Planhat | Crafting Success Plans That Actually Deliver

Moving away from the crowd

As a CSM, your main weapon is your success plan. It gives your customer visibility and confidence; and you, a clear roadmap to follow and ensure customer loyalty. It should be no surprise that I’m going to tell you how critical it is to nail that down!

So, how do you draft a good success plan? More importantly, a plan that sets you apart from the crowd?

Your customers likely have multiple products in their portfolio, which in turn, means they have contact with several CSMs. Thus, it’s critical for you to not just be another one. Lucky for you, there’s plenty of room to impress. We’ve had a customer saying, “This is amazing, I’ve never received something like that”, when receiving their first Success Plan. Don’t worry, you might not be late to the party… yet.

Moving away from the crowd

As a CSM, your main weapon is your success plan. It gives your customer visibility and confidence; and you, a clear roadmap to follow and ensure customer loyalty. It should be no surprise that I’m going to tell you how critical it is to nail that down!

So, how do you draft a good success plan? More importantly, a plan that sets you apart from the crowd?

Your customers likely have multiple products in their portfolio, which in turn, means they have contact with several CSMs. Thus, it’s critical for you to not just be another one. Lucky for you, there’s plenty of room to impress. We’ve had a customer saying, “This is amazing, I’ve never received something like that”, when receiving their first Success Plan. Don’t worry, you might not be late to the party… yet.

Moving away from the crowd

As a CSM, your main weapon is your success plan. It gives your customer visibility and confidence; and you, a clear roadmap to follow and ensure customer loyalty. It should be no surprise that I’m going to tell you how critical it is to nail that down!

So, how do you draft a good success plan? More importantly, a plan that sets you apart from the crowd?

Your customers likely have multiple products in their portfolio, which in turn, means they have contact with several CSMs. Thus, it’s critical for you to not just be another one. Lucky for you, there’s plenty of room to impress. We’ve had a customer saying, “This is amazing, I’ve never received something like that”, when receiving their first Success Plan. Don’t worry, you might not be late to the party… yet.

No longer "checking in"

There are still a lot of CSMs out there that are having calls with customers for, what seems sometimes to be an undefined goal. That might be you, and I don’t judge, however, I believe there’s much more productive way to approach the supplier/customer relationship building.

People have different views of what a CSMs role should be, thus the “checking in” with customers can feel like it’s the core of the work. Or just having calls to make sure customers are ok… Happy even.

I’d argue it’s far from that. The goal of a CSM is to ensure... the success of their customers. Seems like a no brainer; but it's how to do that where things change. For me, the chain of events is pretty straightforward, you first need to define what success looks like, then define the success criteria and draft a plan to reach that criteria. Suddenly you understand there’s a crucial need that every single interaction with your customers is happening within a defined framework with a clear purpose behind. It’s not just “checking-in” anymore, every step becomes a meaningful element in reaching the ultimate goal.

For your customer, the goal obviously varies depending on your product but for you, it’s usually either expansion, retention, advocacy or recovery.The main concept remains: you need a plan that is going to design the nature of every interaction with your customers.

Let’s dive in.

“What is the main reason they are currently using your product? That might seem to be an absurd question and that’s exactly why you should ask it. Never assume any of those points, always confirm.”

No longer "checking in"

There are still a lot of CSMs out there that are having calls with customers for, what seems sometimes to be an undefined goal. That might be you, and I don’t judge, however, I believe there’s much more productive way to approach the supplier/customer relationship building.

People have different views of what a CSMs role should be, thus the “checking in” with customers can feel like it’s the core of the work. Or just having calls to make sure customers are ok… Happy even.

I’d argue it’s far from that. The goal of a CSM is to ensure... the success of their customers. Seems like a no brainer; but it's how to do that where things change. For me, the chain of events is pretty straightforward, you first need to define what success looks like, then define the success criteria and draft a plan to reach that criteria. Suddenly you understand there’s a crucial need that every single interaction with your customers is happening within a defined framework with a clear purpose behind. It’s not just “checking-in” anymore, every step becomes a meaningful element in reaching the ultimate goal.

For your customer, the goal obviously varies depending on your product but for you, it’s usually either expansion, retention, advocacy or recovery.The main concept remains: you need a plan that is going to design the nature of every interaction with your customers.

Let’s dive in.

“What is the main reason they are currently using your product? That might seem to be an absurd question and that’s exactly why you should ask it. Never assume any of those points, always confirm.”

No longer "checking in"

There are still a lot of CSMs out there that are having calls with customers for, what seems sometimes to be an undefined goal. That might be you, and I don’t judge, however, I believe there’s much more productive way to approach the supplier/customer relationship building.

People have different views of what a CSMs role should be, thus the “checking in” with customers can feel like it’s the core of the work. Or just having calls to make sure customers are ok… Happy even.

I’d argue it’s far from that. The goal of a CSM is to ensure... the success of their customers. Seems like a no brainer; but it's how to do that where things change. For me, the chain of events is pretty straightforward, you first need to define what success looks like, then define the success criteria and draft a plan to reach that criteria. Suddenly you understand there’s a crucial need that every single interaction with your customers is happening within a defined framework with a clear purpose behind. It’s not just “checking-in” anymore, every step becomes a meaningful element in reaching the ultimate goal.

For your customer, the goal obviously varies depending on your product but for you, it’s usually either expansion, retention, advocacy or recovery.The main concept remains: you need a plan that is going to design the nature of every interaction with your customers.

Let’s dive in.

“What is the main reason they are currently using your product? That might seem to be an absurd question and that’s exactly why you should ask it. Never assume any of those points, always confirm.”

In my last article on customer loyalty, we defined success criteria, but here’s a quick recap.

It might be ‘your plan’, but it’s built around your customer and their success criteria. Only they can tell you which ones they are, your job is to uncover them. Be curious and be understanding. Find out the organizational mission, read through their financial reports, understand their sponsorships, their values, their customer testimonials—find everything there is to find about your customer.

The second step is the same, but rather than focusing on the company, focus on your main point of contact; champion, stakeholder, buyer... Ask them what their KPIs and targets are. Know what will make them successful by using your product. What is the main reason they are currently using your product? That might seem to be an absurd question and that’s exactly why you should ask it. Never assume any of those points, always confirm.

Sometimes asking the obvious question feels silly. Full disclosure, this is the easy part, the difficult one is to be quiet and listen for potential. Your contact is going to give you everything you need to know to work with. Sometimes it’s a lot, sometimes it’s very little and that also matters. Everything is a signal and you need to understand it properly. Always confirm, never assume.

Now that we have laid the foundations through our information gathering process, it’s time to draft the plan.