Relay track teams consist of a group of elite sprinters who each have specialized skills for their leg of the race. The starter needs to explode off the blocks and hit full stride quickly; as she approaches the handoff point her teammate begins trotting and ideally takes the baton just as she is hitting her peak stride. The closer needs to have the stamina and endurance to go full out for the finish, and an understanding of how to position herself and cross the finish line mere hundredth of seconds ahead of her competitors. I’m exhausted just writing this, and no, it’s not a perfect analogy, but work with me here!
The key point is when one runner passes the baton, his or her part of the race is done. The handoff is complete and in the hands of the next person on the team. This model has become increasingly embedded in the enterprise sales and client success process as we have deepened our understanding of the special skills needed to support each stage of the customer journey. When we step back and look at that model through the buyer / customer lens it seems ripe for a reframe. How often does a prospect or customer have to meet new people from your team and re-educate them on their challenges, critical decision drivers, desired outcomes and success criteria? How often have you as a buyer had to do this very thing, and how did you feel about the experience? I know I have often caught myself wondering “do you people even talk to each other?” The current state of the tech stack across Marketing, Sales, Customer Success, and the entire enterprise is ready to enable a new model here.
Think about the typical “handoff” points for your team across the customer journey. Inquiry to lead qualification to SDR; SDR and BDR to Sales AE, new logo “hunters”; AE and Solution Architect teams to AM / CSM “farmers” and CS teams; CSM escalations to support teams, and maybe AM hand-off’s back to AE’s for cross-sell opportunities into new divisions or business units. Add to this the ever-present churn on your team due to promotions, resignations, and reorgs, and the poor customer is left wondering who will show up on their doorstep, appear in their inbox, or answer their calls. And we wonder why so many choose not to renew, or they buy solutions from competitors that we could easily have provided? It’s built into our operating model, and it’s time for a change!
How can we address this patchwork, revolving door pattern for our customers? I suggest embracing a model that leverages technology to create an ever-expanding support team across the lifecycle rather than passing the baton and walking back to our individual silos once our sprint is done. All of the data gathered, call records, and emails from inbound inquiry, opt-in responses, lead qualification efforts can be captured and persist as the sales team engages and dives deeper into the opportunity and value alignment. All of the communications, internal documentation, and positioning during a sales cycle can enrich this data set and the “post-sale” teams will have visibility to what needs were originally shared by the buyer and what expectations we set for our solutions to deliver. All of the execution challenges, support history, and business review data can be shared with teams targeting cross- and up-sell opportunities. The key here is to keep the CRM account record augmented with the contact information for everyone who has touched this customer, and to include in everyone’s remit the idea that we all own some piece of the customer experience. I’m not suggesting that teams have the bandwidth to have BDR’s and AE’s involved in every aspect of Customer Success, nor that CS can be involved in the qualification and discovery stages of the sales process. What I am suggesting is that if we replace the handoff mindset (I’m done, literally “off” the account) to one of inviting you into the team and having an internal briefing( if needed) to bring you up to speed, we will move the needle on how our customer perceives their relationship with us as a partner. We could even be so bold as to continue to pay some small bonus over time based on successful customer outcomes to everyone in the “upstream” team that properly supported the buyers and positioned our value and ability to deliver.
The data consolidation platforms to support this are out there today, and the imminent implosion and consolidation of the marketing and sales tech stack will drive shared data models and persistence deeper into the solutions that emerge as winners. The machine learning and PI tools that are in their early adolescence today empower not only our internal teams, but allow us to share data transparently with our prospects and customers. Old models built around “demand generation” and aggressive selling are evolving into a more holistic collaboration around clearly communicating value and empowering the selection, purchase and implementation efforts needed to receive value. I believe this more collaborative, holistic approach is a key element in realizing the ever-elusive “alignment” and collapsing the silos that we endlessly preach and pontificate about. So, no baton pass to you my friends, but an invitation to join the dialogue and engage as we crawl – walk – run to embracing a new paradigm!
