To all CS leaders & CS professionals out there.

Go to a few of your CSMs/account managers individually and ask them (or yourself) a simple question: what is the single thing that creates the most value for our customers?

Start with “what”, not “how” – because if you don’t know the “what”, the “how” is not as effective.

If you are one of the lucky few, all your reps will give you the same exact answer. Congrats! You can focus on the “how” and everything else in the CS game.

If you are like most CS leaders, you will get a varying range of answers from somewhat similar to completely different.

Sometimes it is easy. E.g. if you sell a lead gen software, finding a lead that your customer closes is the clear answer.

But for most companies out there the answer is not as straightforward, so it can be hard.

For you, the work should start here. Because if your reps do not know what truly creates value for your customers, then the rest of what you do won’t be as impactful as it could, and should, be.

If you already know the answer to what truly creates value for your customers…great, teach your team!

If you are not completely sure yet, here are a few questions to ask yourself/your team:

• Do we sell a commodity or a sticky product? (nice to have or must have)
• Why do our customers buy our product in the first place? (buyer intent)
• Who are our buyers, what is important for them? (ICP, department, persona)
• How do we impact the customer’s business goals (and/or bottom line)?
• Does our product create value by itself or in large part thanks to our CS team? (PLG or SLG)
• What is the one thing our customers say they can’t live without? (yes what they say, not what we say that they say)
• Do we have data that can help us understand this better? (churn reasons, VOC, win-loss data, usage data etc)

Start here. Then move on to the many other things to focus on in cS=)