Andrea Schneider

Did you know that up to 70% of your customers will churn within the first 100 days? 💥 In partnership with Gainsight, SABINA M. PONS, MA shares an article that highlights the critical need of mapping out a digital journey to target and tackle churn from before it is even a question. This great read "Digital Strategies to Help You Activate Your Customers" shares insights on how to map critical moments of truth during implementation and onboarding through correspondence of digital-led approaches, including who should be involved and what should be measured. Read more ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️

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Tired of the one-size-fits-all approach? 🤷‍♂️ Hey, ABM leaders! It's time to get crafty with your marketing strategies! 🎨 Tailoring an ABM strategy to your unique needs and those high-value accounts is like fitting a bespoke suit – it just feels right. 👌 At PinkPiano Inc, we've been in the B2B marketing game for over 25 years, and we know that a personalized ABM strategy can really make a difference in hitting those targets. 🎯 Ready to suit up? Text Us! Let's make your marketing strategy fit like a glove! 📲 #ABMStrategy #PersonalizedMarketing #B2BSuccess

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What I found interesting this week. *️⃣ Shopify is a 20-yr-old business that continues to innovate. Management’s long-term mindset and “growth on top, growth on bottom, and invest for the future” operating framework is key. ◾️They had a top & bottom line Q1 beat, but moderated growth expectations in Q2 (growth is still pitched in high teens). Q1 was $2B in revenue, $60B in GMV (+23% vs. LY), and $200M+ in FCF ◾️Stock was punished. I am bullish on their growth pillars (enterprise, international, and more) and noticed the addition of “less discretionary” brands (Staples, FIGS). 👜Coach parent Tapestry had a better than expected Q3, but reset guidance for the year. Revenue was $1.5B (flat in constant currency and -2% vs. LY). Op margin increased to 16% vs. 15%. ◾️Their customer engagement is stood out, acquiring ~1.2M new customers in North America (half were Gen Z and Millennials). I’m noticing more Coach on Gen Z (for those not wearing a lululemon crossbody). 🖥️ Reddit, Inc. delivered strong revenue growth (+48%) and improved profitability. They are tiny in the social space, but growing their ad business and making content licensing deals with AI-focused companies (i.e. $60M deal w/Google). 🛒Whole Foods has been reducing prices on its 365 Brand & increasing promotions. I noticed most the fruit I selected had savings (great for the consumer)! 👞Ferragamo’s Q1 sales were -17%. Trend is consistent with what we’re seeing in luxury (excl. the ultra wealthy). 👓 Warby Parker had a better than expected Q1 ($200M in revenue), EBITDA improvement ($22M vs. $18M LY), and raised guidance. Avg rev per customer was up +10%. ◾️They have 245 locations and will be opening 40 stores in 2024. Smart Moves: ⭐️ Dynamic duo, Christine Hunsicker and Brendan Hoffman formed P180, a financing and operating company. They will invest in or acquire brands & retailers that stand to benefit from CaaStle’s business-to-business rental technology. ◾️ Elyse Walker is the first investment. As a rental enthusiast, I’m ecstatic. It’s a beautiful luxury rental assortment! ♥️ https://lnkd.in/gMpYkiEj ⭐️ Reebok is letting users upload their favorite photo for a real-time chat w/an AI bot that will craft a custom shoe inspired by the picture submission’s color scheme & style, with the original photo. The virtual footwear can be edited, shared, and purchased as files that are interoperable w/Fortnite and Roblox. ⭐️ Glossier, Inc. is expanding European distribution via Space NK stores in UK & Ireland. I expect more announcements here. 🔶 Macro: Consumer sentiment declined in May. Travel & hospitality data indicates the U.S. consumer is still spending on experiences. High prices are squeezing consumers with lower incomes, and putting pressure on everyday purchases. Earnings next week: big players (Walmart, The Home Depot, Alibaba Group) & brands (Under Armour, Amer Sports, On Holdings). #futureofretail #retail #ecommerce #brands #tech #innovation #businessnews

