Podcasts about Customer success

From Stanford and the RAND Corporation to leading revenue teams in the commercial world, Brent Keltner, PhD, has spent his career decoding how complex B2B deals are actually closed. As founder and president of Winalytics, Brent helps mid-market and enterprise teams move beyond product pitching to true account-based growth. He's the author of “The Revenue Acceleration Playbook” and the forthcoming “Journey First Marketing,” a book that challenges one of B2B's biggest bad habits: obsessing over individual personas when companies actually buy in committees. In this episode, Brent reveals why traditional contact-focused marketing leaves so much revenue on the table and how to flip your entire go-to-market motion around a simple idea: accounts buy, personas don't. You'll hear how to design websites that speak to every member of the buying committee, why customer stories should be your #1 content asset (not #5), and how to connect product value, business value, and corporate value so that users, budget owners, and risk-averse stakeholders all see themselves in your message. https://youtu.be/2dCBKj9vf88 Brent also breaks down a practical roadmap for teams stuck in contact scoring and lead chaos. He explains how to use tools like ChatGPT on top of your CRM to spot real buying committees (not just random clickers or competitors snooping), how to build three aligned content streams for your core buyer types, and how to reuse a single customer story across your entire funnel, website, social, sales decks, and beyond. Whether you're a CMO, CRO, founder, or product marketer, you'll come away with a clearer picture of what true account-based enablement looks like in the real world and how a few smart changes can unlock faster, more predictable growth. Quotes: "Accounts buy. Personas don't, and every part of your marketing should reflect that reality.” “If your customers aren't saying it consistently, it isn't true, no matter how often your CEO repeats it.” “Customer stories are the only asset that turn ‘me selling to you' into ‘we solving a problem together.'” Resources: Winalytics LLC Brent Keltner on LinkedIn The Revenue Acceleration Playbook: Creating an Authentic Buyer Journey Across Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success on Amazon

What if landing a $200K Customer Success role has a lot less to do with your title and a lot more to do with one thing almost no one is tracking?In this episode, I went full data-nerd and analyzed 10 recent clients who all accepted Customer Success offers between $175K–$230K. I pulled apart their resumes, KPIs, career paths, and job search histories to uncover the patterns that actually showed up at this level — not the advice we think matters, but what the data clearly revealed.I'm breaking down the types of companies paying top dollar, why domain depth quietly beats title chasing, and the specific metrics that consistently showed up across every high earner. We'll also talk about why “just CSM” titles aren't the red flag people think they are and what truly drives compensation once you're aiming for $200K and beyond.By the end of this episode, you'll have a much clearer roadmap for where to focus and what to stop stressing about if a $200K role is your goal. If you've been questioning whether you're on the right path, this will give you answers. Hit play and let's dive in.And if you're ready to position yourself as the obvious choice for a high-comp Customer Success role? Apply to work with my team HERE.02:11 – Why High-Paying Customer Success Roles Are Tied to “Mission Critical” Software Companies04:14 – What Building Domain Depth Actually Looks Like (and Why It Matters More Than Job-Hopping)06:47 – The Truth About Job Titles: Why “CSM” or “VP” Alone Doesn't Guarantee a Bigger Paycheck08:54 – The Real Drivers of 200k Salaries in Customer Success: Scope, Revenue, and Accountability12:15 – Why Non-Linear Careers (and Resume Gaps) Won't Hold You Back From Earning More13:43 – How Even Top Candidates Struggle to Land Interviews (and Why Selling Yourself Is Everything)16:18 – The Actual Checklist for Breaking Into the 200k+ Customer Success Club17:16 – Why Tweaking Your Job Seeking Skills (Not Your Experience) Is the Ultimate Career Growth HackFREEBIES & RESOURCES:

