As my last blog post in my role as VP Customer Success at Xeneta I wanted to make it extra special by working with a valued colleague and friend, Courtney Sherwin, our Demand Generation Manager at Xeneta  A conversation we had recently sparked a very interesting discussion about how Marketing and CS work together, so we felt it a good opportunity to share our thoughts to hope it helps others maximise the partnership.

I champion customer centricity as often as I can. People often forget that being fully customer centric doesn’t end with the Customer Success Managers or other customer facing teams. One way to be more customer centric is to not work in silos so that the impact is a better overall experience for the customer. For this topic we look at ways to feed the information that the CSM’s hear from their customers to enable improved content to attract new customers but also service current customers better.

Here’s Courtney to explain more…

Take a quick moment and think about the number of people, companies who have competed for your attention today… Several, right? Probably even hundreds if you take emails and social media into consideration.

So how can one brand (your brand) attract the right people at the right time?

This is the end goal for Demand Generation. Attract. Engage. Build Loyalty.

Demand Generation (DG for short) uses multi-touch and multi-channel campaigns to strengthen the buyer and seller’s connection. This connection translates to higher conversion rates and ultimately healthier customer relations.

But breaking through the email and social media noise is tough! It’s difficult to grab the attention of a potential customer. That’s why it’s essential to create campaigns that come straight from the source. The Customer.

A direct line between DG and CS is vital. The collaboration with the two teams enables marketing to create quality, relevant, and LOUD content to attract potential customers. 

CS is a valuable source because they hold the power of knowledge. The CS team knows pain points, success stories, educational opportunities, and solutions that help increase engagement with potential customers. 

In the end, the collaboration between the two teams Builds Loyalty between the buyer and seller. Encourage CS to share their power because if a company (your company) wants to instill customer centricity, then start with the CS team sharing their knowledge. 

Together we’ve put together our steps for creating a two way street between Marketing and Customer Success to connect the top and bottom of the funnel and create more business opportunities:

Step One – Data collection

Decide between Marketing and Customer Success what types of information are useful to collect (some examples – customer pain points, success stories, educational tips, etc). Be specific and align on what it is you are really looking for to build top of the funnel, Marketers will know what types of content the audience responds to best.

Step Two – Collaboration

Sharing the process and ideas through collaboration will bring awareness and buy-in for all to have a shared experience in the success of the initiative. Keep everyone posted on how successful the content that’s being created is, the data being collected and generally closing the feedback loop for all concerned. Learn and evolve the process.

Step Three – Utilising current processes

The trick is to not create more work for CSM’s or Marketers but draw out information from existing patterns of work. For example, CSM’s take notes from meetings and conversations and record them usually somewhere accessible like a database or folder. If there is any chance of having to double up on work for the CSM’s then the work won’t get done. Make it super easy for the CSM to document what it is you’re looking for.

Step Four – Super easy process of analysis

Now you’ve sorted out where the CSM is recording notes and discussed with them how they record and capture certain types of information, it’s then down to the analysis. Nobody wants to spend hours sifting through irrelevant data to get to the gold. Find a way to bring it to the top. For example, agreeing with the CSM to use tags for certain feedback will make it easier to find and sort through. Technology can often help to make this job easier if you have that available to you. If you don’t the job will be much more manual and will require feedback sessions to gather what’s needed.

Step Five – Digestible content

The hard work is done, now it’s about creating snack size, easy to digest content. People’s attention span is decreasing by the day (less than 10 seconds). Potential customers want simple charts, videos, short written explanations that bring a solution to their challenge. Focus on informative and quick consummation. Make it enjoyable! 

Let us know how you get on implementing this idea. Use the contact form to send a note or the comments for your thoughts on what we’ve written.

You can find Courtney’s LinkedIn profile here