August 23, 2023 • 35 mins
In this episode, our host Anika Zubair chats with Tulasi Ryali, CSM of the Year by Customer Success Excellence about how to help your customer reach their business goals through value creation.
Being a Customer Success Manager (CSM) requires great multitasking skills and adaptability. You need excellent communication skills, outstanding problem-solving abilities and a remarkable understanding of customers. So, who holds the title of the "Best CSM of the Year" and how can you join their league?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Hello everyone. I'm your host, Anika Bert , and
welcome back to the nextepisode of the Customer Success
Channel podcast, brought to youby Plan Hat , the Modern
Customer platform. This podcastis created for anyone working
in or interested in thecustomer success field. On this
podcast, we will speak toleaders in the industry about
their experiences and theirdefinitions of customer success
(00:27):
and get their advice and bestpractices on how to run a c s
organization. Today we arespeaking to Tulsi Ally , a
senior customer success managerat Siemens Digital Industry
Software. With over 18 years ofexperience in customer facing
roles, including technicalarchitect and program
(00:47):
management, Tulsi really hasbuilt an incredible career
within customer success. Forthe past four years, she has
focused on SaaS products andhas been passionately helping
customers achieve theirbusiness goals. DCI's love for
solving complex problems andunderstanding customer needs
drives her meticulous approachto value creation. She has also
(01:08):
recently been awarded with thetitle of C ss M of the year by
the Customer Success ExcellenceAwards, and today we will be
talking to her about herstrategies and her tactical
tips on how to help yourcustomers reach their business
goals through valuerealizations. Let's chat to
Thuli all about being the bestc s M of the year. Welcome
Thuli to the podcast. I am soexcited to have you here with
(01:30):
us today. For those of ourlisteners that don't know who
you are, can you please tell usa little bit more about
yourself, how you started yourcareer in customer success, and
what it is you're currentlydoing at Siemens?
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Hi, thank you for having me. I'm really excited
to have this conversationtoday. I'm senior customer
success manager at SiemensDigital Industry Software , and
I focus on SaaS products. Iwork closely with customers in
adopting to our software andrealizing the value.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Amazing. Amazing.
And what inspired you to startworking in customer success?
Speaker 3 (02:05):
So I began my journey in customer success
four years ago when the rolewasn't as widely as recognized
as of today. So joining thisfield actually allowed me to
collaborate across , uh,various internal teams and
engage with a diverse range ofcompanies at various stages. So
prior to this, I was atechnical architect and a
(02:26):
program manager where I wasfocused on the program and
delivery of the program andunderstanding the applications
and meeting the customer needs.
But my scope is limited. Butwhile I was working with , um,
you know , various companiesbefore Siemens, what I
understood is solving thecomplex problems of a customer
is key for any organization andmeeting their vision and making
(02:48):
sure that the value is realizedwhile we deliver anything. So I
learned some of the key , uh,learnings in my previous roles,
and that actually made me totake this title as C S M when I
, when it was offered to me atSiemens four years ago. And
this role actually gave me ,uh, like ability to serve in a
large capacity within theorganizations like , uh, LA
(03:11):
Siemens, where we aretransforming to SaaS , uh, from
on-prem to SaaS products. Andthis is very truly cap waiting
for me, and it offered me aplatform to continuously learn
and also address multitude ofcustomer challenges at the same
time contributing to theirsuccess.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Amazing. I love hearing that and I love that
you've come from a verydifferent, or let's say more
technical background into thecustomer success space. And
we'll get into this more laterin the podcast. But in this
podcast we also like to speakabout personal success as well.
And you've had some greatpersonal success thus far
within the customer successfield. And , um, you just
(03:50):
recently won Customer SuccessManager of the year from
Customer Success Excellence,which is a great title to have
and a great award to win. Socongratulations on that. Um,
but can you maybe tell ourlisteners who are aspiring to
be great CSMs, what is it aboutyour recent experiences or
maybe share a little bit moreabout your story that led to
(04:13):
your success as c s m of theyear? Yeah,
Speaker 3 (04:16):
I was deeply honored to receive the title c ss M of
the year, and it gave meopportunity to meet a panel of
industry experts during thatconference. So the application
process actually starts earlyin the year, and I applied this
, uh, I think March or Aprilthat time. Uh, and I was
selected by panel of 30industry executives for several
(04:38):
hundreds of qualified entrantsfor this award. And I believe
the approach that I worktowards customers is more
focused on the value creationand not just , uh, focusing on
the region BA based , but Ialso , um, you know, increase
my scope and also establish astrategy of increasing the ,
uh, customer participationacross the various America's
(05:02):
Jones , including south andnorth . And I mainly focus on
how I can meet the customerneeds at the same time, make
sure that the value isdelivered and go beyond the
value delivery, you know,identify different areas of how
I can increase or scale oridentify the upsell and
expansion opportunities. And Ibelieve some of these
(05:23):
strategies help me to win thisaward. And I am very grateful
for the panel of judges andalso the organization committee
who actually recommended me forthis award.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yeah, that's amazing. And we're gonna dive
into a little bit more of yourKPIs and what made you
successful in your role. Andlike you said, you had a number
of different skills and assetsthat resulted in being the C S
M that you are today. Before wemove into that in our, on our
topic of today , um, do youmind sharing a little bit more
about what landed you in Texas?
(05:55):
I know that you shared with me,me that you're, you're based in
Texas, but for our listeners, Ithink your accent comes more of
an Indian accent. So I'mcurious what, what brought you
to Texas? Yeah,
Speaker 3 (06:05):
So I relocated to United States almost 11 years
back , uh, from India. So I wasborn and brought up and I
completed my bachelor's andmaster's in India. So I was
working in India and my due tomy work actually made me to
relocate to United States. Irelocated along with my family
, uh, in 2012. Since then, youknow , I allowed working with
(06:28):
various customers , uh, mainlyI was working with OEMs before
that, but when I startedworking in US , I also had
opportunity to work with retailand other high tech OEMs and
semiconductor industries aswell.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Amazing. I love hearing that as a expat myself.
I always love hearingeveryone's , uh, relocation
stories and, and how it's, it'sresulted in a life that you're
building now in a totallydifferent part of the world. So
that's amazing. And alsoanother, I guess, great thing
to add to your, to yourabilities 'cause it's no, it's
no easy job relocating halfwayacross the world. So that's
(07:03):
amazing to hear. So thank youfor sharing your story. Um,
we're talking today mostlyabout becoming the best c ss m
of the year. I think thatthat's a great title, as you
already said. And I think a lotof people listening aspire to
be a better c s m every singleday. And you already kind of
alluded to what it is you'redoing, but for our listeners
that are CSMs today, CSMs canbe tasked with a lot of
(07:25):
different things to do day today . I think that sometimes
it's an endless to-do list, buthow do you structure your time
as a C S M? Can you give us alittle bit of a snapshot into
the day of your life as , um,the best c ss m of the year?
Speaker 3 (07:40):
So I manage , uh, typically manage high touch
engagements and I start my dayby reviewing the priorities and
the tasks from previous day. SoI always build a to-do list and
I create the internal meetingsbased on the impact on the
customer success and theoutcomes. So I create these and
I also have like check-inmeetings with the customers.