What if the path to transforming higher ed isn't about radical reinvention—but about finally using the tools we already have? In this episode, Dustin chats with Kelly Rogan, COO of Ellucian, about how AI and data can revolutionize student experiences, institutional operations, and leadership decisions—if we're brave enough to modernize. Drawing from her background at Microsoft and her deep dive into higher ed, Kelly unpacks how institutions can move from resistance to action, without losing the human touch.Guest Name: Kelly Rogan - Chief Operating Officer at EllucianGuest Social: LinkedInGuest Bio: As Chief Operating Officer, Kelly Rogan drives acceleration and enhancement of Ellucian's SaaS delivery strategies and customer experience, leading the Global Professional Services, Managed Services, Services Strategy and Innovation, and Customer Success and Support organizations. Kelly has more than 20 years of impressive experience in driving cloud transformation in the technology industry, a deep understanding of transformational change, and a proven ability to scale organizations effectively. - - - -Connect With Our Host:Dustin Ramsdellhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinramsdell/About The Enrollify Podcast Network:The Higher Ed Geek is a part of the Enrollify Podcast Network. If you like this podcast, chances are you'll like other Enrollify shows too!Enrollify is made possible by Element451 — The AI Workforce Platform for Higher Ed. Learn more at element451.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Enroll in RevUP Academy: https://thecustomersuccesspro.com/revupIn this episode of the Customer Success Pro Podcast, host Anika Zubair speaks with Alon Ahronberg, VP of Customer Success at Atera. They discuss the transition from a product-led growth model to a sales-led growth model, the importance of redefining customer success roles, and the implementation of proactive customer journeys. Alon shares insights on enhancing customer adoption, the significance of re-onboarding customers, and the role of AI in shaping the future of customer success. The conversation emphasizes the need for strategic leadership and project management in scaling customer success teams effectively.Chapters:00:00 Introduction03:14 Transitioning from Product-Led to Sales-Led Growth05:54 The Importance of Customer Success in Tech09:03 Building a Proactive Customer Success Organization11:57 Defining Roles in Customer Success14:47 Implementing Customer Journeys and Health Scoring17:48 Enhancing Customer Adoption and Value21:12 Re-Onboarding Customers for Success23:52 The Role of AI in Customer Success27:02 Challenges in Scaling Customer Success Teams30:02 Lessons Learned from Moving Upmarket32:46 Final Thoughts and Quickfire QuestionsConnect with Anika Zubair:Website: ⁠https://thecustomersuccesspro.com/⁠LinkedIn:  ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/anikazubair/⁠RevUP Academy: ⁠https://thecustomersuccesspro.com/revup⁠Connect with Alon Ahronberg: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alon-ahronberg/Grab our FREE resources here: ⁠https://thecustomersuccesspro.com/resources⁠Want to be our next podcast guest? Apply here: ⁠https://www.thecustomersuccesspro.com/podcast-guest⁠Book Anika as a speaker at your next team event: ⁠https://www.thecustomersuccesspro.com/team-event

Na palestra apresentada pela Robs (Consultoria de Sucesso) no CRM Zummit 2025, em Florianópolis, a especialista em Customer Success provocou o público ao afirmar que cliente feliz não é sinônimo de cliente retido. Com exemplos práticos e dados de mercado, ela mostrou por que o verdadeiro sucesso está na entrega de resultado, e não apenas na experiência, ao longo de toda a jornada, inclusive no cancelamento.

Today I'm joined by Stephanie Blair, Founder of Know & Flourish (https://knowandflourish.com/), for a practical conversation on digital career growth in Customer Success. We dig into how to build a career identity (not just a title), why experimentation matters, and how to expand your lane without burning out. You'll hear a real-world example from my team of turning a scrappy spreadsheet into a lightweight web tool, and what that kind of initiative can do for your brand inside the business.We also talk about the shift in CS org design: the rise of digital program managers, AI-assisted workflows, and yes - why human, IRL moments still win renewals. If you're exploring a pivot into CS (from sales/marketing/product) or within CS (service → expansion, or IC → leader), Stephanie breaks down how to translate your skills, control your narrative, and interview like a peer.Housekeeping: I'll be co-chairing the CS Summit in Austin later this month, and the Digital CX Masterclass is coming soon join the waitlist at https://DigitalCustomerSuccess.com/Masterclass to be first in line. Support the show+++++++++++++++++Like/Subscribe/Review:If you are getting value from the show, please follow/subscribe so that you don't miss an episode and consider leaving us a review. Website:For more information about the show or to get in touch, visit DigitalCustomerSuccess.com. Buy Alex a Cup of Coffee:This show runs exclusively on caffeine - and lots of it. If you like what we're, consider supporting our habit by buying us a cup of coffee: https://bmc.link/dcspThank you for all of your support!The Digital Customer Success Podcast is hosted by Alex Turkovic

Kathy Kohler, Vice President of Customer Success at Suvoda, discusses the strategic merger between Suvoda and Greenphire and what it means for sites and patients. Learn how bringing randomization, trial supply management, and clinical trial payments together on one platform reduces site burden, eliminates fragmented technology, and creates smoother patient journeys. Kathy shares specific capabilities, including automated payments, streamlined workflows, and single sign-on access, while reinforcing Suvoda's ongoing commitment to site advocacy and listening to the voice of the clinical research community. 