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Enterprise Salespeople - just a friendly push (from someone who isn't impacted by your results but wants you to kick ass) May & June - time to fine-tune  😎 If, on average, you have a 6 + month sales cycle - hopefully you rested up this long weekend.... It's GO time! Any Discovery Calls booked inside what's left of May & the month of June have a shot to close by Calendar Year End. Factor in some down time in July & August & December. This is when you want to: 🚀 review and own the heck out of next steps with ops inside your CRM 🚀work with marketing to provide timely and intelligent collateral for each stage gate of your ops 🚀ensure that decision makers are identified and introduced 🚀hammer away with your sales leader/founder the key accounts and get support 🚀build plans with your champions to get these deals to their natural close 🚀understand how market forces/head winds/corporate budgets etc might create a sense of urgency for prospects Good Luck & Go CRUSH Your Quotas - like only you can!!! AND make sure you have some personal activities for growth inside your daily calendar!!! That part is always non-negotiable!! If I can help - happy too! startupsalesgrowth.ca #sales #saas #saassales #founders #startups #startupsales #proptech #realestate #enterprisesales #ae #bdr #salesteams #salesculture #salesprocess #salescycle #salesstrategies #salestips #quotas #salesquotas #revenue #salesleadership #salespeople #worklifebalance #marketing #salesandmarketing #mentalhealth #salesprospecting #crm #nextsteps #coaching #b2b

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Are you going to Gainsight's Pulse conference next month? If you're going AND also trying to figure out how to make sure your product doesn't get cut from customers' tech stacks, then you need to attend this session at Pulse: ✂ Surviving the Cut: How to Communicate ROI throughout the Customer Journey 🗓 May 15 at 11:15 am 📣 Join our panel of experts for a discussion on how to communicate ROI throughout the customer journey, including: -Ways to communicate ROI throughout the year (including examples!) -How to communicate ROI outside of a meeting -What to do when ROI is not great -How CS can bridge the gap when the product can only do so much -How to break down barriers between sales / product / CS to effectively showcase ROI 💡 The experts: Alana Stoltzfus - Senior Digital Growth Manager at Okta Dan Ennis - Senior Manager, Scale Customer Success at monday.com Justin Chappell - VP Customer Experience at 6sense Inc. Nikola Mijic - CEO & Co-Founder at Matik #gainsightpulse #customersuccess #csm #revenueoperations #revops

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Want to drive more expansion? Here's the playbook I learned at Salesforce - Find gaps with customers - Create offers to address gaps - Market this to your expansion list - Introduce offer in sales and CS mtgs - Lay the groundwork and spark interest - Start sales conversations with stakeholders - Close Expansion Opportunities and grow Accts! Whitespace is a key way to find those gaps. 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗗𝗨𝗖𝗧 𝗪𝗛𝗜𝗧𝗘𝗦𝗣𝗔𝗖𝗘 - What products does each customer have? - What products does each customer NOT have? - Which products have you yet to present to them? *This is pretty basic but so often not executed well! 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗞𝗘𝗛𝗢𝗟𝗗𝗘𝗥 𝗪𝗛𝗜𝗧𝗘𝗦𝗣𝗔𝗖𝗘 - Which key stakeholders do you know? - Which key stakeholders do you NOT know? - Where can you open up new key relationships? 𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗟𝗔𝗣 - Where do these overlap? - You can sell a new product to an old contact - You can sell more current product to a new contact - But man is it easier to sell new products to new contacts Let me share some examples from my days at Salesforce: - VPs of Sales bought Salesforce (Sales Cloud) - VPs of Service/COOs bought Service Cloud - CMOs bought Pardot or Marketing Cloud - CFOs bought more licenses at discounts We had a different play for each product and each stakeholder. It wasn't this cut and dry though. Sometimes VPs of Sales bought Service Cloud or Marketing Cloud. CFOs often wanted the best contract terms and were my bread and butter for expansion, but it wasn't always them driving this. Most often, though, our relationship started with the VP of Sales who bought Sales Cloud and didn't really care about anything else we had to sell. This playbook is how Salesforce "landed and expanded" accounts and doubled spend for the average customer within 12 months of the initial purchase when I was there. More details in the 📰 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗢𝗽𝘀 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸𝗹𝘆 📰 https://lnkd.in/ezX9iMjr ✌️

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🚀 Ready to master hiring #ProductMarketing talent? 🚀 Heidi Ram shares 5 essential steps to finding and hiring the right fit for your organization. From defining key requirements to crafting competitive offers, these tips will transform your hiring strategies. #HiringTips #SaaS #ProductMarketing #HCM #TalentAcquisition

