Gain Grow Retain

This week, Jeff takes a quick look at the idea that every customer gets a CSM. This belief has resulted in high costs, lower impact, and a mistaken idea that the CSM is the solver of all problems.

Instead, focus on your top revenue generators for 1:1, and look at scaling the rest in an effective and valuable way. Strong self-service is much more valuable than a CSM with a 500-customer book of business with little to no interactions and no additional programs to support their needs.

--

Gain Grow Retain exists to connect people, knowledge, and ideas to advance the state of customer success.

We're on a mission to connect B2B SaaS customer success leaders so that we can learn from one another. Check out more at GainGrowRetain.com! Or follow our GGR LinkedIn page.

GGR was co-founded by Jeff Breunsbach and Jay Nathan - be sure to follow for customer success content.

This weeks' podcast is brought to you by Totango, a GGR Supporter

Scaled CS is a hot topic due to the constraints most organizations are facing, but what does that really mean and how do you do it well?

Chris Dishman, SVP of Customer Success at Totango spends some time with Jeff sharing his insights. Scaling CS doesn't change the focus of CS, it simply looks at ways to make the process of helping customers realize value more efficient, usually with the support of technology.

During the podcast, Chris takes a look at making sure your tech stack is set up well, how to removing the friction your customers face, and using composable customer success to ensure processes are bringing value to the customer.

Connect with Chris

-----

Gain Grow Retain exists to connect people, knowledge, and ideas to advance the state of customer success.

We're on a mission to connect B2B SaaS customer success leaders so that we can learn from one another. Check out more at GainGrowRetain.com! Or follow our GGR LinkedIn page.

GGR was co-founded by Jeff Breunsbach and Jay Nathan - be sure to follow for customer success content.

This week, Jeff takes a quick look at how to help your CSM team manage the increasing pressure they are under: 1:many programs.

Jeff walks you through 5 steps to move quickly into some effective and simple ways to to allow your CSMs to scale where they can so they can focus on what they need to.

--

Gain Grow Retain exists to connect people, knowledge, and ideas to advance the state of customer success.

We're on a mission to connect B2B SaaS customer success leaders so that we can learn from one another. Check out more at GainGrowRetain.com! Or follow our GGR LinkedIn page.

GGR was co-founded by Jeff Breunsbach and Jay Nathan - be sure to follow for customer success content.

Today's episode is sponsored by Totango

This week we are bringing back a 2021 podcast with Wayne McCulloch on the 7 pillars of Customer Success.

Focusing on the fact that it is moments with the customer rather than the customer relationship that is owned, Wayne shares how focusing on those key moments will provide a stronger customer experience.

With some practical examples, Wayne shares how companies who build for success through optimizing processes internally while still focusing on the customer's definition of success create the most impactful experiences.

Connect with Wayne

--

Gain Grow Retain exists to connect people, knowledge, and ideas to advance the state of customer success.

We're on a mission to connect B2B SaaS customer success leaders so that we can learn from one another. Check out more at GainGrowRetain.com! Or follow our GGR LinkedIn page.

GGR was co-founded by Jeff Breunsbach and Jay Nathan - be sure to follow for customer success content.

In this 10-minute trumpet, Jeff Breunsbach shares his views on how CSMs should be preparing for career growth. Instead of the Enterprise-level CSM being the goal, focusing on building scaled CS skills is going to give you the biggest bang for your buck.

How?

• Leveraging a 1:many focus in areas that increase your reach

---

Gain Grow Retain exists to connect people, knowledge, and ideas to advance the state of customer success.

We're on a mission to connect B2B SaaS customer success leaders so that we can learn from one another. Check out more at GainGrowRetain.com! Or follow our GGR LinkedIn page.

GGR was co-founded by Jeff Breunsbach and Jay Nathan - be sure to follow for customer success content.

In this Vault episode from October, 2020, Joe Huber, formerly the Customer Community Strategist at Sprout Social joins Jeff to talk about the impact of community as a part of your organization.

Not only can community provide space for customers to share best practices, create sub-groups based on focus, needs, and company type, share processes and templates, but it brings value to your brand just by providing this space.