Send us a textIn this powerful and deeply human conversation, Joey Pinz sits down with Dwain Daniels — a customer success leader, father of three, and creator of the Leave It Better movement — to explore what it means to show up with intention in every area of life. From leadership and family to faith, work ethic, and personal growth, Dwain shares how small, consistent actions can create lasting impact.This episode moves effortlessly from lessons learned growing up in the Bronx to parenting across different life stages, navigating customer relationships without ego, and why helping one person is more than enough. Dwain opens up about grace, accountability, mental health, legacy, and why real leadership is rooted in listening, not control.You'll also hear reflections on resilience, lessons learned from loss, the importance of being present, and why defining success on your own terms is essential in a world obsessed with comparison.This is a conversation about humanity, humility, and leaving every person, place, and moment better than you found it. ⭐ Top 3 Highlights❤️ Why legacy is built through values, not possessions

Ready to churn less and win more?

What if the reason your job search isn't working has nothing to do with your experience and everything to do with how you're showing up? In this episode, I sit back down with Zach Sanford to unpack a powerful shift most Customer Success professionals completely overlook… treating your job search like a CS role.We break down exactly how to demonstrate your CSM skills at every stage of the process—from discovery-driven interviews and stakeholder management, to value-based storytelling, strategic outreach, and even negotiation. You'll hear tangible examples of what “walking the walk” actually sounds like in interviews, how to tier your job search like a book of business, and why small moments of delight (like thank-you notes) can make or break an offer. This is less about saying you're a great CSM and more about proving it in real time.By the end, you'll walk away with a clearer strategy, more confidence, and a completely different way to approach your job search—one that de-risks you as a candidate and positions you as the safest hire in the room. If you're ready to stop applying harder and start showing up smarter, hit play and let's dive in.0:46 – Why Customer Success Skills Give You a Unique Edge in the Job Search2:26 – How “Being a CSM” During Your Job Search Proves You Can Do the Job3:21 – Demonstrating (Not Just Talking About) Your CS Skills in Interviews5:26 – What “De-risking” Yourself for Hiring Managers Looks Like8:08 – Managing Your Job Search Like a CSM Manages a Book of Business13:01 – Leveling Up Your Interview Game with Context, Curiosity, and Tying Insights Together20:55 – Why Deep Research and Tailored Outreach Set CSMs Apart21:47 – The Power of Negotiation and Value Selling in CS Job Offers27:16 – How Small Gestures (Like Thank You Notes) Can Get You Hired30:21 – Why Being Intentional Wins In CS Job SearchFREEBIES & RESOURCES:

Text us your questions and thoughts!What happens when you move your CS career from London to Dubai and rebuild your playbook from the ground up? We talk about that with Jomilsa Sousa, Customer Success and Account Management consultant & coach, and the Founder of The Success Studio, where she helps Customer Success professionals and businesses unlock their full potential. Currently, she also serves as Account Manager at Cirium (and when this was recorded, she was CS Account Manager at LexisNexis Middle East)In this episode, Jomilsa unpacks how digital transformation in the Middle East collides with a culture that prizes in‑person trust, and why that mix is changing how teams design onboarding, renewals, and growth. AI is powerful for churn prediction and business reviews, but the story that convinces a stakeholder to stay is still a human one.We explore:Cultural nuance shaping CS across the Middle EastAI for churn prediction and reviews, humans for narrative and trustRising demand for CS Ops, technical CSMs and community rolesEmpathy as a strategic advantageBuilding systematic visibility: weekly updates, impact docs, public winsWe also dig into the mindset that sustains momentum: pivot quickly when the signal changes, lead without the title, and make someone's day easier as a daily north star. If you're navigating AI, global accounts, or a big move of your own, this conversation offers a clear, human map for what works (& what doesn't).And if this conversation resonates, follow the show, share it with a teammate who needs fresh tactics, and leave a quick review to help more listeners find us.