(08:00):
Typically, they focus ononboarding or customer success
planning, workshop valuediscussions or executive
business reviews, followed byinternal alignment calls, which
are very key , uh, for the ,uh, for S C S M. Uh , it is
very important to collaboratewell internally to meet the
customer needs. So theseinternal calls are very
important, especially with thesales team where I , if I
(08:24):
identify any upsell or crosssell . So I bring it up upfront
. And if there are any renewalsthat are at risk, it's very
important to make that heads upfor entire team and get their
support on time. So theseinternal calls are not just
with , uh, sales but supportservices and various channels
within the organization. Thefocus is , uh, prioritizing
(08:44):
based on the customer needs. Ischedule these calls and my day
is completely filled with themeetings, talking to the people
and identifying how I canquickly address the challenges
or the needs of the customer tomove forward.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Amazing. And you mentioned internal
collaboration calls, which Ithink you went into detail,
which is great. And when youhand off maybe upsell
opportunities to the sales teamor renewals to the sales team
make sense. But can you tell mea little bit more about these
value discussion calls? I thinkthey sound very intriguing and
like you said, you're there asa C S M to deliver value to the
(09:20):
customer, but what, what, whatdoes a value discussion call
mean to you? What is it thatyou're doing in that call?
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Oh, yeah. So when I do the customer success
planning session, so Itypically brainstorm and
identify the current state andthe target , uh, you know, what
they would like to achieve thetarget state. So in these , uh,
discussions, I baseline theinformation what quantify and
also qualify to when they canmeet that quantifiable metrics,
(09:47):
business metrics. So theresome, sometimes , uh, you know,
for example, if they would liketo reduce the time to market by
10 weeks, which is a kind ofaggressive timeline, 10 weeks
in a span of four months orfive months. So how do we meet
that? Can we meet that? Sothose discussions, I'll start
upfront and make sure that weare achieving that metrics in
(10:09):
that particular timeline, likefive months, if not , uh, how I
can alert this , uh, notachievable to the customer or
how I can make it possible withthe help of our teams. So this
value discovery workshop willalso be done , uh, uh, very
beginning by, in collaborationwith our pre-sales team , uh,
the , you know, the estimatedsavings. That's what we put
(10:32):
that in the value discussionvery beginning. And as a C S M
during the adoption phase andalso after the go live phase, I
make sure that the estimatedare realized like for 40,000 ,
uh, dollars per, per month orper quarter is what is
estimated then how do I make itrealized ? So I calculate that
math while we, while I focus onthe adoption metrics and after
(10:55):
the goal I , what's theconsumption status, how much
they have reduced, and how muchthey had in the beginning. So
the , that's the kind of , uh,value discovery workshop that,
that, that's what I focused in.
Really .
Speaker 2 (11:08):
That's amazing. I love it. I absolutely love it.
'cause I think every step of acustomer journey requires a
plan. I think if you don't havea plan, you have no idea where
you're going and you arebuilding a value success plan,
let's say. And I alsoabsolutely love hearing that
you do the r o I calculationfor the customer, where you
(11:28):
make the, you make the mathmake sense, really, and I say
this all the time to my CSSteam, is if you make the math
make sense, it, it makes payingfor your software a no-brainer.
Uh , your , your renewal iseasy and upsell is easier just
because you've made all thevalue really obvious and you've
tied it back to a dollar orlet's say monetary metric,
(11:50):
which is really, reallyimportant and key I think as a
C S M. And I think you do thatevery day , which I'm not
surprised by because of, youknow, you're the best c s m of
the year. But can you tell us alittle bit more about the types
of customers you're workingwith? You kind of mentioned it
earlier, but what are the typesof customers you help? What
sort of touch points do youhave with these customers? We
also, we mentioned two callsalready, but are there any
(12:13):
other calls, meetings, emails?
What are you doing with thesecustomers?
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Yeah, sure. So as I mentioned that I work with
these high engagement , um,value-based customers. So , uh,
like, so for example, likestrategy accounts. So these
customers have significantimpact on cus company's
business and I work closelywith them to ensure that they
achieve their strategic goalsand objectives. And the other
(12:38):
type is high value customerswhere , uh, the customer has a
high contract value. Uh , myrole involves in ensuring that
they maximize the value , uh,and that they derived from our
product. And say , thirdcategory is like industry
leaders. So these are somethingthe customers who are the
leaders in the industry andthey can be served as a
(12:59):
valuable reference and casestudies for us. So my
interactions would include morein showcasing their success and
collaborating on their thoughtleadership and coming to the
touch points , I do haveonboarding touchpoint. So
during this onboarding phase, Iwork extensively with the
customer to make sure a smoothadoption of the software and
(13:21):
followed biweekly touch pointsin the very beginning phase
that allows me to address likewhat are the challenges and
answer the questions and guidethem through the initial setup
and bring the right people ifthey need some en enablement
sessions during that time. SoI'll bring the people on board
during this phase. And anothercomponent is , uh, customer
success plan. So I typicallyconduct these sessions in
(13:44):
person , I visit the sites andthe plans of the customer. Um,
and I discuss in detail on thecurrent state and also map the
future state challenges in thecurrent state is what I will be
capturing in my C SS P Andalso, as I mentioned earlier,
that I'll capture the businessmetrics which they anticipate
to achieve and quantify themhow , uh, the duration of time
(14:07):
when they would like to seethat outcome. And this planning
component serves as afoundation for me to track the
customer progress. So some ofthese , uh, touch points would
be like biweekly engagements onthe customer success plan,
tracking the adoption and alsothe metrics and these biweekly
touch points ensures thatthey're on track , uh, not
(14:27):
deviating or no , no risks oranything to identify those
ahead of the time. And mainly ,um, as a C S M, the proactive
approach is very important. Um,that's the one of the reason,
instead of waiting for the twoweeks of time having it till
next touch point , if we seesomething that's going down or
going beyond the expectations,I quickly set up the call based
(14:50):
on the priority as well. Andthe third touchpoint would be
the executive business reviews.
So the executive businessreviews, typically I conduct
them on a quarterly basis thatallows me to give a overall
customer progress, a programprogress to the executives and
the value that they aregaining. And I bring up the
next steps and what is the planfor the next 60 days and the
(15:12):
next quarter. Um, those are thediscussions I typically conduct
in the executive businessreviews. So these are the
typical touch points that I dowith my customers.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Amazing. And I really love that you have
customers that are segmentednot only on value, 'cause you
mentioned that they're the hightouch or high revenue
customers, but you alsomentioned that you have a
segment of customers that areindustry leaders and , um,
you're almost trying to derivecase studies out of them or
best practices as well. That'sreally interesting. What made
(15:42):
you guys segment your customersthat way and what made you
start focusing on customers inthese different, let's say,
segments rather than justrevenue-based segments? 'cause
most businesses focus on therevenue of the customer, and
you're clearly focused on a fewdifferent segments. Why , why
this direction with yourcustomers?
Speaker 3 (16:01):
Yeah, because this is very important , uh, to
identify some valuablereferences and make sure that
we showcase the success to therest of the customers as well.
Uh , that's why there are somecustomers we identify that we
identify to help them , uh, tobuild a more success with our
software , uh, and othercustomers. As I said, the high
(16:22):
contract value is somethingthat we need to take care and
make sure that they are seeingthe value out of what they
purchase with our product.
That's where , uh, this kind of, uh, segmentation is required
when we work with high touchengagements, and that's
actually helping us to grow aswell.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Yeah, I love that. I always love using customer case
studies as great examples toother customers because a lot
of your customers don't knowwhat they don't know. Sometimes
they really don't know how tobest use your product, but when
you're able to show them orgive them an example of someone
else in a similar industry orusing the similar products that
they're using the ways forward,they really appreciate that. I
(17:02):
always find that customers lovehearing other ways customers
are using your product. So Ithink that's really great that
you're doing that. Youmentioned a few data points
that you collect when you startspeaking to a customer,
especially around the valuediscovery call and the r o i
and all these important metricsthat you're starting to , to
gather. And I think data iscritical to customer success,
(17:24):
but how are you leveraging dataday-to-day? I know you're
collecting some of the datayourself, but are you tracking
product usage? What are some ofthe important data points that
you're looking at day-to-day?
