What's your worst post-sales-engagement story?

Heather Wendt

CS Folks - When it comes to post-sales engagement, we all know how important it is to get it right.

Sometimes though, it can go really, really wrong!

I’m curious, what is the worst post-sales engagement experience you’ve ever had? And how could it have been made better?

And conversely, what is your best?

Please remember - we don’t want to name and shame anyone or any company!!

Jeffrey Kushmerek

Was getting some issues, so I broke it into 2. Here is something I was brought in to fix

Jeffrey Kushmerek

Story #1 - Project Never End

• Internal Stakeholder meeting to get all teams aligned

• Development team​ allocated to work on features

• Hired Project Manager to decouple CSM from feature development

• ​Stakeholder meeting with Customer once we knew conservative timelines 

• Dear Customer- Rudeness will not be tolerated 

• Agreed to MVP features needed for Launching and shutting down old vendor

• Agreed to Launch date that all could be comfortable with

• Agreed to no more talking about the past

Jeffrey Kushmerek

Fix:

• Internal Stakeholder meeting to get all teams aligned

• Development team​ allocated to work on features

• Hired Project Manager to decouple CSM from feature development

• ​Stakeholder meeting with Customer once we knew conservative timelines 

• Dear Customer- Rudeness will not be tolerated 

• Agreed to MVP features needed for Launching and shutting down old vendor

• Agreed to Launch date that all could be comfortable with

• Agreed to no more talking about the past

Jeffrey Kushmerek

I have so many lol. Here is a situation I was asked to fix:

Story #1 - Project Never End

• Implementation 8 months late ​

• Product sold as white label and could be​ customized.​

• Features promised by CEO in sales cycle without LOE scoping​

• No professional services team to build features​

• Dependent on Development team​

• Development team didn't want to build customer features​

• Product team reported into Development and instructed that this was not a priority

• Customer rude to CSM and implementation resources

• Customer paying for 2 vendors

FIX:

• Internal Stakeholder meeting to get all teams aligned

• Development team​ allocated to work on features

• Hired Project Manager to decouple CSM from feature development

• ​Stakeholder meeting with Customer once we knew conservative timelines 

• Dear Customer- Rudeness will not be tolerated 

• Agreed to MVP features needed for Launching and shutting down old vendor

• Agreed to Launch date that all could be comfortable with

• Agreed to no more talking about the past

kabhatia

I am currently going through some of the most problematic post-sales engagements.

Our HVMs who we onboard expect a seamless product at this point because in the payments space in Nigeria, a large bottleneck remains a strong network to facilitate smooth payments across the value chain.

Hence, HVMs have gone through so much of products and solutions that they're ready for the next one to work without any problems before they're even integrated. And I know our solution still hasn't been perfected yet and still suffers from a high failure rate, but management wants to roll it out to them to get ahead of the market.

Not sure what to do here.

Brian O'Keeffe

The worst was a deal that was sold and during my first conversation with the customer they revealed several things that were not accurate. We were going to support Linux, which the new customer used for the majority of its team using our software, was the worst. I knew it, and several other items the customer mentioned expecting in the software, were not true.

I contacted the salesperson and went over each item. Radio silence. I notified my manager that this marquee name customer had several red flags and documented each one. We raised it up the flagpole and during our next meeting we included the sales person (they did not show up) and my manager and clarified the truth about each item. No, Linux was not on the roadmap. It was a product enhancement. One unlikely to ever make it into a build. I always tell the truth about product enhancement requests, why string it out? 

The salesperson no longer worked for us, the deal was canceled and we lost a huge, marquee brand that reduced the value of my portfolio by a large percentage. It was painful and ugly. 

I learned that you always want a hand-off from sales to service. It needs to include the customer and we review the project timeline, budget and expectations. Here is where unrealistic (or false) expectations can be exposed and corrected. It's a trust but verify solution that works well. Sometimes it is a misunderstanding, sometimes they are sold false expectations. 

I also suggest a final go-live hand off that includes the sales executive, customer project manager, vendor project manager and CSM. You want to hear the customer agree that the project is done and they accept the build as is. It allows the sale rep to fix any issues that might result in a problem customer, who is coming to them, or worse, a clawback. I had to make this mandatory and after a lot of resistance, folded it into the go-live sign-off that required all four signatures. That ended the vast majority of unrealistic/false expectations and allowed us to catch them early. Before that they would pop up months, even years later. (We are ready to deploy ___ where is the project team, asked six months after project close etc...)

