3 Success Factors for building a solid ‘Customer Success’ Framework

Businesses exist to make money. They want to grow. Grow their top line and bottom line. In my previous blog, I talked about creating the COE (Center of Excellence). COE helps organizations in boosting their bottom line, their profitability.

Now, let us shift the focus to the top line/revenue side of business. Young professionals often ask me ‘What are the success factors for Customer Success?’

The Customer Success Framework is designed to build and grow the revenue. I am going to list down 3 basic success factors based on my professional journey and experiences. Since I like to keep things simple, I will share a simplified version of this complex process.

How does your Offering’s Value Proposition alleviate the Customer’s Pain Points?

Let’s break this question into two parts – Your Value Proposition and Customer’s Pain Point.

Success Factor 1 – Your Value Proposition. Start your Customer Success journey by understanding the Value Prop of your offering. a) What market need does your value prop address? b) What are the benefits of your offering? c) Who would find value in it and why? d) What are the fundamental principles of your offering? e) What challenges is it trying to solve? f) What are the assumptions? g) Has it been tested in the real world? h) If yes, do you have any testimonials? i) Is your end user happy with it? j) Any client references that you have received? k) What are the limitations of your offering? l) Is it unique? m) What are it’s USPs? List them down. n) Why should anyone use your offering? o) Can you give a live Demo? p) How will the user’s world change after using your offering? q) What are the real-world business problems that you are solving? r) How long does it take to implement it?

These questions sound very common sensical. But as they say, ‘common sense is the most uncommon thing in today’s business world’. Over the years, I have seen innumerable examples of energetic and sophisticated Sales professionals (both, young and experienced) trying to pitch their offering (product/services) to me without really having a strong understanding of what they are trying to offer. Most of the times they try to use their charm and attitude to make the first impression. Using attitude in this case will take you further away from the goal. The client wants to know what is unique about your offering and why you. Be prepared to answer this basic question.

I remember an instance where I was tasked to implement the ERP system for a global F&B leader in the US. We were spending thousands of dollars to implement this state-of-art ERP across all major Departments and Locations in the organization. We also knew that this would give us higher operational efficiencies and in the long run it will save us much more than our investment. We had invited world’s top Implementation Partners as well as smaller Boutique ERP companies.

With each of these partners, I started with the basic question – what is your Value Prop and why you over the competition? To my dismay, most of them talked about the benefits of being associated with a global Implementation Partner like them. How their pricing was much more attractive than that of the competitors. I learnt a lot about everything, other than the basic question that I had asked - ‘What is your Value Prop?’

For the Customer Success professionals, here is what a Value Prop pitch should address - 

a) Establish why you are there and how your offering can serve the client. b) Showcase the client’s pain points, understand from the client why they are critical to them. c) Talk about the USP of your Offering and tell them how it addresses the client’s pain points. d) Finally, how are you better placed to serve, the client. Hint – don’t focus only on the pricing. Clients want to know your unique features, teams, client testimonials, benefits and company.

Do your homework (detailed research) about the client company, their vision/mission, their aspirations, the current market place, the competitive positioning and then make the Pitch. I am sure my fellow decision-maker peers would share a similar advice for all Customer Success professionals.                 

Now, lets take an example of how knowing and pitching your Value Prop helps in a quicker conversion of Sales. I recently met with an Expense Management company Rep. His company helped in identifying and reducing the General & Administrative costs and then charge the client a percent of the Cost Savings. Their Value Prop was that they charged the client only if they garnered any cost savings.

He did not waste time in talking about himself or his company. He understood my business model and the current pain point. He showcased through a Demo how he can alleviate my pain points and finally, put his price that was a win-win situation for both the parties. He successfully completed the Sale.

Success Factor 2, the Customer’s Pain Points will be addressed in my next Blog later this week.