The document discusses how a customer success team at a company called Leadspace transitioned their approach to better serve "early majority" customers as the company's customer base grew. They shifted focus from product features to business objectives and outcomes. Check-in calls now begin by reviewing progress against customer goals. When objectives are met, successes are celebrated, and struggles are addressed proactively. This outcomes-focused approach led to happier customers, more strategic conversations, and the customer success managers being viewed as trusted advisors.

1. Moving in to Strategic Customer
Success: Getting in front of the 8
Ball

2. About
Me
About
Leadspace
• Sherrod
Patching,
VP
of
Customer
Success
@
Leadspace
• Moved
from
London
to
San
Francisco
3
years
ago
mainly
for
the
weather…
• Love
good
food
and
red
wine
• Had
our
1st
child
in
the
fall
of
last
year
– her
name
is
Olivia
• Our
Vision:
To
use
Predictive
Analytics
to
transform
B2B
Demand
Gen
• Founded
in
2011
by
members
of
Unit
8200
Signals
Intelligence
Group
• Doubled
customer
base
year
over
year
– over
120
customers
today
• Grown
to
75
employees,
based
in
San
Francisco
and
Israel

3. 15
years
running
customer-­‐facing
teams
-­‐ most
recently:
2009: General
Manager
of
a
digital
agency
2011:
Set
up
the
customer
success
function
for
a
well-­‐funded
technology
company
in
London,
and
launching
their
first
post-­‐beta
across
Europe
with
Pepsi
2013:
After
moving
to
the
US,
ran
a
team
of
17
customer
success
managers
and
directors
at
BrightEdge,
with
a
book
of
over
350
customers
2016:
Joined
Leadspace
to
lead
Customer
Success
teams
and
spearhead
the
scaling
of
our
teams
to
support
our
increasing
strategic
customer
base
My Journey in Customer Success

4. • Leadspace
customer
base
is
doubling
in
size
year
over
year.
• Our
initial
management
of
customers
has
been
very
customized,
and
the
customers
we
worked
with
were
more
‘early
adopters’
in
their
way
of
thinking.
• Continued
growth
has
meant
that
a
good
portion
of
our
mid-­‐market
accounts
are
now
more
of
the
‘early
majority’
mindset
Our
Story

5. The
‘Old’
way
of
engaging
with
early
adopters
doesn’t
work
as
you
grow
and
begin
engaging
with
the
early
majority
The
Challenge

6. 1. Business
Goals
&
Objectives!
2. Asking
the
customer
what
is
going
to
drive
the
most
positive
business
impact
for
their
business?
3. A
business
objective
is
not
a
solution
or
product
that
the
customer
wants
to
use.
Use
the
‘5
why’s’
to
get
to
the
need
behind
the
solution.
Where
we
started

7. 4. Restructured
all
calls
to
start
with
progress
against
the
business
objectives.
This
might
be
a
report,
a
dashboard,
or
just
asking.
5. Moved
all
QBRs
(that
usually
happen
before
renewal)
to
EBRs.
The
main
focus
of
these
became
progress
against
business
objectives,
making
our
champion
look
like
a
‘superhero’
when
at
all
possible.
Along
The
Way

8. 1. It
takes
some
time
to
shift
to
the
‘early
majority’
way
of
thinking,
aligning
all
conversations
with
actual
business
impact.
Providing
a
list
of
questions
and
joining
calls
to
model
asking
these
questions
for
the
team
made
a
significant
difference.
2. Customers
can
be
guarded
with
information
on
their
business;
educate
them
on
WHY
you
are
looking
to
have
these
conversations
3. Not
all
customers
need
to
know
about
all
features.
Be
strategic
in
what
you
guide
and
introduce
a
customer
to;
make
sure
it
aligns
with
their
objectives.
What
We
Learned

9. • Product
solutions
aligned
to
business
outcomes;
what
they
are
using
becomes
backseat
to
‘is
it
working?’.
• Every
check-­‐in
call
with
the
customer
begins
with
review
on
progress
against
business
objectives
• When
objectives
are
being
met
– great!!
We
celebrate
these
wins
and
use
them
as
the
foundation
for
great
EBR
decks
that
will
made
ourPOC
look
like
a
superhero,
creating
a
champion
• When
the
customer
is
not
seeing
improvements,
we’d
dig
in
immediately!
Brainstorm
with
the
wider
team
on
the
use
case
and
what
has
worked
for
others
to
come
to
creative
solutions
for
your
customer.
What
Drove
Impact

10. • More
happy
customers!
• Check-­‐in
calls
moved
from
‘touch-­‐bases’
to
strategic
conversations
• EBRs
moved
from
usage-­‐based
to
metrics-­‐driven
• Clear
shift
from
reactive
to
proactive
trouble-­‐shooting
in
accounts
• CSMs
became
viewed
as
trusted
advisors
The
Outcome

11. 1. Crossed
the
chasm?
These
early
majority
customers
choose
to
partner
with
you
because
they
have
a
business
pain,
not
because
they
want
to
learn
a
new
technology
2. The
most
important
information
you
can
get
from
your
customer
is
a
clear
understanding
of
their
business
objectives,
and
what
‘good’
looks
like.
3. Don’t
wait
for
a
business
review;
every
check-­‐in
call
with
a
customer
should
lead
with
a
review
of
progress
against
their
goals.
This
might
be
analytics
or
even
just
simply
asking
4. Record
everything!
Use
a
customer
success
platform
to
memorialize
the
goals
of
your
customer
and
the
progress
against
these
goals.
married
with
key
indicators
Key
Takeaways

12. Q&A