Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Who Is This Book For? -- Foreword -- Author -- Introduction -- 1 An Overview of the Customer Success Manager's Role -- 1.1 What Is Meant by "Customer Success"? -- 1.1.1 Defining Customer Success -- 1.1.2 Customer Success Management Is about Realizing Value -- 1.1.3 Customer Success Management Should Focus Primarily on Product (or Service) Value -- 1.2 Understanding Outcomes and KPIs -- 1.2.1 Defining "Outcomes" -- 1.2.2 Identifying and Documenting Outcomes -- 1.2.3 Defining "KPIs" -- 1.2.4 Selecting and Understanding Outcomes and KPIs Is Important (But Not Always Easy) -- 1.3 Treating Your Customer as Your Business Partner -- 1.3.1 Customer Success Management Is a Business Partnering Approach -- 1.4 Why Is Customer Success Management becoming More Important? -- 1.4.1 Customer Success Management-A New Role, but not a New Concept -- 1.4.2 Recent Rapid Growth in Customer Success Management -- 1.4.3 Increased Customer Agility Is Driving the Need for Customer Success Management -- 1.5 How Does Customer Success Management Help to Realize Business Value? -- 1.5.1 How Does Customer Success Management Work? -- 1.5.2 What Does Customer Success Management Do? -- 1.6 Where Do CSMs Fit within the Wider Organizational Structure? -- 1.6.1 Customer Success Management in Different Companies -- 1.6.2 Customer Success Management as One Aspect of Customer Experience -- 1.6.3 Customer Success Management Is Still Growing -- 1.6.4 Customer Success Management Is Still Maturing -- 1.7 The 14 Tenets of Customer Success Management -- 2 Readiness for Customer Success Management -- 2.1 What Is Your Organization's Customer Success Strategy? -- 2.1.1 Understanding Your Own Company's Context -- 2.1.2 Creating a Customer Success Strategy -- 2.1.3 Knowing Your Own Company's Success Strategy.

2.1.4 Using Your Success Strategy -- 2.2 What Is Your Role in Helping to Fulfill Your Organization's Customer Success Strategy? -- 2.2.1 Defining the Role of the CSM -- 2.2.2 Understanding Your Own Specific Job Role -- 2.2.3 Teamwork Is an Essential Element -- 2.3 What Assets and Resources Are Available to Help You? -- 2.3.1 The Problem of a Still-Maturing Profession -- 2.3.2 Using Assets and Resources -- 2.3.3 Customer Success Management Software Systems -- 2.3.4 The Problem with Too Much Data Entry -- 2.3.5 Other Resources for CSMs -- 2.3.6 Using Pre-Created Templates -- 2.3.7 Using Tools for Analyzing Information -- 2.4 How Will You Plan and Manage Your Time? -- 2.4.1 Managing Time Is a Critical Skill -- 2.4.2 General Rules for Time Management -- 2.5 Internal Evangelization of Customer Success Management -- 2.5.1 Explaining Customer Success Management to Your Colleagues -- 3 Customer Success Management Tasks, Tools and Techniques -- 3.1 The RAPAE Task Model-A Way to Categorize CSM Activities -- 3.1.1 Getting to the Important Stuff Quickly -- 3.1.2 Categorizing Activity by Type -- 3.1.3 The Benefit of Using the RAPAE Model -- 3.1.4 Iteration throughout the Engagement Lifecycle -- 3.1.5 Spending Time Where It Is Most Needed -- 3.2 Research, Analysis and Planning as Enablers of Action -- 3.2.1 The Secret Is in the Preparation -- 3.2.2 Cutting through the Complexity -- 3.3 Understanding the Critical Path -- 3.3.1 What Is the Critical Path? -- 3.3.2 Widening Out the Concept -- 3.4 Introducing the Practical CSM Framework -- 3.4.1 A Step-By-Step, Repeatable Process -- 3.4.2 Practical Guidance -- 3.4.3 Practical CSM Framework Components -- 3.5 How Should the Practical CSM Framework Be Used? -- 3.5.1 The PCSMF and Cycles of Iteration -- 3.5.2 Tasks, Templates and Outputs -- 3.5.3 Gaining Experience Enables Greater Autonomy.

3.6 Getting in Front of Senior Management and "C" Level Customer Stakeholders -- 3.6.1 The Need to Meet Senior Leaders -- 3.6.2 Who Do You Really Want to Meet? -- 3.6.3 Identifying the Right Customer Stakeholder/s to Meet With -- 3.6.4 Getting Senior Managers to Agree to Attend Your Meetings -- 3.6.5 Working through a Real-World Scenario -- 3.6.6 In Summary -- 4 Practical CSM Framework Phase 1: Preparation -- 4.1 What Is Phase 1: Preparation All About? -- 4.1.1 The Purpose of Preparation -- 4.1.2 Types of Preparation -- 4.1.3 A Reminder about Managing Time -- 4.2 Defining the Engagement -- 4.2.1 Defining the Term "Engagement" -- 4.2.2 The Customer's Perspective -- 4.2.3 The Seller's Perspective -- 4.2.4 The Value of Post-Sales Customer Engagement -- 4.2.5 The Importance of Smooth Transitions -- 4.2.6 Engagement Pace and Cadence -- 4.2.7 You Are in It for the Long Haul -- 4.3 Accessing Information -- 4.3.1 Where to Find Information -- 4.3.2 Talking to the Pre-Adoption Team -- 4.3.3 Interrogating Corporate Data Systems -- 4.3.4 Researching on the Internet -- 4.3.5 Validation of Information -- 4.4 Internal Handover -- 4.4.1 Types of Handover -- 4.4.2 Working with Colleagues -- 4.4.3 Conducting a Handover -- 4.5 Customer Information -- 4.5.1 Understanding the Customer -- 4.5.2 Researching Information about the Customer -- 4.5.3 Types of Customer Information to Research -- 4.6 Solution Information -- 4.6.1 What Have We Sold Them? -- 4.6.2 Additional Components -- 4.6.3 Revenue Information -- 4.7 Initiative Information and Customer Outcome Requirements -- 4.7.1 Understanding the Customer's Initiative -- 4.7.2 Outcomes -- 4.7.3 Capabilities, Inputs, Outputs and Outcomes -- 4.7.4 Documenting Outcome Requirements -- 4.7.5 Validating Customer Outcome Requirements -- 4.7.6 Primary and Secondary Outcomes -- 4.8 CSM Outcome Requirements -- 4.8.1 Internal Outcomes.

