Robert Statsky

Working Cross-functionally

Cross-functional collaboration is paramount in the SaaS space. There is a ton of information on how to work cross-functionally, so I am not going to re-invent the wheel and copy that. In fact, I have supplied some Chat GPT written responses below so you have a starting off point. That said, I’ll break down which departments cross-functional collaboration is more important for from a CS perspective.

Sales

There is normally a great deal of friction between sales and CS organizations. In my experience it is usually conflicting personalities and different approaches to work. Most sales teams I’ve worked with are very structured, almost militaristic in their approach to process and standards. If you work in a high volume environment with inexperience people this makes sense. Customer Success deals much more in shades of grey. The reason for that is there is not one answer to every problem. That said, its critical as a leader to ensure that your customer success managers understand their sales counterparts, and the leaders of both teams appreciate what each brings to the table.

Many companies are a “sales culture” company or a “product lead” or an “engineering focused” company. I think that is just a fancy way to say, these are the popular people and the ones that the founders care most to talk about and market internally. Regardless, no one org can function without the other.

CS tends to run into trouble at times because they feel that the sales people close deals that aren’t a great fit, lie to accounts, promise the sun the moon and the stars and then dump off these accounts on the CS team.

Sales teams think CSMs are lazy and not disciplined, and are just managing a book filled with opportunity that they are not “exploiting” or utilizing to the full potential.

Regardless of the sentiment on either side when people are annoyed at each other, its important to cultivate a culture of mutual respect and an understanding of why people are here and needed.

You need sales people to be money focused and disciplined to close deals, whereas you need CSMs to be empathetic, attuned to details and willing to do what is necessary to create a good experience.

Ensure you are working with the different teams and encouraging collaboration, in-person hang outs, events, opportunities to bond and work to enlighten both teams about the value of each. It will always be a work in progress, and it is not solvable. There is no end, and the culture between the two teams must be managed at all times.

When speaking with sales people speak in terms of revenue, generate leads, active opportunities or deals, use the terms they are comfortable with, and don’t judge them. Appreciate the amount of effort and work that goes into closing business and enlighten them on your process for working with accounts. Don’t tell them you don’t have enough support from product or engineering or the support team. Respect them and you’ll receive the same back.

Leadership/Founders

It’s important to understand what your founder is most interested in and ensure that you are tying your work product back to that. If you are reporting to a founder, that person is going to be interested in entirely different things than you are. They have likely been on the journey much longer than you, and its possible they have donated their entire life to this endeavor.

That is no small feat and if it was easy we would all do it. I have a tremendous amount of respect for those that are able to work up the courage to do that.

At the end of the day your thoughts, even your expertise, will only be just another one of the 10,000 opinions and bits of information thrown at them throughout their journey with their company.

If they have seen success and been around and managed the business for a while they will be even more skeptical of what you have to tell them. So consider your approach in how you talk to them. Ensure you are able to deliver on their expectations, and make sure you’re not throwing your resume at them when you’re talking. I have been in situations and companies before where mentioning your resume and experience was in every interaction. Your are going to be judged by your ability to get results and create change, not on your ability to speak to what you’ve done in the past.

I also believe most founders are inherently skeptical of what worked in the past because many of them think differently and want to do things a “different” way now that they are in charge.

If you have a revenue focused leader, speak in terms of numbers, and what can be measure. If your leader is an engineer, speak more towards the technicality of what you are doing and what technology you used to solve these issues. If you have a philosopher founder, speak towards the customer experience and how what you’re doing is improving and making things better for those that interact with your business.

Finance

Anyone that works in finance is stressed and worried about the bottom line. Its where practicality shows up at all times (hopefully). Why did the customers churn, why aren’t they paying, why aren’t they upgrading, what are you doing to affect the numbers? What are the KPIs and how are you driving the KPIs?

You have to be able to answer those questions at all times.

In addition, it could be something as simple as, why didn’t this customer pay or why do they want a different payment option? You need to understand how to make a strong case with the finance team and those working with the processing of payments to ensure you get the right outcome for the customer.

Example: You have a customer that wants to renew but is having money trouble and needs an extension on their bill. The finance team does not want to provide that because it is against policy, but your boss and your CCO or CRO or VP or whomever the person is titled says you have to bring in that revenue or we’re going to be in trouble as a business.

You as a CSM, or CS leader are then in a situation where you have to figure out how to give the customer what they need, get the company what it needs and then satisfy the needs and targets of your team, your business unit and your job.

Not many CSMs are equipped or taught how to do this. Instead they just beg someone in billing or finance for an extension or they escalate to their manager.

I believe there is a way to make these things work for everyone and work with the customer. It really involves reverse engineering the situation and figuring out what could work for the business on the whole. That’s a separate conversation I could speak to here.

Tech (Engineering, Product)

It’s important to consistently provide feedback to your tech, engineering and product teams on how the product works for your customer base. You should schedule a check-in on a regular cadence with these orgs so people on their leadership side can be informed decisions on how to prioritize what comes next.

To many times sales people are only focused on whatever lost them their last deal where as CSMs are only focused on what cost them their last renewal.

You have to quantify and qualify these losses and make sure there is a distinct understanding of why business is not coming in or why it is going out the door.

Meet with them regular, conduct churn surveys so you can get a better sense of why people left. There are always multiple reasons. Record these and share the call recording with the appropriate people. Make sure that you are categorizing and tagging the reasons why people churn. Share this report out monthly/quarterly with that org so people see who is leaving.

