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[Music] this is moments of truth with andrew marx co-founder of success hacker today i am joined by rahman bindra head of customer success at lead squared rahman tell us a bit more about your company and your role so hey andrew um so the lead squad platform what it does is that it is a sales execution and marketing automation platform that helps companies with uh you know higher velocity sales to be more productive in their sales and marketing efforts now me uh you know as the head of customer success for specifically northern region of uh india i am really you know responsible to make sure that the customer on boarding goes really well the product is implemented really well and make sure that the customer journey is a pretty smooth journey while they are using the lead squad platform great well and and taking a consultative approach with customers that is using open-ended questions and active listening really helps uncover what customers true goals and objectives are and chart a course towards achieving their desired outcome so so let's talk about how you leverage that consultative approach to onboarding with your customer base at lead squared sure you know uh the very first thing that i focus on uh while taking consultative approach is that firstly i understand my customer through the core when the sales team comes to us that hey you know what we made a sale and we really want you to take ahead and talk to this customer the first thing is understanding deep down as to what the customer really does what is the industry of this customer who are the people with whom we will be talking on a regular basis uh including the single point of contact including the decision makers including their id team even the finance team uh you know in some cases so this is the very first step so that's that's that's work that you're that's like uh pre-work you're doing before you even engage with a customer right that's the uh first research work that's really important and critical to even kick start the onboarding process with the customer so you do your homework that's number one that's very very helpful and important got it now what's next yeah so after this you know we get on a call with the customer and we have to make sure that the call with the customer should not be one-sided it has to be more of a dialogue wherein you are engaging the customer and also making sure that the information that you have collected uh from you know the sales or by your own research or as you turned it the homework that we did you know that really helps you know to put uh pull off the information in terms of understanding the usp uh from the customer's point of view as to why they are using us and also from that point understanding what are the true objectives and goals that the customer really wants to achieve using our platform so that's the second thing that's really important when you get on a call it has to be a dialogue and you have to get the information from the customer at as to why have they bought us at the first place and also understanding what is the true goal and objective they want to achieve from this platform do you sometimes have problems where the customer doesn't or the people you're you're talking to at various levels don't necessarily know what the objective is definitely you know so uh i would also divide this uh into two parts the first is when you are you know dealing with customers who are high touch so there are two types of customers mostly in onboarding one is in high touch the other is a high tech when i talk about high tech you know it's mostly the onboarding would be done in on in an automated format with these customers but when we talk about high touch there are multiple layers and levels and sometimes yes uh the people who might be at a lower level or a mid level might be just worried about their own goal and objective that they want to achieve on the platform but they might not be aware about the bigger picture and the bigger picture is the main thing that is required to be known from us because that is something that we have to work towards to make sure that the success factor is there for the customer so yeah definitely there are scenarios where we go where you know we face this uh but at this point the very first thing comes into picture or the first one that i raised knowing your stakeholders when you know your stakeholders and when you're communicating at every level definitely you're going to get the bigger picture as to what are they wanted what they really want to achieve using this platform so that's how you get it and get to know the bigger picture i actually think you have an opportunity to help your stakeholder because when the stakeholder has an objective and uh the folks below that stakeholder in the organization uh have different objectives and the objectives should feed one another right so your stakeholders objective is likely tied to uh some sort of corporate uh mbo that they have to achieve right but and so what what what you can do you can use this as an opportunity to inform the stakeholder hey you're the the the individuals below you in the organization uh that that that understand what we're trying to do don't have objectives that are aligned to your objective or maybe or they do have objectives so it's almost it's a validation it's opportunity to validate it's an opportunity to kind of raise a potential red flag because i would look at something like that as being a potential risk so you know you definitely have a valid point there but you know uh coming to the other perspective so everything has a different perspective altogether right now there are corporates where which are you know really driven uh with a pretty high hierarchy you know wherein they are a bit uh bureaucratic in nature if i was going to put in that sense now you have to really deal uh you know with them in a very systematic manner and when it's a systematic manner there could be one way as you just mentioned that you know you inform them or else it is already coming from the top uh top-down uh you know approach wherein they say that we are really focused then uh we are really focused that the top line has to achieve these set of you know say four or five objectives when you are done we give them the next because what they are trying to do is breaking the entire bigger goal into smaller ones and then you know moving towards it and they do not really want to pressurize the uh you know people working at the middle layer level with that entire set of information in one go so you're they're taking those small bits and pieces information breaking it up and at the end of the year trying to achieve that bigger picture so that's the other perspective you know that we can look at in this scenario 100 agree with you you have a major goal and then you may have smaller goals that feed that major goal right yes below those in and then below each of those smaller goals you may have even smaller goals that feed those middle size goals that feed the larger goal but um you want to make sure so i 100 agree with that perspective but you want to make sure that every all those goals are aligned is yeah i'm suggesting right that that's where you know that's where the consultative approach would come into picture because while you're connecting the dots you know in the third part of consultative approach is you know sharing that project plan you know with