Impact Show

Impact Academy 2-Week Retention program for CSMs and Heads of CS starts on September 25, 2023. Learn more and sign-up here.

ON TODAY'S EPISODE:

Net Revenue Retention (NRR) is unarguably a highly important metric but is it the main KPI for a Customer Success Manager? And if so, how do you track progress and make sure your actions influence NRR? In this episode of Impact Weekly, Johan and Lincoln will unwrap Net Revenue Retention and give practical advice on rollup metrics, prioritization and how to make sure you maximize NRR for your customers.

THIS WEEKS QUESTION:
“Is NRR the main KPI for a CSM?”

TOPICS BEING ADDRESSED:
* The definition of NRR and the rollup metrics
* The rule of 15 for prioritization
* What most people miss with NRR - that make all the difference

QUOTES:
Lincoln Murphy (03:52): “Well, really, the primary reason why companies look at NRR is that its an indicator of whether your business is shrinking or growing”

Lincoln Murphy (05:29):” In fact, you know, why is your company investing in customer success? They're investing in customer success because it's the most efficient way to drive NRR and NRR drives company valuation. So it's pretty important stuff.”

Lincoln Murphy (11:30): “If you're giving a discount to a customer to stay and they're not actually gonna be successful, you may just be prolonging the inevitable. So whatever you do, you want to follow up with a success plan to get them back on track.”

Lincoln Murphy (11:46): “[The rule of fifteens] is something that you can kind of take a quick look at what's going on and as a head of customer success on an org level, we can look at our entire customer base.”

Lincoln Murphy (14:15): “[Contraction/Downgrades usually happen because of things that occur earlier in the life cycle. Oftentimes we can track contraction back to onboarding.”

Lincoln Murphy (15:42): “[...] it's not about trying to do anything at the last minute to save them and. It's about making them successful all along the way.”

Lincoln Murphy (17:08): “Everything seemed to be going well by all accounts. And then you realize that their goals had changed. You didn't sync up with them on those goals.”

Johan Nilsson (17:59): “That's why it's good to focus on contraction cases.[..] Because you cannot just only reduce the actual contraction, but you can even turn it around to an expansion opportunity.”

Lincoln Murphy (20:36): “If you focus on making your customer successful, and that's helping them achieve their desired outcome, and giving them their appropriate experience along the way, your customer will tend to stay longer, increase their spend and maybe even advocate for you.”

Do you want more of this? Check out Impact Academy for interactive Customer Success training programs. https://www.impactdemy.com/

Do you have a question you want us to answer? Submit it here.

ON TODAY'S EPISODE:
Johan and Lincoln tackle a pressing concern for Heads of Customer Success and Customer Success Managers: Why high usage doesn't equate to customer success. They explore the "Usage Trap" and introduce the concept of Success Gaps as a way to understand and act on customer goals effectively.

THIS WEEK'S QUESTION:
“My customers are frequent users of our platform, but my numbers are not what I want when it comes to churn, contraction, as well as expansion. What can I do here?”

TOPICS BEING ADDRESSED:

• The critical difference between high usage and actual customer success
• Understanding the concept of "Success Gaps" and why they matter
• How to identify and act upon customer goals for meaningful progress

QUOTES:
Lincoln Murphy (05:22): “High usage without context is like driving with a blindfold.”

Johan Nilsson (10:48): “Ignoring Success Gaps is like filling a leaky bucket; it'll run dry eventually."

Lincoln Murphy (15:05): “Understanding customer goals isn't a luxury; it's a necessity for scalable success.”

Johan Nilsson (21:37): “If you're not aligning with customer goals, you're just hoping things work out."

Lincoln Murphy (28:55): “Usage metrics can be smoke and mirrors; look for signs of real value.”

Do you want more of this? Check out Impact Academy for interactive Customer Success training programs. https://www.impactdemy.com/

Do you have a question you want us to answer? Submit it here.

ON TODAY'S EPISODE:
Scaling your Customer Success team can feel like walking a tightrope between maintaining control and empowering your team. In this illuminating episode, Johan and Lincoln address the challenges and solutions involved in scaling Customer Success teams without losing that personal touch.

