If you haven’t got your head round that yet, do so quickly!
The customer is in control and loyalty is a hard-won prize. To retain valuable customers and build long-term profitability for your business, a customer centric model with the customer’s needs at its heart, is essential. Customer loyalty is intrinsically tied to customer success. Forward looking companies understand that the quicker a customer can recognise the value of a newly purchased product or service, the more likely they are to be retained and grown. Customer success teams are fast becoming an essential function within businesses, working proactively to ensure the life-time value of a customer is realised.
The need for longer-term success is why Customer Success teams are becoming increasingly common in B2B sales organisations. However, it’s important for sales leadership to understand that Customer Success is not the same as other sales or other CX functions.
For sales professionals, their top priority is closing the deal by helping the customer identify the best solution for their needs. They work to bring in new customers, grow existing and the main conversion for commercial growth. They are typically revenue driven.
For Customer Success representatives, post-sales success is the focus, helping build customer loyalty. Their goal is to continue to nurture the customer relationship to ensure they successfully adopt the product or service, are satisfied with their purchase and, ideally, become lifelong customers.
As an example, today many businesses adopt monthly reoccurring revenue models or revenue on success models, so the long-term retention and usage of products is key. This is where winning, retaining and growing strategies need to be aligned.
Customer Success and Sales are two sides of one lucrative coin. They need to work together, know what each other does for the customer and how they link up and work towards developing the relationship with the customer and are focused on any business objectives for revenue growth. So, there is a need to bring your customer success and sales goals into alignment. This means encouraging greater collaboration and communication between your customer success and sales teams.
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