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Yeah. Well, so data is indeed crucial to the role
of S C S M, and it providesinsights that help to der more
, uh, informed decisions andproactive engagement and a
successful customer outcomes .
So data is very, very crucialfor S C S M. And I typically ,
uh, have use this data tomonitor the customer health. So
(17:57):
I, I use data to track thehealth of each customer
account, and this includesseveral factors like product
usage, engagement metrics, andcustomer feedback, izing this
data so I can identify thesigns of potential churn and
measure the customersatisfaction and proactively
address any issues ahead of thetime. And the second one is we
(18:20):
do have a in-house builttelemetry platform where I can
look at the usage based onmonthly active users or the key
KPIs on , on our software. Sotracking how customers are
using our product, it providesinsights to the level of their
adoption when we aredelivering, when they're
delivering the value. And thisdata helps , uh, for me to
(18:42):
identify more power users, like, uh, areas of under
utilization and theopportunities for upsell and
also the additional features.
Third one is , um, customerfeedback is also critical for C
S M and data from the customerfeedback service , like number
of support, tickets,interactions, that can also
highlight some of the painpoints, challenges, areas of
(19:03):
improvement. And CSMs can usethis kind of feedback, the data
that is coming from thefeedback to address the pain
point concerns and enhanceoverall customer experience.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Yeah, I love that.
And you just mentioned thelevel of adoption and how much
of your product is beingadopted, which I think is a
critical data point for A C SM. Are you using these data
points in those executivebusiness reviews or even in the
value discussion calls thatyou're having? How, how are you
leveraging this data? When,when is it important to, to
(19:35):
showcase it to the customer? So
Speaker 3 (19:36):
I use this data me , these metrics , uh, in my
executive business reviews. Soevery time I bring up the
adoption metrics, how they'readopting and how many, for
example, how much they scale orhow much they, how, how the
potential they have to grow,it's also important for me to
showcase to them. So these databased on the number of tickets,
(19:57):
number of tickets that wereaddressed and the feedback,
what were the pain points thatwere identified and also met
during what timeline is alsoshowcased in those reviews.
Because it is very importantfor the customer to understand
how quickly we are addressingtheir needs, how quickly we are
relu providing the resolution ,uh, to their support tickets or
(20:18):
how quickly we are improvingfrom our end too, right? So
that is where it, it , it isvery important to showcase
these analytics in the reports.
Uh, it , I include typically inmy executive business reviews
and also do the account reviewswith internal teams on a
monthly basis. We have a callwith leadership team where I
(20:39):
showcase , uh, use thesetelemetry usage as well as the
feedback metrics , uh, in areport showcasing like, this is
how, how the customer isprogressing and these are areas
of concerns. So where I can getmy help from my colleagues as
well internally,
Speaker 2 (20:55):
I love that you use everything you use in executive
business review, bothexternally in front of a
customer, but internally aswell. So you're almost making,
you know, more use out of thedata that you've been
presented, which is really,really important. And I think
that helps you greatly 'causeyou do need to get internal
buy-in just as much as you needthe customer to believe in the
metrics. And executive businessreviews I think are very, very
(21:18):
controversial in customersuccess. Some people love them,
some people think they'reuseless. What are your
thoughts, and, and I think Ialready know the answer because
you have high touch engagement,but how are your executive
business reviews structured?
How do your customers receiveit? Who's on those calls with
you when you have thoseexecutive business reviews?
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Yeah, typically I include a level, level the ,
uh, contact or those , uh,point of contact that I
regularly meet on a biweeklybasis to make sure that the
manager plan manager or thedirector also understands what
the program is delivering.
Mm-hmm. , uh, andthese executive business
reviews really make an impactfrom my , uh, experience. And
(21:59):
it also gives a platform tounderstand what their vision
is, what's their future is,like, what they would like to
build more, or what they'relooking for, any other
competitors or any other extra,additional features that we can
incorporate. So it gives me aplatform to understand , um,
their pain points challenges,and sometimes it is not a
(22:21):
always a happy ending , uh,review. It's, it's a , it's
taking the customerfrustrations as well too. So it
is important to be patient andlisten to the customer. So I
mainly make these reviews as alistening more, mainly focusing
on the listening part of it ,understand what customer is
saying and what customer islooking forward for after I
(22:44):
showcase. Like, this is thehealth , this is the where we
are, and this is the progresswe made and the plan for the
next 60 days. Okay. And the nowtime for the listening. So that
is , those reviews are veryimportant, especially , uh, in,
in my case, while I work withthese customers, these reviews
make a huge difference.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Amazing. Yeah, I agree. I think that if you can
deliver value in them and yourcustomer sees value in in E B R
or a business review, I thinkthey're super critical. But I
think you also mentioned thatnot all calls are happy. Not
all calls are successful withcustomers. And I think in the
reality of being a C S M, thereare probably lots of calls that
we don't wanna maybe admit thataren't the happiest or easiest
(23:24):
to do when it comes tocustomers. How do you deal with
some of the tougher customers?
Or maybe you had an E B R thatdidn't go very well. How do you
kind of come out of that and,and take away learnings and
apply it to, to future calls?
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Yeah, yeah. It's a very good question. So not all,
all customer calls are happy.
It's important to understandtheir pain points, frustrations
and their plans as well, andwhere we are lacking and what
we are doing good and how wecan improve ourselves, how we
can be more innovative thanothers in the industry, right?
So those are some of the keylearnings. Every review is
(24:01):
different and every customer isunique based on their needs and
based on the industry and thecomplexity of their needs. So
every review is a learning forme. I capture the learnings
from the, from the reviews andthe action plan is required .
That's what I focus on. What isthe action from for, for me and
for my company or from mycolleagues, from the review,
(24:23):
right? I take those actionitems to my colleagues as well.
Internal collaboration is verykey for C S M because it's not
a one man show, it's a whole ,uh, company to meet the
customer needs. So these brsgives us a , uh, in a way for
what our understand, like howwe can enhance our product
features as well. So sometimesI take these action items to ,
(24:46):
uh, create an enhancementrequest on our product features
, uh, that justifying the casethat this is , uh, critical and
how it is important for mycustomer. And I also take like
action items, how this, how Ican help , uh, the customer by
quickly solving some of thesupport tickets if they're
trending for a longer time orsome, sometimes how I can
(25:06):
create a value or , uh, createsome area where I can show
customer that our software, wehave a huge pool of different
types of software, how I canhelp my customer with
cross-selling the products. Sothose are some of the action
items I take from the E B R andwork with our colleagues , um,
and apply it to the customer,not just to the one customer,
but going forward, like , uh,next E B r I'll be more
(25:30):
prepared to address some ofthese ahead of the time. And
one more thing I would like toadd is I typically take a
product management personnelfrom our team to make sure that
the customer also gets aware ofthe product roadmap so that it
addresses some of his concernsand also the needs when they
talk directly to our productteams.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Yeah, I love that there were so many things that
you just shared that I thinkare such key takeaways for
anyone listening, I love thepiece that you are continually
learning. I think as a C S M oranyone in customer success, you
have to continue to learn fromthe hard conversations like you
just said, and you apply it notonly to that customer, but to
future customers, which I thinkis really admirable because I
(26:10):
think learning and continuinglylearn, we're never, we're never
complete, we're never, wecan't, we can't say we've
learned everything. So I dolove that you continue to learn
from every example or everycustomer experience. And then
the second part you said isaround having customer success
as an entire team approach. Andyou have product members that
join in on the calls, which Ithink are super critical. I do
(26:34):
not think customer success is aone man team. Uh , you
definitely have to haveeveryone bought into the idea
of it and everyone speaking tothe customer. And I think it's
great that your product team isspeaking directly with the
customer and that you're ableto get them on board to have
those calls. But that's notalways easy. I'll say some,
some product managers aren'talways keen or, or open to
(26:54):
having customer calls. Um, youmentioned the internal
collaboration call. Is that howyou get your product managers
more excited and interested inthe customer calls or what do
you do to get them on boardwith these calls?
