This document discusses the need for companies to shift to a customer-centric model focused on customer success. It recommends (1) charting a clear path for customers to achieve their objectives, (2) establishing a customer-centric operational model aligned to the customer journey, and (3) creating a customer success function to advocate for customers and measure success based on customer metrics. The goal is to align the entire company around helping customers succeed rather than just focusing on sales and profits.

1. Customer Success
2020

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Fundamental Change
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Virtually everything we do is digitally connected
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TRAVEL +
TRANSPORTATION
ENTERTAINMENT FOOD COMMUNICATION SHOPPING

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That was then. This is now.
Retail Store Amazon, InstaCart, Wayfair

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That was then. This is now.
Taxi Uber, Lyft

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That was then.
This is now.
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New Business Models
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The Digital Economy
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Connected Relationships

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In the old world,
this is how we saw it...
+
Deploy, SI’s
Contact Centers
Upgrades to new
versions
+
Sell Deploy & Support
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This is the Customer Journey ...
Time
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Value
$LTV
PROBLEM OBJECTIVE
NEGATIVE TIME
NEGATIVE VALUE
OPTIMIZE
IMPLEMENT TRAINING
TEST
ROLLOUT
MEASURE
PURCHASE

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That was then,
Product (feature, function) Experience (business outcome)
Selling Partnering
Everyone is in Sales Everyone is in Customer Success
$$$ Pay upfront $ Pay as you go / use
Maintenance, warranty for problems Subscription to succeed
Upsell push Usage pull
Vendor success Customer’s business success
Vendor leads Customer is in charge
Support the customer Live with the customer
Tactical, short term Strategic, long term
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this is now

11. New Rules, New Game…
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Customer Rules
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It’s their game…
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Understand their game and
what their definition of winning
is...
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What is Customer
Success?
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Delighting the customer
by fully realizing their
Objectives and
delivering an Exceptional
Experience in doing so.

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Where do we go
from here?
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Align the entire
company around the
Customer‘s path to
success...
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MONETIZE
An Action Plan for Customer Success
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01 02 03 04
Chart the Path for the
Customer to achieve
their Objectives
Move to a
Customer-centric
operational model
Establish a Customer
Success function as the
internal advocate
Align your Business Model
to the Customer’s success
metrics
DESIGN OPERATIONALIZE REPRESENT

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Chart the path for the
customer to achieve
their objectives

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Three key questions
to answer
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What are your Customer’s
Objectives?
• $Revenue
• $Cost savings
• %margin improvement
What metrics will the Customer
use to measure their success
against these goals?
What work must be done for the
customer to fully realize their
Objectives?

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Move to a
Customer-centric
operational model

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Traditional Departmental operational model
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Marketing Sales Delivery Support R&D
• $ Bookings
• Win Rates
• Funnel metrics
• Margin %
• Billability %
• Deploy time
• Ticket rates
• Sev1 rates
• Cogs margin %
• Features
• Bug rates
• SLA %
• $/Lead
• $ CPM
• Accept rate
Corporate
• $ ARR
• $Bookings
• Margin %
Where is the Customer in this???

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Aligning to the Customer Journey...
Time
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Value
$LTV
PROBLEM OBJECTIVE
NEGATIVE TIME
NEGATIVE VALUE
OPTIMIZE
IMPLEMENT TRAINING
TEST
ROLLOUT
MEASURE
PURCHASE
ActivateSelect InnovateScale

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Customer-centric Operational Model
Time
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Value
OLD JOURNEY
ENDED HERE
• Implement
• Train
• Test
• Migrate
SUCCESSFUL
ADOPTION, PROVE
SOLUTION
Activate
• Demonstrate
• Evaluate
• Choose
• Contract
WHAT IS BEST
SOLUTION TO MY
PROBLEM?
Select
• Measure
• Time
• Release
• Train
IMPROVE & EXPAND
VALUE
Innovate
• Measure
• Optimize
• Train
• Rollout
MAXIMIZE ROI &
IMPACT
Scale

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Objectives What is the customer trying to achieve?
Customer Success Metrics What are the top 3 metrics used by the Customer to measure Success?
Company Metrics What are the top metrics used by Company to measure success?
SELECT ACTIVATE SCALE INNOVATE
Metrics 1. Metric 1
2. Metric 2
3. Metric 3
1. Metric 1
2. Metric 2
3. Metric 3
1. Metric 1
2. Metric 2
3. Metric 3
1. Metric 1
2. Metric 2
3. Metric 3
Owner Owner X Owner Y Owner Z Owner X
Methods • Task 1 [DATE]
• Task 2 [DATE]
• Task 3 [DATE]
1. Task 1 [DATE]
2. Task 2 [DATE]
3. Task 3 [DATE]
1. Task 1 [DATE]
2. Task 2 [DATE]
3. Task 3 [DATE]
1. Task 1 [DATE]
2. Task 2 [DATE]
3. Task 3 [DATE]
The SASI Customer Dashboard
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SASI Dashboard, B2B Example
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SELECT ACTIVATE SCALE INNOVATE
Company
metrics
$ pipeline
% funnel
$ ACV
Billability %
service margin %
Partner %
GM %
ARR g %
$ backlog
$ upsell
Churn %
$ pipeline
Customer
metrics
$ TCO
$ ROI case
Payback
$ deploy
bug rates %
TTM (days)
GMV $
# UPT
% Convert
GMV $
ROI $
NPS
Owner COO EVP Services CS SVP EVP Product
Methods • Deployment checklist
(Svcs)
• Reference program
(mktg)
• Test Realms (Product)
• bootcamp (CSM)
• LINK 3P integrations
(Product)
• Deploy templates
(Svcs)
• WalkMe (product)
• Web analytics (product)
• Launch Bootcamp
(CSM)
• UX optimization
(Product)
• Migration tools (Svcs,
Prod)
• VoC (CSM)

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Establish a Customer
Success function

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Guidelines for a
Customer Success
function
Structurally
• Owner of the Customer
Success program
• Report to the CEO
• Fully aligned to customer
objectives, including
compensation
• Serve as Advocate for the
customer
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Customer Success is the
job of every department,
hold them accountable
via SASI
Responsibilities
• Live with the customer,
understand their business
• Serve as primary PoC
• Identify and propagate
Best Practices
• Identify friction points in
the Customer Experience
• Coordinate Voice of the
Customer (VoC) activities

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Align your Business
Model to the
Customer’s success
metrics

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An Aligned Business Model is Win-Win
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Build your business model around the best proxy for the value received by the Customer.
Example Models:
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(Salesforce, Zendesk)(Google Ads)(Demandware,
AMZN)
(Airbnb, Lyft)
Utilization Revenue/GMV $CPC Subscription
Seats

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In Summary
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● Digital disruption has changed the nature of our
Customer relationships
● We need to adapt our Operational Models accordingly
● Customer Success metrics should lead, Business
Metrics should follow
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As long as
we stay attenuated
to the Customer, we’ll
be on the right track.

30. Thank you!