Anatomy of a Customer Success Team

Today’s Host: Scott Schell@Schell_ShockedSenior Manager, Global Customer Success Cisco Systems, Inc.

Customer Success Methodology#successtalk

People

Automation

Process Analytics

3© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential.© 2016 The Ken Blanchard Companies. All rights reserved. 3© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential.© 2016 The Ken Blanchard Companies. All rights reserved.

- Bain & Co.

“A customer is 4 times more likely to defect to a competitor if the problem is service-related than price- or product-related.”

Anatomy of a Customer Success Team

Guest Presenter: Victoria Halsey, PhD

Vice President of Applied LearningThe Ken Blanchard Companies

Back to the audience exercise.

1 26 = L of the A Letters of the Alphabet

2 54 = C in a D (with the J’s) Cards in a Deck with Jokers

3 18 = H on a G C Holes on a Golf Course

4 200 = D for P G in M Dollars for Passing “Go” in Monopoly

5 8 = S on a S Sides on a Stop Sign

6 24 = H in a D Hours in a Day

7 5 + 4 = D in a Z C Digits in a Zip Code

8 40 = D and N of the G F Days and Nights of the Great Flood

What answers did you come up with?

Strengthen your customer satisfaction with a winning team

ANDunleash customer success

It’s time to…#successtalk

• The dynamics of assembling Customer Success teams that THRIVE

• How to build a high PERFORMING Customer Success TEAM

• Charter your Customer Success Team for optimal productivity

In today’s session…#successtalk

What does customer success mean?

Taking care of the customer after the point of sale to drive adoption, reduce churn, increase up-selling and drive customer devotion.

What’s new in customer success??

Customer Product Adoption 57%

Churn Reduction55%

Onboarding47%

Customer Advocacy 42%

The organization The focus

Companies have had Customer Success for 3 years or less

Professionals have been in Customer Success for 3 years or less

Professionals have previously worked in other roles

Source: Totango, 2015 Customer Success Salary Survey and State of the Profession Report

#successtalk

Customer success & professional opportunities.

106K+ listings

#successtalk

What percentage of the organizations you buy from help you succeed after the point of sale?

Audience Poll

60 – 79%

80 – 100%

40 – 59%

20 – 39%

0 – 19%

Customers. Fuel. Business.

Why do we care about customer success?

#successtalk

Legendary teams drive legendary service and success.

1. Select Team Members

2. Set up for Success

#successtalk

Why we don’t hire the right people to drive our customer success?

Select customer success team members.

Hiring with no proof of performance (was referred by a friend, associate)

Over-delegating the selection process

Failing to describe the job as it actually is

Overlooking/discrediting the inside candidate

Confusing selling it to them with evaluating them for it

Not creating high enough hurdles ^^^BONUS ^^^

Hiring in a hurry

Hiring by gut feeling alone

Hiring for experience, degree and expertise over talent or proof of skills

Searching for superman-halo effect

Hiring in your own image: mini-me’s

Stereotyping/generalizing

#successtalk

Select and hire people who THRIVE!But how do you look for the right person for customer success teams?

Results

Important Skills

Values

Excellence

T H R I V E

4 easy steps for selecting your team.#successtalk

Clarify what you need and assess what “A” players do to drive customer success.

Create a job profile to enable players to

THRIVE and develop a list of open-ended,

behavioral questions from your findings.

Requisition, recruit, seek out and check.

Interview, then evaluate – Hire the best!!

1 2 3 4

What are the “A” players in this area doing to make themselves successful?AND

What are the bottom half NOT doing?

Clarify success criteria.

Self-skills

Motivation

Initiative

Knowledge

Typical candidate• 3 years experience

• Customer-centric

• Good listener

High-impact candidate• Solve 90% on 1st call• 100% calls returned (callback)• Answer calls in less than 1 minute

Develop the job specs.

Specific

Relevant

Measureable

Engaging

Typical• 10 years experience

• BS technical degree

• 5 years management

• Strong international

• Good team builder

• Technical knowledge of product

High Impact• Increase sales by 15 % and improve

margins by 3% within 12 months

• Build an Independent Rep. channel in Europe within 90 days

• Implement sales forecasting and pipeline management within 4 months

• Revamp all sales collateral material within 6 months

Example job spec: Director of Sales

Position: ______________________________________

Determine your THRIVE criteria

TTitle

What is the actual job?

How does it link to business

results?

Key responsibility areas?

HHeart

What critical attitudes will make them

thrive?

RResults

What measurable

results will they be held

accountable for?

IImportant SkillsCan they achieve

results?

What technical and performance

skills are needed?

ValuesWill they fit with our customer

success culture and values?

Will they promote team synergy?

EExcellence

Do they have a proven track

record of overcoming

obstacles and achieving

excellence?

• Can you recall a time when you were under a lot of stress from ____ and how you handled it?