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CSM, get out of the hamster wheel before you burn out. ❌ Stop fire-fighting ❌ Stop with check-in calls ❌ Stop reacting to your inbox ❌ Stop taking support queries ❌ Stop ineffective repetitive tasks ❌ Stop solving for this month's number ❌ Stop emailing unresponsive contacts ❌ Stop only prioritising in-month renewals ❌ Stop manually doing what should be automated A ton of hard work. Very little to show for it. You'll never get out of the rat race if you keep working this way. Here's a different and better way of CSM-ing: ✅ Establish your customers' expected outcomes ✅ Build a Success Plan from day one ✅ Ensure they have the right set-up ✅ Hold customers accountable ✅ Report on and share results ✅ Ask if they intend to renew ✅ Monitor leading indicators ✅ Pick up the phone ✅ Multi-thread Proactive, strategic and consultative. 1000x better. If reading this makes you feel ashamed because you don't know where to start or overwhelmed because your current work situation is too chaotic to create the time for this, you're not alone. Thousands of CSMs feel exactly the same way. I know what you're thinking: -> You can't afford to stop right now -> You don't have time to make changes -> You only need to weather the storm and things will get better I've been there too. But these are the excuses that are holding you back. Nobody is coming to save you. You need to save yourself. So here's my advice: 🛑 Stop everything 🛑 Book 2 days "OOO" in your calendar. And do these 3 exercises: 1- Create a Calendar Blueprint: Set up a separate calendar from your current one. You'll use this to design a new calendar blueprint for yourself. You should add every single thing you need to do proactively in this calendar, it's the baseline for you to start changing the make-up of your working day. 📆 I'll link the one I designed for CSMs in the comments. 2- Book of Business Review: Do a full review of your customers and place them into one of the 4 buckets of priority. This way you can decide which customers to pay attention to and which ones to de-prioritise at this time. 🧰 Engagement prioritisation framework linked in the comments. 3- Calendar Planning Book or delete meetings based on customers you need to prioritise over the coming 6-8 weeks. Craft unique messages to send to these customers with compelling reasons why they should attend. 🤖 Use the T.A.V.U method I shared in the newsletter a few weeks ago + ChatGPT can help you be efficient here. Do these 3 things and I promise you that you'll: - get better results - transform your work-life - improve your mental health Create the space. 📥 If you're interested in improving your Customer Success skills, consider joining 10k+ CS Professionals who read my weekly newsletter on how to build and scale a CS Team [sign up in the comments section]. #csm #customersuccess #customerexperience #revops #saas

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I did an informal poll on CSM vs Sales commission splits. I was pleasantly shocked to see that over 95% of companies do not have Sales take a commission on renewals unless it’s a particularly challenging one; the AE is there to help with it as a “bounty renewal”. in this case, the AE gets a % but is not taken from the CSM. Other interesting data points: "Commission on upsells and renewal made up 30% of the total compensation package. However, the exact commission % was determined by dividing the 30% by $$$ into the total ARR managed by the CSM." What metrics should this be based on? Most followed this model to Typically, companies that are earlier in their CS maturity will base this off a few leading indicators (adoption milestones, EBRs, etc.), and then move to comping on lagging indicators (retention, expansion, NRR, etc.) once their leading indicator activities have been proven. The following are examples of metrics you can use, not an exhaustive list: Leading: QBRs and/or EBRs (attained vs scheduled) Product adoption milestones (product dependent) Lagging: Net Revenue Retention (NRR) - this is likely the most common Retention Expansion Advocacy (hard to make this scale across large teams and mixed portfolios - this is better as a SPIFF or annual metric to Bonus on) From there, you can determine the weight of each metric on the bonus. I'll give an example using a bonus that is achieved by a renewal retention goal and an NRR goal. Criteria for 100% Bonus Attainment: 90% Renewal Retention (50% weight) 125% Net Revenue Retention (50% weight) "This keeps it pretty simple with two priorities. Retain and Expand Revenue. The Retention goal being assessed separately ensures CSMs don't have significant churn masked by massive upsells. In this example, if a CSM had 85% Retention and 115% NRR, they'd end up at 93.22% to goal for their overall commission/variable comp."

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If a bot came in, could they automate everything I am doing as a CSM? My answer was "yes." That's when I knew I had something I like to call Voiceless CSM Syndrome. It's when you're doing your job as a CSM. - You show up to the client calls - You send those "just checking in" emails - You're overly helpful and say yes to absolutely everything - You stick to the script like reading from slides (word for word) - Your conversations never move post "hi CLIENT, how are things?" - Never push back because their happiness comes first (or don't think you can) - And you never ask for help – you don't want others to know "you can't do your job!" It sounds okay, but you're just going through the motions. You never quite feel like you're making the impact you really wanted to have. I really thought this was a "me" thing but going through this is almost like a rite of passage for many new CSMs. So how do you find your voice? What does that journey look like? Stijn and I sat down to talk about this on his podcast, Your First... And let me tell you, he had me reliving some embarrassing moments from my CSM days 😅 Today, as CS professionals, AI is on our heels while we're still trying to figure out how best to communicate our work and value. We know we're important and we need to fight if we want to stick around – having a voice helps us do that! I highly recommend it if you've ever doubted your skills in CS or felt like you didn't belong. Oh, and if you just want a good laugh—there were plenty of fun moments! I'll leave it in the comment section so you can check it out 👇 #customersuccess #accountmanagement #csm P.S., I forced Stino to take a pic of us on the day we recorded the episode. I spent a considerable amount of time getting ready, thinking it'd be a video/audio recording sort of thing – it turns out it was just audio. So we didn't let all that preparation go to waste 😂

