There is one megatrend driven by the downturn that is affecting every SaaS #CustomerSuccess and Sales team - vendor consolidation. Nearly every CIO has seen an explosion in the number of SaaS tools their companies use in the past few years. In many cases, these products were overlapping and unintegrated, resulting in duplicated spend and inefficiency. As such, one of the top cost-savings plays in corporate IT is to reduce their number of vendors. For multi-product providers, this creates an opportunity for efficient growth and improved Net Revenue Retention. Leading suite producers are doing things like: * Investing more in cross-sell marketing * Incentivizing Customer Success teams partially on NRR * Increasing joint Account Planning and Success Planning between Sales/Account Management and CSM As an example, at Gainsight, we're seeing tremendous demand from our clients of our core CS product to take advantage of our PX in-app/analytics and inSided community solutions. As such, one of our top priorities next year is to have a company-wide focus on cross-sell and product integration, led by Robin van Lieshout. For point product providers, vendor consolidation is significantly-increasing risk. As much as your champion may love and use your product, they may surprise you one day by telling you their CIO or CFO is forcing them to move to a platform from a larger company. As such, these organizations are: * Doubling down on risk management and increasing the bar for healthy customers in their health scores * Increasing executive engagement with clients * Adding the CFO and CIO as new targets for connection * Arming their champions with content to use in justifying the need for the product to their CIO and CFO * Working to get differentiated and "sticky" features deployed * Increasing the emphasis on documenting Verified Outcomes that the clients have received What are you doing to respond to the tidal wave of vendor consolidation in SaaS? CC Kellie Capote Megha Mathur Caitlin Quinlan Joris Dieben Scott S. Jeff Depa Benjamin Stidham Udit Lakhotia
Om Lican
1y
What we hear is a little different than your experience. Execs seem to be in a Prioritization, Pruning and Pay for what-you-cannot-live-without cycle in this downturn.
Val Geisler
1y
For multi-product solutions telling that consolidation story is more important than ever. Case studies and event speakers and industry influencers and customer quotes in everything you do. Love the call out here to change messaging where necessary to reflect what those CIO/CFOs want to hear. This next year is going to those who want to do the real work, you can't just run flashy campaigns and spend big money on demo calls anymore.
Jennifer G.
1y
The key will be if companies add tools that actually do a thorough job. Not watered-down services. I once owned a small gourmet food shop. I started with a clear vision of what I wanted to sell/service. Over time, I would add new things that were popular elsewhere. But eventually, I started to feel like I was doing a lot of things "just ok". Nothing great. So I streamlined back to things that my customers needed but also what I was good at. Staying true to your customer AND vision is what equals success!
Omid Razavi
1y
In my experience, when consolidating tools, it is important to avoid the following five pitfalls: 1. Don't ignore the needs of your customers: Remember that consolidating tools must not adversely affect your customer experience. Make sure to consider your customers' needs and how consolidation will impact them. 2. Don't overlook the needs of your employees: Consolidation can be disruptive for employees, so consider the users' needs and concerns. Communicate with employees and involve them to ensure that consolidation is successful. 3. Don't rush the process: Consolidation can be complex. Take shortcuts for immediate financial results only after considering long-term impacts. 4. Don't neglect to test and validate the new configuration: Before rolling out a consolidated environment, it's important to ensure it meets your expected needs. 5. Don't make it a vendor pruning exercise by the CFO/CIO duo: Involve the business in a carefully planned and executed tools consolidation process to ensure its success.
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Alok Kumar
1y
Completely agree. Its time that CS and AM leaders start thinking of collaborative approach rather than individual team level goals. CSMs and AMs can't work in silos for same account and then thinking of achieving success. Do joint planning and chalk out the individual goals which will help in achieving the overall account level goals.
David Spitz
1y
The age old debate — best of breed vs. suite solution. No doubt in tougher times with CIOs (and CFOs!) looking to save money the suites will gain some leverage. I love Zoom way more than Teams - but good luck convincing the Chief Belt-tightener!
Peter Armaly
1y
This is all part of the move we will see for the need to seriously uplevel the communications, collaboration, and external relationship skills of CS leaders.
John Chase
1y
Absolutely true. And getting deeper into also helping solve the same issue for clients that are doing the same. It’s a cycle.
Founder @ SuccessLab | AI for CS/CX/CSS
1yNick Mehta Vendor consolidation was a topic of discussion at the Customer Service & Support Roundtable last week. Here are some key points: 1. Business leaders, unlike CIOs and CFOs, are not seeking to consolidate their vendors. They understand that single-product vendors, often startups, are chosen for their unique capabilities that multi-product vendors may not possess. 2. Business leaders expect their vendors to provide data in 2023 that shows the impact of their products and services on the business, and customer success is seen as a critical factor in achieving this goal. 3. All vendors are expected to face price pressure in 2023, but multi-product vendors may be better equipped to handle it due to their trained staff and prior experience with such challenges.