Any one investing in a product is expecting value from the investment. In any recurring revenue business, therefore success planning becomes an important activity. Let us look at what a typical success plan should entail.
- The Goal: What goal does the customer want to achieve? The objective of the investment need to be clearly defined.
- Execution strategy: How will the customer achieve this goal? What are the high level strategies for achieving the goal
- Measurement strategy: How will the customer know, when a goal is reached? What metrics should be tracked to indicate the goal achievement?
- Action plan: A list of action items with possible schedule, measurement mechanism, while indicating a timeline for each of the action items
Tips:
- Include SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Time bound) goals
- Keep it simple – As obvious as it seems, a decent success plan should have just enough information track the success. It could be tempting to include a lot of information, it is advisable to avoid this.
- It should be remembered, that the metrics are to be worked with customers and will need a collaborative approach
- Including short milestones in the action plan is recommended. This enables customer and the CSM to track progress, wherever possible.
- As much as possible include goals that can influence a business outcome and not just covering the utilisation alone. Unless the utilisation itself is the value being delivered
Easier said than done, at times, putting together a meaningful success plan could seem herculean. A success plan especially with the right metrics can be a long term strategic tool, to deliver the desired value your customer is looking for.
Simplifying your success planning exercise with questions like the following could help.
- What does success mean to you, in using our product?
- When do you see yourself successful using the product?
Depending on the person you are working with, this could change. Identifying what it means to the individual and collectively aligning it to the organisation is what you must do as a CSM.
In case of a team of people, look at how you could provide meaningful options that would help the team achieve their success, in turn achieving the organisational success from the investment. Everything will depend on how and what your products are.
How are you carrying this out at your organisation? Ask questions, discuss. Click here to start a thread or post to an existing conversation on the topic.
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