CEOs have a lot on their plates. They’re ultimately responsible for staffing their org, casting the vision for the product, and owning revenue, growth, and fundraising. A CEO’s day is full enough without adding another initiative to take personal interest in—unless that initiative is intrinsically linked to success or failure of the company. If you’re a CEO, this session will convince you to care about Customer Success. If you’re not a CEO, you’ll have all the tools, metrics, and arguments you need to make the case.

1. ©2017 Gainsight.
WHY CEOs SHOULD CARE
ABOUT CUSTOMER SUCCESS
NICK MEHTA
CEO
Gainsight
CHARLES ATKINS
Associate Partner
McKinsey & Company
®2017 Gainsight.
ALLISON PICKENS
CCO
Gainsight

2. ©2017 Gainsight.
Agenda
1. Previous vs. Current Imperative
2. Leaders & Investors Weigh In
3. It Pays to Own Customer Success
4. How: The Helix Model
5. Discussion: Implementation

3. ©2017 Gainsight.®2017 Gainsight.
PREVIOUS vs. CURRENT IMPERATIVE

4. ©2017 Gainsight.
Diffusion of CS Ownership
CEOApproachtoCS
Recruiting CS
leader
Delegating core
functions
Empowering leader
with resources

5. ©2017 Gainsight.
The Best Approach: CEO Ownership
CEOApproachtoCS
Recruiting CS
leader
Delegating core
functions
Empowering leader
with resources
CEO’s Personal
Ownership over
Customer
Success
Company-
wide
Transformation
Successful
Business
Growth

6. ©2017 Gainsight.
Customer Success is Your New Customer Differentiation
• Ability to cost-
effectively build
differentiated
products
Previously:
Product
• Ability to cost-
effectively reach
customers with
your products
Previously:
Sales
• Product differentiation is
decreasing rapidly as the cost
to build things declines
Today:
Product
• Sales differentiation decreases
as customers become more
empowered and informed & as
business models shift risk from
buyers to sellers
Today:
Sales

7. ©2017 Gainsight.®2017 Gainsight.
LEADERS & INVESTORS WEIGH IN

8. ©2017 Gainsight.
Many C-level Influencers are Writing about CS
• McKinsey recently wrote about Customer Success
being a key to growth strategies.
• Gartner recently published about Customer Success
being a core part of a Customer Experience strategy.
• Forrester commented that “Customer Success
Management Is The Key To Outstanding B2B
Customer Experiences.”

9. ©2017 Gainsight.
Your Investors Are Onto This
Analysis by Saas Capital

10. ©2017 Gainsight.
Investors Know that CS is a Core Part of Business Models
Higher Shareholder
Valuations
• Lincoln Murphy - roundup of how all
of this adds up to higher shareholder
valuations.
VC’s View of CS
• OpenView Ventures - summary of
how Venture Capitalists look at
Customer Success as a part of
diligence.
• Investment bank Pacific Crest -
roundup of all of the ways public
companies report retention rates.

11. ©2017 Gainsight.
Investors Seek More CS Expertise
More Than Net
Retention
• Trying to dive deeper
than just "net
retention"
Cohort-based
Metrics
• Looking at more than
just aggregate metrics
Profitability and
Cash Flow
• Realizing that
incremental operating
profit from retention
and upsell is much
higher than that from
new business

12. ©2017 Gainsight.®2017 Gainsight.
IT PAYS TO OWN CUSTOMER SUCCESS

13. ©2017 Gainsight.
CS is Inherently Cross-Functional
• Customer Success opportunity is much bigger than one person’s
domain.
• Customer Success, when approached strategically, reimagines the way
companies think about product development, marketing, sales, and
other functions.
• The best company-wide transformations bring all of the stakeholders
together around Customer Success.

14. ©2017 Gainsight.
CS is Inherently Cross-Functional
Marketing
• Ideal customer
• Nurture toward adoption,
expansion, and retention
Sales
• Upsell and cross-sell
• Maximize renewal rates and
pricing power
• Sell with more authenticity
Channel
• Role
• Incentivizing and enabling
investment
• Data sources
Services
• Onboarding toward value
• "For fee" vs. "For free"
Support
• Scaling
• Context and Prioritization
IT
• Data
• Business processes
• System alignment

15. ©2017 Gainsight.
It Pays to Own CS

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HOW: THE HELIX MODEL

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Discussion: The Helix Model
Customer Success
Sales
Land / Expand

18. ©2017 Gainsight.
Revenue Growth in the Helix with Gainsight
1. Lead
Enable and Incent Post-Sales
Team to Create Leads
2. Opportunity
Put Healthy References In
Front of Sellers In Real-time
3. Close
Capture Desired Client
Outcomes at Deal Closure
4. Onboarding
Survey Customer 30 Days After Sale
and Incent Rep On Answer
5. EBR
Crush Your EBR With A Success Plan,
White Space, and Killer Deck
6. Expansion
Jump on Good Moments When
They Happen to Drive Up-sell
7. Renewal
Get Ahead of Sponsor Risk
8. Automate
Get More High Quality Time By
Automating Low Value Tasks
9. Bonus
Scale Customer Success
By Making It Virtual
Cockpit
NameDrop
Success
Plans
Surveys
Success
Plans
Account
Widget
Sponsor
Tracking
NameDrop,
Widgets, etc.
NameDrop,
Surveys,
CoPilot,
Success
Plans, C360

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DISCUSSION: IMPLEMENTATION

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How can I implement these ideas?
Cross-functional discussion and/or Success Briefing
Journey Health Score Charters

21. ©2017 Gainsight.
THANK YOU
®2017 Gainsight.