In this episode of The Advisory Board Podcast, Dave Hansen sits down with friend (and quietly relentless operator) Dustin Ingle, co-founder of Insulation Commandos, to unpack what operational excellence actually looks like when you're building a franchise system from the ground up.Huge thanks to ClientTether for sponsoring this episode—because when the mission is faster follow-up, tighter ops, and better owner support, the right systems matter.what you'll hear in this episode1) a support model that makes people do a double-take (and still stays profitable)Insulation Commandos is running an unusually high support ratio—roughly one to two home office staff per franchise owner—and still operating “in the black,” even with 26 owners. The big idea: profitability and heavy support aren't opposites if the model is built intentionally.2) onboarding that eliminates the “waiting around to start making money” problemDustin breaks down their six-week ramp-up and the bottleneck most franchisors underestimate: trucks, wraps, equipment, shipping, and timing. Their fix was deceptively simple and wildly effective: a centrally located corporate operation in Clarksville, TN where trucks and equipment are delivered, wrapped, staged, and prepped. Owners come to training… and drive home in a turnkey, wrapped truck with tools, uniforms, and materials ready to roll.3) training that goes beyond “classroom confident”Their launch training is split into two phases:phase 1 (virtual): sales training with heavy role-play, installation basics, and building science certification (BPI level 1)phase 2 (in person): deep building science + hands-on work, including a full practice house built inside the warehouse (crawl space + attic), then two full days on real jobs—start to finish, including collecting payment and getting the google review.4) “month one revenue” isn't a wish—it's a planInstead of a one-size-fits-all marketing push, they tailor launch strategy by market tier. In dense markets, lead volume helps. In smaller markets, they lean hard into grassroots + local partnerships: chamber, bni, retail booths, yard signs, door hangers, postcards, homebuilder associations, and more—starting at least two weeks before opening.5) referrals are the long game (and the real margin play)Because insulation is often “one-and-done,” recurring growth comes from b2b referral partnerships: restoration, hvac, pest control, builders, home inspectors, roofers. Dustin calls out hvac as a major “honey hole,” and notes owners with strong partnerships tend to have significantly lower marketing spend as a % of revenue.6) they treat every launch like a mission… with an after action reviewStraight from military playbooks: an aar after launches (and again around 90 days) to capture what worked, what didn't, and what to adjust. Training evolves based on the real questions owners ask post-launch—measured by tracking how many calls an owner needs in the first 90 days and steadily driving that number down.7) the “swat team” concept for post-launch growth supportAs owners mature past year one, the problems get bigger (more trucks, bigger facilities, team growth). So they're launching a four-person swat team (ops + sales + field leadership + dustin) to do week-long onsite “missions” in territories—hands-on help across sales, operations, and local networking.8) the call center move that doubled booking ratesThey started with a third-party call center (solid, “industry standard” results). Then they brought the call center in-house, trained agents through the same building science and franchise onboarding, and powered it with ClientTether. Result: booking rates jumped from roughly 20–30% to 60–70%, with a lift in close rates too—because the first call sets expectations, builds trust, and frames the job as “building science,” not a commodity quote.rapid-fire takeawaysstreamline logistics so owners launch faster and cash-flow soonertrain for real life: simulate, then execute on live jobstailor marketing by market type; grassroots wins in smaller territoriesbuild b2b referrals early for durable, lower-cost growthrun after action reviews so every launch improves the nextdon't outsource your first impression if you can build a better one in-houseGuest: Dustin IngleHost: Dave HansenSponsor: ClientTether

Sumate al equipo de Customer Success de Clienty. Conocé el rol, responsabilidades y cómo aplicar: https://clienty.co/busqueda-cs/

Hablamos con Luis Felipe Lanz, quien comparte su trayectoria de 23 años en SAP, desde sus inicios en HR hasta su rol actual en Customer Service Management y BTP. Tratamos la evolución de SAP a lo largo de los años, la importancia de adaptarse al ritmo del cliente y el papel fundamental del equipo de Customer Success. Abordamos la complejidad de BTP, el concepto de Clean Core y la necesidad de una mentalidad de cambio en el ecosistema SAP. Finalmente, Luis Felipe ofrece consejos para quienes desean iniciar una carrera en SAP hoy en día.#sapenespañol #Más info...

