CS in Deal Reviews

Hi There,

New member from this community.

How do you ensure that CSMs are engaged consistently in large deals and the CS perspective is inputted prior to the sale?

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Comments

Brian O'Keeffe

I worked a process in where everyone meets before the final deployment sign-off. I want to hear the customer and sales team agree to all the terms before the hand off to CS takes place.

I learned the hard way that often the terms presented to us where not what the customer heard. Stage two (and sometimes followed by three or four etc...) of the deployment would often come out after the deal closed and was handed off and we discovered the customer expected it, but there was no funding and the deployment project had long since closed. Or another bomb was that CS would fill in all the gaps the service team was providing during the deployment as the customer rolled out the software internally. (Can't we just call you when we need technical consulting for complex configuration additions or updates?) Then there were the blatant deceptions that bubbled up. (Yes, we will support Linux and it is on the roadmap etc...)

I created a hand off to CS checklist that we review at the meeting and the sales rep who closed the deal is required to attend. Better to rip the bandaid off then. It worked, the BS that was often finagled into deals went way down.

Sam Burkley

Hi -

At a previous company I worked for, once the deal reached the final stage before "Closed Won," the Sales Executive would set up an internal meeting with the CS Director (or known assigned CSM) to discuss all details. We would even schedule a call with the prospect to have them meet CS, ask questions, have CS explain the onboarding process, etc. We found this really valuable not only ensuring the customer was the right fit but also setting up Sales and CS for success.

Hope this helps!

Yuya at Commune

Hi,
At commune.us, we have a selling guideline called 'customer standard' created by CS department. The sales team doesn't have to get approval from the CS dept. to sell if the deal aligns with the standard. However, if the deal structure is tricky (e.g. discounted, frequent meetings committed, ROI committed...etc.), the sales team has to get approval from the head of CS dept. before contracting in order to input CS perspective.
Hope this helps!