CS Events: Top 3 Takeaways to S.O.A.R.E

This past fall, our team embraced the return of in-person events. So much fun!

Mission: Spread the word about how we help protect & grow revenue.

Outcome: New friends, clients, opportunities to speak at these events, & learnings to share...

What did we learn that you can apply to your business?

1. Durable Growth:

Adding more people to customer success & putting band-aids on product issues & sales/cs friction don't work. The winning companies are taking this uncertain economic time to do an assessment of their company & prioritizing initiatives on what will move the revenue needle most. This includes the tough job of asking:

Do we have the right people & skills in place?

How can we improve the client experience? Is the tech in place enabling us or holding us back? Do our playbooks need updating?

2. Nurture Relationships:

Build multi-threaded relationships early & nurture them according to why your client bought your product. You can't call a customer 30 days before a renewal & expect them even to remember who you are.

How do you nurture customer relationships? Have a seamless hand-off from sales, use technology for digital engagement, offer several means of communication, & follow them on social. Even if someone leaves their company or is laid off (as we see in this economy), they will come back to you in their new roles if they have a positive relationship with your product. According to an HBR study, repeat customers spend 33% more than new ones. Nurture those relationships!

Employee Relationships: Foster the human need for emotional connection. As more companies move to a hybrid model or permanently remote, they realize that teams need more ways to connect with each other & their clients. Having more opportunities to learn & grow together helps team morale, & individuals to be more engaged with their roles & clients.

Bottomline: Human Connection leads to better outcomes for customers & companies.

3. Customer Success will, if not already, will be responsible for renewing and expanding customer LTV.

This is a hot topic on LinkedIn & at these events. While this strategy makes sense to the customer (why should some person I haven't talked to in a year swoop in to have a conversation about the contract?), ensure your CS team is enabled with skills to ask the right questions & seek expansion opportunities. You can't expect a CSM to suddenly know how to host these crucial conversations, just like you can't expect a salesperson to suddenly know how to be a CSM.

Next Stop for our Team:

1. Pulse Gainsight Europe! Me, Annie Stefano, M.Ed. ???? & SABINA M. PONS, MA will be representing Growth Molecules? (swing by our booth B3) & presenting a session on S.O.A.R.E.-ing into revenue with customer success. (Nov 9-10).

2. Pulse Pizza Party: We are co-hosting a panel on durable growth, pizza (of course!) & drinks in Austin on Nov 30th. Sabina & I will be there with the Gainsight team. (DM me if you want to join us!)

Thank you to our team who made these events possible, Annie Stefano, M.Ed. ???? SABINA M. PONS, MA , Evan Williams , Alex Fuentes , Sarah Medrano , Shannon Rey Gibbs , Gosia Rios , Jennifer Wang & to all teams at Baton (acquired by ClientSuccess) , SaaStr , Gainsight , Rocketlane , Totango , UpdateAI ChurnZero & K1 Investment Management who invited us to be part of them.

#customersuccess #saas #events #revenuegrowth #growthmindset