This is the last episode of the leadership masterclass podcast and the office is the one with highest responsibility: CEO. I speak with Prithwi Dasgupta, CEO of SmartKarrot, who has risen from the normal ranks of leadership to becoming a co-founder and CEO of SmartKarrot: Five key takeaways from this episode are: 1) What a lot of candidates that apsire to become a CEO miss - is the grind, the sacrifices and the risk/uncertainty. Glamorous from the outside, absolutely demanding on the ground. 2) A CEO needs to shed the ego and be ready to proven wrong again and again, pivot and move ahead with speed. 3) Hiring for the C-Suite is based on the challenges that a company needs to solve at that point in time and to pick the relevant candidates. Ofcourse getting into the C-suite (for other positions) requires some familiarity with the leadership because it gives a head start.  4) A CEO cannot be an all-rounder. However, if critical metrics can be defined for each function , the COE's job is therefore to they  measure them based on those metrics. Breadth definitely helps. 5) When it comes to handling opposition from the board, investors,  internal team, fellow leadership - a CEO always needs to take a balanced decision and not give in to any one pull. Now let us talk Customer Success, as SmartKarrot is about CS: Lightning Talk: In the long run, the success of CS will be measured by tangile outcomes and hence, CS needs to own post sales revenue. And SmartKarrot was born out of this vision and helps CS to achieve this specific GOAL. SmartKarrot also offers plenty of playbooks, tools, conversational AI and some custom built tools that bring tremendous benefits Customer Success managers. Check it out!  

In this episode on Operations, Mala Ramakrishan decodes the office of Operations:   1) A COO stands hand in hand with a CEO holding equal responsibilities for the overall achievement of the company's goals 2) Operations is all about execution of the stated strategic vision 3) A COO is responsible for Operations of all kinds, business, IT, program and revenue.  4) A COO needs to have a good understanding of almost all aspects of the business to be able to drive the results for each 5) Usually a COO holds dual responsibilities - Such as of Product or Sales (Sheryl Sandberg in Facebook) 6) AI is compelling and evolving for Operations to make better decisions and to eliminate manual labor. This and a few of her best and not so best moments in her career and ofcourse the rapid fire round! Listen in!

In this episode on Strategy, Dr.Michelle talks about one of the newest and evolving topics at the C-suite, which is Strategy. Traditionally, strategy has been defined to be something: a) That helps an organization retain its market share b) Prevent competition from capturing its market share. However, strategy is much more. It is culture, it is product, it is product evaluation, competitive analysis and much more. It is an entire framework for growth and goes beyond just revenue. Listen to this and a lot more in this very informative podcast!

Hello All, In this episode of leadership masterclass, I speak with Eugina Jordan, a champion for diversity and the voice of women in leadership. - In her early days, when she attended the MWC conference, what shocked her was a lack of waiting line in the women's restroom which made her realize there are so few women in tech/leadership roles and also made her write the book "UNLIMITED" - Depending on the size of the organization, it is good to setup an exclusive Diversity office under Chief People officer ; For smaller organizations, make every leader accountable for diversity by setting clear goals. -  There definitely exists a system (a biased one) which does not favor the under represented. The only way to overcome this is through persuasion and grit. - Women need to build their confidence and go after every coveted job and leadership roles - Instead of asking women to "Lean In", why dont we ask men to "Lean out" and sponsor a women for leadership roles? - Women need to understand that building a career takes the support of a village - Network, Community, Family and friends. Lean on them to grow in your career. - Find mentors and sponsors actively instead of waiting for the diversity office to find sponsors for you! This and a lot more in this episode. And do not forget to check out on her book "Unlimited" which is topping the charts in Amazon and is already a best seller!

In this episode of Leadership Master class, Jay talks about: How a simple zoom call (GTM plans based and customer outcomes, automation) started to serve the CS community grew up from 30 people on call to 75 and 150 and now a thriving and one of the largest CS communities How the community takes a wholistic approach to not where CS is going but where SaaS is going and to be able to ride the wave There is no one size CS fits all - depending on whether you are a product led growth, SMB/inside sale, Enterprise organization, follow the best practices of CS for each of these GTM models.  Organizations that were measuring results and focussed on their current customer outcomes, had 6 times longer LTV On how to structure a CS org, assign resources based on the needs of the problems you are trying to solve rather than following blueprints. Testimony for CS having an impact on GTM - By the time SaaS 60/70M most of new bookings come from existing customers.  A contract is the foundational element of a relationship. If you don’t understand contract, you don’t understand the business. Want reference customers? Dont try to wow them. Just try to deliver on the brand promise.  Try and make things simple for the customer! Onboarding must be a separate Ongoing , separate support from CSM which ties closely to product One big unspoken Digital CS/Scale CS - Building a central community hub where customers go for everything, is a form of scale CS and customer enablement CSMs should maintain focus on the ongoing customer issues and deliverables and not really focus on selling as it involves a different skill. AI will eat CS? No. AI is going to make us more efficient and effective at what we already do