4.9 Stakeholder Information -- 4.9.1 The Importance of Understanding Stakeholders -- 4.9.2 Key Stakeholders -- 4.9.3 Other Stakeholders -- 4.9.4 Directly and Indirectly Impacted Stakeholders -- 4.9.5 Researching Stakeholder Information -- 4.9.6 Managing Your Time -- 4.10 Third Parties and Project Status -- 4.10.1 Who Else Is Involved? -- 4.10.2 What Progress Has Already Been Made? -- 4.11 Managing Information Gaps -- 4.11.1 What Do We Mean by "Information Gap"? -- 4.11.2 Planned and Unplanned Information Gaps -- 4.11.3 Identifying Information Gaps -- 4.11.4 Taking a Realistic Approach to Information Gaps -- 4.11.5 Filling Information Gaps -- 4.11.6 Dealing with "Unknown Unknowns" -- 4.12 Formulating an Engagement Strategy and Roadmap -- 4.12.1 What Is an Engagement Strategy and Why Do I Need One? -- 4.12.2 Components of an Engagement Strategy -- 4.12.3 Roadmap Components -- 4.12.4 Creating a Roadmap -- 4.12.5 Using the Roadmap -- 4.13 Tools for PCSMF Phase 1: Preparation -- 4.13.1 Preparation Styles -- 4.13.2 Capturing Research Information -- 4.13.3 Formulating the Customer Engagement Strategy -- 4.13.4 Creating the Customer Engagement Strategy Roadmap -- 4.13.5 The Central Repository -- 4.14 Summary of Activities and Outputs for PCSMF Phase 1: Preparation -- 4.14.1 Activities for Phase 1: Preparation -- 4.14.2 Outputs for Phase 1: Preparation -- 5 Practical CSM Framework Phase 2: Commitment -- 5.1 What Is "Commitment" All About? -- 5.1.1 You Cannot Help the Customer Who Does not Want Your Help -- 5.1.2 The Help You Give Must Be Clearly and Explicitly Explained and Agreed -- 5.2 The Customer Commitment Process -- 5.2.1 Commitment to What? -- 5.2.2 The What, Why and How of Customer Success Management -- 5.2.3 The Explicit Offer of Help and Assistance -- 5.2.4 The Customer Success Proposal -- 5.3 Communicating with the Customer.

5.3.1 Meetings as Enablers of Customer Success Outcomes -- 5.3.2 Maximizing the Value from Meetings -- 5.3.3 Is All This Meeting Preparation Really Necessary? -- 5.3.4 Verbal Communication-Consultative Questioning -- 5.4 The Initial Customer Meeting -- 5.4.1 The Importance of the First Meeting -- 5.4.2 The Concept of Continuity -- 5.4.3 The Concept of Timing -- 5.4.4 The Concept of Demarcation and Liaising with the Account Manager -- 5.4.5 Attending a Meeting Prior to the Initial Meeting -- 5.4.6 Topics for Discussion in the Initial Meeting -- 5.4.7 Validating the Customer Journey -- 5.4.8 Getting to Know Stakeholders as Individuals -- 5.4.9 Informing the Wider User Community -- 5.5 Developing a Stakeholder Management Strategy -- 5.5.1 Why Develop a Stakeholder Management Strategy? -- 5.5.2 Using an RACI Matrix to Understand Stakeholder Involvement -- 5.5.3 The Stakeholder Management Matrix -- 5.5.4 The Stakeholder Management Plan -- 5.5.5 Recommended Steps for Managing Stakeholders -- 5.5.5.1 Step 1: Determine Who the Stakeholders Are -- 5.5.5.2 Step 2: Create a Stakeholder Matrix -- 5.5.5.3 Step 3: Classify the Stakeholders into Categories -- 5.5.5.4 Step 4: Determine Your Management Strategy for Individual Stakeholders/Groups and/or Categories -- 5.5.5.5 Step 5: Work the Plan -- 5.5.5.6 Step 6: Review the Plan Regularly -- 5.6 Tools for PCSMF Phase 2: Commitment -- 5.6.1 Tools for Planning the Initial Meeting -- 5.6.2 Capturing Results from the Initial Meeting and Developing the Proposal -- 5.6.3 Managing Stakeholders -- 5.6.4 Amending the Customer Engagement Strategy and Strategy Roadmap -- 5.6.5 The Central Repository -- 5.7 Summary of Activities and Outputs for PCSMF Phase 2: Commitment -- 5.7.1 Activities for PCSMF Phase 2: Commitment -- 5.7.2 Outputs for PCSMF Phase 2: Commitment -- 6 Practical CSM Framework Phase 3: Onboarding.

6.1 What Is PCSMF Phase 3: Onboarding All About?.