Results Proof of talent: Remains calm under

pressure

• Describe a tough decision you made and no policy covered it. Please be specific.

AttitudesEmpowered: Acts without a specific policy

• Describe a challenging time when others relied on you to interpret information or a message for them.

SkillsAbility to communicate

• Tell me about a time when you had to act with great speed and great efficiency.

ValuesAlacrity

What questions reveal if applicant has what it takes to be an “A” player?

Describe a time when you…

Sample interview questions

Tell me about a time when you…

Tell me about a situation where

you…

Can you recall a time when you…

and how you handled it…

What have been your experiences

Walk me a through a situation in which

you…

This job will require you to spend a lot of time… Tell me about

your experience in that…

What did you do in your last job to contribute to a (teamwork environment…

or whatever you are assessing…..)

Most employees operate at only 65 to 70% of their potential!

Building a high-performing customer success team.

Develop Criteria Assemble Team Accelerate Performance

What were the characteristics of your best team?

PERFORM characteristics

Purpose and Values

Empowerment

Relationships and Communication

Flexibility

Optimal Productivity

Recognition and Appreciation

Morale

Purpose and Values

Does your customer success purpose resonate with everyone?

Making Major League Memories

Petco Park Guest Services

Create a clear team charter.

To proactively (70%) and reactively (30%) cultivate strong relationships with customers so as to onboard, teach and advocate for their needs; thus increasing strategic value of our products and make the contract renewal process easier for our sales department to drive organizational revenue.

Defining your purpose.

What is teamwork?Working together to develop ties of mutual trust and respect.

Work through differences to arrive at win-win solutions.

Help each other do our best.

Value and respect all differences.

Empowerment

What have you done in your organization to empower customer success team members? ?

Relationships & Communication

Communication is the lifeblood of the team.

How, what, and how often communication takes place greatly affects your team’s success.

Team Member

Best Communication Method

Tips for most effective communication

Jim Jim.bright@erp.com Needs time to think, likes pre-agendas and clear objectives

Sioux Phone (xxx) 456-6789 Likes to talk out ideas and to get things done; wants to have people follow up

Flexibility

Optimal Productivity

Legendary internal or external customer success starts with a proactive analysis to save time and focus.

Question Answer

Customer Segment

?Needs / Motivators

What would amaze them – make us a legend?

What could we teach them to inspire customer loyalty?

What metrics can you use to measure success?

Recognition & Appreciation

Is it a simple “Thank You”?

Great leaders notice what others do.

ANDThey praise to help people picture the

positive.

The value of praise.

__________, I really appreciated the

way you _____________.

It made me feel _________ and I just want to say

_____________.

“A praising is so impactful for people because they discover that THEIR behavior changed you; it made a

difference for you.” Dr. Margie Blanchard

Morale

“When people are financially invested, they want a return. When people are emotionally invested, they want to contribute.”

- Simon Sinek

Create a Team

Charter

Develop THRIVE Criteria

Hire the

“right”

people

Implement PERFOR

M Practices

Getting started.

Let’s go from satisfactory to legendary customer success!

Role – Cisco Customer Success Manager (CuSM)

Description: Drives adoption and expansion of solutions by aligning to key customer business

outcomesKey Activities Skills1. Customer Lifecycle Advocate: Be responsible for customer adoption and expansion of

Traditional and Cloud solutions by aligning to key customer business outcomes and KPIs. Promote Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty (Low Churn)

2. Consumption Enablement: Drive Adoption of contractually and/or agreed capabilities, number of users, licenses, features, service units and bundles and therefore ensure customers are capturing value.

3. Measure and Report Impact: Measure impact on business outcomes and leverage dashboard and other communication mechanisms to represent the values and quantified impact to outcomes.

4. Expand Opportunity : Leverage adoption information to identify expand opportunities through additional services or expanded coverage

5. Align Solution: Align expanded capabilities to KPIs and desired outcomes. Determine which incremental services/capabilities can continue to address the challenges and outcomes. Structure the right solution.

6. Hand off to Expand for Close: Hand off for proposal development, negotiation and close.

1. Relationship management2. Business acumen3. Intellectual curiosity4. Problem solving5. Orchestration 6. Knowledge of Cisco solutions and tools7. Sales

Do you have this

role in your business?

Discover how strategic automation practices can lower your cost to serve customers.

Using Technology to Automate Your Customer Lifecycle Management StrategyMarch 29, 2016

Upcoming Sessions#successtalk

Find out how to increase your average revenue per customer with valuable upsell opportunities.

Expand Selling Practices in ActionMarch 15, 2016

Learn how to improve your customer retention through effective data management.

Growing Customer Lifetime Value with Best in Class Data Management PracticesFebruary 23, 2016

Thank you.

#successtalk

Anatomy of a Customer Success Team

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