THIS WEEK'S QUESTION:
"As head of CS I have always been very integrated with my small team and could see the progress we made with customers. As we are now growing, I feel I’m losing touch with my team and my customers. Do you have any advice for me?”

TOPICS BEING ADDRESSED:

• Identifying and working with customer life cycle stages for effective scaling
• The role of capacity planning and metrics in Customer Success management
• How leadership, management, and coaching harmonize for successful scaling

QUOTES:
Lincoln Murphy (05:42): "Confidence and competence: The twin engines of scaling customer success."

Johan Nilsson (12:31): "You're not just a manager, you're a coach. There's a difference."

Lincoln Murphy (16:08): "Uncovering gaps isn't failure; it's the roadmap to success."

Lincoln Murphy (20:47): "If you're the bottleneck, your business can't breathe."

Johan Nilsson (27:05): "Leadership isn't about control, it's about empowering control in others."

Do you want more of this? Check out Impact Academy for interactive Customer Success training programs. https://www.impactdemy.com/

Do you have a question you want us to answer? Submit it here.

ON TODAY'S EPISODE:
Keeping up with ever-evolving customer goals can feel like chasing a moving target. In this week's episode of Impact Weekly, Johan and Lincoln unravel the mystery behind continuous goal alignment. They break down strategies for understanding, tracking, and staying in sync with customer goals, offering critical insights on joint accountability, maintaining customer relationships, and driving long-term success.

THIS WEEK'S QUESTION:
“I know Goal Discovery is important but how often should I update the goals with the customer?”

TOPICS BEING ADDRESSED:

• The psychology of “because” in communication and how it improves customer cooperation
• The importance of reminders and joint accountability in maintaining alignment with customer goals
• Strategies for integrating goal discussions naturally into customer interactions and adapting to changing objectives

QUOTES:
Lincoln Murphy: “If I don't know what's going on with you, I can't help you achieve your goals. Joint accountability is key.”

Johan Nilsson: “Customers are happy to update you, but they need reminders. Make it part of your routine to stay in sync.”

Lincoln Murphy: “You can't become super attached to achieving goals, sometimes things change. Adaptation is part of success.”

Johan Nilsson: “Discussion around goals needs to be natural. It's not a one-time thing; it's a continuous dialogue.”

Lincoln Murphy: “Look for triggers and milestones that might affect the customer's ability to achieve their goals. Be proactive.”

Do you want more of this? Check out Impact Academy for interactive Customer Success training programs. https://www.impactdemy.com/

Do you have a question you want us to answer? Submit it here.

Join Impact Academy's Success Plan program starting August 21, 2023!
Learn more and sign-up here.

ON TODAY'S EPISODE:
Balancing goal discovery with time constraints is a common challenge for CSMs and Heads of Customer Success. In this week’s episode of Impact Weekly, Johan and Lincoln explore the importance of goal discovery, how to prioritize it among daily tasks, and how to equip CSMs with the necessary skills to ensure success.

THIS WEEK'S QUESTION:
“Goal discovery makes total sense to me. But, practically speaking, at what level (user, exec sponsor, etc.) should I be having these conversations and how am I supposed to make time to do this with 40+ clients? Help!”

TOPICS BEING ADDRESSED:

• The importance of goal discovery in customer success and the challenges of finding time for it
• How to build goal discovery as a competence and incorporate it into daily routines
• The role of leadership in coaching and encouraging CSMs to perform goal discovery

QUOTES:
Lincoln Murphy (00:27:00): “You have to be deliberate and prioritize the important things or they will sort of naturally be pushed aside by less important, but more seemingly urgent things. So you have to control for this.”

Johan Nilsson (00:29:00): “Customers always have goals. And to do this, to work with customers and to manage goals, there are two key skills that you need as a customer success manager, goal discovery and objection breakthrough.”

Lincoln Murphy (00:28:00): “We want to make sure that heads of customer success are focused on high priority, important things as well, and aren't falling into the trap of managing CSMs on the urgent, unimportant things, right?”

