identifies potential challenges or roadblocks for customers and offers proactive solutions.
Example Measures:
🔢 NPS Score
🔢 Net Revenue Retention
Empathy and Customer Focus
Understanding the customer's perspective, empathizing with their challenges, and demonstrating a genuine desire to help are vital. By being customer-focused, Customer Success can deliver personalized experiences, anticipate needs, and proactively address potential roadblocks.
Positive Indicators:
✅ Demonstrates empathy and understanding towards customers' challenges and goals.
✅ Anticipates customer needs and offers personalized solutions or recommendations.
✅ Advocates for customers within the organization, ensuring their voice is heard and their needs are met.
Example Measures:
🔢 NPS Score
🔢 Time to Onboard
🔢 # Contacts Engaged per Customer
Team Collaboration
Collaboration across different internal teams, such as sales, product, and support, is crucial. Working collaboratively ensures smooth transitions between departments, enables effective cross-functional problem-solving, and enhances the overall customer experience.
Positive Indicators:
✅ Actively collaborates with internal teams, sharing knowledge and insights to drive customer success.
✅ Works closely with the sales team to identify expansion opportunities and ensure a seamless handover.
✅ Shares customer feedback and insights with the product team to drive product improvements.
Example Measures:
🔢 Upsell Pipeline into existing accounts
🔢 Upsell Revenue into existing accounts
🔢 Team Tasks Completed
Metrics and Data-Driven Approach
Measuring and analyzing customer success metrics is an integral part of the role. Understanding key performance indicators (KPIs), tracking customer health scores, and utilizing data to drive decision-making helps Customer Success provide actionable insights to customers and maximize their value.
Positive Indicators:
✅ Regularly tracks and analyzes customer success metrics to identify trends and patterns.
✅ Utilizes data to provide actionable insights and recommendations to customers.
✅ Proactively communicates data-driven findings to customers, guiding them towards achieving their desired outcomes.
Example Measures:
🔢 Insights data sent to customers
🔢 Completed QBRs
So what now?
Now you’ve got the beginnings of your Customer Success competency framework, the aim is to get it operational.
Refine it for each role in the team e.g. Enterprise / Senior roles may have a different level of complexity than SMB
Share it with all Stakeholders… Customer Success, Managers and Senior Leadership
Assess where each individual is against the framework (💡Hint: There’s a handy blog here on how to assess competencies)
Make sure there are training or upskilling pathways against each competency
Provide continued support through coaching
Continually track and repeat - make it operational and sustainable
Support Managers in using their team’s competency framework to guide their coaching conversations
Let us know if we can help to get this operational.