Learn the steps necessary to prepare your community launch (or relaunch) for success, all the way through engagement, and finally identifying important metrics in a way that helps move to a 1:many program that supports the work of Customer Success teams.

Connect with Joe

--

Gain Grow Retain exists to connect people, knowledge, and ideas to advance the state of customer success.

We're on a mission to connect B2B SaaS customer success leaders so that we can learn from one another. Check out more at GainGrowRetain.com! Or follow our GGR LinkedIn page.

GGR was co-founded by Jeff Breunsbach and Jay Nathan - be sure to follow for customer success content.

First aired on Leadership Masterclass on June 4, 2023, Jay Nathan joins Subha Shriniivasan to discuss multiple aspects of Customer Success.

From the start of Gain Grow Retain to Jay's thoughts on Customer Success's role in a variety of organizational goals, this episode dives into some of the common questions being asked.

Why do we need CS?

How is CS different from other go-to-market functions?

How can companies drive customer experience to build credibility for new customers?

How do you structure your organization?

Should CSMs become Account Managers?

How should you measure the success of a CS team?

What role does digital CS play?

How should the CS team engage with other teams to tie to value and goals?

Should CS own up-sells and cross-sells?

Will AI replace CS?

Hear Jay's take on each of these topics as he shares practical reasons for his beliefs and steps to move into more effecient and strategic processes.

Original Episode Link

--

Gain Grow Retain exists to connect people, knowledge, and ideas to advance the state of customer success.

We're on a mission to connect B2B SaaS customer success leaders so that we can learn from one another. Check out more at GainGrowRetain.com! Or follow our GGR LinkedIn page.

GGR was co-founded by Jeff Breunsbach and Jay Nathan - be sure to follow for customer success content.

Events are no longer a 'nice to have' for companies. Instead, they are opening the doors to stronger relationships and engaging with customers to become a massive opportunity in a people-first Go-to-Market' plan.

This week, Mark Kilens, CMO at Airmeet joins Jay to talk about how they are using events as a catalyst for understanding and ultimately supporting customers through thoughtful, scalable events that are creating two-way experiences in a fast-moving and dynamic way.

Connect with Mark

--

Gain Grow Retain exists to connect people, knowledge, and ideas to advance the state of customer success.

We're on a mission to connect B2B SaaS customer success leaders so that we can learn from one another. Check out more at GainGrowRetain.com! Or follow our GGR LinkedIn page.

GGR was co-founded by Jeff Breunsbach and Jay Nathan - be sure to follow for customer success content.

This week GGR dusts off another gem from the past, this one from December 4, 2019. 

A strong CS Ops team can make a huge difference within an organization and be a force multiplier for the entire CS team. Jennifer Kirkland (formerly VP of CS Ops and Professional Services at Conversica, currently Executive VP of Client Success at Axero) joins Jeff and Jay to talk about how Jennifer used her account and product management experience to create a process that made a difference and helped the CS team build effective 1:many processes.

How are you using your CS Ops team to increase your team's efficiency and effectiveness?

-----

Gain Grow Retain exists to connect people, knowledge, and ideas to advance the state of customer success.

We're on a mission to connect B2B SaaS customer success leaders so that we can learn from one another. Check out more at GainGrowRetain.com! Or follow our GGR LinkedIn page.

GGR was co-founded by Jeff Breunsbach and Jay Nathan - be sure to follow for customer success content.

Where should renewals live, and why it doesn't really matter...

That's the focus of a conversation between Julie Fox, Senior Manager of CS at FloQast and Jeff Breunsbach this week. Regardless of which department owns the renewal process, it really has to be a team sport, where success is based on the involvement of everyone. 

Customers do not renew (or not) based on single experiences or relationships, so making sure a strong customer experience exists across all departments is going to be important.

Connect with Julie here

-----

Gain Grow Retain exists to connect people, knowledge, and ideas to advance the state of customer success.

We're on a mission to connect B2B SaaS customer success leaders so that we can learn from one another. Check out more at GainGrowRetain.com! Or follow our GGR LinkedIn page.

GGR was co-founded by Jeff Breunsbach and Jay Nathan - be sure to follow for customer success content.