By Kristen Hayer
The ability to build strong cross-function relationships is an important skill in any field, but in the discipline of customer success, it is critical. Customer success is positioned in the middle of most organizations and needs to interact with almost every other team in the company in order to provide an amazing customer experience. From marketing and sales, to product and engineering, developing strong relationships with other groups will optimize internal processes, drive stronger customer engagement, improve your offerings, and boost your career.
Over the next several months I’ll be writing a series of blog posts on how to build strong relationships with other teams inside your organization. I’ll be discussing the goals that drive each team, the areas where customer success intersects with the group, and practical ways to improve the relationship. Since so many customer success teams experience friction with their sales department, I thought that would be a good place to start.
What Drives Sales?
My background is in sales, so I have a tremendous amount of respect for the work and effort it takes to bring in a new customer. Sales is typically responsible for taking leads and turning them into prospects, and then turning those prospects into new customers. A sales cycle (the length of time it takes for a sales rep to turn a lead into a customer) can be as short as a few days or as long as a few years. Throughout the process, sales reps are responsible for maintaining and reporting on their pipeline (the list of prospects they are working with). This helps company leadership plan for growth.
In most organizations, the effectiveness of the sales team is measured by a few factors. First, they are measured on the length of the sales cycle. Shorter is better because the less time that a salesperson spends on one deal, the more time they have to work on other opportunities. Second, they are evaluated on their close ratio. This is the ratio of deals won to the total number of deals in the pipeline. The higher the close-ratio, the better. Finally, they are measured by the number of new customers they bring in and the revenue generated. Salespeople are typically measured individually, rather than as a group, and have a large percentage of their total income tied to their success through a commission plan.
Sales is the team that is always held accountable for hard numbers, and there is a lot of pressure that goes along with the role. If a salesperson has a bad month or quarter, they not only lose part of their compensation, but their job may be at risk.
Where Do Sales and Success Intersect?
Even though the role of a salesperson is very different from that of a success professional, there is common ground. First, customer success can provide access to customers who are willing to serve as references, and ensure that those customers are receiving value from the solution. This is a huge help to the sales team, especially if the product is a significant purchase. However, providing references is also useful for the customer success team: If a customer is willing to recommend your solution to a colleague, you can generally consider them a healthy customer.
Next, both teams benefit from setting the right expectations for what will happen once the prospect becomes a customer. Nobody wants to lose a customer right at the beginning of the relationship. Often, there are terms called “claw-back” clauses in sales commission plans that take back any commission that was earned if a customer leaves. In addition, it is really disheartening for a salesperson to find out that a customer they worked so hard to close ended up leaving. Customer success benefits from correct expectations because they help get new customers off to a good start, and simplify the process of onboarding and building the new relationship.
Finally, sales and customer success share a connection to each customer’s desired business outcomes. Sales uses this information to identify messages and features that will resonate with a particular prospect, which helps them move toward an agreement. Customer success needs to understand the reasons the customer purchased the solution so that they can set goals to achieve the customer’s desired outcomes and build a success plan.
Building Strong Relationships
Create a References Tracking System – Most sales teams already use a CRM system, and if you can build something into the sales team’s tool that tags a contact as a reference, it will make things easy. Also consider the process you want the reps to go through. Should they look up references on their own, or do you want them to check with the CSM before they provide a customer’s contact information to a prospect? Plan a system that works for both teams.
Share Information on Customer Expectations and Results - Ask sales to document and share the reasons that a customer purchased your solution. Let the sales team know that you’ll be using this information to set goals with the new customers. In return, offer to share the results your customers are seeing from the solution with your sales reps. These success stories are incredibly useful during the sales process and can help prospects understand the value of your solution.
Clearly Define Roles and Responsibilities - If you are in a situation where your sales team is selling to existing customers, get together and discuss the roles and responsibilities of each group. While it is important to consider processes from an internal efficiency standpoint, also consider the customer journey you’re creating. If, from a customer’s perspective, things look choppy, discuss changes that will make the journey great.
If you’ve been struggling with the relationship between sales and customer success, try one of these ideas, and then grow from there. Keep in mind that you can’t just expect another team to know what you need – you have to ask. It also helps to offer something useful in return. Good luck!
Want to help your team understand and work with sales more effectively? The Success League is a consulting firm that offers a CSM Certification Training Program that includes selling-focused classes like Uncovering Opportunities and Managing a Selling Cycle. For more information on these classes and workshops, please visit TheSuccessLeague.io
Kristen Hayer - Kristen believes that customer success is the key to driving revenue, client retention, and exceptional customer experiences. Her areas of expertise include developing success goals and metrics, designing the optimal customer journey, selecting technology, training teams, and building playbooks. Prior to founding The Success League, Kristen built and led several award-winning customer success teams. Over the past 20 years, she has been a success, sales, and marketing executive, primarily working with growth-stage tech companies. Kristen has her BA from Seattle Pacific University and her MBA from the University of Washington.