CSM secrets Of Influential Customer Success leaders

Leadership Masterclass - CEO with Prithwi

This is the last episode of the leadership masterclass podcast and the office is the one with highest responsibility: CEO.

I speak with Prithwi Dasgupta, CEO of SmartKarrot, who has risen from the normal ranks of leadership to becoming a co-founder and CEO of SmartKarrot:

Five key takeaways from this episode are:

1) What a lot of candidates that apsire to become a CEO miss - is the grind, the sacrifices and the risk/uncertainty. Glamorous from the outside, absolutely demanding on the ground.

2) A CEO needs to shed the ego and be ready to proven wrong again and again, pivot and move ahead with speed.

3) Hiring for the C-Suite is based on the challenges that a company needs to solve at that point in time and to pick the relevant candidates. Ofcourse getting into the C-suite (for other positions) requires some familiarity with the leadership because it gives a head start. 

4) A CEO cannot be an all-rounder. However, if critical metrics can be defined for each function , the COE's job is therefore to they  measure them based on those metrics. Breadth definitely helps.

5) When it comes to handling opposition from the board, investors,  internal team, fellow leadership - a CEO always needs to take a balanced decision and not give in to any one pull.

Now let us talk Customer Success, as SmartKarrot is about CS:

Lightning Talk: In the long run, the success of CS will be measured by tangile outcomes and hence, CS needs to own post sales revenue. And SmartKarrot was born out of this vision and helps CS to achieve this specific GOAL.

SmartKarrot also offers plenty of playbooks, tools, conversational AI and some custom built tools that bring tremendous benefits Customer Success managers. Check it out!

 

Mala Ramakrishnan Teaches Operations

In this episode on Operations, Mala Ramakrishan decodes the office of Operations:

 

1) A COO stands hand in hand with a CEO holding equal responsibilities for the overall achievement of the company's goals

2) Operations is all about execution of the stated strategic vision

3) A COO is responsible for Operations of all kinds, business, IT, program and revenue. 

4) A COO needs to have a good understanding of almost all aspects of the business to be able to drive the results for each

5) Usually a COO holds dual responsibilities - Such as of Product or Sales (Sheryl Sandberg in Facebook)

6) AI is compelling and evolving for Operations to make better decisions and to eliminate manual labor.

This and a few of her best and not so best moments in her career and ofcourse the rapid fire round!

Listen in!

Dr. Michelle Teaches Strategy

In this episode on Strategy, Dr.Michelle talks about one of the newest and evolving topics at the C-suite, which is Strategy.

Traditionally, strategy has been defined to be something:

a) That helps an organization retain its market share

b) Prevent competition from capturing its market share.

However, strategy is much more. It is culture, it is product, it is product evaluation, competitive analysis and much more. It is an entire framework for growth and goes beyond just revenue.

Listen to this and a lot more in this very informative podcast!

Leadership Masterclass - Diversity with Eugina Jordan

Hello All,

In this episode of leadership masterclass, I speak with Eugina Jordan, a champion for diversity and the voice of women in leadership.

- In her early days, when she attended the MWC conference, what shocked her was a lack of waiting line in the women's restroom which made her realize there are so few women in tech/leadership roles and also made her write the book "UNLIMITED"

- Depending on the size of the organization, it is good to setup an exclusive Diversity office under Chief People officer ; For smaller organizations, make every leader accountable for diversity by setting clear goals.

-  There definitely exists a system (a biased one) which does not favor the under represented. The only way to overcome this is through persuasion and grit.

- Women need to build their confidence and go after every coveted job and leadership roles

- Instead of asking women to "Lean In", why dont we ask men to "Lean out" and sponsor a women for leadership roles?

- Women need to understand that building a career takes the support of a village - Network, Community, Family and friends. Lean on them to grow in your career.

- Find mentors and sponsors actively instead of waiting for the diversity office to find sponsors for you!

This and a lot more in this episode. And do not forget to check out on her book "Unlimited" which is topping the charts in Amazon and is already a best seller!

Jay Nathan teaches Customer Success

In this episode of Leadership Master class, Jay talks about:

How a simple zoom call (GTM plans based and customer outcomes, automation) started to serve the CS community grew up from 30 people on call to 75 and 150 and now a thriving and one of the largest CS communities

How the community takes a wholistic approach to not where CS is going but where SaaS is going and to be able to ride the wave

There is no one size CS fits all - depending on whether you are a product led growth, SMB/inside sale, Enterprise organization, follow the best practices of CS for each of these GTM models. 

Organizations that were measuring results and focussed on their current customer outcomes, had 6 times longer LTV

On how to structure a CS org, assign resources based on the needs of the problems you are trying to solve rather than following blueprints.

Testimony for CS having an impact on GTM - By the time SaaS 60/70M most of new bookings come from existing customers. 

A contract is the foundational element of a relationship. If you don’t understand contract, you don’t understand the business.

Want reference customers? Dont try to wow them. Just try to deliver on the brand promise.  Try and make things simple for the customer!

Onboarding must be a separate Ongoing , separate support from CSM which ties closely to product

One big unspoken Digital CS/Scale CS - Building a central community hub where customers go for everything, is a form of scale CS and customer enablement

CSMs should maintain focus on the ongoing customer issues and deliverables and not really focus on selling as it involves a different skill.

AI will eat CS? No. AI is going to make us more efficient and effective at what we already do

Aaron Teaches Revenue

Now, this is one of my very favorite topics.

In today's discussion on Conversations with the C-suite, we have Aaron Thompson who is passionate about customer success and turning customer success into a revenue office.  Aaron introduced the concept of "Revenue acquisition cost", which is the cost you incur in acquiring newer revenues through upsells and cross-sells once a customer is onboard. This directly translates into something a Customer Success office should own.

