I published a book recently called REACH: A Framework for Driving Revenue Growth from Your Existing Customers. It introduces a structured process to help CSMs and Customer Success teams more consistently prioritize their accounts according to growth potential and then predictably uncover and capitalize on expansion opportunities.
REACH is an acronym for the five factors to consider – Relationships, Engagement, Actions, Customer Value, and Horizons.
It's important to note that the concepts behind REACH do not require you to adopt a salesperson role. If you were interested in sales, you would have pursued a career in that field. However, it's likely that the expectations of your executive team and boards regarding your CS team's impact on company results have evolved over the past year. They may need you to contribute more to top-line revenue growth and also to deliver your experiences in a cost-efficient way.
The concepts behind REACH are easy to apply, but it does require a mindset shift in how you approach your role and your interactions with customers.
It requires four new ways of thinking:
- An ability to prioritize your accounts so you invest your time where your engagement will have the most impact on growing the account
- A commitment to actively listen, uncover, and recommend ways your solution can provide more value to your customers
- A belief that you are best positioned at your company to increase the likelihood that your customers will grow
- A purposeful set of actions you can take for one or more of the REACH factors that can turn into an Account Expansion Plan or an Expansion Close Plan.
You can do this! In fact, I bet that you already have at least one great story of how the work that you have done with a certain customer laid the foundation for them growing with your company over time.
Please share this story in the discussion on this topic. Share an example of a customer account for which you were proud of the work you did with them and where they expanded their investment in your company over time.
Even if you didn’t “create the opportunity” or “sign the expansion contract”, I am confident that this expansion could not have happened without the relationship building, the product engagement, and the understanding of your solution’s value that you inevitably contributed to.
As an added incentive for you to share a short expansion story, I will be happy to send a free signed copy of REACH to the first 10 people who share an expansion example.
__________Rod Cherkas is the CEO and founder of HelloCCO, a strategy consulting firm based in San Mateo, California, serving clients worldwide.
He is the author of the best-selling book, The Chief Customer Officer Playbook: 8 Strategies That Will Accelerate Your Career and Win You a Seat at the Executive Table.
He is the leading global advisor to Chief Customer Officers and their post-sale leaders.
His vast experience helps CEOs, CCOs, CROs, and their executive teams increase customer retention rates, accelerate time to value, expand revenue faster, and improve financial performance.