the decision makers and also aligning them with status updates that you know what first aspect has been achieved we are done with it now we are moving to the next one so these progressive updates towards you know achieving the bigger picture really helps in terms of aligning with what we have to achieve with the platform for the organization it makes sense to make sense what what else on you know on on on taking that consultative approach uh do you get out of or what else do you get out of taking that consultative approach that aids you in onboarding you know uh the other thing that uh it really helps is to overcome uh this success gap now a success gap is actually you know a term that's not really widely used in the uh uh in the uh success domain these days but it's a very critical part a lot of people in onboarding believe that you know if a customer has started to use the product you know they are well trained enough to use the features the job is done but that's not the end of the story the story ends when the person is really having or you know observes a value in what he has been taught to use at the very point so we really have to focus that when we have trained the customer in terms of using the product or a service how easily are they able to work towards the goal or the desired outcome that they want to achieve if they are not able to you know align their goals with the product definitely there's a success gap but if your approach helps them align the goals the desired outcome with what you have trained them or in terms of usage of the product you overcome that success gap and you already also building up a relationship with the customer which actually gives you the trust factor that the customer says that hey you know what i am in right hands i know what i'm doing i know it's going to help the organization let's keep doing this yeah it's that it's that uh uh it's that what's in it for me piece of the puzzle and and i think that there's there's a uh i wax poetic about uh how it's not just about feature function training that doesn't drive adoption what drives adoption is it's it's more of a change management effort right right what's in it for the company what's in it for me what's changing why is this important you know and all the communications that go into that which is something that needs to be done not by you as the vendor it needs to be something that's done by that executive stakeholder at the top who brought you in and yes i could see how doing you know taking this consultative approach really understanding the the objectives and why this is so important to the organization will help you help them craft the appropriate messaging that they then need to be delivering to their troops that's the whole point you know because and you know that also helps us uh you know say or stay corrected on the point that uh we are there to help the customer and we are there to uh you know working for their own success uh you know so that they can grow bigger because if they grow we grow that's the whole point exactly exactly but the key is that it's it's not just a vendor that has to do that just as we do we want to achieve in in uh um taking a consultive approach by creating a dialogue by creating a back and forth it requires both parties to drive adoption you know it requires both parties to demonstrate that value right and definitely you know and and the best thing that you can do as an organization is arm them provide them with a framework and a model that they can then use internally to drive that value that's the whole point you know uh and that for that reason uh you know we do share project plans we share timely updates so whenever a customer comes up or you know uh is assigned to our team uh while understanding his business all the goals as i mentioned earlier that we do create a project plan with specific timeline and every 15 day or a week or in a month we do have a status update on where we are and also make sure that customer is aware as to what is going on on the platform and where do they stand as of today in terms of achieving their goals because as you just mentioned coordinated effort is the key essential here as well because you know if they do not coordinate and we raise it in the earlier times it's you know or at a very early stage of building the relationship then it might be that either they change the spot or they become more entrusted because at the end of the day they have put some money into the product and if they don't get value they're gonna go you know it's gone it's gonna be a red uh red sign that they might churn later on but and and by understanding uh the use cases that go into uh the decision that went into the decision making for bringing your platform and and that that are discussed during that consultative approach allows you to help the customer once again communicate why this is good for them as a company and why this is good for each of their individuals so it's not just a hey we're done we're ready to go start using it and say here's here's why here's your here's how your job to be done will now look and why it's better for you and for the organization right and also you know if i was going to add on to this point you know uh one thing uh that is really important here is that the customer should trust what you're saying and as you just mentioned some use cases that were used while you were selling it the other thing that we also you know focus in our consultative approach is that while you understand the business of the customer uh while you understand the industry you also have to be aware of what is it that's going on in the industry at present because say for example you know we are living in a very uncertain uh you know age we really do not know which industry is gonna prosper in the schoolwid uh you know uh situation and say for example not even example as a fact the travel and the hospitality industry has been really hit badly by this and the customers in this specific industry are pretty uh you know high in terms of healing results in terms of you know you know giving money as well now if we uh would have been prepared early or we could have forecasted that this industry would have you know uh been a would face a bit of a downturn we would have ingly you know got in touch with the customers and you know tell them uh proactively that you know what with this particular thing going up there might be a hit let's try and overcome this by doing certain things it's not about you know usage as well it's also about the care that you show for the customer at the end of the day where he also understands this that it's not all about money these people also care about us care about our business and that's the true essence of success as well it's not always monetary you also have to show your care that you know and it matters to you as well if there would be a down hit in their business well yeah it goes it goes well beyond the onboarding piece right the what you learn during that onboarding what you learn in that that consultative approach uh you carry on with you as the relationship uh continues definitely to grow so yeah makes sense makes sense great uh that's uh incredibly insightful uh i i i'm a huge fan of consultative approach uh uh especially you know getting that uh getting that going right from the outset and the onboarding uh thanks again for spending some time with me today thank you andrew it was great talking to you today you