Heather Wendt

Love these examples (maybe 'love' isn't the right word here!)...thanks for sharing some examples of post-sales gone wrong...everyone has experienced them in some way, but as each of you has shared, the lessons learned can help improve the process for the future and give insight into how to avoid these missteps in the future.

Would love to hear any advice you can give to @kabhatia who is struggling with a forced implementation timeline that isn't really realistic. Any thoughts there to help?

kmulhalljr

'The New (IT) Guy'

Spent +/- 3 weeks working on a technology recommendation guide for a workforce development agency, later quoting, then assisting with the purchasing and product onboarding process [documentation whitepapers & video demos]. I get a call toward the end of the following month that the organization has hired a new IT Director and he has audited their technology stack and wants to talk. Five minutes into our conversation he wants to cancel 2/3rds of the order for inferior products, some of which cost more, simply because he doesn't want to 'learn' what are not complicated products (made by companies that have a ton of internal supports as well). Spoke with the customers ED and they asked my opinion on the alternative products - I was polite, but very candid. They then went on to say that their hands were tied as they struggled to find a replacement Sys Admin and they would need to give on this one. 

Heather Wendt

@kmulhalljr yikes! Definitely a horror story of the post-sales type!

colin-userlot

Worst post-sales engagement experience:

- Purchased an expensive software suite from a company.

- Received virtually no follow-up or support.

- Communication was inconsistent.

- The support team was unresponsive, leading to huge overrun in deployment and go-live

Best post-sales engagement experience:

- Worked with a cloud services provider.

- Was assigned a personal representative who understood our needs.

- Regular check-ins and extensive training provided.

- Quick to address any issues or questions.

- Resulted in a smooth transition and great overall experience.

Heather Wendt

@colin-userlot - nothing like 2 extremes! So, have to ask...is that 'worst experience' company still in business?? Hard to fathom such a consistent lack of customer experience across the board! Love the 'best experience' example though...sounds like a company that truly prioritizes customers. Thanks for sharing!

Elizabeth Italiano

After the sale closed it was almost a full month before I was introduced to the onboarding and CSM team. Then I found out the AE lied about functionality that existed. There were workarounds with integrations that would accomplish what I needed to do but it was a nightmare. In the meantime, we got blasted with upsell emails immediately. We never went live which nobody seemed to care about. But all of a sudden 90 days out from renewal we were SO important. We did not renew.

This was with a well-successful startup but frankly, I think the leadership team became too arrogant and didn't think they had to really put the post-sale effort in because their product and brand were 'so great'. This company went from being a Cinderella story to a cautionary tale and I am not surprised.

Lovlyn Andawey

Worst one I can think of was returning from a 3 week vacation to learn that the biggest international logo was sold on beta features. These beta features had a significant impact on the platform's existing UI and UX (like, very different user experience and configuration). They were in an onboarding phase and could only be supported by the main developer (CEO).

I felt so useless and I struggled to position myself as a strategic partner. I was trying to learn what the beta features were (which were in constant flux), and I was wondering how I can possibly manage the customer's expectations when they already have a straight path to the CEO.

The acquisition of the logo was approved from the very top. However, if I were to be in this situation again, I would caution against selling beta features because they are not formally supported by the Success team. If it is insisted, then I would ask for the sales team to state in the contract that the customer is promised core functionality that can be delivered via beta features. Most importantly, the Success and Support team cannot support this customer adequately because we only support products, not betas. If the customer signs the agreement, then at least they are contractually clear about what they are getting into and I will do everything I can to support them.

If someone on this community has been through this type of situation, how would you approach it? It would be wonderful to learn from you. 😁

tejash_24

One of the customer started multiple complaints just after implementation -- post sales.

Complaints like-

They dont know how to use the product

Product is not what sales team demoed

Product is complex

Product is not at all useful

Solution

We went on call with implementation folks including sales and training folks

We found that right at the time of implementation, the scheduled training were disturbed by client staff. Most of them were absent and inconsistent in attending the training

We also found that data migration was not successfully completed from previous software to our software because practice did not provided us complete data set and previous vendor was uncooperative with us.

Eventually client understood that the issues are not with our software.

Finally we were able to collaborate with client, previous vendor to complete data migration, get client attend training without being absent and things were settled

Brian O'Keeffe

https://gaingrowretain.com/discussion/comment/11622#Comment_11622

For most of my career I have been part of the train the trainer model. The key is getting key sponsors and product owners on board and if you can't get that, the project is not likely to be successful.

Boiling down training to what do I need to know is also key. We might think they all need a deep dive, but most users are focused on the three, or less, things they need to do on a daily basis. They zone out when other items are covered and who can blame them? Knowing your audience and tailoring the training is another key to successful adoption.