The case for retaining a customer success consulting firm is essentially about saving time and money. It’s about accelerating your progress toward a solution. Yes, you can design and build a customer success team on your own. Thousands of companies and executives are doing and have done exactly that, worldwide. But there are better uses for your resources than re-inventing wheels. While it’s possible to do the research on the development of the role or project yourself, time spent on that endeavor adds unnecessary delay to building a core strategic resource for your company. It takes you, and your team, away from doing the critical tasks now that will increase your company’s customer retention and expansion.
The inescapable reality for Customer Success executives is that there are only so many hours in a day. Even if you had the capacity to work 24 hours per day for six or seven days straight (don’t kid yourself, you don’t!), you still can’t get everything done that you actually would like to do as soon as you want. So you necessarily prioritize, all the while having those nagging feelings about the stuff that just doesn’t make the cut this month. Or next. Or the next, until you reach the end of the year with so much still on the to-do-someday list. Why are you doing that to yourself? And to your team and company? When there’s an alternative?
There is a way to extend your capacity to address the stuff on your Someday list now. Playbooks will get written, content developed, that online community you’ve long wished you had can become a reality. How about an independent review of your team and CS operation? An ROI analysis of the activities of the group? The design of a premium Customer Success product? Appraisal of the metrics being applied to the group? Assessment of the CSM compensation structure? Customer base segmentation and/or journey mapping? How about designing and building out a partner program / corporate ecosystem? Cleaning up the relationship between Support and Success to free up time for your CSMs? You undoubtedly have your own wishlist — how about moving those wishes to accomplishments?
Yes, It Is Possible
“But I don’t have anybody on my team that I can delegate those things to, we’re all up to our (necks) in alligators! There’s no budget to hire anybody in at the skill level that would be required!” And so on. While these concerns are probably all too true, there’s another option. But to use it, you should first determine how much those tasks on your list are worth to the company. With that in hand, the next step is to talk to the CFO and your boss about a budget allocation to cover it. What have you got to lose? The essence of the proposal you are going to make is to accelerate the maturity of your Customer Success organization. If Senior Management is in favor of that ultimate goal, the argument should resonate with them. If it doesn’t, best to know that now.
The Elephant in the Room
Before we go on to talk about where to look for expert assistance, let’s address the hidden fear: How can I ask for help to do the things that I was hired on to do? Frankly, if that’s your concern, you have a far bigger challenge; you’re working for the wrong people. If Senior Management’s view of priorities and what’s possible in the available time scenario is radically different from yours, that’s a strong reason right there to bring in a consultant that can set them straight. Because they go away at the end of the gig, a consultant can say the things that Senior Management needs to hear that it might be politically unwise for employees to mention.
And if Senior Management is still uncertain, give them this argument. The average Customer Success executive will build a team from scratch once or twice in their career. Maybe three times, given the unfortunate turnover in executive ranks. They will select and implement a Customer Success Platform or other CSTECH tool once, maybe twice. Whatever the challenge you are currently facing, a consultant offers you access to expertise developed across many engagements, many different organizations, and the time/space to keep working on your primary targets of increasing retention and expansion of your company’s customer relationship.
Leveraging Resources
There are two firms on The Customer Success Advisors list, both very experienced and well-established: Glide Consulting, and The Success League. There are over 100 Customer Success consulting firms on the CSA’s Consultants vendor list. The Services detail page lists 23 different categories together with the consulting firms who offer them. That is a lot of options and expertise to be tapped. All you need to do is to start the conversation.
