Markus Rentsch’s Post

Unpopular opinion: The Customer Success Management of the past decade has failed. It has failed to demonstrate its value to the leadership of >90% (estimate) of SaaS companies. At the time they were supposed to shine brighter than ever before CSMs have been laid off en masse instead. Heck, even entire CSM teams got disbanded. But hey, maybe it's just me who associates the call for profitable, efficient growth with renewals, expansions, upsells, and referrals with CSMs at the forefront. Yes, we can curse the C-suite for not intrinsically understanding the value of CSM but it ain't going to change a thing. It's time to hit the reset button and cut the c***. Every company except the non-profits cares about revenue growth and profit. This is how CSM teams can prove their value. ❌ No more dodging commercial responsibility ❌ No more garbage success metrics ❌ No more guessing and assuming ❌ No more alibi content and services ❌ No more checking in ❌ No more running poor QBRs ❌ No more performing useless activities for the sake of it ❌ No more spamming customer surveys It's time to stop doing more of the same and expecting different results. PS: Join 5.6k+ CS pros and sign up for my weekly newsletter if you like this post --> https://lnkd.in/dtC7MEjP #saas #customersuccess #customervalueledgrowth

CSMs, churn does not go away from treating its symptoms by applying random tactics like - checking in with customers more often - throwing more stuff at them and see what sticks - bribing them with discounts It can only be resolved by uncovering the root causes of why it is happening. At a glance, there are only 2 reasons why customers are leaving A) External ones not under your control  B) Customers did not get enough value As a CSM, it’s your mission to find out where and why #2 is happening. I distinguish between 7 different sources 1. Product shortcomings (Product Management) 2. Stability or usability issues (Engineering) 3. Slow/unsatisfyingly resolved problems (Customer Support) 4. Misguided expectations (Marketing/Sales) 5. Lack of fit (Marketing/Sales) 6. Failed onboarding (Product Management/Customer Success Management) 7. Insufficient customer education, training, and guidance (Customer Success Management) They all prevent customers from achieving their desired outcomes. Run thorough exit interviews and create a report that breaks down churn by its source and share it with the other teams. Don’t forget to send it to your leadership as well because, at the end of the day, they need to hold everyone accountable for resolving their share of churn. PS: Join 5.6k+ CS professionals and sign up for my weekly newsletter if you like this post → https://lnkd.in/dtC7MEjP

A lot of CSM teams have revenue targets now. I believe that it’s not a burden but a great opportunity. A great opportunity to demonstrate the value they bring to the company. The question of “What’s the ROI of CSM?” will get a decisive answer. All they have to do is deliver so much value to customers that they never want to leave and keep buying more resources, features, or products. There’s only one problem Many CSMs don’t know how to do that because that’s not what they have been trained for. They’ve been trained to optimize - product adoption - product usage - customer engagement which is not the same as customers getting value. How do I know? Because a substantial number of customers checking all of these boxes is still churning. Delivering customer value is the result of 1. Discovering customer goals and success metrics, problems and their roots, skills, and knowledge determining their needs for training and education. 2. Building success plans that outline the steps customers need to take to close the gap between their status quo and their desired outcomes. 3. Designing customer education and training programs that help customers excel at their jobs and enable them to solve their problems. 4. Tracking customer progress and following up to ensure they can successfully implement their learnings to the intended outcomes. 5. Benchmarking before and current results to demonstrate the ROI to all stakeholders to ensure they are aware of how much they benefit from working with you. CSM leaders need to close the gap in their team’s skills and knowledge. PS: Join 5.5k+ CSMs and sign up for my weekly newsletter if you like this post --> https://lnkd.in/dtC7MEjP

All growth in SaaS is Customer Value-led. It does not matter whether companies follow Product-, Sales- or Marketing-led sales motions. The SaaS business model is built on recurring revenue and recurring revenue requires delivering recurring value to customers. If your customers don’t get enough value they will stop paying for your product. Plain and simple. Here are the 18 principles of CVLG to unlock your full growth potential. 1. Customer Discovery - Measurable goals: Defining what value means to customers and how it is measured - Thorough problem comprehension: Understanding what keeps your customers from achieving their goals - Customer competence assessment: Customers don’t start from the same level in terms of skills and knowledge and require different inputs 2. Success Planning Customer journey predictability: Breaking down the performance gap into actionable steps  Tailored solutions: Customer Success plans must be built on the insights from the discovery Practicability: Customer Success plans must be comprehensive and actionable 3. Education and training - Outcome-focused: Every service and piece of content must be built with a clear goal in mind - Building excellence: The limiting factor for your customers’ success is their skills and knowledge, not their product knowledge - Scaling proven frameworks: Automate processes and activities only if the manual version has a high success rate Learn more in these 2 episodes of my weekly newsletter --> Part I: https://lnkd.in/eqDvHzfv Part II: https://lnkd.in/eUtYCuvv

