Jennifer Schmidt

Curious on peoples thoughts on the current B2B SaaS market. One shift I have noticed is a lot of companies are being extremely critical on software spend. I feel like if you are not a must have software more than likely they customer will churn or you will need to justify how you are directly bringing profit to that company. Given that it feels that CS roles are more crucial than ever. It is extremely important that your team is not just showing metrics but the metrics are more important that they are focused on what revenue return is happening with your software. How is your team handling these conversations? Have you set them up for success? Are they having to run around the organization to gather key data metrics or have you created a system for your CSM's to quickly gather the data they need so they are spending more time with customers versus admin work. Just trying to stir up some good CS convos. If people are aligned with my thoughts above then why are there so many CS layoffs happening.

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Great insights Kyle. I believe selling to the right customer is key: 1️⃣ Sell to the right customer. 2️⃣ Nail onboarding. 3️⃣ Stop overselling on the 1st deal. 4️⃣ Market to your customers. 5️⃣ Set up integrations. 6️⃣ Solve more problems. 7️⃣ Give yourself more time. #CustomerSuccess

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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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Nick Mehta says we might consider moving #CustomerSuccess execs under sales and the CRO to consolidate the customer experience. Maybe there is another group to move? What if we moved #Product execs under the CRO as well? #CS #CRO #sales #Product

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Onsite demo coming up? Do this before you demo (literally none of your competitors are): Most sellers start the meeting with a few slides. Typically covering: • Key priorities • Current state • Risks/Consequences • Ideal or Desired Outcomes I agree that this is a great place to start. But - if "most" sellers do this, how will you stand out? Give this a try: Before the meeting - Take the slide that lists the above. Practice creating a Whiteboard presentation using: • Simple icons • Shorthand writing • Colors (color psychology) Key priorities - Blue Current state - Black Risks/Consequences - Red Ideal or Desired Outcomes - Green Now when you're onsite - let your SC get set up. Walk up to the WB and kick off the meeting from there. There's a very high likelihood: • Your competition didn't do it • Your buyer prefers it over slides • Your story will be remembered better after If you've never done one and are interested in an example... I get the honor of recreating 5x P-Club winner Brian LaManna 's kick-off slide into a whiteboard version this weekend. He doesn't need the help - but I had fun doing it. If you care to check it out - I'll drop the newsletter in the comments.

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