Speaker 3 (27:05):
Oh, yeah. So we do have like a weekly huddle , uh,
with our product managementteams and r and d teams. Uh,
we'll share the customerfeedback with them and we'll
make sure that they're aware ofwhat , uh, it's what's
happening on these accounts sothat be prepared to address the
future needs of the customer.
So we'll make, we'll make them, uh, what , uh, what's
(27:26):
happening. Not just like , uh,one, one or two other features,
but overall progress of theaccount.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Amazing. And you work not only with product, but
also with the sales team quiteclosely by the sounds of it. I
know that you guys identifyopportunities for upsells, but
then you don't exactly handlethe renewal or the upsell,
that's something that they'redoing. So how, how do you hand
off , how does thatrelationship work with upsells
and renewals? Mm-hmm .
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Yeah. So we do have a separate team , uh, for doing
the renewals, but wecollaborate with the renewal
team. We, we provide theinsights of the customer health
to our renewal team. They'llsuccessfully complete the
renewal. But to get to thatpoint , uh, how , what is the
indicator for the successfulrenewal is very important,
right? So , um, what we do inthe com organization is to main
(28:16):
maintain a customer sentimentfor all of our customers. And I
typically have this customersentiment on a weekly basis
update the sentiment , uh,which is a key indicator for
the successful renewal. Sowhere if it is a low or red,
then the customer is not happyand it is at risk. And , uh, we
alert the , this kind of riskof renewal ahead of the time.
(28:38):
If I need to bring the peoplein or do some , uh, enablement
training for the customer oraddress their needs, I bring
the right people, talk to thecustomer and try different
approaches to make sure thatthe renewal happens. But before
getting there, how I also makesure that we don't face that
kind of situation for thecustomers getting into the risk
(28:59):
of renewal. So , uh, it'simportant for A C S M , uh, to
make sure that these needs arecaptured in the very beginning
and addressed. And if any , youknow, fashion that , uh, these
milestones, whatever we laydown in the customer success
plan are met on a timelyfashion.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Yeah, it's so important, the timely fashion,
I think having a deadline iscritical to any customer
success plan or outline oraccount review. If you just
say, Hey, I have this goal withyour product and there's no
deadline, you could be workingfor weeks, months, years, who
knows. But having that timelineholds you accountable as a C S
M, but also holds your customeraccountable, which I think is
(29:39):
really, really important. Wetalked about learnings, we
talked about how you continueto learn, which is great, but
what is your personal biggestlearning of being a C S M?
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Understanding every customer is unique. So every
customer is unique andunderstand their needs is also
very important. So no singleapproach fits for all
situations. That's what Ibelieve. And the ability to
adapt to the situation andcommunication is key , uh, is a
biggest learning for me. And ifthere was something like
(30:10):
missing part, we need toidentify that or fill that gap,
right? And every customerenvironment is different and
sometimes it involves a complexstructure engagement on the
customer side as well asinternally we need to , uh, you
know, bring that kind ofdynamics, understand what the
customer needs are or howcomplex is the situation, and
(30:33):
bring that back to our internalteams, make sure that they also
on , on the same page,understand how critical is that
, uh, customer. So that's,that's the biggest learning for
me. Adapt to the situation andcommunication is key.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
I couldn't agree with you more. I think that
that is so well said . That isI , if any , anyone can take
anything from thisconversation, those two
learnings would be it. But Iknow there's a lot of people
who are listening to thispodcast today that aspire to be
the best c s m of the year, orthey're even aspiring to break
into customer success. Whatwould your advice to everyone
(31:10):
that's listening that wants tobe a better C ss m, what would
be your advice to them ?
Speaker 3 (31:15):
So I would say put the customer first. Always, no
matter what your primary focusshould be, understanding on
their needs, aspirations andchallenges, prioritize their
success above all else, doesn'tmatter , uh, what it is, but ,
uh, what the other , uh, youknow, situations or the
(31:35):
internal assignments. But it isimportant to make sure that you
prioritize the customersuccess. And the other one is
listen, actively empathize andwork collaboratively to achieve
their goals.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
I love that. I think the biggest learning for me in
customer success is the activelistening piece. I think you
really do have to activelylisten to everything a customer
wants. And like you said,they'll tell you exactly what
they want and they'll tell youwhat they're looking for and
their goals and they'll helpyou get to their successes. But
you just need to activelylisten and be able good
(32:08):
participant in thatconversation. So thank you for
sharing all of that. We cankeep talking and I'm sure
everyone will continue to takenotes on all your tips and
tricks on how to be a best C sm. But we're gonna wrap up with
our quick fire discussion whereI ask you a few questions and
the challenges that you have totry to answer them in one
sentence or less. Are youready? Yep . Okay. Let's do
this. The first question is,what do you think is next for
(32:30):
the customer success industry?
Speaker 3 (32:33):
So the customer success industry is likely to
continue moving towards evenmore personalized and hyper
target customer experienceswith AI and advanced analytics.
They can play a significantrole in understanding
individual customer needs andtailor the interactions and it
leads to more successfuloutcomes.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Yeah , I agree. I loved hearing that because I
do, I'm so curious what AI isgonna do when it comes to
shaping the personalization ofhow we interact with customers.
So completely agree. My nextquestion is, which SaaS product
can you not live without as aCS profession?
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Um, we use , uh, mostly on Salesforce and we
also have a inbuilt telemetryplatform where we use for
analytics purposes, but mainlythe Salesforce, we are
completely dependent on that.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
Yeah, I would say having a very good c r M is
critical to being a good C S Mbecause you need to know who
your customers are and whatproducts they're using. So.
Agreed. Um , my next questionis where or what is your
favorite customer successlearning resource?
Speaker 3 (33:36):
Yeah, I typically follow the posts on the
LinkedIn and I also read thebooks by Nick , Nick Mata , uh,
and also the podcast channel,customer Success channel. Um,
uh, some of the podcasts alsomakes me a good, gives me a
good learning source.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Okay. Amazing. And then who is inspiring you
currently in customer success,or whom do you think we should
have as our next guest on thispodcast? Uh ,
Speaker 3 (34:01):
Recently I read the book by Rod Cheka , the Chief
Customer Success Officer. Andthat's a great , uh, uh, you
know , book for me to getinspired by many leaders. And I
would love to hear from Rod onhis , uh, journey.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Oh , amazing. I haven't had him on the podcast.
I will consider Rod then. Well, thank you so
much tulsi for your time andenergy and all your tips and
tricks. I know everyonelistening probably wrote down a
whole bunch of notes. I know Idid. If anyone has any other
questions or wants to get intouch with you, what's the best
way to connect with you?
Speaker 3 (34:34):
Uh , they can connect me on the LinkedIn so I
can respond back , uh, if theymessage me so I can also give
some tips and advices or mentorthem if they need. So I'm help
.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Amazing. Thank you so much for your time, and
we'll make sure to link allyour LinkedIn details in the
show notes. But thank you againfor your time.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Thank you for having me. Thank you for the
opportunity, Annika, and have agreat day.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Thank you for listening to the Customer
Success Channel podcast today.
