The Best Time of Day to Close a Deal

It’s contract renewal time and you’re in a dogfight. Things haven’t gone well this year with your biggest customer and a competitor has a serious shot at displacing you. Can the time of day you ask for the order impact … Continued

How Customers REALLY Decide

Conventional wisdom in Customer Success says that customers renew or expand their subscriptions based on the value they obtain from their software, such as cost savings or productivity gains. But neuroscience suggests there’s more to it. Individuals make decisions based … Continued

My Churn Story

As a consultant helping SaaS companies battle customer defections, I recently experienced firsthand the view from the buyer’s side of the table. After a year of frustrations, we canceled a contract with a PEO and moved our business elsewhere. My … Continued

Learning New Software is Like Learning to Drive

Software customers must learn how to use their new products before they can achieve their goals. Most companies, however, do a poor job of managing the customer’s natural learning curve. How we acquired driving skills years ago is a more … Continued

Getting the Gist of the Customer Experience

Neuroscientists say we tend to remember the meaning and forget the details. When the time comes to make a decision, we naturally rely on our general impressions gained through experience. Because of this, doing essentials right is all that really … Continued

A Better Way to Justify Customer Success Investments

Executives are often barraged with heartfelt requests for additional staff, technology, training and other needs. Money is never abundant, so senior leaders must make tough decisions. When comparing competing requests, how can executives rationalize increased spending for Customer Success? Perhaps … Continued

Better Good than Lucky

Investors have pulled back on early stage Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) investment in 2016, according to the Wall Street Journal. Mutual funds are big players in the IPO market, and downgrading their holdings of Silicon Valley darlings has chilled the VC market. … Continued

Structure is Like Oil…

You need just enough to keep the machine humming, but add too much and you have a hot mess. That’s the advice I give my clients when we map their customer journeys. During our sessions, cross-functional teams define ideal customer … Continued

Olark: Textbook Service Recovery

Part of doing business in the cloud computing industry is handling outages. Salesforce, Twitter and Google have all had their share. Service disruptions impact customers, ranging in severity from annoyance to halting the gears of business. How companies handle these … Continued

2016 Resolution: Execute!

Build a better organizational habit this year After annual planning, most organizations lose momentum and progress soon grinds to a halt. What can be done to alter the status quo and ensure this year’s plans actually get carried out? Perhaps … Continued