Unlocking Revenue Growth Through Your Customer Success Team

Discover how to coach your Customer Success team like an expert coach would, and unlock significant revenue growth for your business.

Understanding The Role Of Customer Success In Revenue Growth

Customer success plays a critical role in driving revenue growth for businesses. It is no longer enough to focus solely on acquiring new customers; retaining existing customers and ensuring their success is equally important. Customer Success teams are responsible for ensuring that customers achieve their desired outcomes and maximise the value they receive from a product or service.

Our expert, award winning CS coach Anika Zubair explains the current state of affairs in CS:

"2023 has changed Customer Success. whether you are ready or not, CS is not just about supporting your customers. It's about ensuring that those customers get the maximum benefit from your product. This is where customer success comes into play.

A customer who is engaged, satisfied, and sees value in your product will likely buy from you again, upsell, and even refer your business to others. In other words, they're a continuous revenue stream.

As Customer Success Leaders, our focus should be on training our CSMs on how to cultivate these relationships for long-term profitability, and coaching them long term."

One of the key ways customer success contributes to revenue growth is by increasing customer satisfaction and retention. When customers have a positive experience and see the value in your product or service, they are more likely to renew their contracts and continue doing business with you. This not only secures recurring revenue but also opens up opportunities for upselling and cross-selling.

The best leaders understand that to future proof their team, they need to constantly upskill them. They know their team need ongoing, consistent coaching, and they are totally dedicated to ensuring this always happens.

So how do the experts do it?

How To Coach Your CS Team Like An Expert Coach

While in 1:1 coaching, it’s usually best practice to let the coachee drive the conversation and talk about whatever is on their mind. It’s good to have some coaching ideas up your sleeve for group sessions in case your coachee can’t think of anything.

Customer Success is made up of two separate disciplines:

• Commercial acumen – Meeting targets, securing renewals, etc.
• Relationship building – Communication, serving customer needs, etc.

So as a leader, you will have no shortage of ideas to bring to the table. Here are five broad areas you can use to generate coaching topics.

1 – Skill development

Your customer success team can play a crucial role in driving upsells and cross-sells. As they work closely with customers and understand their needs and goals, they are well-positioned to identify opportunities for additional sales. By proactively suggesting relevant upgrades or complementary products, your customer success team can help customers further optimise their experience and achieve even greater value.

Investing in continuous training, coaching and development for your customer success team is key to unlocking their potential in driving upsells and cross-sells. An expert coach can equip them with in-depth knowledge tailored towards your product or service and the scenario. They can provide them with sales training and coaching to enhance their ability to identify and present upsell and cross-sell opportunities. By leveraging the expertise of your customer success team, you can not only increase revenue per customer but also deepen customer relationships.

Firstly and probably most obviously, you can coach your CSM to improve their skill set. By understanding their strengths and weaknesses, pinpoint areas where coaching could take them to the next level.

Get started by identifying an area where you could deliver immediate impact. Analyse a CSM’s numbers and take it from there:

• ‘I see that for Company X  we’re down 25%. What do you think is missing?’
• ‘Let’s work on a success plan. How could it work?
• ‘Could we talk to the sales team and see if they’re targeting anyone new? Could we piggyback on that approach and see where it takes us?’

Or if a CSM is struggling with a customer relationship:

• ‘Are you struggling to establish a relationship with Company X?’
• ‘Have you gotten to the root cause of their frustration?’

All the time, show your coachee that you’re there for them, you understand the challenges of the role and that if they need anything, to let you know. Share best practices but in a way that guides them to the answer rather than telling them. Be sensible and reasonable throughout, with no blame or judgement. You’ll soon see the penny drop and your CSM improving in their role. if their weaknesses aren't something you can personally help them with, point them in the direction of someone who can.

2 – Career growth

Your CSMs are likely ambitious people who want to be in your role sooner rather than later. As a manager, your job is to get them there. Coaching can be extraordinarily effective at this.

Ask your coachee about their career goals and what they hope to get out of their current role. For example, if they want to get promoted to Senior CSM, be clear with them:

‘I’m going to try and get you to be a Senior CSM. A way to do that is through constructive feedback.’

Reassure them that when you give feedback, you’re not saying they're not good at their job. Instead, you’re trying to make them the star player on the team. 

3 – Mental health

While you’re a Customer Success leader, not a therapist, you can still touch upon the impact of stress in the Customer Success space and its effect on people’s mental health.

For example, rejection is a big part of being in Customer Success. Sometimes, a customer doesn’t renew. It might be worth millions of pounds to your company. And it’s understandable that the CSM in charge of the account might take it personally, particularly if they made some mistakes during the course of the relationship. This responsibility, however misplaced, can weigh heavily on a CSM’s mind and take a toll on their mental health.

You can alleviate this stress through coaching. You have several options here:

• Talk about how everyone makes mistakes, but it’s OK as long as you learn from it. You can even share stories of mistakes you’ve made in the past to illustrate this point
• Talk about the process leading up to the customer leaving. Reinforce to the CSM that if they’ve done everything they possibly can, there’s no reason to take it personally
• Help the CSM to understand that customers never leave companies because of something a CSM did and that there’s bound to be another reason at play. ‘You’re not the problem.’

4 – Team dynamics

Use coaching to boost synergy and collaboration in the team. A great way to do this is to bring a problem to a group coaching session, or better yet, get someone in the team to suggest a problem they’re dealing with right now. 

Group exercises are great for addressing the unique challenges of Customer Success. With you as a facilitator, get your team to share their wins and struggles and encourage them to learn from each other’s successes and mistakes. Because everyone’s different, they’re likely to have different experiences and outlooks on what good looks like in CS. Ensure everyone gets a chance to speak, not just those with the biggest personalities.

5 – Adapting to change

Let’s be honest. Few of us embrace change. Whether it’s summer turning to autumn or a new CS process, we’d much rather things stay the way they are. The CSMs in your team are no different. There are bound to be some who are resistant to change. However, you can use coaching to ease the stress of this upheaval.

People resist change because they’re afraid of the unknown. They think that something will be taken away from them as a result of this change, or their life will dramatically alter. As a coach, by building trust and transparency with your coachees, you can show them that you’re here to facilitate growth and not tread on anyone’s toes. 

Investing in continuous training and development for the customer success team

Continuous training and development are essential for keeping your customer success team equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to drive revenue growth. As customer needs and market dynamics evolve, it is crucial to invest in ongoing training and coaching to ensure your team remains up-to-date and adaptable.

Provide your customer success team with opportunities for professional development, such as attending industry conferences, participating in webinars, or taking online courses. Encourage knowledge sharing within the team and foster a culture of continuous learning. By investing in the growth and development of your customer success team, you are investing in the future success of your business.

‘Invest in your people. Empower your people. And they will make the right decisions over time.’ – Expert CS Coach, Paul Lucherini