If you are tired of getting ignored, show up in the one place your prospects cannot ignore you: their mailbox.ㅤIf you have been building a B2B marketing program, direct mail has likely come up. Unfortunately, it is often thrown out immediately—just like the junk mail you get at home. This happens because most marketers treat it as a cold opener or a mass outreach tool. On this episode of Scrappy ABM, Mason Cosby explains why you should never use direct mail to start a conversation with someone who has never heard of you.ㅤInstead, Mason breaks down how to use physical mail to re-engage stalled deals or accelerate existing relationships. He shares why receiving a package is a "delightful interruption" compared to the crowded digital ad space, where you are constantly outbid. You will learn exactly where to insert direct mail into your pipeline, why you should start with a small pilot of 10 to 50 accounts, and why sending your own company swag is usually a mistake.ㅤWhat We CoverThe problem with cold direct mail: Why sending physical items to people who do not know you ends up in the trash.The "Delightful Interruption": How to provide context and excitement when a prospect opens a package.Avoiding the bidding war: Why the mailbox offers less competition than social media feeds.Three specific places to use direct mail: Stalled pipeline opportunities, historical funnel drop-off points (like free trials), and customer renewals.The Nike shoe example: How a personalized gift after a renewal created a lasting positive memory.Starting small: Why a 10-account pilot with a higher budget per gift often yields better ROI than mass sends.The swag rule: Why you should offer your branded gear as an option rather than the default gift.Internal alignment: The critical need for Sales and Customer Success to follow up immediately upon a package's arrival.ㅤResourcesScrappy ABM Newsletter: Get weekly B2B marketing answers and tips. Subscribe here.Dreamdata: Mentioned for their 2025 benchmark report content play. Visit Dreamdata.Visit for more ABM tips and strategiesConnect with Mason on LinkedInㅤIf you enjoyed today's episode and found valuable insights for your business, be sure to subscribe...

Sue Andersen, Director of Customer Success, & Debra London, Manager, Client Experience, Jenzabar

Justifying investment in customer success is far harder than justifying spend in sales and marketing. In episode #350, Ben walks through a practical framework for evaluating the ROI of customer success and retention programs by tying customer success investment directly to ARR, MRR, and revenue retention performance. Instead of relying on vague qualitative benefits, this episode outlines how finance and SaaS leaders can quantify retention improvements and translate them into real financial impact. Resources Mentioned Blog post on quantifying customer success and retention ROI: https://www.thesaascfo.com/quantifying-investments-in-customer-success-and-retention/ SaaS Metrics Course: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/the-saas-metrics-foundation What You'll Learn Where customer success should be classified on the SaaS P&L (COGS vs. Sales) Why customer success ROI is harder to quantify than CAC or go-to-market efficiency How to use MRR and ARR waterfalls as the foundation for retention analysis The difference between gross revenue retention and net revenue retention in ROI modeling How expansion, contraction, and churn act as independent levers in retention A scenario-based approach to estimating ARR impact from retention improvements Why It Matters Helps justify customer success spend with real revenue and ARR impact Improves financial modeling and long-term financial strategy decisions Connects retention performance to unit economics and scalability Avoids over-investing in customer success without measurable outcomes Provides a clearer framework for board and investor discussions

