Ensuring client outcomes is difficult enough when there are only two sides to the relationship: the vendor and the customer. When you add partners into the mix, it can make aligning the goals of all parties much more complicated. Allison Pickens, CCO of Gainsight and Chris Doell, VP of Customer Success for Cisco's Cloud Security guide you through the complexities of managing Customer Success in your partner ecosystem.

1. Aligning with
Partners on
Customer Success

2. Introductions
Chris Doell
VP Customer Success
Allison Pickens
Chief Customer Officer

3. Agenda
• Trends on Aligning with Partners on Customer Success
• How Gainsight Can Help Manage Customer Success in the Channel
• Q&A

4. Aligning with Partners
on Customer Success

5. Customer Success at Scale
“How can I scale Customer
Success
to many customers?”
One way is to collaborate
with your partner ecosystem
on Customer Success.

6. Vendor-Partner Alignment
● Increase margins
● Increase retention
● Identify upsell / cross-sell
opportunities
● Enhance their competitive
position
● Better margins due to
reduced adoption costs
● Faster time-to-value,
consistent with
standardized journey
maps
When there's alignment between vendors and their
partners, every constituency wins
Customers Vendors Partners

7. An ecosystem aligned around the customer’s success
Vendor PartnerA shared
responsibility for positive
customer outcomes
A shared 360-degree view of
the customer along their
journey
Shared, trusted barometers
for Customer Health (including
NPS, adoption, advocacy, and
other metrics)
Better alignment on prescribed
customer journeys and the
playbooks that make them
happen

8. The Challenge: Enabling a shift in mindset among
partners
● Margin preservation
● Top-line bookings
● Services attach rates
● NPS
● Adoption
● Advocacy
Transactional Strategic

9. Playbook

10. The Partner Playbook for Customer Success
Align on intended outcomes, steps in the journey, and incentives
• Start out with a couple of progressive partners
• “Rinse and repeat” the model across a broader set of partners
Profile Your Partners
Define the ROI of a
Partner
Provide Enablement
Define Division of Labor Share Customer Insights
Measure Partner
Effectiveness
Shared Tools, Metrics, and Outcomes
1 2 3
4 5 6

11. Profile Your Partners
• Start with a small group - think 2-4
• Prioritize your partners
• Start a pilot
● Are services a core part of their business model?
● Does the partner have a “lifecycle” or “adoption” practice?
● Do we expect that the partner would derive a strong ROI from investing in CS, due to
e.g. enhanced cross-sell and upsell?
● Are there several people whose roles are focused on customer success or training?
● For larger partners:
○ Is there an executive at the partner who is committed to Customer Success?
○ Is there specifically a Customer Success executive, or just CSMs reporting to a
Sales/Support/Operations executive?
Prioritize your partners based on several factors
1

12. Demonstrate that expanding their CS program is worth it
Define the ROI to the Partner
Growth in Services Revenue
● Faster expansion into existing accounts
● Reduced client attrition
Growth in Product Revenue
● Become more deeply embedded with a client
● Better identify areas where services can add
value for the client
● Launch paid CSM programs, similar to some
vendors
New Revenue from CS as a Service
● Stand out against others by offering a CS
program
● Vendors can reinforce this differentiation by
requiring partners to have a CS program in
order to earn “Gold Status”
Point of Differentiation
2

13. 3
Provide Enablement
Partners need three additional types of support from you (the vendor):
● Vendor Account
Managers are evolving
into Partner Success
Managers - vendors
must tier their partners
and allocate resources
accordingly
● Certifications on
lifecycle management,
adoption programs, or
change management to
attain certain status levels
(e.g. “Gold Status”)
● What playbooks should
the partner adopt for each
stage of the customer
lifecycle?
● What are your KPIs and
how should the partner
aim to achieve those?
Training on Playbooks Certification Partner Success Managers
Ensure partners perceive these as a source of empowerment - i.e. bolstering
the partner’s ownership of the client relationship - rather than an intrusion.

14. 4
Define the Division of Labor
• For each segment, what do you expect your team / partners to do?
• Protect your brand across the lifecycle
• Partners can extend your reach among SMB customers especially
When a vendor forms a
CS program, they may
not have the budget to
assign CSMs to the
SMB segment
What do you
expect your
team to do?
What do you
expect your
partners to do?

15. Share Customer Insights
Information-sharing should be a two-way street
Vendor
Partner
• Insights into
their customers
• Feedback on
playbooks /
product
• Usage data
• NPS data
• Support ticket data
• Community portal
data
Partners need to know:
● Which clients to
follow up with?
● At what time?
● For what reason?
5

16. Measure Partner Effectiveness
● Hold partners accountable: get visibility into partners’ compliance with playbooks
● Pay partners based on their success in driving outcomes and growth in the installed base:
○ Renewals not just new logos
○ Future: Dynamic margins based on targets for Customer Health metrics
Why measure partner effectiveness?
● Mutually agreed upon in advance
● Reviewed together at regular intervals
● Objectively measured
These KPIs should be...
6

17. How Does Gainsight Fit?

18. 4
Manage and Model Complex Customers in your Partner
Portfolio
Analyze aggregated Relationship
data across your Partner Portfolio
Drill down into details with a 360
view per Relationship
Create a configurable framework that
empowers your team to accurately
reflect how your partners manage
customers
1
2
3
4
1

19. 5
Report on and monitor your
Partner Account Portfolio
View the historical
trends in a Partner’s
performance data
Measure and manage your
Partner’s health and success
with Scorecards
Manage Partner Performance and Success
632
Gather experiential data
via Surveys

20. Create a Success Plan to help your
Partners grow their business
Send automated emails to share information
and best practices with Partners
Elevate Customer Management by Partners
Send NPS and CSAT surveys to your end-
customer to understand their experience
with your Partners
6543

21. Expose a Gainsight widget
directly to Partners to monitor
their end-customers
PSMs can communicate &
collaborate directly with
Partners within the widget
Enable Partners for Success
543

22. Partner Playbook Gainsight Method Product Features
Manage and Model Complex Customers
in your Partner Portfolio
• Hierarchy
• Relationships
• Relationship360
Manage Partner Performance and
Success
• Health Scores
• Customer 360
• Dashboards
• Trending Data
• Survey
Drive Effective Partner Management of
End Customers
• Success Plans
• Cockpit
• Playbooks
• CoPilot
• Survey
Enable Partners for Success
• Partner Widget
• Health Scores
• Cockpit
• Success Plans
Manage Partners Effectively
1) Profile Your Partners
2) Define the ROI of a Partner
3) Provide Enablement
4) Define Division of Labor
5) Share Customer Insights
6) Measure Partner Effectiveness
3) Provide Enablement
4) Define Division of Labor
5) Share Customer Insights
6) Measure Partner Effectiveness
3) Provide Enablement
4) Define Division of Labor
5) Share Customer Insights

23. Q&A