Functional, Focused, Valuable.
I’ve got three magic words for you;
Functional
Focused
Valuable
I’ve used these three words in every job I’ve ever had to meaningfully move the needle on whatever needed moving.
Let me explain.
Firstly, you never want to solve a problem that isn’t a problem.
Say you walk into a room and see 10 things that need fixing. You can’t do everything at once, so you’ll need to prioritise. How are you doing this?
I do it as a function of its functionality.
This feels like a recursive circle, but stick with me. A problem is only a problem if it doesn’t work. How do you determine if something is functional?
Is it focused?
Even the very best of us can’t do everything. The more things you add into the mix, the harder it is for you to prove an impact on anything.
I believe this is a problem customer success is currently facing. All this talk about re-imaging Customer Success, what does that even mean? If you asked 10 different people, all 10 would give you a different answer, and I’m willing to bet none of those answers would be specific.
Are you specific in how you define what your team do?
Don’t come at me with “customer-driven outcomes” or “achieving value.” What specifically do you look after?
When I walk into a business, I want to know from all the leaders what their teams do. Not actually; I don’t want a list of things. I want a vision, direction or focus. What’s the outcome you deliver to the business? Are you focused on it?
If, as a sales leader, you’re focussed on new business, renewals and up and cross-sell, it’s likely that your team are having to make calls about where to put their time and attention. As a result, you’re probably going to be slipping in at least one of these areas.
If, as a customer success leader, you’re focused on “delivering customer outcomes”, I’m willing to bet your customers don’t know what you’re for because your team don’t really know what they’re doing.
Are you functional in both of these examples? I’d argue no. Get specific with your team about what their point is and radically focus their attention on it. Once you’ve done this, you’ll more easily start to see the leading indicators or the valuable activities which predict success down the line.
Are you valuable?
What are you actually delivering? Can it be measured? If your CFO comes knocking, wanting to know why you’ve put a budget request in for an extra head, how are you going to justify the cost? Perhaps more pertinent in our current market, how are you going to (try to) defend yourself against headcount cutting?
Here’s where I think a lot of leaders lose their way. Especially in customer success.
Yes, Customer Success is a business-wide initiative (yawn), but you do realise when you say that you’re setting yourself up for cost-cutting, right?
Something that is everyone’s problem is no one’s problem. What do you do?
Once you’re focused on what it is you do, get clear on your value. What is it that you pay back into the pot? Radical focus on customer outcomes is wonderful, but your CFO pays your paycheck; what are you saying to her when she asks you what you’re for?
This is a metric. It’s an actual outcome. It’s a number which impacts the bottom line of your business. And again, get specific.
“Customer Success at Acme Corp is focused on retaining customers, measured by gross retained revenue and gross retained logos”.
You don’t need to write war and peace. Once you know your sole focus is retention, you can start to drill into what retention means with your team and what you need to do to get there. You’ll probably start talking about success goals, utilisation, feature introduction etc… but at a high level, you’re measuring GRR and Logo retention. That’s clear for your boss, your team and you. Whether you’re achieving your numbers is objective, you either do or don’t.
If it’s focused and valuable, it’s functional.
If it lacks focus and isn’t valuable, it’s not functional.
If there’s focus, but it’s not valuable, it’s not functional.
If it’s valuable but lacks focus, it might be functional, but I doubt anyone knows why. You’re at risk of not being valued because no one can link what you do to the outcome. Get specific, and make sure you’re appreciated.
Function = Value + Focus.
