Career development guide for successful account managers

Customer success managers play an important role in promoting growth, improving retention rate and reducing turnover rate.

Companies that regard customer success as practice are developing faster than their competitors. Undoubtedly, the role of customer success manager is the center of this digital transformation.

Customer success is to change SaaS companies by increasing revenue growth, reducing capital requirements and developing better products, so as to retain more customers.

The most successful companies will be those that attach importance to creating a corporate culture and focus on providing customers with scalable value in all operations and processes. Ceos and their business leaders must "pay attention to customer success" and plan and allocate resources appropriately for this functional area in order to maintain their existing customer base and increase their income in the usually uncertain macroeconomic environment.

It is not enough to let customers use your products or services. It is not enough to just let customers log on to the platform. It doesn't matter whether they use your product according to your design. You must use your products or services to make your customers succeed in the whole time-the customer's life cycle.

Investing in customer retention and expansion plans, such as customer success, is essentially an investment to obtain new income more effectively.

Customer success needs to pay attention to those performance indicators that the sales department does not want to see, such as monitoring product usage, checking performance data, tracking customer value and so on. Even if salespeople are asked to do so, they will be driven by material incentives and busy looking for new sales opportunities.

Service departments, they are also not inclined to undertake the responsibility of establishing publicity and trust relationship with customers on a daily basis, because they have the mentality of "fulfilling the list" and are more willing to find new transaction-based services to sell.

As long as the customer retention rate increases by 5%, it is possible for the company to achieve profit growth from 25% to 95%.

With the maturity of the organization, your enterprise will benefit from the growth of four key drivers: improving customer retention rate, customer expansion, increasing customer support and improving inter-team efficiency.

Four stages of customer success and maturity:

Customer success is a business method to ensure that customers achieve the expected results when using your products or services. Successful customer management is a process of actively coordinating and dealing with problems, so that customers can achieve the expected results.

Explained in professional terms, the retention rate refers to the proportion of customers retained in a period of time and related contract income.

The customer success manager is also responsible for building customer loyalty, improving satisfaction, increasing customer publicity, improving product utilization, and promoting growth and expanding income.

The main concern is to generate higher customer retention, revenue growth and improved product use.

Your product development team is busy developing new functions and product optimization, and every time a new product is released, the consumption gap will widen. Customer success managers work in this often fluctuating consumption gap.

When you help customers achieve customer results (CO) and make them understand the value of participating in the whole plan, they will be more eager to renew their fees, expand their purchases and support you.

Customer experience (CX) is an independent field, which can expand happy and satisfied customers.

Customer success is the combination of customer experience and customer expected results.

The horizontal axis (X axis) reflects the impact of delivery results on customer expectations, and the vertical axis (Y axis) shows different degrees of positive experience from the customer's point of view.

Net Recommended Value (NPS) Net Recommended Value is the core measure used by most companies to measure the overall customer satisfaction. It shows the health and loyalty of customers. It is also a leading indicator or forecast of product adoption and growth in the future.

Keeping customers and increasing revenue are the two most important goals of a successful customer team.

Customer success manager activities are active and 20% are passive. If this formula is the opposite in your company, then it is not customer success.

You constantly promote the solution through the results it produces. Your efforts will lead to more business transactions, including renewal, increased purchases, customer recommendations or both.

Customer success manager is one of the most capable people in the world.

This role provides you with a rare opportunity to understand what your customers are thinking and how they use the product. You have a deeper understanding than the marketing, sales, customer support or product departments. In this way, you will become hot inside and outside the company.

For a truly efficient and successful customer success manager, there are many opportunities for growth.

Customer success managers enter various departments-training, marketing, products, analysis, operation, consulting, professional services, human resources, etc.

Skilled people will make great progress, especially where experienced customers and successful professionals are in short supply.

Customer success manager is a rewarding and challenging job, which needs to effectively combine many complex skills and abilities, and also needs a high degree of adaptability.

This is correct. Check your schedule first, not your inbox.

Next, you need to check the to-do list, but still don't check the inbox; Make a list, which should include things postponed a few days ago, events triggered by important dates, such as renewal fees due by customers, upcoming business reports, and other things that need attention today.

When you are assigned to new customers, you need to take some concrete measures immediately before and after your first contact with them.

Update all known customer contacts in the customer relationship management (CRM) system, especially e-mail address, telephone number and current position, and mark them according to their roles, influence or decision-making ability.

According to the known customer contacts, draw the organizational structure and report relationship diagram. In addition, you need to create an influence diagram to show the decision chain structure and connection points of all known customer contacts.

Contact all your customers on LinkedIn. Be sure to send them a simple private letter.