Johan Nilsson (00:29:30): “It might seem, if you haven't done this before, like a huge task, but we've seen this so many times that when you start working this way, it becomes practice basically. And you will be able to fit it in, in your schedule, but of course you have to prioritize it.”

Lincoln Murphy (00:26:00): “So it's not about finding time. It's about shifting priorities.”

Do you want more of this? Check out Impact Academy for interactive Customer Success training programs. https://www.impactdemy.com/

Do you have a question you want us to answer? Submit it here.

ON TODAY'S EPISODE:
Johan and Lincoln delve deep into the intricate relationship between Sales and Customer Success. They highlight the pitfalls of working in silos and shed light on how to build a more cohesive, collaborative approach. Tune in to uncover practical strategies and actionable insights that can help bridge the divide and pave the way for a smoother customer journey.

THIS WEEK’S QUESTION:
“We are very siloed in our work between CS and Sales, no one's fault really, but do you have any tips on how we can be more aligned?”

TOPICS BEING ADDRESSED:

• The strategic importance of executive down alignment for cohesion between Sales and Customer Success.
• Communication strategies to ensure Sales is updated on the intricacies of the onboarding process.
• The immense benefits and necessities of a comprehensive handover process between the two teams.

QUOTES:
Lincoln Murphy (20:25): “The best salespeople go into every situation, hoping that that customer will be a reference for them to help bring in future customers.”

Lincoln Murphy (21:45): “We know that customers hate three things: surprises, unknowns, and repeating themselves.”

Lincoln Murphy (22:30): “Salespeople, they work a deal, they close the deal, they're onto the next deal. They don't want to have to deal with an angry customer.”

Johan Nilsson (23:50): “Sales can help you as well, but they need to understand the process as well, the real process.”

Johan Nilsson (24:20): “Especially when you grow a lot and when you add a lot of new people, sales don't think too much about onboarding either. But it's really important.”

Do you want more of this? Check out Impact Academy for interactive Customer Success training programs. https://www.impactdemy.com/

Do you have a question you want us to answer? Submit it here.

ON TODAY'S EPISODE:
In this insightful episode of Impact Weekly, Lincoln delves deep into the challenges of convincing customers to take actions they don't initially want to do. Drawing parallels from a broad range of scenarios, from accounting to pediatric neurosurgery, Lincoln illustrates the human element in customer success management and demonstrates how understanding your customer can make a world of difference in driving successful engagement.

THIS WEEKS QUESTION:
“How can CSMs effectively drive product adoption and engagement for solutions that address necessary, but unattractive tasks without resorting to things like scare tactics?"

TOPICS BEING ADDRESSED:

• Recognizing and empathizing with the human factor in customer success.
• The importance of laying out a structured plan for customers.
• Why involving the execution team early can lead to better results.
• Re-framing 'difficult' conversations to improve outcomes.

QUOTES:
Lincoln (06:34): “If they feel heard, if they feel seen, they're much more likely to do what you want them to do.”

Lincoln (12:02): “We've created a plan that will be as least disruptive to your daily work as possible."

Lincoln (17:30): “There's peace in the plan.”

Lincoln (20:38): “So if we can understand psychology, we understand how things work, we can work with that to ensure that our customers are doing what they need to do to be successful."

Lincoln (22:18): “Involve the execution team early in the process, so they have a feeling of ownership and are less likely to feel blindsided and overwhelmed.”

Lincoln (23:40): “No more difficult conversations, they're just conversations. We have to reduce and remove the negative connotations of the most important conversations we can have with our customers.”

Do you want more of this? Check out Impact Academy for interactive Customer Success training programs. https://www.impactdemy.com/

Do you have a question you want us to answer? Submit it here.

ON TODAY'S EPISODE:
In episode 35 of Impact Weekly, Johan and Lincoln take a deep dive into the complex world of partner success within a multi-channel landscape. They discuss the differences and similarities to traditional customer success and offer insights on how to ensure that both the partner's and the end customer's success align perfectly.

THIS WEEK'S QUESTION:
"I'm setting up a partner success, what are the differences and similarities to normal customer success, and what are our recommendations?"