We hope you learn something newto take back to your team and
your company. If you foundvalue in our podcast, please
make sure to give us a positivereview and make sure you
subscribe to our channel as werelease new podcasts every
month. Also, if you have anytopics that you would like me
to discuss in the future or youwould like to be a guest on the
(35:17):
podcast, please feel free toreach out. All my contact
details are in the show notes.
Thanks again for listening andtune in next time for more on
customer success.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Hello everyone. I'm your host, Anika Bert , and
welcome back to the nextepisode of the Customer Success
Channel podcast, brought to youby Plan Hat , the Modern
Customer platform. This podcastis created for anyone working
in or interested in thecustomer success field. On this
podcast, we will speak toleaders in the industry about
their experiences and theirdefinitions of customer success
(00:27):
and get their advice and bestpractices on how to run a c s
organization. Today we arespeaking to Tulsi Ally , a
senior customer success managerat Siemens Digital Industry
Software. With over 18 years ofexperience in customer facing
roles, including technicalarchitect and program
(00:47):
management, Tulsi really hasbuilt an incredible career
within customer success. Forthe past four years, she has
focused on SaaS products andhas been passionately helping
customers achieve theirbusiness goals. DCI's love for
solving complex problems andunderstanding customer needs
drives her meticulous approachto value creation. She has also
(01:08):
recently been awarded with thetitle of C ss M of the year by
the Customer Success ExcellenceAwards, and today we will be
talking to her about herstrategies and her tactical
tips on how to help yourcustomers reach their business
goals through valuerealizations. Let's chat to
Thuli all about being the bestc s M of the year. Welcome
Thuli to the podcast. I am soexcited to have you here with
(01:30):
us today. For those of ourlisteners that don't know who
you are, can you please tell usa little bit more about
yourself, how you started yourcareer in customer success, and
what it is you're currentlydoing at Siemens?
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Hi, thank you for having me. I'm really excited
to have this conversationtoday. I'm senior customer
success manager at SiemensDigital Industry Software , and
I focus on SaaS products. Iwork closely with customers in
adopting to our software andrealizing the value.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Amazing. Amazing.
And what inspired you to startworking in customer success?
Speaker 3 (02:05):
So I began my journey in customer success
four years ago when the rolewasn't as widely as recognized
as of today. So joining thisfield actually allowed me to
collaborate across , uh,various internal teams and
engage with a diverse range ofcompanies at various stages. So
prior to this, I was atechnical architect and a
(02:26):
program manager where I wasfocused on the program and
delivery of the program andunderstanding the applications
and meeting the customer needs.
But my scope is limited. Butwhile I was working with , um,
you know , various companiesbefore Siemens, what I
understood is solving thecomplex problems of a customer
is key for any organization andmeeting their vision and making
(02:48):
sure that the value is realizedwhile we deliver anything. So I
learned some of the key , uh,learnings in my previous roles,
and that actually made me totake this title as C S M when I
, when it was offered to me atSiemens four years ago. And
this role actually gave me ,uh, like ability to serve in a
large capacity within theorganizations like , uh, LA
(03:11):
Siemens, where we aretransforming to SaaS , uh, from
on-prem to SaaS products. Andthis is very truly cap waiting
for me, and it offered me aplatform to continuously learn
and also address multitude ofcustomer challenges at the same
time contributing to theirsuccess.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Amazing. I love hearing that and I love that
you've come from a verydifferent, or let's say more
technical background into thecustomer success space. And
we'll get into this more laterin the podcast. But in this
podcast we also like to speakabout personal success as well.
And you've had some greatpersonal success thus far
within the customer successfield. And , um, you just
(03:50):
recently won Customer SuccessManager of the year from
Customer Success Excellence,which is a great title to have
and a great award to win. Socongratulations on that. Um,
but can you maybe tell ourlisteners who are aspiring to
be great CSMs, what is it aboutyour recent experiences or
maybe share a little bit moreabout your story that led to
(04:13):
your success as c s m of theyear? Yeah,
Speaker 3 (04:16):
I was deeply honored to receive the title c ss M of
the year, and it gave meopportunity to meet a panel of
industry experts during thatconference. So the application
process actually starts earlyin the year, and I applied this
, uh, I think March or Aprilthat time. Uh, and I was
selected by panel of 30industry executives for several
(04:38):
hundreds of qualified entrantsfor this award. And I believe
the approach that I worktowards customers is more
focused on the value creationand not just , uh, focusing on
the region BA based , but Ialso , um, you know, increase
my scope and also establish astrategy of increasing the ,
uh, customer participationacross the various America's
(05:02):
Jones , including south andnorth . And I mainly focus on
how I can meet the customerneeds at the same time, make
sure that the value isdelivered and go beyond the
value delivery, you know,identify different areas of how
I can increase or scale oridentify the upsell and
expansion opportunities. And Ibelieve some of these
(05:23):
strategies help me to win thisaward. And I am very grateful
for the panel of judges andalso the organization committee
who actually recommended me forthis award.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yeah, that's amazing. And we're gonna dive
into a little bit more of yourKPIs and what made you
successful in your role. Andlike you said, you had a number
of different skills and assetsthat resulted in being the C S
M that you are today. Before wemove into that in our, on our
topic of today , um, do youmind sharing a little bit more
about what landed you in Texas?
(05:55):
I know that you shared with me,me that you're, you're based in
Texas, but for our listeners, Ithink your accent comes more of
an Indian accent. So I'mcurious what, what brought you
to Texas? Yeah,
Speaker 3 (06:05):
So I relocated to United States almost 11 years
back , uh, from India. So I wasborn and brought up and I
completed my bachelor's andmaster's in India. So I was
working in India and my due tomy work actually made me to
relocate to United States. Irelocated along with my family
, uh, in 2012. Since then, youknow , I allowed working with
(06:28):
various customers , uh, mainlyI was working with OEMs before
that, but when I startedworking in US , I also had
opportunity to work with retailand other high tech OEMs and
semiconductor industries aswell.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Amazing. I love hearing that as a expat myself.
I always love hearingeveryone's , uh, relocation
stories and, and how it's, it'sresulted in a life that you're
building now in a totallydifferent part of the world. So
that's amazing. And alsoanother, I guess, great thing
to add to your, to yourabilities 'cause it's no, it's
no easy job relocating halfwayacross the world. So that's
(07:03):
amazing to hear. So thank youfor sharing your story. Um,
we're talking today mostlyabout becoming the best c ss m
of the year. I think thatthat's a great title, as you
already said. And I think a lotof people listening aspire to
be a better c s m every singleday. And you already kind of
alluded to what it is you'redoing, but for our listeners
that are CSMs today, CSMs canbe tasked with a lot of
(07:25):
different things to do day today . I think that sometimes
it's an endless to-do list, buthow do you structure your time
as a C S M? Can you give us alittle bit of a snapshot into
the day of your life as , um,the best c ss m of the year?
Speaker 3 (07:40):
So I manage , uh, typically manage high touch
engagements and I start my dayby reviewing the priorities and
the tasks from previous day. SoI always build a to-do list and
I create the internal meetingsbased on the impact on the
customer success and theoutcomes. So I create these and
I also have like check-inmeetings with the customers.
(08:00):
Typically, they focus ononboarding or customer success
planning, workshop valuediscussions or executive
business reviews, followed byinternal alignment calls, which
are very key , uh, for the ,uh, for S C S M. Uh , it is
very important to collaboratewell internally to meet the
customer needs. So theseinternal calls are very
important, especially with thesales team where I , if I
(08:24):
identify any upsell or crosssell . So I bring it up upfront
. And if there are any renewalsthat are at risk, it's very
important to make that heads upfor entire team and get their
support on time. So theseinternal calls are not just
with , uh, sales but supportservices and various channels
within the organization. Thefocus is , uh, prioritizing
(08:44):
based on the customer needs. Ischedule these calls and my day
is completely filled with themeetings, talking to the people
and identifying how I canquickly address the challenges
or the needs of the customer tomove forward.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Amazing. And you mentioned internal
collaboration calls, which Ithink you went into detail,
which is great. And when youhand off maybe upsell
opportunities to the sales teamor renewals to the sales team
make sense. But can you tell mea little bit more about these
value discussion calls? I thinkthey sound very intriguing and
like you said, you're there asa C S M to deliver value to the
(09:20):
customer, but what, what, whatdoes a value discussion call
mean to you? What is it thatyou're doing in that call?