In this episode of the Thread Podcast, host Justin Vandehey sits down with Neal McCoy, VP of Customer Success and Professional Services at BigCommerce, to unpack where customer value most often breaks down after a deal is closed — and how companies can fix it.Neal shares insights from nearly a decade building CS and PS at BigCommerce, explaining why customers don't buy software to “solve problems,” but to make or save money. The conversation explores how unclear value realization creates friction during onboarding, why sales-to-CS handoffs fail, and how AI is reshaping customer success through better context, automation, and voice-of-the-customer insights at scale. Key Takeaways & HighlightsCustomers buy software to make money, save money, or both — not just to solve surface-level problemsMisalignment on value realization is the #1 reason onboarding and CS struggle post-saleSales teams often assume customers understand value — they usually don'tThe earlier value is quantified and documented in the sales cycle, the stronger the post-sale executionAI can eliminate manual handoff friction by summarizing calls, emails, and deal context automaticallyTraditional CS metrics like surveys and NPS are statistically weak; voice of the customer at scale is the futureCustomer success leaders must act as the primary conduit for customer insight back into product and GTMPersonalization at scale requires cohort-based learning, not one-size-fits-all onboardingFewer deals with clearer value often outperform higher-volume pipelines long termThe best salespeople optimize for customer outcomes, not just closed deals Chapters & Timestamps00:00 – Welcome & Introduction Justin introduces Neal McCoy and his background across military, fintech, digital engagement, and ecommerce.02:00 – Neal's Career Path & BigCommerce Journey How Neal helped build CS and professional services as BigCommerce moved upmarket.04:30 – Where Customer Value Breaks Down Post-Sale Why customers trade one set of problems for another when value isn't clearly defined.06:45 – What CS Wishes Sales Would Hand Off (But Rarely Does) The missing context that makes or breaks onboarding and adoption.09:15 – AI's Role in Fixing the Sales-to-CS Handoff How AI can summarize deal context and remove the burden from sellers.11:45 – Voice of the Customer vs. Traditional CS Metrics Why surveys fail and how AI unlocks insight from unstructured customer data.14:30 – Personalization at Scale in Ecommerce Onboarding Using cohort-based success models across industries, regions, and merchant types.17:15 – The Biggest Misconception Sales Leaders Have About Post-Sale Why focusing on value may reduce conversions but increase long-term growth.20:00 – The Future of CS, PS, and AI at BigCommerce How AI is changing delivery models, expertise, and customer expectations.22:30 – Closing Thoughts & What's Next Neal's outlook on AI, value delivery, and helping merchants succeed long-term.

We analyzed 1,474 CSM conversations to uncover why they are leaving and what keeps them in 2026. Grab the Free Talent Report here: https://customer-success-career.captivate.fm/reportCSMs don't leave because they're bad at their jobs — they leave because no one can see the impact they're making. In Part 2 of this series, I'm breaking down the real reason high-performing CSMs feel invisible, even when they're driving renewals, expansion, and retention behind the scenes.We're unpacking what “impact” actually means when CSMs say they're missing it, why this isn't a motivation problem but a systems problem, and the three patterns I see over and over again in teams with high turnover. I'll walk you through where leaders unintentionally lose their best people, the gaps that prevent CSMs from articulating their value, and the exact operational, enablement, and management shifts that change everything without adding more work.By the end of this episode, you'll finally have language, structure, and a clear action plan to make impact visible and undeniable. If you're tired of feeling overlooked or watching top CSMs walk out the door, this is the missing piece you haven't addressed yet. Hit plat and let's dive in.1:07 – Why High-Performing CSMs Still Feel Invisible (and Leave Because of It)3:13 – The True Meaning Behind “I Want More Impact” (It's Not Just About Praise)4:42 – How Being Forced Into Reactive Work Stops CSMs from Contributing Strategically6:10 – The Real Cost of Not Having Access to Key Metrics and Business Data11:51 – 5 Root Causes Leadership Misses That Make CSMs Feel Disconnected15:29 – 3 Critical Fixes: Better Operations, Enablement, and Coaching (Not Just More Tools)19:16 – Why Advocating for Growth or Finding a Company That Invests in You Matters Now More Than EverOTHER EPISODES YOU'LL LOVE:

Signup for RevUP Academy: https://www.thecustomersuccesspro.com/revupIn this episode of the Customer Success Pro Podcast, host Anika Zubair sits down with Emma Lambert, VP of Customer Success at Ably, to discuss the critical role of customer success in driving revenue. They explore how to turn renewals into predictable revenue forecasts, the importance of understanding customer engagement, and the strategies for effective upselling. Emma shares her insights on building a revenue-focused customer success team, the significance of financial literacy, and the necessity of asking direct questions during customer interactions. The conversation emphasizes the need for a structured approach to renewals and upsells, integrating them into a cohesive NRR strategy, and the value of continuous discovery throughout the customer journey.Chapters:00:00 Introduction 03:00 The Role of Customer Success in Revenue Generation05:55 Understanding Customer Engagement and Value Delivery09:06 The Importance of Forecasting in Customer Success12:10 Navigating the Commercial Landscape of Customer Success15:02 Building a Revenue-Focused Customer Success Team18:10 The Six-Month Renewal Framework21:10 Asking the Right Questions for Renewals24:09 Upselling Strategies in Customer Success26:55 Integrating Renewals and Upsells into NRR Strategy30:02 Best Practices for Revenue-Focused Customer Success32:56 Quick Fire Questions with Emma LambertConnect with Anika Zubair:Website: ⁠https://thecustomersuccesspro.com/⁠LinkedIn:  ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/anikazubair/⁠RevUP Academy: ⁠https://thecustomersuccesspro.com/revup⁠Connect with Emma Lampert: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmalampert/Grab our FREE resources here: ⁠https://thecustomersuccesspro.com/resources⁠Want to be our next podcast guest? Apply here: ⁠https://www.thecustomersuccesspro.com/podcast-guest⁠Book Anika as a speaker at your next team event: ⁠https://www.thecustomersuccesspro.com/team-event