Occasionally like their posts or comments and remind them that you are paying attention to them.

Determine from the sales representative what customers want from your company. What business problems are they trying to solve? What are their expectations for the implementation timetable and measurable results? Finally, you must confirm with the customer whether these goals have been achieved.

Every conversation with customers should be a value discussion, which will help your customers get closer to the results they want. This may include sharing best practices, suggesting strategies for managing change, training customers to understand the functions of existing or new products, or conducting in-depth research on specific business challenges solved with your products.

Customer success plan is a mechanism to capture and track the goals and schedules agreed between you and your customers to ensure progress towards the expected results of your customers.

Regular business reviews can show customers that they are moving towards the same goal as you.

The most important message to convey in a business report is that you are working hard for the return on investment of your customers.

Always be prepared for any meeting you attend, including customer success group meetings. Make sure you are familiar with all internal updates, such as new processes, updated user manuals, new cases or updated best practices.

In addition to evaluating the contract renewal of customers, your next most important internal meeting or action will focus on risk management. The highest risk categories include implementation, customer sentiment, customer support, products, companies and renewal fees.

Realization risk: It is not uncommon for customers to encounter challenges during product realization or training.

There may be an existing customer who has participated in the delivery of the professional service team and wants to implement some additional functions or customized configurations through a formal Statement of Work (SOW). This manual specifies how to implement and configure products and what resources customers and partners need.

Emotional risk: There are two kinds of emotions. The first one reflects the customer's views on your company and products. This is usually recorded in the net recommended value questionnaire. The second reflects the customer's evaluation of the company and products. In the final analysis, the latter is a subjective judgment on the risk of future renewal. At any time, you should be able to answer such a question: "If my customers renew their fees tomorrow, will they be eager and willing to renew their contracts for one year?"

Support risk: Customer support is one of the most important but often underestimated functions in a company.

You should set some critical values in advance, so as to automatically notify you when there is an abnormal situation. For example, there are too many new support work orders submitted in a certain period of time; There are too many unfinished work orders at the same time; Too many work orders with the highest priority or key; Waiting too long for a solution.

Don't mistake "unsupported work order" for something positive. This may be a signal that the customer is completely useless.

Don't just throw it to the backup team. You need to ask colleagues in the support team frequently, such as "What can I do to help speed up the problem solving? Do you want me to contact the production and research team? Do you need me to apply to the leader?

You need to master the ownership of the convening resources through regular communication, so that everyone can participate, but be careful not to do the supporting work yourself.

Product risk: always deal with the R&D team in a true spirit of cooperation.

You need to first consider collecting questions within the customer success team and let the data become your megaphone. If 20 of these 60 questions are related to the same basic function, you can bring this message back to the product R&D team: "These 20 customers (their annual recurring income is 2.8 million US dollars, and the maximum renewal amount this quarter is 6.5438 million US dollars) are at risk because of this frequent product function loss." Then you need to provide some proof of what will happen if this problem is not solved within a certain period of time.

Another important internal meeting is with your direct supervisor. The frequency of meetings should be controlled once a month or once every two months. Although these meetings usually turn into strategic and customer-oriented discussions, you should advocate setting aside a part of time in each communication to discuss your career development needs, career goals, career development trajectory and your position among team members.

The spokesperson program in customers starts from the first day of the customer life cycle, with the aim of building supporters and propagandists among customers.

Learning how to work efficiently is very important for you to become a successful customer success manager. Whether you have 5 customers or 1000 customers, you should use technology and automation platform to extend your service.

Customer success managers are usually with customers every day, helping customers, training customers, guiding and advising customers, and helping customers get value from products.

Customer success managers actually face all aspects of the company-from sales to products, to marketing, to support, to service, to management. That's why I like this role. I have the opportunity to learn new things every day.

One of the most important things you can do is to get as close to your customers as possible. I suggest you spend a little time every day to get to know your customers and their companies consciously

Managing customers to achieve their expected results is a great responsibility. This requires every successful account manager to master many skills in his daily work: pre-preparation, communication, priority determination, time management, empathy and follow-up. However, the most important thing is the preparation and follow-up. A large part of this role is to interact with customers through rhythmic telephone communication, high-level business reports, strategic best practice meetings, training, product evolution chart overview and so on.

Before interacting with customers, you need to ask yourself the following questions:

Three core competencies of "excellent customer success manager" and "excellent customer success manager"

It is especially important for you to be proficient in knowledge. In the first few years of the company's establishment, a broad understanding of the industries/categories served by the company will let you see the relevant pain points, how your target market has developed, and how your products will solve practical problems.

Category: a field of industry, including a group of companies that are solving a recognized problem.

