CUSTOMER SUCCESS MUST BE AGILE

The purpose of Customer Success is to improve the adoption and secure the renewal of the product (sw or services), leveraging the actions of the Customer Success Managers and the Renewal Managers, the two pillars of this strategic function.

Whilst the first ones are committed to helping the technical end users in order to learn more about the current installations in place, the second ones have the mission to support the procurement departments in all the administrative and commercial tasks, including the very complex public sector procedures and laws.

The main recipient is the customer, specifically the end users, and the Customer Success Managers may leverage a wide set of methodologies and tips & tricks ?that can optimize their daily work.

Due to the digital transformation the world is changing very quickly, the business models as well and from an owned-product economy we are switching to a subscription-service model.

That’s why Customer Success is becoming central and strategic in many innovative corporations.

Accordingly the go to market approach is changing with a mix of direct and indirect sales strategy and Customer Success must be much more agile than before.

In the indirect sales model we have three layers: distributor-reseller-customer, internally managed by different depts. The key player in this case is the Channel team with Channel Account Managers that are playing the relevant role.

What is the role of Customer Success in an indirect business model? It depends on specific situations: we may have excellent resellers that have the right skill and will to manage the customer without the help of the “sw vendor” or at the opposite resellers that are not active or skilled and do need the support of both Channel and Customer Success team.

To cut story short it is always key to check if the end user is really using the product/service the way we want, to secure growth in the future and in order to do that the Customer Success team must be very agile and smart to do the best thing, always fully aligned with the rest of the stakeholders, internal and external.

I have worked in the past in a large reseller for more than four years in a row and I remember how important was the relationship and the daily support provided by the hw/sw vendor for the multiple sales opportunities that I had ?in my pipe: that’s why I think it is crucial to be always aligned with the resellers, with no overlapping actions that may cause confusion and less revenues.

To be clear, given the fact that the Channel Account Managers are the key contact points for the resellers, the Customer Success Team must be next to both to help and support in order to secure adoption and renewal.

If the Channel Account Managers and the Customer Success Managers are on the same page and execute a join plan, then it will be a win-win strategy for all, providing value for the reseller and mainly for the customer, which must ?always be the top priority.