.jpg)
This article explores the power of introducing Customer Success into the sales process and how it can benefit both the sales team and the CS management organization. We will dive into the concept of sharing sales-accelerating customer intelligence, the importance of orchestrated intelligence sharing, and how CS can help sales close more deals, avoid bad-fit customers, tee-up future account expansion, and orchestrate advocacy. Additionally, we will discuss how sales can reciprocate by not acquiring bad-fit customers, managing expectations properly, introducing CS practitioners during the sales cycle, and transferring discovery information.
The Alignment of Customer Success and Sales
Sharing Sales-Accelerating Customer Intelligence
To truly understand the "voice of the customer," it is essential to gather insights directly from the customers themselves. This is where the CS management organization plays a critical role. CS practitioners, who work directly with customers to ensure their success, have unique insights into how customers think, talk about their goals, and utilize the company's product or service to achieve those goals. They possess valuable information about customers' language, culture, and success potential.
During the sales cycle, customers often share information that can be useful not only for ensuring their success but also for mapping out their account for future expansion. Understanding the catalyst that led customers to seek out a solution and their specific goals can help sales teams tailor their approach and identify potential upsell opportunities. By tapping into the customer intelligence gathered by CS, sales teams can accelerate the sales process and position prospects for success once they become customers.
Enrichment: Orchestrated Intelligence Sharing
The best companies understand that the alignment of CS and sales requires more than just hoping for information sharing to happen organically. They proactively orchestrate and operationalize the exchange of intelligence between the two teams. This process, known as enrichment, involves sharing customer insights, successful use cases, and terms and language used by customers with sales, marketing, product, and executive teams.
Enrichment is a strategic activity that empowers other parts of the organization with the treasure trove of customer intelligence. It positions customer insights as a valuable asset and encourages proactive sharing within the company. While sales teams may be less willing to share information initially, CS management must take the first step and demonstrate the value of enrichment. By creating a culture of collaboration and knowledge sharing, companies can leverage customer intelligence to drive new business sales and foster in-account expansion.
How Customer Success Can Help Sales
Closing More Deals this Month or Quarter
One of the primary ways CS can assist sales is by helping them close more deals within a specific timeframe. By providing sales teams with information on good-fit customer characteristics, successful use cases, and customer language, CS enables salespeople to better understand customer needs and tailor their pitches accordingly. This alignment between CS and sales builds trust and credibility with prospects, increasing the likelihood of closing deals.
CS can also play a crucial role in addressing objections and concerns raised by potential customers. By proactively addressing these issues and providing relevant information, CS practitioners can help sales teams overcome objections and move deals forward. This collaboration between CS and sales ensures a customer-centric approach throughout the sales process, resulting in increased conversion rates and faster deal closures.
Avoiding Bad-Fit Customers
Acquiring bad-fit customers can be detrimental to a company's success. These customers may not be able to achieve their desired outcomes, leading to dissatisfaction and potential churn. CS can assist sales by providing insights into characteristics of bad-fit customers and explaining why they may not be the right fit for the company's product or service. By avoiding bad-fit customers, sales teams can focus their efforts on finding customers who are ready, willing, and able to take immediate action, thereby reducing sales cycles and improving overall customer success.
CS can also highlight the potential negative impact of signing bad-fit customers on a company's resources, morale, and reputation in the market. By educating sales teams on the long-term consequences of acquiring bad-fit customers, CS can help salespeople make informed decisions and prioritize customer success over short-term sales goals.
Teeing-Up Future Account Expansion
Account expansion is a vital component of scalable, repeatable growth. CS can tee-up future account expansion opportunities by identifying key success milestones for customers. By communicating these milestones to sales teams, CS enables salespeople to position upsell or cross-sell opportunities at the right time. For example, CS practitioners can inform sales teams that once a customer achieves a specific success milestone, they should discuss additional features or services that would further benefit the customer.
This proactive approach to account expansion not only increases revenue but also strengthens the relationship between the company and its customers. By demonstrating a deep understanding of customers' evolving needs and offering tailored solutions, companies can foster trust and loyalty, leading to long-term partnerships and sustainable growth.
Orchestrating Advocacy
Customer references are invaluable in the sales process. However, constantly relying on the same customer for references can be less than ideal. CS can play a crucial role in orchestrating advocacy by identifying customers who are on a positive success trajectory and have recently achieved a significant milestone. By asking these customers to serve as references, sales teams can leverage their success stories to build credibility and trust with prospects.
In a reciprocal relationship, CS can support sales by providing valuable references, while sales can reciprocate by actively promoting CS initiatives and success stories. This collaboration between CS and sales creates a virtuous cycle of advocacy, where satisfied customers become advocates for the company and generate new business opportunities through referrals and testimonials.
How Sales Can Help Customer Success
Don't Acquire Bad-Fit Customers!
Acquiring customers who are not a good fit for the company's product or service can have severe consequences for customer success. These customers may struggle to achieve their desired outcomes, leading to increased support requests, decreased satisfaction, and ultimately, churn. Sales teams play a pivotal role in ensuring that only good-fit customers are acquired.
Sales should collaborate closely with CS to define characteristics of good and bad-fit customers. By aligning on customer profiles, sales teams can focus their efforts on finding customers who have a high potential for success. This alignment not only improves customer success rates but also enhances the overall reputation and market perception of the company.
Managing Expectations Properly
Properly managing customer expectations is crucial for long-term success. During the sales process, sales teams should clearly communicate what customers can expect in their initial days, weeks, and months as a customer. CS can support sales by providing guidance on setting realistic expectations and explaining the concept of joint accountability, where both the company and the customer have shared responsibilities for achieving success.
Setting clear expectations from the beginning helps prevent misunderstandings and ensures that customers are aware of their role in the partnership. CS can provide valuable insights to sales teams on common challenges faced by customers and how these challenges can be effectively addressed. This collaborative approach between sales and CS promotes transparency, trust, and a positive customer experience.
Introducing CSP During the Sales Cycle
The Customer Success Practitioner (CSP) is a key point of contact for customers throughout their lifecycle. Introducing the CSP early in the sales cycle allows customers to become acquainted with the person who will be guiding them towards success. CSPs possess a deep understanding of the product or service and can ask questions that salespeople may not have considered.
For high-value accounts, it may be beneficial to introduce a second CSP as a backup or to ensure continuity in case the primary CSP is unavailable. This proactive approach to introducing CSPs during the sales process not only reduces time to close but also establishes a strong foundation for the customer's journey.
It is essential that the AE takes the lead in setting up the transition from sales to the CS management organization. This includes joining the initial call, expressing gratitude to the customer, setting expectations, making introductions, and then allowing the CS team to take over. This seamless transition demonstrates a unified approach and reinforces the customer's confidence in the company's ability to deliver on its promises.
Transferring Discovery (Enrichment!)
During the sales process, AEs gather valuable insights into the customer's motivations, goals, and pain points. However, this critical information is often not effectively transferred to the CS team, leading to redundancies, delays, and frustration for the customer. Sales can support CS by ensuring that the discovery information obtained during the sales cycle is transferred seamlessly to the CS team.
Transferring discovery information enables CS practitioners to understand the customer's specific needs and tailor their onboarding and ongoing engagement accordingly. It also prevents customers from having to repeat information they have already shared with the sales team, creating a smoother and more efficient transition from sales to CS. By facilitating the transfer of discovery, sales teams contribute to a positive customer experience and set the stage for long-term success.
