Customer Success Summit 2016 Breakout Sessions Presented by: Stephen Fulkerson, VP of Customer Success, Upland

1. SOUND THE ALARM!!!
Three Non-Negotiables for an
effective early warning system

2. Overview
1. Introductions
2. Who is Upland Software
3. Three (3) Non-Negotiables for early warning
1. Executive Relationships
2. Track Usage and Adoption
3. Team Engagement
4. Q&A

3. Who is Stephen Fulkerson?
• VP of Customer Success for Upland Software
• Manage Global Customer Success Teams
across all ten (10) of our Product Lines
• Responsible for our Customer Experience
Department and creating a great customer
experience
• Responsible for our Customer Education and
Enablement to drive stronger customer
adoption
• Leader in Customer Success for the last 15
years
• Reserve Intelligence Officer in U.S. Military

4. Who is Upland Software?
We
provide
Cloud
Solutions
across
the
enterprise
enabling
amazing
customer
outcomes
in:
+
PROJECT
&
IT
FINANCIAL
MANAGEMENT
+
WORKFLOW
AUTOMATION
+
DIGITAL
ENGAGEMENT

5. PROJECT
&
IT
FINANCIAL
MANAGEMENT
WORKFLOW
AUTOMATION
DIGITAL
ENGAGEMENT
Upland Product Family
Manage
your
organization’s
projects,
professional
workforce
and
IT
costs.
Real
time
productivity
optimization,
collaboration,
and
functional
automation
across
your
organization’s
value
chain.
Effectively
engage
with
your
customers,
prospects
and
community
via
the
web
and
mobile
technologies.

6. Enabling Amazing Customer Outcomes

7. CSM Roles and Responsibilities at Upland
Customer
Satisfaction
Renewals
Expansion

8. Where to Establishing Relationships?
Upland strives to ensure we have direct relationships established at the
following three levels.
1. Executive Sponsor
2. Business Owner
3. Application Administrator
Importance – If one of these three departs, you have relationships at the
other two levels to get a proper introduction when the position is replaced.

9. #1 Non-Negotiable - Establishing Executive Relationships
Establish STRONG Relationships with the Executive Sponsors
(a.k.a. budget owners)
1. Speak their language –
2. Know their concerns –
3. Understand their business –

10. #1 Executive Relationships - Best Practices
• Tools # 1 - Implemented change in our CRM solution to track Executive
Relationships
• Process - Changed status of account to “At Risk” - Reduced our contract
renewal rate forecast by 30% until the executive relationship was
established
• People – Provided training on how to get introduced into the executive
sponsor
• Tools # 2 – Invested in Totango –Identified trends and behaviors in
accounts with and without executive sponsor relationships established

11. #1- Executive Relationships - Results
Eye-­‐opening Skewed
projections
Build
Executive
Relationships

12. Lessons Learned - Executive Relationships
Trust
but
verify
Survey
are
indicators
Track
executives

13. Non-Negotiable #2 – Track Usage and
Adoption

14. #2 - Track Usage and Adoption
Analyzing Customer Usage & Adoption
Customer
Usage
Totango
Gives
full
picture
Validate
value
perceived
is
value
received

15. #2 Track Usage and Adoption - Best Practice
Review
trends
Identify
“At
Risk”
immediately
Validate
with
customer

16. #2 Track Usage and Adoption - Results
Most customers Some customers

17. #2 Track Usage & Adoption - Lessons Learned
Trust the data“How do you think
adoption is going?”
Present findings

18. Non-Negotiable #3 – Team Engagement

19. #3 – Team Engagement
Pain – Identifying lack of team engagement
• Limited Updates
• Limited Business
Reviews
• Tactical Relationships
• No travel to Enterprise
Accounts
• Strategic direction not
identified

20. #3 Team Engagement – Best Practices
• Trained on best practices
• Templates provided
• Coaching and mentoring
• Tools – Set up alerts (90, 60, 30)
• Tools – Neglected Account Alerts
• General Managers, Chief Customer Officer,
VP of Customer Success and CSM are all
alerted via report alert of neglected
account status
• Leverage Totango to
paint full picture of
customer health
• Leverage surveys and
other assets to verify
engagement

21. #3 Team Engagement - Results
•In 2015, NPS increased 30%
•In 2016, our NPS increased 25%
•Tactical Relationships changing to
Strategic Relationships

22. #3 Team Engagement - Lessons Learned
• Avoidable Churn happened by
not having these process and
tools in place
• More eyes helped CSM’s because others
may see signs or problems that the
CSM’s are not seeing
• Executive Pulse Updates – Make sure the
executives that engage the customers
provide updates for continuity

23. Q&A

24. Connect with me on . . .
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-­‐fulkerson-­‐9348172