P-IE Spectrum

Within the Customer Success world there’s lots of discussion around customer segmentation, health scores, QBRs, Touch Levels, ARR, NRR and many other topics.

There are lots of industry experts selling books, technology and training all well-intentioned but all based on the assumption that your team is just like theirs.

The one topic that isn’t covered so well is the underlying knowledge premise of the relationship with your Customers. What do I mean by that? Well, for example, does the Customer depend on your CS team to provide industry knowledge, product knowledge or both. I’m calling this concept the P-IE Spectrum with Product at one end of the spectrum and Industry Expertise at the other.

Most CS Leaders will know where on the spectrum each member of their team would be positioned. But it will most likely have happened organically so there’s a danger that the design could be wrong, which can lead to process, training and in the worst case, hiring decision failures.

It’s a debate that most CSM leaders have with themselves when building a new team. Where should you focus your efforts? Do you focus more on your own product (and hire, train and invest accordingly) or the industry/vertical in which you operate?

The short and easy answer is both and whilst that’s clearly true and appropriate in most cases, there are some circumstances where the training laser can be more focused with the obvious benefits on your NRR.

As an example, imagine that your CS function provide a SAAS solution to help SMEs to collect payments via Direct Debit e.g. a gym collecting monthly subscription payments. The gym may know their arse from their elbow (or their glute from their ulna) but they won’t know their ADDACS from their AUDDIS. Their specialty is the body and they won’t expect you to know anything about it, but they will expect you to know the ins and outs of moving money around. This type of Customer would lean towards to the Industry Expertise end of the Spectrum and so your hiring and training decision should lean that way too.

Alternatively, an example landing at the Product end of the spectrum would be if you provided that same DD system to a firm of accountants. They’ll know their RTI but not their API. They won’t need or want you to show them how to calculate and manage payroll or verify a sort code/account number combination, but they will need your help to optimise their use of your system for their benefit (and not yours). As a CS leader you should focus your team on becoming super knowledgeable on your Product and let the Customer do what they do best. From an efficiency point of view, this is the best-case scenario because your CS team can specialise and be productive and deliver more value much sooner to the Customer. From a Supplier/Customer partnership point of view this is also the best-case scenario because you both learn from each other. A truly symbiotic relationship that’s mutually rewarding.

Whatever the circumstances are, and whichever end of the P-IE Spectrum your customer belongs to, you must know them inside out. To build a team without knowing is akin to throwing darts at CVs on LinkedIn.