We're now in a world where not only do we need to hit aggressive topline growth goals, in addition we also need to keep customer acquisition and retention costs low. Where previously one AM was assigned to 100 accounts, they now need to scale to 1000 accounts. So how do you get this 10x gain in efficiency? The answer is automation. Here's how:
Identify expansion ready accounts by leveraging product data
NPS is no longer the single metric to rule them all. Customers are tired of buying services and getting value 9 months into their subscription. Time to value must be days and weeks, not months for customers to feel like they're getting the value they paid for. Similarly, the initial value isn't enough. When customers are blocked (whether it's a bug or an important product gap), time to resolution will drive perception of value. Measure this...because ultimately, what we measure, we can improve.
Celebrate customer wins with automated outreach
Use automation to monitor for accounts where customers take desirable actions to get value from your service. Celebrate that behavior with automated outreach (but of course it needs to be highly personalized and appear to come directly from the account manager).
Proactively offer to help
Use automation to identify when customers get stuck performing tasks in the product or have a bad experience. Most customers will never reach out to support. They'll just silently stop using the product. If you can identify their bad experience proactively (through automation since this simply can't be done manually across 1000s of accounts and 100s of 1000s of users), you can proactively reach out and offer help. Again, this is all automated but looks like it's coming from the account manager.
Invest in accurate expansion forecasting
It's crazy that most expansion forecasting doesn't factor in product usage data when arguably that's the most important leading indicator of how much expansion pipeline a company will generate and what % of it will close in a given quarter. By investing in expansion forecasting that includes product usage data, you can identify pipeline coverage gaps early and address them.
Identify at-risk accounts early
Automatically monitor usage behavior across every account and every user to see the first signs of poor health, build a save-the-customer plan and actually have time to execute this plan to retain the customer.
Deliver automated MBRs and QBRs
Providing value is not sufficient alone. You must also communicate this value so it's clearly understood by the customer. Come time for renewal, this should be already well understood. Doing these MBRs / QBRs can be expensive. Use automation to deliver highly personalized MBRs / QBRs without so much as lifting a finger.
In the B2B SaaS industry, growth often depends on the ability to scale your expansion efforts rapidly and effectively. By embracing automation technology, you can streamline operations, boost productivity, and ensure your team's efforts are focused on high-impact activities that drive revenue. With creativity and a keen understanding of human psychology, harness the power of automation to fuel your expansion team's success and propel your business to new heights.
