How to Manage a CS Book in a Value-Centric World

If I were a CSM again tomorrow, here's how I'd run my book of business:

First, build an org chart for every single customer. Non-negotiable. From this I want to know a few key things:

• Who have we been engaging with and not?

• Who are the main stakeholders? What are their roles? Are any of them a Champion for me, for my solution and for the pain we solve?

• Who has the power and who owns the renewal decision and budget? Have we engaged with them? Do I understand what value means to them and when did we last show them that value?

• Where are my gaps that I need to plug ASAP?

Ideally these days, I want AI to tell me this automatically without me having to hunt it out.

Second, I'd ask questions to understand what true value means to each customer and build a success plan to ensure that together we deliver on that value. Some notes on this:

• Value is not "80% adoption", this value is "What business problem am I helping you solve".

• I'd make sure I have a rhythm with that customer to measure that value and change our plan accordingly.

• This success plan would be discussed on every call and I'd constantly be making recommendations on what other strategies we could be applying to hit that value metric.

If you want more on Success Planning we’ve got a great guide. 

Third, be organised. Build an account plan that is essentially my path to renewal/upsell with every customer and then build myself a rhythm around this.

• Book the time in my calendar each week to review progress and set goals to execute on the things that matter based on the above.

• Review my progress against this plan at a minimum quarterly.

Side note: An account plan to me is different to a Success Plan - this is essentially how you "run" that customer to ensure renewal. It will include things like "Engage with this exec", ensure X value milestone is achieved and shown back to the customer etc

Fourth, leverage an ML and AI sentiment combined health score to know exactly which customers I need to focus on, when and how. 

• Accept that this data is telling me something I don’t already know. Swallow my pride - trust the data. Health scores have come a LONG way in the last 5 years and are incredibly valuable now. Read more on Hook’s health scores here. 

• Leverage tech to tell me exactly what to do about the health score and how - this makes my life so much easier for focusing on points 1, 2 and 3 to “run” my book of business effectively.

‼️ You don't need to be starting a new book of business to do these things. You can reset the type of relationship you have with your customer at any time!

Be open with your customer on your next conversation on how you want to work together and why. Link this back to their success.

Happy CSM'ing everyone!