Has anyone formalized a customer executive sponsorship program within their CS org?

Curious as to the processes. To be clear, this is a process where senior ( V or C level) executive team within your organization, develop an active role or relationship with the executive manager (usually C level) of the customer. It's worth mentioning that this is specifically for top segment/enterprise customers, since the tactics for non-enterprise will be different. Also how, if at all, does the CSM come into play here? TIA awesome community!

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dperenchio

@Jay Nathan, you shared a link above to a thread on this subject. I am looking at building an ES Program as well. Is there another way to view thread? Link appears to be broken.

erica newell

Thanks!

Alejandro Sanchez

https://www.journyfy.com/tech-entrepreneur/knowledge-share-tech-entrepreneur/executive-sponsor-program

erica newell

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erica newell
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-14-2020 07:33
From: Effie Mansdorf
Subject: Has anyone formalized a customer executive sponsorship program within their CS org?

I put together a great proposal and process that is specific to my organization based on great feedback from @David L Ellin and @Alejandro Sanchez . I am happy to share some of the KPIs that I have implemented in order to gauge success:

erica newell

Jay, this link isn't working! Is there another place I can find this?

Samma Hafeez

@David L Ellin Really great to learn from your experience! Would you be open to sharing that matrix? Loving this thread!

Pam Mantaring

Thanks for sharing this @Effie Mansdorf we have something similar at the account level called an Innovators tier - but this was focussed more on voice of customer engagement - I see how this can support business development outcomes as well

Effie Mansdorf

Camille Acey

Wow, this conversation is right on time. We have been doing this informally for a while now, but we definitely need to formalize the practice and make sure we've got the communication loop lock3d down. Today I fell into a situation where the contacts I had were giving me positive signals, meanwhile my boss (C level) discovered from his counterpart that they might be churning! Instead of seeing it as him being the ES, he turned to me like I'd missed the ball. Maybe ES will help us get hand in glove on this!

David Ellin

Sure, @Effie Mansdorf.

The first thing I did after gaining approval and buy-in from my CEO was sit with him and decide whether Executive Sponsors would be divided amongst the entire C-Suite or just the commercially-facing folks (CEO, CRO/CCO - Chief Commercial Officer). His opinion was commercially-facing, mine was the entire C-suite. I won that one and he very quickly understood the value. Folks like the CFO, COO and CHRO brought back fantastic customer feedback and commercial folks would have glanced over. Those were some of the best ES relationships.

Second, let the ES and Customer exec establish the best communication cadence for their relationship. I provided some governance guidelines and let them take it from there. They should tell you what that cadence is and you should be prepared to stay on top of them. I built a matrix.

Third, and most important, make certain the ES puts notes in the CRM following every ES conversation. They won't do it and you'll need to stay on top of that for sure. Nothing is worse than a customer exec sharing a need with an ES and the ES not bringing the need back to the company to be addressed.

Effie Mansdorf

That is the initiative I am working on now. Any useful processes/tips you can share? TIA

David Ellin

@Effie Mansdorf, my Executive Sponsor program included C-Suite execs as sponsors. The idea was to connect my C-suite with the customer's C-suite to build exec relationships, let execs share strategy, and expose my C-suite to first-hand customer feedback.

Effie Mansdorf

Yes - spot on! thanks @Alejandro Sanchez

[Deleted User]

No worries! Did that match what you were looking for?

Effie Mansdorf

Thanks @Jay Nathan ! I guess I should have searched past discussions before posting a question! Lesson learned on best practices here on the GGR board!

[Deleted User]

Hey @Effie Mansdorf check out this discussion: https://community.customerimperative.com/question/5ea9ce4f5bfe8b32a852307f

@Alejandro Sanchez shared (among others) a detailed exec sponsor program outline that was really good.

Kevin Mitchell Leonor

So I am one of the only CSMs at RingCentral that is involved in such a program. Mine is specifically a partnership with Private Equity firms. It is an effort to promote the brand among the entire portfolio of this company's equity holdings.

The VP of Sales is assigned as my Executive Sponsor and has an introduction with senior leadership of the PE firm. Ultimately, I maintain the relationship and lead any campaigns or initiatives and my VP of Sales is the muscle. He can open up channels to drive some of the needs presented by the customer. I give him the proposal and he tells me if it is feasible or not. We develop an internal mutual plan and we go from there. In return, he gets increased access and introductions to the buying partners in the companies that we currently don't have business with in the PE's firm. The customer gets commitment on strategic initiatives and exclusive pricing.