@Steve Bernstein this post is gold. Thanks for sharing.
You mentioned you have cool ways for how CSMs keep the data up to date. Can you share any insights on that?
Metric
Goal
Weight
Max Payout
Renewal confirmation
90 days in advance of renewal date
40%
$ 500.00
On-time renewal
Yes/No by renewal date
25%
$ 312.50
VOC contribution
Monthly submission to VOC program
Admin compliance
CRM weekly entry and maintenance
10%
$ 125.00
Totals
100%
$ 1,250.00
Bonus paid monthly based on previous month's metrics (reps love monthly payouts…)
Hi @Laurie , I'm so glad to see your post/question! It's not a "given" that CSMs should be responsible for strengthen account/customer relationships, nor are intermediate "process-metrics" as you describe well-adopted. That said, I'm not sure you just want meetings as your intermediate outcome. We usually look for stronger signs of life than just holding a meeting, due to the unclarity on who actually attended and how valuable the meeting was for them. We also like the phrase "trust but verify" because someone's intuition of sentiment could be totally off... better to use a well-crated questionnaire to directly ask the customer what they perceive to be working well and what needs to be improved, instead of asking the CSM to guess what the customer thinks and why...Therefore, instead of asking for the CSM's assessment, we focus the CSM's job as asking their customers to complete a short assessment questionnaire, and then to drive the right follow-up plays based on what those people say. Let me explain...Critically, there is no "customer" in B2B -- instead there are a group of people (decision makers, budget holders, influencers, champions, etc) that come and go, changing jobs and bringing new challenges ("change") with them. It's critical that the CSM knows who ALL the *right* contacts are in the account. From there, it's critical that the CSM *knows* the sentiment of all those stakeholders in each of their accounts, along with the "why" behind their sentiment so the right plays can be executed.We know that people are more likely to respond to assessment questionnaires when there's a relationship. I'm not using the word "surveys" -- this word must be STRICKEN from our B2B jargon because surveys are worthless in B2B (start with the lack of a sampling strategy when census is more appropriate). But if you ask the right customer contacts (your denominator for response rates) to assess their experience and success contribution from your products and services because you are committed to following up to address what they tell you, then we KNOW that they are highly likely to participate (btw, an EBR is the perfect place to address feedback in high-touch accounts). In fact, we see 80%+ response rates all the time with this sort of approach. Not only does that provide clearly trustworthy and business-representative data, but we also know that silent accounts -- those accounts that won't engage with your' help me help you" message -- can be up to 14x more likely to churn. Makes sense, no?I hope you're still with me here... by focusing on "engagement" as collecting actual customer feedback, straight from the horse's mouth, you (as the leader) now have the opportunity to look at the forest AND the trees:
NOW, getting to the heart of your question: putting it all together means you can now focus the CSMs on the behaviors you want them to execute, i.e. create strong relationships with all of the right contacts by remediating any issues and by 1. Understanding the stakeholder team (the first metric you need to watch... it's a critical one and see below for a whitepaper that explains more on HOW)2. Getting your stakeholders to provide actionable feedback (remember... it's not a survey! And YES you can and should shoot for 40-50%+ response rates at minimum... if the CSM is doing their job right then you'll see it be MUCH higher, which relationships and engagement!)3. Engaging promoter/advocates to drive expansion4. Converting detractors by addressing their concerns (i.e. demonstrating that you are listening / that you care)Here are 2 resources that will provide more detail on the approach I've describe, and the whitepaper also includes *proven* templates that have driven the 80%+ response rates I described:https://waypointgroup.org/whitepapers/silver-bullet-customer-health-scoring/ (including method for understanding depth of account relationships)https://waypointgroup.org/whats-on-your-dashboard/
Let's keep the discussion going – any questions / concerns I can address?
/Steve