Support

Most SaaS companies have a support function before they develop a customer function. I’ve worked with many CSMs who started as support agents. I think its a great place to start because you learn the technical side of the product while also learning how to be great/better at customer service.

Maintaining a positive relationship with support is important. You don’t want to fall victim to what happens often with sales and CS and play the blame game on each other.

Its important to hold eachother accountable, but understand the roles they play in the business and make sure you’re working together to solve the customer problems.

Onboarding

Onboarding often struggles the most with the sales team. Onboarding specialists often think in terms of experience, best use cases and the product and not necessarily the business side of how the customer became a customer or why they signed up.

In ever company I’ve worked out there has been some sort of friction between sales and onboarding and at times onboarding and support, onboarding and product, onboarding and CSMs.

The reason for this in my view is because onboarding new customers probably the most critical and important part of the customer journey. Everything for the customer hinges on their ability to get setup the right way and there will never be a more engaging or interested time for the customer than right after they sign that contract, turn on that trial or create those accounts.

The first step of any success CS org is to revamp and rebuild your onboarding process and structure. Map it out, put it on a customer journey lifecycle map, document all activities and information collected and needed and make sure the process is scripted.

That might seem controversial because “every customer is special and different” but consistency is why people renew, why people sign up, and why people have a good experience.

Large companies have been doing this for years, why wouldn’t it work at a small upstart that is trying to get off the ground with its software?

Once you have a process in place, the sales team will understand that these people “have it together” and that they know what they are doing. The CSMs will be able to track exactly where the customer is on the lifecycle journey, and the support team will know how to react and respond to the new accounts because they will understand what has been built and setup and what hasn’t.

Build a process, stick to that process, even though your most seasoned onboarding specialists will claim they have their own way of doing things that works for them. That is too narrowly focused and won’t scale. That person will burn out, become complacent and destroy the team’s culture.

Once the process is in place, working cross-functionally is much easier because you can speak to the agreed upon process and tracking progress is much easier.

All other go to market (GTM) functions: Marketing, Partnerships, Community Teams

Generally speaking, how you interact with other teams must be on their terms. You must use their language and understand how you can benefit them. If you need something from them or need their support, it needs to be somewhat reciprocal in approach.

If you need marketing to help you write copy, that for some reason you are not using AI for, then make sure you’re working with the customers to get a quote, a customer story, an interview, or some form of content for the team.

A referral from a customer or something for the website always helps marketing out as well.

Make sense?

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Here is some information working cross-functionally I got off Chat GPT. This is a good starting point, and you can refer to the above for more information on how I do it.

Working cross-functionally with different departments is essential for the overall success of customer engagement and satisfaction. So how do you do it?

1. Understand Each Department’s Goals:
   • Gain a comprehensive understanding of the goals and objectives of each department within the organization, including Sales, Product Development, Marketing, and Support. This understanding will help you align customer success initiatives with broader company objectives.
2. Establish Clear Communication Channels:
   • Set up regular communication channels, such as cross-functional meetings, to facilitate open and transparent communication. Ensure that information flows freely between departments, fostering a collaborative environment.
3. Define Roles and Responsibilities:
   • Clearly define the roles and responsibilities of each department in the customer success journey. Establish a shared understanding of how different teams contribute to the overall customer experience.
4. Collaborate on Customer Onboarding:
   • Work closely with Sales and Product teams to streamline the customer onboarding process. Align onboarding strategies to ensure a smooth transition from the sales phase to the customer success phase.
5. Joint Customer Success Planning:
   • Collaborate with Sales to develop joint customer success plans. Ensure that customer expectations set during the sales process are aligned with the capabilities of the SaaS product and the support provided by your team.
6. Integrate Customer Feedback Loops:
   • Partner with Product Development to integrate customer feedback loops into the product improvement process. Establish mechanisms for collecting and sharing customer insights that can inform product enhancements.
7. Coordinate Marketing Efforts:
   • Coordinate with the Marketing team to create targeted communication strategies for different customer segments. Align marketing efforts with customer success initiatives to promote ongoing engagement and satisfaction.
8. Cross-Train Teams:
   • Facilitate cross-training initiatives to enhance mutual understanding between departments. This can help teams appreciate the challenges and opportunities faced by their counterparts, fostering a collaborative spirit.
9. Shared Customer Metrics:
   • Establish shared key performance indicators (KPIs) related to customer success. This could include metrics such as customer satisfaction scores, retention rates, and upsell opportunities. Collaborate on strategies to improve these metrics collectively.
10. Regular Check-ins and Updates:
    • Schedule regular check-ins with leaders from other departments to provide updates on customer success initiatives and address any challenges. Foster a sense of shared responsibility for the overall success of the customer experience.
11. Encourage Cross-Departmental Innovation:
    • Encourage cross-functional teams to collaborate on innovative solutions that can enhance the overall customer experience. Create a culture that values input from diverse perspectives.
12. Celebrate Cross-Functional Wins:
    • Acknowledge and celebrate successes that result from effective cross-functional collaboration. Recognize the contributions of different departments to the achievement of customer success goals.

By implementing these best practices, you can create a culture of collaboration and ensure that the various departments work seamlessly together to drive customer success and overall business growth in a SaaS company.