Now, this is one of my very favorite topics. In today's discussion on Conversations with the C-suite, we have Aaron Thompson who is passionate about customer success and turning customer success into a revenue office.  Aaron introduced the concept of "Revenue acquisition cost", which is the cost you incur in acquiring newer revenues through upsells and cross-sells once a customer is onboard. This directly translates into something a Customer Success office should own. Key takeaways from this episode are: 1) The primary responsibilities of the revenue office is to focus on bringing in new revenue and in sustaining the same. 2) Profitability is the scope of a CFO and new customer acquisition is the role of the Sales/Marketing 3) Providing accurate revenue forecasts, designing strategies around bringing in new revenue, creating value added solutions are key for the success of revenue operations (RevOps) 4) The success of the revenue office is reflected in revenue numbers; and the overlap with CS is in how well CS enables revenue office to meet their numbers 5) RAC - Revenue acquisition cost is under values. While Customer Acquisition costs are usually very high, RAC could prove to be a great opportunity to build momentum in revenue without such high costs during initial acquisition. 6) And the focus is more on upsells & cross-sells and not usually on renewals, which is a given and almost requires no additional costs. 7) Customer Success managers could be account managers or Not. However, revenue responsibilities are primarily with account managers and they should continue to have the leverage in all accounts to own it end-end. 8) For anyone that aspires to be in the CRO office - a good track record of having walked the customer's pain points and designing new strategies in problem solving will go a long way in ensuring a success in their careers.  This and many takeaways from this insightful Episode!

In this episode of "Leadership Master class - Conversations with the C-suite", we feature Geoff Hollingworth, CMO Rakuten Symphony.   Geoff Hollingworth is a new age CMO. The way he has adapted marketing techniques for the B2B segments using B2C techniques, leveraging social media, humor and people centric approach to marketing are a breath of fresh air in the B2B space. Check out the amazing content that Rakuten Symphony puts out under his stellar leadership.   In this episode spanning topics from marketers being psychologists, to using levity in even serious business settings and all the way up to ChatGPT replacing marketing significantly, there are so many lessons to learn.

The key takeaways from this episode on Product:   Product office is not a standalone function that sits to define WHAT to build; rather the primary role of the product office is to collaborate with customers, and define what is the most critical problem to solve in that market space. It is important to always combine the product and technology office into one unit and have an agile development model that combines the WHAT(Product) and the HOW (Tech) Product managers are not innovators, but they are the "process owners" that are responsible for the overall process of discovery, working with customers and the market needs. Different companies require the three stellar pillars of a product - Innovation, Execution and Evangelization in different percentages.  It is easy to identify a fad and a need, in early stages. How? Who is adopting it - Technology evangelists OR customers? There is no one founding day; Founding has to be a continuous process and you essentially stick to a problem for several years - till the point where both customers and market knows what they want Get obsessed with the problem and stay with it for long; Abstracting the problem statement into a product vision which is long term & inspirational is very critical If you have the right vision, right execution model, you can be successful with the fund managers for long enough a time Progress is important than perfection. Go launch with the MVP because customer is also new to the product and has not experienced a solution such as what you are introducing Keep all the complexity and much of the innovation at the backend. Keep innovating faster but keep in mind the customer might not like it. Your pace of innovation can actually be a shock than a surprise.  AI is going to be critical, no matter what product you are in. You cannot ignore AI. AI/ChatGPT is a great augmenting tool. It may not completely replace humans but it adds more time compression  Big companies or small companies both are ideal places to innovate and build products if they have the right priorities.

In this exciting, absolutely informative session on Startups & VC Funding, Rajeev spoke to us exclusively on various topics related to Startups.  I categorized them into 3 major buckets: Idea, Team and Funds.  1) There are no blueprints to get funding. If you have a good idea,  approaching a VC through a trusted source or a referral is the first and most important step to get VC's attention 2) It is important to find the best fit VC for your ideas as not all VC funds are made the same. 3) When listening to your ideas, VCs are always looking for the thought process behind the idea and the homework that has gone behind it. 4) The first wave is usually a good time to ride than a second wave where the market potentially gets over crowded and over funded.  5) In a founder, VCs are looking for someone who is a good team player, that is willing to form a great team and share the rewards/stakes. 6) Startups are hard work and requires significant sacrifice on all fronts. A lot of new entrants seem to think Startups are "cool" but the real deal is startups are just hard work. 7) It is important to build a culture of execution where everyone is hands on and can talk about the product/technology with depth. Culture is very important. 8) Companies do not get sold, they get acquired. Execute well and the right deals will come. Do not enter a startup with an end goal of IPO/M&A from Day One. 9) Even when you nothing but just an idea, when it comes to securing funds, there is tough negotiation. So founders need to know their numbers very well. 10) VCs do enough due diligence - hence have a clean track record and reliable referernces. 11) Even solopreneurs with no team to give with them can secure funds, if they can show a path to forming a team eventually. 12) A founder's focus should always be to increase the total value of the company ; which would mean forecast well for the next 2-3 quarters,  13) VCs never want to fire a founder unless there is a huge gap in action Vs plan. 14) In terms of exit, if a idea is not working take the VCs help and either transition or optimize. 15) VCs even help resolve conflicts among founders. Ultimately VCs take a lot more risks and responsibilities when funding someone else's idea Vs running their own startup. It is high time to appreciate that.

Catch me on this podcast with Anika Zubair, VP of Customer Success @ Karbon for some amazing insights on how to scale CS through genuine human relationships and her own insights on the power of networking.

Hello Success Family,   After a while, I was able to resume some great conversations with the customer success family!   I have been obsessing over the topic of scale, especially in times of downturn like the ones we are in. How does CS continue to scale, without increasing costs and yet at the same time not lose business?   One answer that came out was the use of AI and automation in the creation of white club experiences (thanks Dickey Singh 🙌 for that beautiful expression), and the creation of personalized experiences with the use of AI and automation. That seemed to be the only way! And that was confirmed by .Peter Crysdale. of Minerva @minervaknows which is creating great strides in the area of creating personalized knowledge bases and the making of the "intelligent customer". Take a listen!  

In this episode, Preethy Padmanaban raises some great points with Jason Noble on the need and contours of working between Product Marketing and Customer success!

In this episode, Jyo Shukla, a popular Customer Success leader, takes on questions from Fernando Cerioni, who is known for his tough Product management skills! Enjoy this episode, where both conclude that Product & CS must work closely together for the organization to succeed!

In this debate - Nam asks some compelling questions on CS for Paul.   but in the end, customer success wins!

In this episode, we have Adrian Brady-Cesana, Founder and Chief experience officer at CX Chronicles. In CXChronicles, they are set out to find what customers are doing to enhance the overall customer experience and allow organizations to scale effortlessly. CXChronicles focusses on 4 main pillars to help organizations optimize: Team,Tools, Processes and Feedback    Key takeaways from this episode are:   Customer experience is what an organization defines it and a great customer experience is how well you deliver it. Four pillars to an organization's success: a) Keep a customer success scorecard 2) Conduct a through customer journey mapping 3) Build and share playbooks and bake into customer FAQs 4) Voice of customer reports Most organizations grow wrong in not building a company with a customer centric or customer focussed compass A prediction for the CS industry is that more of revenue and performance based functions such as sales will now move into customer success. His favorite cartoon character as a CSM? Superman. His tips for CS success: a) Someone should be a great conversationalist b) Listen to customer's issues c) Ask excellent questions.  His own skill/brand reputation is for having intense curiosity. And he encourages everyone else to follow the same!

Today's episode of CSM secrets is with Anita Toth, Chief Churn Crusher at Anita Toth! It is a venture that makes data & insights more contextual and actionable. Key insights from this episode are: 1) Anyone can collect data. It is as simple as asking a few questions. But where organizations need professional help is in asking the right questions to ensure collecting high quality data, cutting out everything else that could be noise. 2) The Customer 360 Insight System was built ground up to enable organizations to collect and analyze data that is able to contextualize the problems or situation at hand. 3) Two scenarios that could greatly leverage from such a methodical approach is during post onboarding and during exit. These are two critical moments in a customer journey and meaningful data collected during this phase and the insights that are derived could be an eye opener to the entire organization. 4) During difficult conversations & when handling customers, one trick or tip to set the tone and navigate the situation is with a compelling, well thought out opening statement (Prepare, Prepare, Rehearse). 5) And a prediction? Well, the plethora of AI tools that are booming in the CS space will soon attain maturity and will help CSMs take better decisions and become more successful in what they do. And during rapid fire round, well which favorite cartoon character is a good CSM? She surprised me by saying which one is not - Yosemite Sam! Well checkout why that is the case.  

In this episode, we have Will Stevenson, COO and Founder of Onboard.io, a platform focussed exclusively on Customer onboarding. Onboard.io is a culmination of several years of research on where companies go wrong with onboarding and how to make onboarding more efficient than what it is today. Hence, instead of going with a template based approach, onboard.io operates with variables. Connecting different variables for scaling, automating and driving seamless automation that can be seen by various stakeholders and measured continuously. Key insights from this episode are: 1) On boarding is a critical step in setting the right expectations for customers and also in ensuring common understanding among all stakeholders to build trust and to get customers to invest for the long term. 2) A critical step towards success in CS onboarding is to NOT share bits and pieces of information but to share in complete transparency what outcomes the customer can expect from working with you, the BIG picture if you will. 3) Non Subscription based companies, are quickly catching up to this CS trend of "Success is in Onboarding well" and unconventional industries are the quickest to adopt. And the early feedback has been extremely encouraging. 4) A big trend that he sees is one of more and more investment into customer success and the function being an integral component of every other - Sales, Product, Marketing et al. Customer success is the new trend. 5) A recommendation therefore is to put customer at the center and move away from traditional B2B practies to what is working in B2C now. Such as, product led growth, contact free sales, more power in the hands of customers. Apart from all of these, some of what we spoke during Rapid fire were leadership lessons in themselves: 1) Winnie the Pooh is his favorite cartoon character as a CEO, as he is non-egoistic and making friends and always helpful for others. 2) Self-awareness, situational awareness and determination are the keys to success and to deliver extra-ordinary results. 3) He follows this one TAB rule to retain focus. Whats that? Check it out in this really insightful episode! And also dont miss checking out on his other venture, Do Good Mission which is his way of giving back to the society!!

Have you felt this pinch as a CSM? You want to customize your website for delivering personalization but you are blocked because you do not have the tools to do that. Well, Candu is a tool to enhance an existing web app to deliver incremental changes to a webpage, like, adding sweeteners to enhance the experience and deliver good customer experience. I sat down to discuss about this quite interesting tool that sits at the intersection of customer success and marketing, with the Co-founder and CEO Jonathan. Some key insights from this episode are:  Candu is designed for digital CSM where repetitive conversations can be easily customized and delivered via web pages rather than emails. Candu provides more power to content creator/marketer to deliver value to the user base Account based marketing customizing for specific customers provides a way to complete scale the digital CS approach Such customizations actually doubled the engagement of customers and paved a way for them to stay on Most ideas for customers come from the CS world. Best people to give ideas are the account teams. Why not empower them with tools? A good digital CSM can drive huge growth. It is both an analytics and marketing role. A Good CS is about how we apply the same excitement on NOT what we build last  but what the customer used first. That first excitement. This and a lot more in this insightful episode!

Liliana comes from one of the toughest industries where it is quite a nightmare to keep customers happy, even if a small element goes wrong. Aviation and that too for a very popular brand, Jetblue!! Coming from a background where she was directly responsible for delivering an extra ordinary user experience to customers of JetBlue,  the knowledge she gained helped her start her own venture in customer experience design - "The Petrova experience". Key takeaways from this episode are: 1) The power of information/data. Empowering and arming the customer with near accurate data and equipping them with the power of choice, building apps to deliver data quickly and then the power of co-creation, where customers participate in the process, are 3 key pillars to customer experience. 2) Customer experience is driven by two drivers: The brand value needs to come through else the customer experience is not well done. Customer experience is the successful delivery of a brand value. 3) Customer experience is a non linear outcome. It requires close examination of user behavior, employee behavior and also organizational culture to bring about optimal customer experience. For instance, Even if the technology is great, if the employee experience is not great, the end customer experience is impacted.  4) Thinking from an outside perspective of what the customer is looking for rather than an internal approach is critical - Design thinking is a crucial aspect of customer experience. 5) A major trend is an overall elevation and authority of Customer Success Executives and the evolution of intelligent algos(AI) that are all set to disrupt this space even more. And a great answer that I absolutely loved was that if she were to work from the moon, one function she will take is "Copy writer". I loved it. This and much more in this very insightful episode!  

In this episode of CSM secrets, we have Dana Alvarenga, VP of customer success at Slap Five. Dana has been voted 2021 Top 100 Customer Success Strategist and also TOP25 CMA Influencer. Dana is very passionate about customer marketing and customer advocacy. With an extensive background spanning across Sales, Business development and Customer success, this episode has some great takeaways for aspiring CS professionals: 1) A field facing role, any role handling customers - even if that involves managing a restaurant, really helps in shining in a customer success career. It is critical to have that exposure. External sales experience helps. 2) Customer experience is the broad spectrum of support, implementation, on boarding and even involvement in the sales process - an End-End flawless delivery across all touch points. And measured by the overall success of all of this, not just churn, net retention and number of happy customers. 3) Customer advocacy is to be looked upon as offering opportunities to showcase customer's success and not to be approached with the old school mentality of customer's doing you favors. 4) Customer marketing is on a huge growth trajectory.  And organizations are going to the extent of creating roles with KPIs that define success based outcome in these areas. Leaders are beginning to focus heavily on customer marketing as a growth area. 5) Customer marketing should sit in various places - CS, Product and marketing to be very effective.  And providing what customer want - networking opportunity, connecting to peers etc could be some outcomes of Customer marketing. Listen to this episode for more insights!