Organizing for Customer

Success

September2013

New Business Models are Demanding Companies

Focus on Customer Success

Per-User Per-Cycle Per-Transaction

Customer Success is a New Function in MostCompanies

• More Customer-Focused Than Sales

• More Proactive Than Support

• Not Many People Experienced in Field

Companies are Looking for Advice on How to Structure Their CSM Organization

• Where Should Customer Success Report?

• How Does Customer Success Fit with Sales and Services?

• How Does Customer Success Align to Other Functions?

The Five Org Models of Customer Success

1. Firefighter CSM

2. Sales-Oriented CSM

3. Service-Oriented CSM

4. Integrated CSM

5. Partnership CSM

Firefighter CSMs

Common In Companies With:Early-stage companiesCSM does support, renewals, etc.

Pros:CSM is “one stop shop”CSM ensures great client experience

Cons:Hard to scale with so many hatsDifficult to hire for role

CEO

Sales Services

Customer Success

Management

Sales-Oriented CSMs

CEO

Sales

CSM / Renewals /

Account Management

ServicesCommon In Companies With:Low level of product complexityCompetitive sales/renewals

Pros:CSM aligned to revenueAlso aligned to up-sell

Cons:Less customer focusPerceived as “another salesperson”

Service-Oriented CSMs

CEO

Sales Services

Customer Success

ManagementProfessional

Services Training Onboarding Support

Common In Companies With:Medium level of product complexityMore mature organization

Pros:CSM aligned to customer needsCSM also aligned to rest of service org

Cons:Less revenue alignment / quantificationLots of touch points for client

Integrated CSM

CEO

New Business Sales

Chief Customer

Officer

Renewals / Account

Management

Customer Success

ManagementProfessional

Services Training Onboarding Support

Common In Companies With:Moderate level of product complexityExpansion opportunity

Pros:CCO “owns” existing customersSales team are pure hunters

Cons:Requires versatile CCODepends on mature organization

Partnership CSM

CEO

Sales

Renewals / Account

Management

Services

Customer Success

ManagementProfessional

Services Training Onboarding Support

Common In Companies With:High level of product complexityCompetitive sales/renewals

Pros:CSM can be very customer-focusedRenewals aligned with sales motion

Cons:Some level of duplication / overlapSometimes hard to quantify ROI

Where Do You Fit?

Business Maturity

Prod

uct

Com

plex

ity

Firefighter

Sales-Oriented

Service-Oriented

Integrated Model

Partnership Model

OtherConsiderations

Issue Best Practices

Up-Sell Lives in Sales unless CSM owns all customer revenueIf in Sales, incent CSM team for leads / opportunities created

Retention / Customer Marketing

Lives in Marketing but assign dedicated resource focused on existing customer marketing as part of virtual team

Titles Customer Success Manager trending as Account Manager often has connotation of Sales

Thank You!

A Complete Customer Success Platformwww.gainsight.com