Why Revenue Attainment is Plummeting: It’s Not Just the Economy, It’s Our Approach

We are in the midst of a generational change. You may immediately think that I am referring to AI but there’s another key shift occurring. We are witnessing a substantial shift in the demographics and preferences of our buyers. Today, 71% of business buyers are under the age of 45, and a staggering 86% of these buyers express dissatisfaction with the buying process. Additionally, 66% of buyers find that sellers are unhelpful. These changes have resulted in seller attainment reaching an all-time low. While many are attributing these sales attainment challenges solely to economic conditions, the truth is that our…

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July 25, 2024

Read more about the article How to Ensure Executives Attend Your EBRs and Keep Coming Back

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Customer Success

How to Ensure Executives Attend Your EBRs and Keep Coming Back

"I invite Executives to EBRs, but they never show up." I’ve heard this statement—or a version of it—countless times. In one memorable instance, a team of Customer Success Managers (CSMs) said to me, "So it's not our fault if they don't show up; they ignore our invites." This defeatist attitude won’t get anyone very far. Instead, let’s discuss what actually works in getting executives to not only attend your Executive Business Reviews (EBRs) but also to keep coming back. The mistake that some CSMs make is that they simply send out an invite or ask their ‘champion’ to invite additional…

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June 12, 2024

Read more about the article How Sales and Customer Success Can Use Persona Profiles to Win

Professional networking concept with icons of business people connected together symbolizing a team or a group of colleagues

Customer Success / Sales

How Sales and Customer Success Can Use Persona Profiles to Win

Most companies have personas defined as part of their go-to-market strategy. Few companies actually make good use of them. Too often personas are given to reps as a reference without the coaching needed to use the information in their day to day job. The book Atomic Habits popularized the concept of 1% better everyday. Coaching your reps on using personas day-to-day is one of the ways front line managers can help your team become more customer centric each day. The result: more wins, more renewals, and a more personalized customer experience! What is a Persona A persona is a generalization…

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May 10, 2024

Customer Success / Metrics

6 Steps to Bottoms Up Capacity Planning for Customer Success

A common question that I get asked is how to conduct capacity planning for Customer Success Managers. It’s a great question to be asking and something that all CS leaders should be thinking about. I also almost always get asked a follow-up question on this topic: “I’m told that an industry best practice is that each CSM should be managing $2 million in ARR. Is this a good rule to follow?" I’m glad to be asked about this, and I will share my thoughts (based on my experience) a little further in this post. First, I am going to share…

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April 3, 2024

Churn / Customer Success / Metrics

7 Steps your Churn Analysis Might Be Missing

In the past year, have you wondered why your churn analysis is inaccurate when, once upon a time (pre-2023/24), your churn analysis was pretty reliable? If so, you aren't alone. Misguided and inaccurate churn analysis has contributed to businesses' overall challenge in forecasting accurate revenue numbers. Often, a churn analysis consists of a basic analysis based on historical churn data, which would then be extrapolated to get forecasted churn results. In 2021 and 2022, this may have been sufficient, but with so many changes in the economy and SaaS industry, this approach is showing its flaws. When you do a…

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February 20, 2024

Thank you!