your sales don't matter if you don't do this.... ⬇️

Customer Success: The Unsung Hero in Your Sales Strategy

In sales, where the clink of closing deals often echoes the loudest, there's a critical yet frequently overlooked player: customer success. This week, I want to dive deep into why, in the grand scheme of things, customer success isn't just a support function—it's the bedrock of sustainable business growth.

Imagine a scenario where your sales team is hitting home runs, smashing targets, and filling the pipeline to the brim. On paper, it looks like success. But what happens post-sale is what truly determines the longevity and health of your business. Without a robust customer success strategy, even the most impressive sales figures are merely short-lived victories.

The Adoption Imperative

First, let's talk about adoption. Selling your product is one thing; ensuring customers actually use it to its fullest potential is another ball game. Adoption isn't just about customers logging in or using your product; it's about them integrating your solution into their daily workflows, extracting real value, and achieving their goals. This is where customer success shines, guiding customers through the journey from onboarding to full-scale integration, ensuring that your product isn't just purchased but is genuinely indispensable.

NRR: The Growth Indicator You Can't Afford to Ignore

Net Revenue Retention (NRR) isn't just a metric; it's a narrative of your company's growth story. It measures not just if your customers stay but if they expand their relationship with you. A stellar NRR isn't just achieved by preventing churn; it's about creating such exceptional value that your customers decide to invest more in your partnership. This is the silent yet potent force of customer success – transforming passive users into active advocates and modest accounts into major revenue drivers.

Sales Without Success: A Hollow Victory

Now, let's challenge the status quo. Traditional sales paradigms celebrate the initial win, the signed contract, and the handshake (virtual or otherwise). But if we pivot our perspective, viewing sales through the lens of customer success, we realize that the true victory is in the sustained success and growth of our customers. A sale without subsequent success is a hollow victory. It's like planting a seed but neglecting to water it, watching it sprout but never bloom.

The Symphony of Sales and Customer Success

The most forward-thinking companies don't operate with sales and customer success in silos. Instead, they orchestrate a symphony where each department plays in harmony. Sales bring the customers in, and customer success ensures they stay, grow, and become vocal champions of your product. This symbiotic relationship is the cornerstone of not just meeting but exceeding revenue expectations.

Empathy: The Heartbeat of Customer Success

At the core of customer success is empathy – understanding your customers' challenges, aspirations, and day-to-day realities. This empathy enables customer success teams to tailor experiences, anticipate needs, and provide solutions that resonate on a personal level. It's this deep understanding that transforms average user experiences into exceptional ones, fostering loyalty and driving expansion.

The Proactive Pulse of Customer Success

Waiting for customers to express dissatisfaction or encounter problems is a reactive approach that often leads to missed opportunities and erosion of trust. Customer success thrives on proactivity – anticipating potential hurdles, offering timely solutions, and consistently adding value. This proactive pulse not only averts issues but also cultivates a positive, enduring customer relationship.

Remember that in the realm of sales and business growth, customer success simply cannot be an afterthought. It's a driving force. By championing customer success, you're not just selling a product; you're building value, trust, and enduring partnerships. Stop chasing only the thrill of the sale; commit to the journey of success that follows.

Lessons Learned as a Fractional GTM Leader

Each week in this section, we aim to bring you real-life lessons learned either by us or by one of the founders we work with. All names have been changed to protect the identities of others...

When Job Hopping Catches Up With You

Meet Hank, the archetype of sales excellence. Wherever he went, success was sure to follow. He crushed records, destroyed records, and was always at the top of the leaderboard. Hank wasn't just good at what he did; he was exceptional. However, his ambition had a different kind of appetite—an insatiable hunger for the next big opportunity, the next salary bump, the next title upgrade. Hank, was always chasing the "golden dollar."

In sales, being a top performer like Hank usually spells out an epic career trajectory. But here's where the plot thickens: Hank's tenure at any given company was shorter than a season change. Every nine months, like clockwork, he'd be on the hunt, lured by a heftier paycheck or a loftier position elsewhere.

This restlessness had its perks. Hank's resume read like a sales superstar's dream: a mosaic of successes, accolades, and commendations. Yet, beneath this picture of victory, a different story was unfolding—one of transient relationships, unfinished projects, and a growing reputation for fleeting commitments.

The twist in Hank's tale came when his latest venture, a promising startup teeming with potential, ran into the all-too-common roadblock of funding droughts. The startup's shutdown sent ripples through Hank's career, leaving him adrift in a sea of uncertainty. For the first time, his resume's erratic trajectory, once a testament to his ambition, now screamed of instability and short-termism.

Job interviews, once a walk, turned into interrogations about his loyalty and perseverance. Potential employers, once dazzled by his track record, now hesitated, fearing he'd jump ship at the next best offer. The industry that once applauded his achievements began to question his commitment, painting a picture far removed from the go-getter Hank believed himself to be.

In this unexpected career hiatus, Hank had a moment of reckoning. He realized that while his sprint from one opportunity to the next brought immediate gratification, it cost him the depth of relationships and the satisfaction of seeing long-term projects to fruition. His story became a cautionary tale whispered among sales teams: the tale of the rockstar performer who mistook perpetual motion for progress.

What's the moral of Hank's story, you ask? It's a tale that reminds us that while it's essential to chase growth and seek new challenges, there's an intrinsic value in stability and depth. The roots you grow, the relationships you nurture, and the legacy you build are just as crucial as the accolades you collect.

So, to all the Hanks out there in the sales world, remember: ambition is a powerful engine, but without the anchor of commitment, even the mightiest ships can drift off course. Let's strive not just for the sprinter's burst of speed but for the marathoner's endurance, for it's in the long run that the true champions are forged.

Content We Can't Get Enough Of

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Churn & Burn with Tony Sternberg

Churn and burn baby…

As long as we keep getting new customers, that is all that matters.

Frankly, it is all the board cares about.

I remember hearing this from a founder at one of my first startups and my mind was BLOWN 🤯.

This made no sense to me.

This week, Tony Sternberg Co-Founder/CEO at ProsperStack joined Dale and me on the show to chat about why this mindset is flawed… no matter what stage of growth you are at.

A B2B SaaS veteran of over a decade, Tony joined the startup world early in his career.

He worked in every role possible from technical support to sales, QA, and product. Ultimately, getting promoted from early employee all the way to President prior to leaving and founding his own venture, ProsperStack.

During today’s show, Tony shares his secrets on: