#announcements

FWIW -- not exactly what you asked but maybe helpful: you might (as part of this) consider engaging the CSMs in a conversation about how the program is executed/what deliverables come out the other side and how you can craft/repurpose those to support their initiatives, too.

Something I've experienced is that CSMs/sales are more likely to take part in programs they've had a hand in shaping, and when you can frame the conversation through the lens of "here's how we're going to deliver to you exactly what YOU want and will benefit from", that can certainly help.

Love that, @Joel Klettke! Definitely something I’ve considered - my role is within the CS org at my company which is helpful. If there’s any kind of things that CSMs were particularly excited about in your experience in the past, I’d love to hear it!

When clients have asked, they've learned things like...
• One-sheets // more concise assets like pocket stories/quote banks are valuable but often overlooked
• Helpful to get a bead on what kinds of incentives (if any) are necessary or attractive to CSMs to get them to taking part
• Useful to figure out if you can set up event-based check-ins (e.g. a wins wednesday) to help hold CSMs accountable/keep your program memorable

Thank you! This is all extremely helpful!

@Maura Frost - I keep a slide deck available for the CS team to access that includes descriptions of the various programs for which I am responsible. That way they can just use that as a baseline when talking about the program(s) with customers. In addition - I meet regularly with the CSMs to talk about what I'm working on and get their feedback. FWIW

Is there an example of an advocate who has also experienced account growth? Assuming your CS team is incentivized for growing accounts, you can talk about how this kind of engagement actually helps build and foster the relationship towards growth.

If your company can provide incentives for customer referrals, advocacy activities, etc. to the CSM who recruits that person, that also goes a long way. (one company I worked for incentivized both CSM and customer for case studies).

If it creates opportunities to engage with more contacts in an account, you can talk about that too. For example, we recently featured a customer in a webinar and it gave an opportunity for me to connect with the new program owner who wants to do more with our product.

@Maura Frost All good suggestions above. I’ll just add a few more:

• Clear value proposition to the CSM team, just like you should have a clear value proposition to customers when inviting them into the program. I always say, you are building advocates externally and internally! People invest in things they believe will bring value to them in terms of time saving, increased role success, etc.
• Have a program prospectus ready if you don’t already to hand off after the presentation. This could be a single PDF sheet or a few slides that outlines the purpose, mission, values, target audience, value propositions (internally and externally), target audience, etc. That sounds like a lot, but keep it short!
• And a really good piece of advice I was told was during the presentation, get attendees to commit to one thing. That could be writing down the names of two clients who should be invited, downloading the prospectus during the meeting, raising their hand to volunteer for being a “program expert”, etc. The idea is simply to not just share knowledge, but get action going immediately.

Hope there’s something helpful in there for you!

@Liz Richardson love the "commit to one thing" suggestion!

@Daniel Palay is good at this kind of thing!