Key takeaways from this episode are:

1) The primary responsibilities of the revenue office is to focus on bringing in new revenue and in sustaining the same.

2) Profitability is the scope of a CFO and new customer acquisition is the role of the Sales/Marketing

3) Providing accurate revenue forecasts, designing strategies around bringing in new revenue, creating value added solutions are key for the success of revenue operations (RevOps)

4) The success of the revenue office is reflected in revenue numbers; and the overlap with CS is in how well CS enables revenue office to meet their numbers

5) RAC - Revenue acquisition cost is under values. While Customer Acquisition costs are usually very high, RAC could prove to be a great opportunity to build momentum in revenue without such high costs during initial acquisition.

6) And the focus is more on upsells & cross-sells and not usually on renewals, which is a given and almost requires no additional costs.

7) Customer Success managers could be account managers or Not. However, revenue responsibilities are primarily with account managers and they should continue to have the leverage in all accounts to own it end-end.

8) For anyone that aspires to be in the CRO office - a good track record of having walked the customer's pain points and designing new strategies in problem solving will go a long way in ensuring a success in their careers.

 This and many takeaways from this insightful Episode!

Leadership Masterclass - Geoff Teaches Marketing

In this episode of "Leadership Master class - Conversations with the C-suite", we feature Geoff Hollingworth, CMO Rakuten Symphony.

 

Geoff Hollingworth is a new age CMO. The way he has adapted marketing techniques for the B2B segments using B2C techniques, leveraging social media, humor and people centric approach to marketing are a breath of fresh air in the B2B space. Check out the amazing content that Rakuten Symphony puts out under his stellar leadership.

 

In this episode spanning topics from marketers being psychologists, to using levity in even serious business settings and all the way up to ChatGPT replacing marketing significantly, there are so many lessons to learn.

Leadership Masterclass - Madhav teaches Products

The key takeaways from this episode on Product:

 

1. Product office is not a standalone function that sits to define WHAT to build; rather the primary role of the product office is to collaborate with customers, and define what is the most critical problem to solve in that market space.
2. It is important to always combine the product and technology office into one unit and have an agile development model that combines the WHAT(Product) and the HOW (Tech)
3. Product managers are not innovators, but they are the "process owners" that are responsible for the overall process of discovery, working with customers and the market needs.
4. Different companies require the three stellar pillars of a product - Innovation, Execution and Evangelization in different percentages. 
5. It is easy to identify a fad and a need, in early stages. How? Who is adopting it - Technology evangelists OR customers?
6. There is no one founding day; Founding has to be a continuous process and you essentially stick to a problem for several years - till the point where both customers and market knows what they want
7. Get obsessed with the problem and stay with it for long; Abstracting the problem statement into a product vision which is long term & inspirational is very critical
8. If you have the right vision, right execution model, you can be successful with the fund managers for long enough a time
9. Progress is important than perfection. Go launch with the MVP because customer is also new to the product and has not experienced a solution such as what you are introducing
10. Keep all the complexity and much of the innovation at the backend. Keep innovating faster but keep in mind the customer might not like it. Your pace of innovation can actually be a shock than a surprise. 
11. AI is going to be critical, no matter what product you are in. You cannot ignore AI. AI/ChatGPT is a great augmenting tool. It may not completely replace humans but it adds more time compression 
12. Big companies or small companies both are ideal places to innovate and build products if they have the right priorities.

Rajeev Madhav speaks on Startups and Venture Funding

In this exciting, absolutely informative session on Startups & VC Funding, Rajeev spoke to us exclusively on various topics related to Startups. 

I categorized them into 3 major buckets: Idea, Team and Funds. 

1) There are no blueprints to get funding. If you have a good idea,  approaching a VC through a trusted source or a referral is the first and most important step to get VC's attention

2) It is important to find the best fit VC for your ideas as not all VC funds are made the same.

3) When listening to your ideas, VCs are always looking for the thought process behind the idea and the homework that has gone behind it.

4) The first wave is usually a good time to ride than a second wave where the market potentially gets over crowded and over funded. 

5) In a founder, VCs are looking for someone who is a good team player, that is willing to form a great team and share the rewards/stakes.

6) Startups are hard work and requires significant sacrifice on all fronts. A lot of new entrants seem to think Startups are "cool" but the real deal is startups are just hard work.

7) It is important to build a culture of execution where everyone is hands on and can talk about the product/technology with depth. Culture is very important.

8) Companies do not get sold, they get acquired. Execute well and the right deals will come. Do not enter a startup with an end goal of IPO/M&A from Day One.

9) Even when you nothing but just an idea, when it comes to securing funds, there is tough negotiation. So founders need to know their numbers very well.

10) VCs do enough due diligence - hence have a clean track record and reliable referernces.

11) Even solopreneurs with no team to give with them can secure funds, if they can show a path to forming a team eventually.

12) A founder's focus should always be to increase the total value of the company ; which would mean forecast well for the next 2-3 quarters, 

13) VCs never want to fire a founder unless there is a huge gap in action Vs plan.

14) In terms of exit, if a idea is not working take the VCs help and either transition or optimize.

15) VCs even help resolve conflicts among founders.

Ultimately VCs take a lot more risks and responsibilities when funding someone else's idea Vs running their own startup. It is high time to appreciate that.

Scaling CS with Anika

Catch me on this podcast with Anika Zubair, VP of Customer Success @ Karbon for some amazing insights on how to scale CS through genuine human relationships and her own insights on the power of networking.