On this month’s episode of The Customer Success Channel Podcast, brought to you by Planhat, I chatted with Brandon Ramsey, Head of Customer Success at OnsiteIQ about how to ensure that customer success truly stands on its own and is not overshadowed by sales.
Customer Success (CS) is frequently linked with sales and often entails revenue targets. However, is this truly the most effective way to structure your CS department? Why should CS not be seen as a mere extension of sales? And how can you persuade senior leadership that CS should not be responsible for renewals and upsells?
Brandon’s approach of prioritizing people over profit has allowed him to cultivate collaborative relationships with renowned brands such as Disney, Uber, the Golden State Warriors, the LA Clippers, and the Smithsonian. Through these partnerships, Brandon has successfully guided the implementation of SaaS solutions to optimize capital asset projects.
Brandon’s expertise lies in developing and executing innovative strategies to enhance user experience and streamline customer service processes. His leadership has not only elevated the customer success team at OnsiteIQ, but has also made substantial contributions to the company’s overall growth and industry reputation.
While CS is often intertwined with sales and sometimes even reports to them, Brandon and his team at OnsiteIQ have a distinct focus. They prioritize purpose over profit.
In our discussion, Brandon helps answer some of the tricky questions when it comes to scaling customer success quickly:
- Customer Success often gets mixed into Sales, or even reports to sales, but in this economic climate the pressure for CS to sell is higher than ever, but that is not the case at onsite, can you explain what the CS team looks like there? How many CSMs? What are they responsible for?
- Are CSMs responsible for GRR or CSQLs? What metrics are you held accountable for
- How did you get your senior leadership to buy into CS not handling renewals/upsells?
Some key takeaways from this discussion:
- Prioritize people over profit
- If we let customer success be customer success and drive successful outcomes, the profit will naturally follow
- It is crucial to acknowledge that the leadership team within your organization must first embrace this mindset when building the process
Make sure you listen to the full episode and let me know your thoughts in the comments!