1.
How and When to Hire a VP
of Customer Success
January 15, 2015

2.
Housekeeping
• Q&A panel on your right
• Recording for colleagues who can’t make it
• All attendees will receive slides
• Twitter hashtag #customersuccess

3.
Our Speakers
Nick Mehta
CEO
@nrmehta
Tomasz Tunguz
Partner
@ttunguz
Monica Adractas
VP, Customer Success and Retention

4.
On Your Mind?
• Timing
• Why do I need to invest in Customer Success this year?
• When should I bring in a leader of Customer Success?
• What do my CEO and board think?
• Hiring
• How does Customer Success fit into my organization?
• What does Customer Success own?
• Where do I find a leader with the skills my company needs?
• Preparing
• What do I need to know about Customer Success?
• What do I have to keep in mind about transitioning?
• How do I evaluate roles and employers?

5.
Timing

6.
Advocacy Reduces CAC
Customer Success is a
powerful growth
mechanism

7.
Customer Success Reduces CAC

8.
Retention Affects The Top Line
Hypothetical SaaS Co
$50k in MRR
50 customers at $1k ARR
each
$1250 in CAC, Sales
Efficiency of 0.8
Growing 15% m/m

9.
Retention Lowers Costs

10.
CSM Drives Greater Share-of-Revenue
• Customers use more of a
product over time
• CSM teams help customers
adopt and expand

11.
The Whole Company Benefits
Product feedback Marketing relationships

12.
Economics For Your Investment
• Compare CLTV to
your growth trajectory
• Is it less expensive to
retain or replace your
typical customer?

13.
CSM Improves CLTV
• Model expected
benefits
• Include organization
change needed for full
effects

14.
Protect Against Bad Outcomes
• Don’t just invest in
technology
• Hire a leader

15.
Hiring

16.
Revenue
SuccessMaturity
Adoption
Retention
Expansion
Optimization
Transformation
$1 - $5 MM
$5 - $20 MM
$20 - $100 MM
$100 MM - $1 B
$1 B+
Gainsight CSM Maturity Model

17.
Revenue
SuccessMaturity
Manager or
Director of
Customer
Success
VP of
Customer
Success
SVP of
Customer
Success or
CRO
CCO
CCO Reporting
to President or
COO
Who Owns Customer Success?

18.
Revenue
SuccessMaturity
CSM
Onboarding
Operations
Support
Renewals?
Customer
Marketing?
Training
Advisory
Pre-sales?
PMO
Managed
Services
Domain
Experts
Architects
Who Falls Into CSM?

19.
Sales-
oriented
Support-
oriented
Services-
oriented
Product-
oriented
• Low ACV OR
• High cross-sell / up-sell
• Complex deployment OR
• Naturally sticky
• Low ACV OR
• Non-tech user
• Low ACV OR
• Tech savvy user
What Background Fits?

20.
People Analysis
ActionThought
What Personality Fits?

21.
How Do I Find A Unicorn?

22.
Enlist A Recruiter

23.
What Should I Ask My Candidates?
• How do you define Customer Success?
• Whom do you admire in Customer Success?
• How should I measure you in this job?
• How will you track your team’s performance?
• What do you look for in team members?
• What will you do with the 25th hour of the day?
• Tell me about your toughest customer situation

24.
How Can I Test?
• Mock board meeting
• Mock QBR presentation
• Call one of their clients

25.
What Should My Job Description Look Like?
www.gainsight.com/job-description

26.
How Can I Sell?
• Importance to business model
• Customer commitment
• Org-wide customer culture
• Support from product
• Support from sales
• Investment (systems, training, comp)
• Career growth

27.
Preparing

28.
Background
Strategy
Operations
Prior Experience

29.
What I looked for in an opportunity
 Company vision, future prospects, and leadership
 A customer-back mindset
 Ability to have impact (company readiness to invest / change)
 Culture
 Specifics: role, comp, career trajectory

30.
Recommendations for Future VPs
1 2
3 4
Define the company stage and complexity
that is right for you
Make sure you *love* the people and culture Spend a *ton* of time listening
Find companies with evidence of a cross-
functional, customer-back mindset

31.
Thank You!
January 15, 2015