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🛑 STOP. If you're a Customer Success Manager using a script, it's killing your discovery process. The best discovery comes from developing a genuine understanding for your customer and adapting quickly to understand their priorities and challenges. ➡️ Listen for cues like this: 🚩"We struggle with" 🚩"We use" 🚩"We need to" 🚩"We wish we could" 🚩"Is it possible to" ⬇️ And start uncovering customer needs like this: ✅ "Tell me more about ______" ✅ "Help me understand how you ______" ✅ "How critical is it that you ______?" ✅ "Why do you want to ______?" ✅ "Who is affected by ______?" Soon enough, you'll be strengthening your customer relationships and achieving their desired outcomes more quickly, all because your discovery process was grounded in a true understanding of their problems. 💡 What cues do you listen for, and what questions have helped improve your discovery?

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"It's awesome to see companies are finding solutions for more efficiency - I don't actually find the numbers that crazy." This was the response from one of our HubSpot partners 😍 when I shared the link. 🙀 400% ! I still, find the numbers crazy! I am well aware that we are one of all, as important pieces, of the 🧩. I am BEYOND proud that one of the pieces is thanks to vloxq CPQ , integrated to HubSpot. But most of all, I am SO happy for the journey we have done together with the team of Retriever. With Alexander Mason in the lead, Ludvig Ljungström having perfect control of all details (the devil is in the details, right!) and brilliant Klas Hellqvist. Together we have challenged our self, our colleagues and our systems to work smoothly and efficient. To support the overall goal, and to be user friendly. We, and the setup up, can and will be improved. But for now 400% increased profitability is definitely something to celebrate! Well done team Retriever! You are really role models for working in a efficient way to enable customer centricity 🤸‍♀️ 💸. #efficiency #customercentricity #opex #cpq #hubspot #profitability

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So you've got a meeting no-show problem - folks book time, and then 👻 you. Wonder what you can do to fix that? This question was asked in the RevOps Co-op Slack group recently, Which prompted TONS of awesome recommendations from the #RevOps community. Here are some of the things they said 👇 📌 Have a dedicated Inbound SDR For all no-shows this SDR will call the leads and reschedule the meeting, which reduced no-shows by 60% 📌 Don't let prospects book more than 2 - 3 weeks out If the problem is urgent, they'll want to chat soon anyways. If it's something that can wait more than 3 weeks, it's probably not that important to them. 📌 Engage with the prospect in the days / weeks leading up to the meeting Once a prospect books a meeting with you, engage with - don't be silent until the meeting rolls around. Send them a "pre-demo" video that showcases some main use cases or a piece of content that you know is relevant for them. 📌 Target a 70% show rate Got this benchmark courtesy of the RevOps 🐐 Jeff Ignacio What would you add to this list? PS - Happy Monday y'all ✌️ #revenueoperations #salesops #salesoperations #marketingops #marketingoperations #mops #sdr #salesdevelopment

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Is there a better message than this for a marketer to get? AE Slack message to the marketing team: "I just got off a discovery call for a manufacturing firm. They said they watched the new manufacturing case study. Social proof makes our job much much easier." Woot woot! Sometimes I look at my daily tasks and I get bogged down in the details. Then, you see a message like this and you know. The videos you record matter. The social posts you craft matter. The events and webinars you plan matter. Fellow marketers: keep on crushing it!

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How can RevOps be more strategic? How can we drive more revenue with less resources? Right now, coming off "Growth at All Costs" we're all strained for budget and resources. Meanwhile, it's harder than ever to land and expand customers. What can we do as revenue and operations leaders to better utilize what we have, to build more efficient Revenue Engines? My team and I have spent years thinking about this. Here's a preview. 𝟭. 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝗮𝗹 𝗶𝗻 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱 2. 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗢𝗽𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝟯. 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗢𝗽𝘀 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲: 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 Where do we start? On 𝗠𝗮𝘆 𝟭𝘀𝘁, I'm joining Ben Murray to dive into this. In this webinar, we’ll introduce the: -> 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝗘𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 𝗣𝘆𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗱, a proprietary model designed to measure your company’s operational maturity and identify the most critical bottlenecks hindering growth. We’ll also show you how to: -> Prioritize projects and align your teams towards large strategic goals using a 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗢𝗽𝘀 𝗥𝗼𝗮𝗱𝗺𝗮𝗽. And we'll dive even deeper into a tangible example: -> How to conduct 𝗣𝗶𝗽𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝘀, a process used to spot issues in the sales process and reinforce optimal pipeline management. Register here: https://lnkd.in/e3qqMEaf ✌️

