by Ian Robson | Feb 14, 2019 | Foundations |
Scaling any function is a challenge. As a team grows we need to find and hire great people, decide how to re-organise and re-focus as we grow, adjust to the challenges of managing ever larger numbers of people, and adapt our plans when things don’t turn out as we...
by Ian Robson | Feb 7, 2019 | Foundations |
The fundamental scaling challenge facing a customer success function is relatively simple to state. “How do we provide the most effective guidance and support to all of the appropriate stakeholders across our customer base using the most cost efficient engagement...
by Ian Robson | Dec 5, 2018 | Foundations, Hiring |
As was pointed out when I asked for input to this article on LinkedIn, the environment a CSM operates within is as important to their success as the skills, experience and characteristics they themselves bring to the role. So, before you can answer questions about the...
by Ian Robson | Nov 28, 2018 | Foundations |
Customer Success is an investment in the future of your customers and by extension your company. Customer success resources are never unlimited so targeting and getting a good return on the investment made by your CS team should be a goal of every company. How it...
by Ian Robson | Nov 22, 2018 | Hiring |
I see this question asked a fair bit on LinkedIn. I’ve also been approached direct multiple times by people asking about finding a role in customer success. Usually people want to know what books, blogs and articles they could read, or is there any training they...
by Ian Robson | Nov 16, 2018 | Foundations |
Planning, what is it good for? Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth! – Mike Tyson No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy. – Helmuth von Moltke the Elder Have a good plan, execute it violently, do it today. – Douglas...
by Ian Robson | Nov 13, 2018 | Foundations |
At the dawn of the customer success age SaaS companies had a problem: churn. CSMs were born in companies like Salesforce specifically to help understand and address this critical issue as it became clear that churn was a serious risk to their business. I first met...
by Ian Robson | Oct 25, 2018 | Persuasion |
The word persuasion makes some people nervous. It can be confused with manipulation and the idea of that makes them uncomfortable. And while manipulation happens constantly and some people are shameless in its use it is nonetheless the case that the world runs on...
by Ian Robson | Oct 22, 2018 | Foundations |
How do you size a customer success function? Art, science or a bit of both? Let’s start by illustrating the problem with a hypothetical SaaS company called Conductor who provide a business process automation platform in the cloud. Conductor have 150 customers and have...
by Ian Robson | Oct 15, 2018 | Foundations |
These metrics are simple to grasp and relatively easy to measure. What’s more interesting is where they fit within a Customer Success function and when it’s appropriate to make them part of a CSM’s role description. Expansion Revenue Expansion very simply is the net...