7 bad habits that will keep CSMs poor in 2024: 1. Lack of discovery If you don't understand your customers' needs you can't help them achieve their goals. If they fail, they will churn and the value of your customer portfolio is shrinking. The hand-off you get from sales is not the end of the discovery. It's where yours starts. 2. Not tracking customer results. It's astonishing how many CSMs are surprised when customers churn. If it happens, aside from external reasons, your risk management has failed. You need to spot customers leaving the success path, not trying to save them last minute with discounts. 3. Spending time with the wrong customers Trying to help all your customers become successful is a noble attitude. But some of them are simply not meant to be. You are wasting your time trying to fix them. The time you could spend on growing your top customers. 4. Repeating redundant work Customer success is not performing as many tasks as possible. It's about delivering value with every interaction. Too few CSMs measure what works, what does not and why. They keep repeating redundant work with zero impact. 5. Not following up Do you know what your customers do when you are not in the (virtual) room? Schedule frequent follow-ups with your customers to ensure they are progressing as projected and correct the course asap if they are not. 6. Not asking for referrals You have helped your customers to achieve their business and personal goals. Thanks to you they are growing their business, getting raises and promotions, etc. You have more than earned the right to ask for referrals and you need to go for it. 7. Not demonstrating value Never count on your leadership being aware of the value you bring to the company. Create a report that outlines the revenue - at risk you saved - you recovered from churn - you created from expansions and upsells - you sourced through referrals and present it to the leadership at the opportunity. The more value you (visibly) bring to the company, the more you will get paid. This is the way. PS: Join 5.5k+ CS professionals and sign up for my weekly newsletter if you like this post --> https://lnkd.in/dtC7MEjP

High-paid CSMs are delivering value with (almost) every interaction. They don’t waste their customers’ time with ❌ sending 30 articles that could possibly help ❌ irrelevant case studies ❌ webinars that don’t fit their use case ❌ pointless check-in E-mails and calls driving them away until they become non-responsive and eventually churn. Instead, they have it all figured out ✅ Customer needs for training and education ✅ Success plans that direct customers to the fastest way to success ✅ Proven services and content delivering on-point solutions ✅ Following up at the right time to ensure steady progress and lead their customers to the promised land. Remember: The compensation you (can) get is directly correlated to the value you create. The more value you create for your customers the more they will buy. The more revenue you create, the better leverage you'll have to grow your income. Stop guessing and assuming and build high-precision systems that deliver accurately and repeatedly. PS: Join 5.5k+ CSMs and sign up for my weekly newsletter if you like this post → https://lnkd.in/dtC7MEjP

High-paid CSMs are not wasting their precious time all over the place. They are focused on scoring the big points. They don't spend 90% of their time - trying to fix bad-fit customers - checking in with no agenda and goal - firefighting, band-aiding and quick-fixing They spend it on - the customers with the highest success and growth potential - delivering value with every interaction - creating demand for expansions and upsells and collecting referrals There's no badge of honor for being busy. Make every move matter. Focus is a superpower in Customer Success. This is the true meaning of "doing more with less". PS: Join 5.5k+ CS professionals and sign up for my weekly newsletter if you like this post --> https://lnkd.in/dtC7MEjP

CSMs, if you want to get buy-in from your C-suite you need to know what you are up against. It’s not Marketing or Sales, it’s the addiction to instant gratification. Your leadership has been wired to pursue short-term growth for more than a decade. That’s why they have become obsessed with the sales funnel showing them - thousands of leads - hundreds of opportunities - 7 figures of new revenue in the pipeline and even when most turn into nothing it’s still looking sexy in their eyes. That’s why they are still spending 5$ to acquire 1$ in revenue from new acquisitions. CSM is the exact opposite. The only way to rewire your C-suite’s brains is to show them the massive ROI they can get from playing the long game. You need to deliver 10$ (or more) in revenue on every 1$ invested into CSM. This is not an easy thing to do and most CSMs are miles away from it. It requires to stop ❌ relying on guessing and assuming ❌ applying random tactics ❌ doing things for the sake of it ❌ talking about features and functions ❌ tracking metrics you care about ❌ avoiding customer conversations ❌ telling customers what they want to hear and start ✔️ relying on discovery, analytics, and feedback ✔️ building repeatable systems ✔️ delivering value with every interaction ✔️ talking about solutions for problems ✔️ talking about metrics customers care about ✔️ embracing the opportunity to talk to customers ✔️ telling customers what they need to hear to create the results driving your success.  PS: This is what I have built the CSM Operating System for. The only course that will give you the mindset, strategies, and tools to deliver, grow, and monetize customer value. Learn more → https://lnkd.in/gGRSjD_v

The higher the number of customers per CSM, the lower the odds for success. If CSMs have to handle hundreds of customers they are put in reactive mode by design. They are not able to - understand customer problems well enough - build accurate success plans - deliver the right education and training inputs - track progress and detect churn risks in time but spend all their time quick-fixing, band-aiding, and firefighting. Ultimately, customers will leave due to poor results anyway at the cost of CSMs burning out sooner or later. CSM is not a quantity game and it’s not a cost center. The question is not how low can you go in terms of headcounts until your business implodes. It’s to ask how many CSMs you need to maximize customer value and revenue impact in return. Because you can get way more revenue from your existing customers than you can save from lower wages. There’s not an easy formula to find that number, it’s an iterative process with variables like - product complexity - subject complexity - customer level (think beginners vs seasoned professionals) that requires patience. But once you stop overloading your CSMs you’ll see the magic happen. PS: Join 5.5k+ subscribers and sign up for my weekly newsletter if you like this post→ https://lnkd.in/dtC7MEjP

High-paid CSMs don't talk about ❌️ Product usage ❌️ Health scores ❌️ NPS and CSAT ❌️ CES ❌️ "Productivity" to their leadership. They talk about ✅️ Revenue at risk saved ✅️ Churned revenue recovered ✅️ Expansions and Upsells ✅️ Referrals ✅️ Portfolio growth because they understand that is what their C-suite cares about. This is how they can demonstrate their value. Shift the talk and grow from flying under the radar to indispensable. PS: Join 5k+ CS pros and sign up for my newsletter if you like this post --> https://lnkd.in/dtC7MEjP