Issue #87: Use This Rubric to Become the Customer Success Executive Your Company Needs

In a Customer-Led Growth company, CCOs are put in a unique position. Because the entire company obsesses over the value that customers are receiving, CCOs must use their close understanding of customer perceptions, use cases, and areas of friction to influence the company’s strategy. It requires an executive that thinks about the business, not just Customer Success, and has the ability to see gaps in the customer experience that other departments are responsible for solving.

In short, Customer-Led Growth companies demand a higher-powered Chief Customer Officer.

To become the executive CLG companies need, CS leaders will need to grow their skills in 10 core areas. We’ve outlined those areas in this rubric. The rubric will help you see what areas need to be focused on in the next 6 months and beyond.

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Note: I created this rubric for measuring executive performance almost 15 years ago. I've shared it with each company I advise and it's consistently the best tool I've used for aligning the company around the customer.

The rubric above outlines two areas of growth: the second sheet outlines general executive skills, the first sheet outlines how to grow as a CS leader in a Customer-Led Growth company. 

How to use this rubric: 

1. Mark where you are on every competency (in Sheet 1: Poor, Average, or Excellent; in sheet 2: 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. There are no in-betweens, you’re either a 3 or 4, Average or Excellent, etc.). 
2. Ask the CEO (or the top CS leader) to rate the company in these areas as well. 
3. Have a conversation about any discrepancies in responses, and agree on 1-2 areas you’re going to improve in the next 6 months. 

If you don’t know where to start, begin by getting to Excellent in three specific areas to have the greatest impact.

Access those high-impact areas and read the rest of this article by following this link.  

The best resources for Customer Success teams this week

REVENUE

7 Reasons Why Chief Customer Officers Need to (Eventually) Own Revenue

Here’s Nick Mehta on how everyone benefits when the head of CS owns the revenue number. “You don’t have to do it all at once. Get clearer attribution of how your team impacts renewals and up-sell. Maybe take over renewals for small clients. Experiment with a new coverage model in your SMB customer base. Try something.”

Read the full post

ALIGNMENT

Cultivating a Strong Product <> CS Relationship

This is a solid, in-depth post by Jennifer Chiang who offers 5 impactful principles and corresponding initiatives to guide the relationship between Product and CS at your company.

Read the full post

ADOPTION

How Microsoft Uses the ADKAR Model to Improve Customer Success

Microsoft 365’s Customer Success organization primarily uses the ADKAR (Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement) Model to influence buy-in and diagnose common barriers to adoption. Share this resource with your team so they can help customers through seamless change management.

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PREDICTION

IBM’s Janine Sneed on Where CS Is Headed Next Year

Janine Sneed, VP of Customer Success at IBM, breaks down 6 ways she thinks Customer Success is going to evolve in 2022. I’m a fan of predication #2 where she says, “Net Revenue Retention is the north star metric that underpins what a CSM contributes to the business. I believe most of the industry gets this now. Where we are heading is taking this mainstream into the boardroom.”

Read the full post

Success Happy Hour is a weekly newsletter for Customer Success leaders. Each week we feature one digestible piece of advice or a framework from a top Success leader, along with the best resources from that week. Subscribe here.