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Oh, yeah. So when I do the customer success
planning session, so Itypically brainstorm and
identify the current state andthe target , uh, you know, what
they would like to achieve thetarget state. So in these , uh,
discussions, I baseline theinformation what quantify and
also qualify to when they canmeet that quantifiable metrics,
(09:47):
business metrics. So theresome, sometimes , uh, you know,
for example, if they would liketo reduce the time to market by
10 weeks, which is a kind ofaggressive timeline, 10 weeks
in a span of four months orfive months. So how do we meet
that? Can we meet that? Sothose discussions, I'll start
upfront and make sure that weare achieving that metrics in
(10:09):
that particular timeline, likefive months, if not , uh, how I
can alert this , uh, notachievable to the customer or
how I can make it possible withthe help of our teams. So this
value discovery workshop willalso be done , uh, uh, very
beginning by, in collaborationwith our pre-sales team , uh,
the , you know, the estimatedsavings. That's what we put
(10:32):
that in the value discussionvery beginning. And as a C S M
during the adoption phase andalso after the go live phase, I
make sure that the estimatedare realized like for 40,000 ,
uh, dollars per, per month orper quarter is what is
estimated then how do I make itrealized ? So I calculate that
math while we, while I focus onthe adoption metrics and after
(10:55):
the goal I , what's theconsumption status, how much
they have reduced, and how muchthey had in the beginning. So
the , that's the kind of , uh,value discovery workshop that,
that, that's what I focused in.
Really .
Speaker 2 (11:08):
That's amazing. I love it. I absolutely love it.
'cause I think every step of acustomer journey requires a
plan. I think if you don't havea plan, you have no idea where
you're going and you arebuilding a value success plan,
let's say. And I alsoabsolutely love hearing that
you do the r o I calculationfor the customer, where you
(11:28):
make the, you make the mathmake sense, really, and I say
this all the time to my CSSteam, is if you make the math
make sense, it, it makes payingfor your software a no-brainer.
Uh , your , your renewal iseasy and upsell is easier just
because you've made all thevalue really obvious and you've
tied it back to a dollar orlet's say monetary metric,
(11:50):
which is really, reallyimportant and key I think as a
C S M. And I think you do thatevery day , which I'm not
surprised by because of, youknow, you're the best c s m of
the year. But can you tell us alittle bit more about the types
of customers you're workingwith? You kind of mentioned it
earlier, but what are the typesof customers you help? What
sort of touch points do youhave with these customers? We
also, we mentioned two callsalready, but are there any
(12:13):
other calls, meetings, emails?
What are you doing with thesecustomers?
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Yeah, sure. So as I mentioned that I work with
these high engagement , um,value-based customers. So , uh,
like, so for example, likestrategy accounts. So these
customers have significantimpact on cus company's
business and I work closelywith them to ensure that they
achieve their strategic goalsand objectives. And the other
(12:38):
type is high value customerswhere , uh, the customer has a
high contract value. Uh , myrole involves in ensuring that
they maximize the value , uh,and that they derived from our
product. And say , thirdcategory is like industry
leaders. So these are somethingthe customers who are the
leaders in the industry andthey can be served as a
(12:59):
valuable reference and casestudies for us. So my
interactions would include morein showcasing their success and
collaborating on their thoughtleadership and coming to the
touch points , I do haveonboarding touchpoint. So
during this onboarding phase, Iwork extensively with the
customer to make sure a smoothadoption of the software and
(13:21):
followed biweekly touch pointsin the very beginning phase
that allows me to address likewhat are the challenges and
answer the questions and guidethem through the initial setup
and bring the right people ifthey need some en enablement
sessions during that time. SoI'll bring the people on board
during this phase. And anothercomponent is , uh, customer
success plan. So I typicallyconduct these sessions in
(13:44):
person , I visit the sites andthe plans of the customer. Um,
and I discuss in detail on thecurrent state and also map the
future state challenges in thecurrent state is what I will be
capturing in my C SS P Andalso, as I mentioned earlier,
that I'll capture the businessmetrics which they anticipate
to achieve and quantify themhow , uh, the duration of time
(14:07):
when they would like to seethat outcome. And this planning
component serves as afoundation for me to track the
customer progress. So some ofthese , uh, touch points would
be like biweekly engagements onthe customer success plan,
tracking the adoption and alsothe metrics and these biweekly
touch points ensures thatthey're on track , uh, not
(14:27):
deviating or no , no risks oranything to identify those
ahead of the time. And mainly ,um, as a C S M, the proactive
approach is very important. Um,that's the one of the reason,
instead of waiting for the twoweeks of time having it till
next touch point , if we seesomething that's going down or
going beyond the expectations,I quickly set up the call based
(14:50):
on the priority as well. Andthe third touchpoint would be
the executive business reviews.
So the executive businessreviews, typically I conduct
them on a quarterly basis thatallows me to give a overall
customer progress, a programprogress to the executives and
the value that they aregaining. And I bring up the
next steps and what is the planfor the next 60 days and the
(15:12):
next quarter. Um, those are thediscussions I typically conduct
in the executive businessreviews. So these are the
typical touch points that I dowith my customers.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Amazing. And I really love that you have
customers that are segmentednot only on value, 'cause you
mentioned that they're the hightouch or high revenue
customers, but you alsomentioned that you have a
segment of customers that areindustry leaders and , um,
you're almost trying to derivecase studies out of them or
best practices as well. That'sreally interesting. What made
(15:42):
you guys segment your customersthat way and what made you
start focusing on customers inthese different, let's say,
segments rather than justrevenue-based segments? 'cause
most businesses focus on therevenue of the customer, and
you're clearly focused on a fewdifferent segments. Why , why
this direction with yourcustomers?
Speaker 3 (16:01):
Yeah, because this is very important , uh, to
identify some valuablereferences and make sure that
we showcase the success to therest of the customers as well.
Uh , that's why there are somecustomers we identify that we
identify to help them , uh, tobuild a more success with our
software , uh, and othercustomers. As I said, the high
(16:22):
contract value is somethingthat we need to take care and
make sure that they are seeingthe value out of what they
purchase with our product.
That's where , uh, this kind of, uh, segmentation is required
when we work with high touchengagements, and that's
actually helping us to grow aswell.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Yeah, I love that. I always love using customer case
studies as great examples toother customers because a lot
of your customers don't knowwhat they don't know. Sometimes
they really don't know how tobest use your product, but when
you're able to show them orgive them an example of someone
else in a similar industry orusing the similar products that
they're using the ways forward,they really appreciate that. I
(17:02):
always find that customers lovehearing other ways customers
are using your product. So Ithink that's really great that
you're doing that. Youmentioned a few data points
that you collect when you startspeaking to a customer,
especially around the valuediscovery call and the r o i
and all these important metricsthat you're starting to , to
gather. And I think data iscritical to customer success,
(17:24):
but how are you leveraging dataday-to-day? I know you're
collecting some of the datayourself, but are you tracking
product usage? What are some ofthe important data points that
you're looking at day-to-day?
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Yeah. Well, so data is indeed crucial to the role
of S C S M, and it providesinsights that help to der more
, uh, informed decisions andproactive engagement and a
successful customer outcomes .