TOPICS BEING ADDRESSED:

• The definition and significance of partner success potential
• The importance of creating a robust partner success plan
• The necessity of understanding and aligning the evolving goals of partners and end customers

QUOTES:
Lincoln Murphy (10:48): “Even in the best scenario, you want to rely as little on other people as you can.”

Lincoln Murphy (11:50): “So to the extent possible, you want to create the playbooks and the processes... the same thing you would do for your CSMs, we want to do for them.”

Johan Nilsson (15:30): “We need to have a partner success plan. And I would say also that this can differ between partners as well.”

Lincoln Murphy (18:30): “If right now you cannot do a lot of enablement for them... that will tell you right now, whether some partners have success potential or not.”

Johan Nilsson (19:45): “Be aware that usually a partner strategy requires quite a lot of enablement to make it successful and be aware that you have those resources and you have that maturity in the company before you launch.”

Do you want more of this? Check out Impact Academy for interactive Customer Success training programs. https://www.impactdemy.com/

Do you have a question you want us to answer? Submit it here.

ON TODAY'S EPISODE:
Discover the potential hidden within your Customer Success Management (CSM) teams. In this week’s episode of Impact Weekly, Johan and Lincoln delve into strategies for customer allocation to CSMs, discussing how thoughtful allocation and capacity planning can optimize the potential of your CSMs and enhance customer success.

Here's a link to the Customer Success survey we mentioned.

THIS WEEK'S QUESTION:
“As a new head of CS, what should I consider when allocating customers to my CSMs?”

TOPICS BEING ADDRESSED:

• The need for CSMs to feel ownership of their customers
• The role of capacity planning in preventing CSM burnout
• The importance of segmenting customers based on their appropriate experience

QUOTES:
Lincoln Murphy (05:48): “If we take a look at the various life cycle stages that the customer goes through, there are going to be and we take into consideration the appropriate experience of the customer.”

Johan Nilsson (11:23): “Get the customer success manager to assume ownership here. And to do that, we need to have the right, we can be thoughtful how we think, look at the customer base and allocate them, but we need to fit it needs to be able to fit it in, into their calendar."

Lincoln Murphy (15:39): “A lot of movement with customer success managers from one company to another is absolutely traced back to what they would cite as burnout."

Lincoln Murphy (17:52): “We have to understand what it's actually going to take in order to help the customer achieve their desired outcome across the entire customer lifecycle.”

Lincoln Murphy (22:43): “You can become a better head of customer success. And if you really want to do that you can just try to put into place what we've talked about today, or you can come to our impact Academy and learn all the details of how to do that.”

Do you want more of this? Check out Impact Academy for interactive Customer Success training programs. https://www.impactdemy.com/

Do you have a question you want us to answer? Submit it here.

ON TODAY'S EPISODE:
This week’s episode of Impact Weekly is the response to a thought-provoking tweet by industry visionary Jason Lemkin. Johan and Lincoln dissect the intricate relationship between ally and nemesis, questioning whether Customer Success has veered off course. Get ready to challenge your assumptions and discover the delicate balance between being an ally and transforming into a nemesis in the realm of customer success."

THIS WEEKS QUESTION:
“I would love to get your view on Jason Lemkin’s assessment that customer success is moving from the customer's ally to its nemesis.”

Read the original post from Jason Lemkin that we are referring to here.

TOPICS BEING ADDRESSED:
* The concept of customer success as an ally versus a nemesis
* Challenges faced by companies in a downturn market and the pressure to increase revenue
* The significance of raising concerns to leadership and seeking a customer-centric approach

QUOTES:
Lincoln Murphy (22:13): “Check yourself before you wreck yourself, are you acting as a nemesis or an ally?”

Lincoln Murphy (25:44): “We need to speak to the numbers. We need to speak to the results.”

Lincoln Murphy (25:56): “Short-term tactics can have long-term consequences”

Johan Nilsson (30:09): “if you're being pushed to the nemesis side of things by your leadership, you need to raise concerns”

Do you want more of this? Check out Impact Academy for interactive Customer Success training programs. https://www.impactdemy.com/

Do you have a question you want us to answer? Submit it here.