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What's a fair salary for a CSM? Last week Noah Little blew the CS corner of the internet with a hot take that CSMs should be paid like sales reps. Needless to say, when it comes to money, the more the merrier. 🤑 But should CSMs and Sales Reps be paid in the same "structure"? Probably not... Different roles and different tasks, therefore different comp structures. So instead of comparing ourselves to sales, we need to be able to: 1- compare ourselves to the rest of the industry 2- align the comp of the CSM to the revenue it generates That's how we fight for more of the pie. The issue is that if you are in Europe, it's really hard to get good salary data to even start this process. That's why I partnered with some of the top CS brands in Europe to collate a survey that helps us understand our local salary landscape. The report will help: - Leaders design fair and equitable compensation packages - CS Professionals benchmark their offers and salaries Link to answer the survey is in the comments section! #csm #customersuccess #salary #compensation #growthmindset

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RevOps leaders are building their tech stacks around tools they are confident can scale alongside their growing teams (and complexities). Today QuotaPath has released a series of features that position us as the most adaptable commission software for high growth teams with complex compensation problems. I use QuotaPath constantly (a fun perk of the job), and we are constantly listening to our customers and evolving QuotaPath to address their biggest pain points. Features like a first-of-its-kind Mapping Manager that allows users to build data logic once in a template, save it, and re-use it anytime they need to add a new comp plan and connect to its data source. (A massive time saver.) Our Manager Plans and Dynamic Team Assignments are designed to seamlessly support the shifts that occur when reps transition between teams. These features ensure that your compensation plans stay aligned with your evolving team structure. And a new multi-level approval process promises that by the time Finance gives its final sign-off on commission earnings, reps and sales leadership have already seen and approved their earnings, streamlining the payout process while giving reps more ownership over their commissions. Congrats to our team and thank to every customer who has contributed to QuotaPath’s evolution. 

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Product managers - do you sit in on sales calls? You'll hear things that shock you: * Statements the salesperson makes about your product that aren't accurate. * Obvious questions they fail to ask. * Objections they fumble, even though we have good answers. You'll hear things that amaze you: * The masterful way the salesperson handles a particular objection. * A new way of articulating the value the prospect will get from your solution. * A question that cuts to the heart of what the prospect is looking for and why our solution is perfect for them. * Questions and objections from the prospect that you hadn't heard before. You don't have to go on many sales calls to start seeing patterns. Ground rules * Always be respectful of the salesperson. * Never contradict them during the meeting. * Be available to answer a technical question if the salesperson is open to it. (Let them lead, though.) Follow up A mature salesperson will ask for feedback. You can give them ONE critique, sandwiched between positive observations. * I loved the way you handled that objection about X. * Now, when it comes to Y, we could improve the story for you by saying A, B, C. * Your question about Z cut to the heart of the prospect's problem! Compile your observations and insights over several sales calls. Set up a meeting with sales management to share them. Add your observations and insights and suggested responses into your Minimum Viable Product Knowledge Package. (Not sure what the Minimum Viable Product Knowledge Package is? See the comments for a link where I describe it in more detail.) If you do this over time, you will build a reputation as a trusted ally for Sales. And you'll be helping them make quota! * They trust that you will be a good citizen on sales calls * They trust that you will give them useful feedback. * And that sometimes you will be able to help them move a sale along. #productmanagement #salesenablement #gotomarket #productmarketing #sales

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Stop. Trying. To. Solve. Problems. With. People. Alone. In the fast-moving, always be delivering more demands of SaaS, scaling your customer success isn't just an option. You can’t afford NOT to scale your customer touch and retention playbooks. If you aren’t connecting with every one of your customers, if you don’t offer a fantastic customer experience, you WILL be replaced. Scalability empowers you to meet the growing demands of your customer base without compromising quality or efficiency. Building a scalable customer success strategy requires building a playbook that supports the fast-paced world we live in while delivering value at every step of the customer journey. Let's empower our success teams to scale while remembering they are not machines, they are human beings who can do so much more with the right systems, processes, and strategies. Do you want the impossible from your teams? You have to earn that by being the leader they need and investing in the technology and strategy to support them. #CustomerSuccess #Scalability #SaaS #TouchEconomy #Innovation #CSdoneright #customerexperience #CX

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