So data is very, very crucialfor S C S M. And I typically ,
uh, have use this data tomonitor the customer health. So
(17:57):
I, I use data to track thehealth of each customer
account, and this includesseveral factors like product
usage, engagement metrics, andcustomer feedback, izing this
data so I can identify thesigns of potential churn and
measure the customersatisfaction and proactively
address any issues ahead of thetime. And the second one is we
(18:20):
do have a in-house builttelemetry platform where I can
look at the usage based onmonthly active users or the key
KPIs on , on our software. Sotracking how customers are
using our product, it providesinsights to the level of their
adoption when we aredelivering, when they're
delivering the value. And thisdata helps , uh, for me to
(18:42):
identify more power users, like, uh, areas of under
utilization and theopportunities for upsell and
also the additional features.
Third one is , um, customerfeedback is also critical for C
S M and data from the customerfeedback service , like number
of support, tickets,interactions, that can also
highlight some of the painpoints, challenges, areas of
(19:03):
improvement. And CSMs can usethis kind of feedback, the data
that is coming from thefeedback to address the pain
point concerns and enhanceoverall customer experience.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Yeah, I love that.
And you just mentioned thelevel of adoption and how much
of your product is beingadopted, which I think is a
critical data point for A C SM. Are you using these data
points in those executivebusiness reviews or even in the
value discussion calls thatyou're having? How, how are you
leveraging this data? When,when is it important to, to
(19:35):
showcase it to the customer? So
Speaker 3 (19:36):
I use this data me , these metrics , uh, in my
executive business reviews. Soevery time I bring up the
adoption metrics, how they'readopting and how many, for
example, how much they scale orhow much they, how, how the
potential they have to grow,it's also important for me to
showcase to them. So these databased on the number of tickets,
(19:57):
number of tickets that wereaddressed and the feedback,
what were the pain points thatwere identified and also met
during what timeline is alsoshowcased in those reviews.
Because it is very importantfor the customer to understand
how quickly we are addressingtheir needs, how quickly we are
relu providing the resolution ,uh, to their support tickets or
(20:18):
how quickly we are improvingfrom our end too, right? So
that is where it, it , it isvery important to showcase
these analytics in the reports.
Uh, it , I include typically inmy executive business reviews
and also do the account reviewswith internal teams on a
monthly basis. We have a callwith leadership team where I
(20:39):
showcase , uh, use thesetelemetry usage as well as the
feedback metrics , uh, in areport showcasing like, this is
how, how the customer isprogressing and these are areas
of concerns. So where I can getmy help from my colleagues as
well internally,
Speaker 2 (20:55):
I love that you use everything you use in executive
business review, bothexternally in front of a
customer, but internally aswell. So you're almost making,
you know, more use out of thedata that you've been
presented, which is really,really important. And I think
that helps you greatly 'causeyou do need to get internal
buy-in just as much as you needthe customer to believe in the
metrics. And executive businessreviews I think are very, very
(21:18):
controversial in customersuccess. Some people love them,
some people think they'reuseless. What are your
thoughts, and, and I think Ialready know the answer because
you have high touch engagement,but how are your executive
business reviews structured?
How do your customers receiveit? Who's on those calls with
you when you have thoseexecutive business reviews?
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Yeah, typically I include a level, level the ,
uh, contact or those , uh,point of contact that I
regularly meet on a biweeklybasis to make sure that the
manager plan manager or thedirector also understands what
the program is delivering.
Mm-hmm.
reviews really make an impactfrom my , uh, experience. And
(21:59):
it also gives a platform tounderstand what their vision
is, what's their future is,like, what they would like to
build more, or what they'relooking for, any other
competitors or any other extra,additional features that we can
incorporate. So it gives me aplatform to understand , um,
their pain points challenges,and sometimes it is not a
(22:21):
always a happy ending , uh,review. It's, it's a , it's
taking the customerfrustrations as well too. So it
is important to be patient andlisten to the customer. So I
mainly make these reviews as alistening more, mainly focusing
on the listening part of it ,understand what customer is
saying and what customer islooking forward for after I
(22:44):
showcase. Like, this is thehealth , this is the where we
are, and this is the progresswe made and the plan for the
next 60 days. Okay. And the nowtime for the listening. So that
is , those reviews are veryimportant, especially , uh, in,
in my case, while I work withthese customers, these reviews
make a huge difference.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Amazing. Yeah, I agree. I think that if you can
deliver value in them and yourcustomer sees value in in E B R
or a business review, I thinkthey're super critical. But I
think you also mentioned thatnot all calls are happy. Not
all calls are successful withcustomers. And I think in the
reality of being a C S M, thereare probably lots of calls that
we don't wanna maybe admit thataren't the happiest or easiest
(23:24):
to do when it comes tocustomers. How do you deal with
some of the tougher customers?
Or maybe you had an E B R thatdidn't go very well. How do you
kind of come out of that and,and take away learnings and
apply it to, to future calls?
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Yeah, yeah. It's a very good question. So not all,
all customer calls are happy.
It's important to understandtheir pain points, frustrations
and their plans as well, andwhere we are lacking and what
we are doing good and how wecan improve ourselves, how we
can be more innovative thanothers in the industry, right?
So those are some of the keylearnings. Every review is
(24:01):
different and every customer isunique based on their needs and
based on the industry and thecomplexity of their needs. So
every review is a learning forme. I capture the learnings
from the, from the reviews andthe action plan is required .
That's what I focus on. What isthe action from for, for me and
for my company or from mycolleagues, from the review,
(24:23):
right? I take those actionitems to my colleagues as well.
Internal collaboration is verykey for C S M because it's not
a one man show, it's a whole ,uh, company to meet the
customer needs. So these brsgives us a , uh, in a way for
what our understand, like howwe can enhance our product
features as well. So sometimesI take these action items to ,
(24:46):
uh, create an enhancementrequest on our product features
, uh, that justifying the casethat this is , uh, critical and
how it is important for mycustomer. And I also take like
action items, how this, how Ican help , uh, the customer by
quickly solving some of thesupport tickets if they're
trending for a longer time orsome, sometimes how I can
(25:06):
create a value or , uh, createsome area where I can show
customer that our software, wehave a huge pool of different
types of software, how I canhelp my customer with
cross-selling the products. Sothose are some of the action
items I take from the E B R andwork with our colleagues , um,
and apply it to the customer,not just to the one customer,
but going forward, like , uh,next E B r I'll be more
(25:30):
prepared to address some ofthese ahead of the time. And
one more thing I would like toadd is I typically take a
product management personnelfrom our team to make sure that
the customer also gets aware ofthe product roadmap so that it
addresses some of his concernsand also the needs when they
talk directly to our productteams.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Yeah, I love that there were so many things that
you just shared that I thinkare such key takeaways for
anyone listening, I love thepiece that you are continually
learning. I think as a C S M oranyone in customer success, you
have to continue to learn fromthe hard conversations like you
just said, and you apply it notonly to that customer, but to
future customers, which I thinkis really admirable because I
(26:10):
think learning and continuinglylearn, we're never, we're never
complete, we're never, wecan't, we can't say we've
learned everything. So I dolove that you continue to learn
from every example or everycustomer experience. And then
the second part you said isaround having customer success
as an entire team approach. Andyou have product members that
join in on the calls, which Ithink are super critical. I do
(26:34):
not think customer success is aone man team. Uh , you
definitely have to haveeveryone bought into the idea
of it and everyone speaking tothe customer. And I think it's
great that your product team isspeaking directly with the
customer and that you're ableto get them on board to have
those calls. But that's notalways easy. I'll say some,
some product managers aren'talways keen or, or open to
(26:54):
having customer calls. Um, youmentioned the internal
collaboration call. Is that howyou get your product managers
more excited and interested inthe customer calls or what do
you do to get them on boardwith these calls?
