Recently a prospective Customer asked me “what is your approach to influencing Executive behavior?”
” but like everything in Customer Success, it’s more complicated than that.“
The one word answer is “Data”, but like everything in Customer Success, it’s more complicated than that. Here is what I see in most organizations with Customer Success teams that have difficulty influencing executive behavior. This isn’t everyone, but it is sooo very common:
CEOs understand the details of Customer acquisition through sales and marketing. They do not understand the details of Customer retention. Everyone believes Customer retention is important, but when it comes time to invest, leaders double down on sales and marketing because it’s the known formula. It may not even be a conscious decision, but just look at the investment in systems and outside help for sales and marketing in your own company!
“Everyone ‘believes’Customer retention is important”
Customer Success leaders often lack the data management skills and the executive experience to present the true voice of the Customer in credible, actionable ways that will influence the company. They may think they communicate well, but to executives, it just sounds like anecdotal stories with no real data backing them up. This lack of credibility almost always leads to an underinvestment in Customer Success. Then once the company starts to scale, the wheels come off the underfunded CS function and the search is on for a new CS leader. Few things are more damaging to an organization than a protracted leadership change, not to mention the impact to the CS leader. The sad part is, it’s so preventable!
What is needed is to define those customer measures in a comprehensive way that proves the retention formula. Eventually the goal is to become so proactive, that CS becomes predictive of customer behavior – solving customer problems BEFORE they happen. This isn’t pie in the sky wishful thinking, but it does take some time, discipline and focus. Three things in short supply for most Customer Success leaders.
“The sad part is, it’s so preventable!”
So, why don’t executives listen? Because they can’t understand you – you aren’t speaking the same language. As many Americans have learned traveling around the world, repeating the same words, slowly, with more volume, doesn’t help when your audience doesn’t understand the language. Getting your executive team to listen definitely won’t happen by accident and it won’t happen doing the same things you’ve been doing. As a Customer Success leader, It requires a conscious decision to learn a new language.