Industry: it is a part of the economy, including business entities, knowledge workers, products and services; Without the necessary industry knowledge, it is more difficult to complete the work well; An important tool you can use is a certificate. Many industries and companies provide certification for specific industry roles.

Attend the annual meeting of all customers.

Professional tips:

Practice sales presentation and promotion.

Meet with user groups: Many companies hold group meetings for customers regularly, usually a seminar, to exchange and share ideas and ideas about using products. These meetings usually provide you with a unique opportunity to listen to the opinions of different companies, understand the challenges they face, how they use products to solve practical problems, and creative use cases.

Of all the skills that a successful account manager should master, the ability to create a * * * voice with customers and establish relationships with customers is the most important. We need to remember this simple point: your customers are your customers, because to some extent, their executives decided to cooperate with your company. You are in the relationship of distribution according to needs, and you are an assigned position. As a customer success manager, you are at the center of the business relationship.

The key skills of establishing a * * * relationship with customers can be summarized into the following seven principles:

Customer success managers regard it as a code of ethics.

True self-confidence comes from humility. This is a balance that needs to be carefully maintained. In particular, you should "control the scene", "become an expert" and "drive customers". For many people, humility means weakness.

You don't know what customers want until you know what they need! This level of partnership makes your customers less likely to consider competitors.

What are the typical symptoms of not fully understanding customers? It is difficult for your team to cooperate with customers. You need more time to prepare for the interaction with customers.

Careful preparation will play a role in your interaction with customers.

One of the best ways to turn passivity into initiative is to seriously consider specific strategies and prepare for different types of customer communication. Doing so can help you maximize the value of interaction with customers. No matter how busy you are, the key is to stick to your plan.

Before you start preparing, here are some important considerations:

Preparation and due diligence are the basis for you to become a successful account manager. Every bit of information you know about potential or current customers is an investment that will eventually pay off.

A valuable insight is to find out their respected competitors.

Find out what are the three most unique elements in their enterprise. Next, let them talk more about their customers. Who are their most valued or valuable customers? What do they think are the three biggest reasons why the most valuable or best customers do business with them? Are these also the reasons why they became your customers?

Every company will receive complaints. What are the three most common complaints customers have about them? Do they know the most common reason why customers leave? Another topic to be discussed is their future.

Be sure to discuss the actual or opportunity cost of their current problems and emphasize that you respect their business opinions. How much money do they think they can save if this problem is solved?

The ability to use the information collected from customers to gain insight into your relationship with them is more important than ever. Data is a powerful asset. It can be said that besides customers, data is your most valuable resource.

Life cycle is also called customer journey.

There are usually five stages in the customer life cycle, and the purpose of each stage may succeed or fail.

The most common naming stage in the life cycle:

There is a journey map at each stage of the life cycle. Journey map is a lean management technology. It designs a path for customers, from sales to implementation and adoption, and then to full investment, hoping that customers will renew their fees.

Every customer buys your products or services for a specific purpose, which can be summed up in three questions:

One of the most influential tools in segmentation is called value segmentation, which classifies the company's most valuable customers. There are usually five ways to distinguish: contract value, customer scale, industry, brand and customer contribution.

The three most common indicators are

Business-to-consumer (B2C) companies have long been considering critical moments. It is an important moment to register at the front desk. It usually sets the tone for your next hotel experience.

When there is a problem with your cable TV service, you call the cable TV company to solve the problem. Their attitude towards you and the process of helping you determine whether you will continue to be their customer, or whether you will recommend this cable TV company to friends and family.

The definition of critical moment is modified to three parts.

"Whenever" customers come into contact with your enterprise, you have the opportunity to make them form a lasting impression, and they want to share it with others. This should inspire us to seize every opportunity and create a critical moment.

Add value at every point in the process.

There are eight critical moments that are crucial and beneficial to the long-term success of customers.

You need to master the corresponding content before meeting the customer for the first time.

In the case of high-frequency contact with customers, the customer success manager or the team responsible for product guidance will first arrange a phone call or meeting with the high-level docking person. The purpose of the phone call or meeting is to ensure that you have verified the key business achievements and project plans of introducing your products or services to them.

The customer success manager or project manager should also send an email to follow up, attach the meeting minutes, summarize the project plan and the next step.

After the new user boot is completed, the process will end after your customer accesses the software and logs in for the first time. This is a critical moment, because it shapes the initial impression of customers on products or services. These initial views are hard to change.

Most importantly, you want them to see the impact of you, your team and products on their business.

Most products will provide some form of training when customers go online, usually online or virtual. If the training includes some hands-on exercises, so much the better. The best online product training includes some gamification fun to keep the end users' continuous participation.

Change is a part of every industry. One of the changes is when the main or business docking person in the customer leaves his job or changes his functions. This should be regarded as a direct risk in your long-term cooperative relationship.

The new docking person will take their place and he may focus on a new set of priorities.

Knowing when these roles have changed, meeting new executives and quickly determining any new priorities may determine the future of your partnership with customers.

Contact customers as soon as possible to confirm the position change of senior docking person. In the phone or email, ask them to introduce a new docking person immediately. Call now!

You also need to notify your own company and record the new docking person and position in the customer relationship management system.

A meeting needs to be arranged between the new docking personnel and all team leaders related to the customer. The purpose of meeting is not only to introduce your team, but also to introduce the relationship again, tell them everything they have done so far and determine their future goals. The new docking person may have some complicated or unexpected requirements, but let the new account manager know that you have their interests in mind. You need to consolidate your relations as soon as possible.

When you establish an alliance with a new docking person, you should investigate what happened to the previous docking person. If he leaves his job, find out where he went. You can tell your sales colleague about his new work place and company, especially if he has had good experience in your company. Take advantage of this connection because this is a new sales opportunity for the company.

The most effective way to inform customers of their health status and overall progress is the quarterly business report (QBRs), advanced business report (EBRs) and health status report or value announcement automatically generated by the system.

Health reports submitted in high-level business briefings are an important part of an effective customer life cycle. Through this report, you can explain to customers that their position is really valuable, especially when they are well done and have a clear purpose.

Remind customers of the progress made so far and the value of delivery through any ROI research or evaluation you have conducted.

The content to be discussed next is the product route evolution diagram. Discuss their adoption process and discuss customer case studies so that customers can understand all planned or ongoing product progress or service project updates.

You may only be able to discuss 1 ~ 2 topics or 3 ~ 5 slides with executives, because most people will leave within 30 minutes after the meeting starts.

A good way to effectively convey the main points of the meeting is to use the executive summary. Compress the executive summary into a speech on the slide.

Write the implementation outline.

Contact the customer at least 120 days before renewal. One of the opportunities is to use it as part of a high-level business briefing to discuss the value provided so far and how the partnership can continue to flourish.

If there are any problems or red flags, you still have some time to correct your mistakes before actually renewing the contract.

Net recommendation score or NPS is the core measure used by most companies to measure overall customer satisfaction. It shows the health and loyalty of customers, and it is also a leading indicator or prediction method for future product adoption and growth.

"We have too many small and medium-sized enterprise (SMB) customers, and it is impossible for our customer success manager to reach every customer effectively". If these sound familiar, you need to use technology extension strategy to arm your customer success manager.

It is also a best practice to remind customers by email or message in the product 60 days before the contract expires. Some companies also encourage customers (especially those who are not sure whether to renew their fees) to renew their fees in advance through discounts, event tickets, free services or training.

Once the customer discovers the value of your product, it is a good chance for the customer to succeed. The manager invited the customer to be the spokesperson of your company.

When the customer replies to the net recommendation questionnaire or customer satisfaction survey and agrees to be the propagandist of your company, please ask the customer to promote for you accordingly.

In order to achieve rapid scale, we can share the adoption information with the client through email every week.

We must establish the quality and quantity measure of success.

Customer success managers must play an important role in helping products improve their maturity. As a successful account manager, products must be put in the first place, because products are the only most important reason why customers choose you.

No company can survive without good products. Want to flourish, especially in the field of SaaS

In the end, the only thing that can guarantee renewal is whether customers get value from your products. This is why improving products must be put in the first place.

Product teams need to listen to customer feedback, and customer success teams need to understand how products iterate to meet customer needs.

Define and monitor success indicators that can be used by product teams and customer success teams. This measure should be linked to performance appraisal and variable salary, so that each team can directly invest. This means not to choose lagging indicators, such as customer churn rate. More accurately, we should find a key indicator that can represent whether customers get value from products, such as the number of daily active users introduced in the previous chapter.

We often hear customer success and sales executives say that there are two common reasons for losing customers or reducing expenses (reduced income):

The root causes may be as follows:

When customers change their priorities and strategies, it is very important to keep in line with customers' supervisors and decision makers to maintain and promote the growth of the organization and help them achieve their goals.

Find people from your company who meet these key roles. Determine which key personas should be matched with whom (for example, the chief account officer in the intermediate customer base matches the vice president in charge of customer success in your company)

Configure the CRM system to handle all this metadata and automate it if possible.

Use automated rules to create reminders and put them into concrete actions to remind your designated partners to contact customers.

You can even consider writing a letter to executives, so all they have to do is click Send or send it to them through an agent.