Speaker 3 (27:05):
Oh, yeah. So we do have like a weekly huddle , uh,
with our product managementteams and r and d teams. Uh,
we'll share the customerfeedback with them and we'll
make sure that they're aware ofwhat , uh, it's what's
happening on these accounts sothat be prepared to address the
future needs of the customer.
So we'll make, we'll make them, uh, what , uh, what's
(27:26):
happening. Not just like , uh,one, one or two other features,
but overall progress of theaccount.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Amazing. And you work not only with product, but
also with the sales team quiteclosely by the sounds of it. I
know that you guys identifyopportunities for upsells, but
then you don't exactly handlethe renewal or the upsell,
that's something that they'redoing. So how, how do you hand
off , how does thatrelationship work with upsells
and renewals? Mm-hmm .
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Yeah. So we do have a separate team , uh, for doing
the renewals, but wecollaborate with the renewal
team. We, we provide theinsights of the customer health
to our renewal team. They'llsuccessfully complete the
renewal. But to get to thatpoint , uh, how , what is the
indicator for the successfulrenewal is very important,
right? So , um, what we do inthe com organization is to main
(28:16):
maintain a customer sentimentfor all of our customers. And I
typically have this customersentiment on a weekly basis
update the sentiment , uh,which is a key indicator for
the successful renewal. Sowhere if it is a low or red,
then the customer is not happyand it is at risk. And , uh, we
alert the , this kind of riskof renewal ahead of the time.
(28:38):
If I need to bring the peoplein or do some , uh, enablement
training for the customer oraddress their needs, I bring
the right people, talk to thecustomer and try different
approaches to make sure thatthe renewal happens. But before
getting there, how I also makesure that we don't face that
kind of situation for thecustomers getting into the risk
(28:59):
of renewal. So , uh, it'simportant for A C S M , uh, to
make sure that these needs arecaptured in the very beginning
and addressed. And if any , youknow, fashion that , uh, these
milestones, whatever we laydown in the customer success
plan are met on a timelyfashion.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Yeah, it's so important, the timely fashion,
I think having a deadline iscritical to any customer
success plan or outline oraccount review. If you just
say, Hey, I have this goal withyour product and there's no
deadline, you could be workingfor weeks, months, years, who
knows. But having that timelineholds you accountable as a C S
M, but also holds your customeraccountable, which I think is
(29:39):
really, really important. Wetalked about learnings, we
talked about how you continueto learn, which is great, but
what is your personal biggestlearning of being a C S M?
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Understanding every customer is unique. So every
customer is unique andunderstand their needs is also
very important. So no singleapproach fits for all
situations. That's what Ibelieve. And the ability to
adapt to the situation andcommunication is key , uh, is a
biggest learning for me. And ifthere was something like
(30:10):
missing part, we need toidentify that or fill that gap,
right? And every customerenvironment is different and
sometimes it involves a complexstructure engagement on the
customer side as well asinternally we need to , uh, you
know, bring that kind ofdynamics, understand what the
customer needs are or howcomplex is the situation, and
(30:33):
bring that back to our internalteams, make sure that they also
on , on the same page,understand how critical is that
, uh, customer. So that's,that's the biggest learning for
me. Adapt to the situation andcommunication is key.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
I couldn't agree with you more. I think that
that is so well said . That isI , if any , anyone can take
anything from thisconversation, those two
learnings would be it. But Iknow there's a lot of people
who are listening to thispodcast today that aspire to be
the best c s m of the year, orthey're even aspiring to break
into customer success. Whatwould your advice to everyone
(31:10):
that's listening that wants tobe a better C ss m, what would
be your advice to them ?
Speaker 3 (31:15):
So I would say put the customer first. Always, no
matter what your primary focusshould be, understanding on
their needs, aspirations andchallenges, prioritize their
success above all else, doesn'tmatter , uh, what it is, but ,
uh, what the other , uh, youknow, situations or the
(31:35):
internal assignments. But it isimportant to make sure that you
prioritize the customersuccess. And the other one is
listen, actively empathize andwork collaboratively to achieve
their goals.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
I love that. I think the biggest learning for me in
customer success is the activelistening piece. I think you
really do have to activelylisten to everything a customer
wants. And like you said,they'll tell you exactly what
they want and they'll tell youwhat they're looking for and
their goals and they'll helpyou get to their successes. But
you just need to activelylisten and be able good
(32:08):
participant in thatconversation. So thank you for
sharing all of that. We cankeep talking and I'm sure
everyone will continue to takenotes on all your tips and
tricks on how to be a best C sm. But we're gonna wrap up with
our quick fire discussion whereI ask you a few questions and
the challenges that you have totry to answer them in one
sentence or less. Are youready? Yep . Okay. Let's do
this. The first question is,what do you think is next for
(32:30):
the customer success industry?
Speaker 3 (32:33):
So the customer success industry is likely to
continue moving towards evenmore personalized and hyper
target customer experienceswith AI and advanced analytics.
They can play a significantrole in understanding
individual customer needs andtailor the interactions and it
leads to more successfuloutcomes.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Yeah , I agree. I loved hearing that because I
do, I'm so curious what AI isgonna do when it comes to
shaping the personalization ofhow we interact with customers.
So completely agree. My nextquestion is, which SaaS product
can you not live without as aCS profession?
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Um, we use , uh, mostly on Salesforce and we
also have a inbuilt telemetryplatform where we use for
analytics purposes, but mainlythe Salesforce, we are
completely dependent on that.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
Yeah, I would say having a very good c r M is
critical to being a good C S Mbecause you need to know who
your customers are and whatproducts they're using. So.
Agreed. Um , my next questionis where or what is your
favorite customer successlearning resource?
Speaker 3 (33:36):
Yeah, I typically follow the posts on the
LinkedIn and I also read thebooks by Nick , Nick Mata , uh,
and also the podcast channel,customer Success channel. Um,
uh, some of the podcasts alsomakes me a good, gives me a
good learning source.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Okay. Amazing. And then who is inspiring you
currently in customer success,or whom do you think we should
have as our next guest on thispodcast? Uh ,
Speaker 3 (34:01):
Recently I read the book by Rod Cheka , the Chief
Customer Success Officer. Andthat's a great , uh, uh, you
know , book for me to getinspired by many leaders. And I
would love to hear from Rod onhis , uh, journey.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Oh , amazing. I haven't had him on the podcast.
I will consider Rod then
much tulsi for your time andenergy and all your tips and
tricks. I know everyonelistening probably wrote down a
whole bunch of notes. I know Idid. If anyone has any other
questions or wants to get intouch with you, what's the best
way to connect with you?
Speaker 3 (34:34):
Uh , they can connect me on the LinkedIn so I
can respond back , uh, if theymessage me so I can also give
some tips and advices or mentorthem if they need. So I'm help
.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Amazing. Thank you so much for your time, and
we'll make sure to link allyour LinkedIn details in the
show notes. But thank you againfor your time.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Thank you for having me. Thank you for the
opportunity, Annika, and have agreat day.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Thank you for listening to the Customer
Success Channel podcast today.
We hope you learn something newto take back to your team and
your company. If you foundvalue in our podcast, please
make sure to give us a positivereview and make sure you
subscribe to our channel as werelease new podcasts every
month. Also, if you have anytopics that you would like me
to discuss in the future or youwould like to be a guest on the
(35:17):
podcast, please feel free toreach out. All my contact
details are in the show notes.
Thanks again for listening andtune in next time for more on
customer success.
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