Clement Manyathela speaks to Paul Byrne, who is Head of Insights and Customer Success at Pnet to discuss what the most in demand jobs for 2026 are in South Africa. The Clement Manyathela Show is broadcast on 702, a Johannesburg based talk radio station, weekdays from 09:00 to 12:00 (SA Time). Clement Manyathela starts his show each weekday on 702 at 9 am taking your calls and voice notes on his Open Line. In the second hour of his show, he unpacks, explains, and makes sense of the news of the day. Clement has several features in his third hour from 11 am that provide you with information to help and guide you through your daily life. As your morning friend, he tackles the serious as well as the light-hearted, on your behalf. Thank you for listening to a podcast from The Clement Manyathela Show. Listen live on Primedia+ weekdays from 09:00 and 12:00 (SA Time) to The Clement Manyathela Show broadcast on 702 https://buff.ly/gk3y0Kj For more from the show go to https://buff.ly/XijPLtJ or find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/p0gWuPE Subscribe to the 702 Daily and Weekly Newsletters https://buff.ly/v5mfetc Follow us on social media: 702 on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TalkRadio702 702 on TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@talkradio702 702 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkradio702/ 702 on X: https://x.com/Radio702 702 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@radio702 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is one of my favorite conversations that I wanted to replay this week. If you are in any post sales Customer Success, or Account Management world, you have most likely heard of this week's guest. This week's guest started his journey studying Information Systems and Software Engineering before making the shift into Professional Services, Support, and Customer Success. At the time of recording, he was an Executive VP of Corporate Market and Chief Customer Officer at Higher Logic. Now, he is the CEO of Balboa Solutions, where they help their clients maximize the value of the Pendo platform to power adoption, enablement, and user analytics.This week's guest is the heart of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, Mr. Jay Nathan. In this week's episode, we discussed:Customer Centric MindsetNatural Curiosity For CustomersLessons From Duke Energy (Large Enterprises and Heavy Process)The Start of The Largest CS CommunityUsing Your Own ProductMuch More! Please enjoy this week's episode with Jay Nathan.____________________________________________________________________________I am now in the early stages of writing my first book! In this book, I will be telling my story of getting into sales and the lessons I have learned so far, and intertwine stories, tips, and advice from the Top Sales Professionals In The World! As a first time author, I want to share these interviews with you all, and take you on this book writing journey with me! Like the show? Subscribe to the email: https://mailchi.mp/a71e58dacffb/welcome-to-the-20-podcast-communityI want your feedback!Reach out to 20percentpodcastquestions@gmail.com, or find me on LinkedIn

What happens when customer success and marketing actually work together? You get growth that lasts. In Episode 10 of Podbean Amplified, we sit down with Mark Pafume, VP of Customer Success and seasoned marketing leader, to talk about the strategies that turn users into loyal advocates and products into long-term platforms. Mark shares real insights from the front lines — where customer experience, retention, and brand growth all collide. If you're a creator, marketer, or podcast host looking to grow not just your audience — but your community — this one's for you. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more conversations with leaders shaping the future of podcasting and creator growth.

Trees are a major cause of power outages. They're also a wildfire risk—when branches hit a conductor, a small spark can become a big blaze. Lynn Petesch of Overstory joins thinkenergy to talk trees, exploring how AI, satellite imagery, and vegetation intelligence help utilities prevent outages and reduce wildfire threats. Including Hydro Ottawa, who saw a 44% drop in tree-related outages since partnering with Overstory. Listen in for how we work together to keep the grid safe in an era of extreme weather.   Related links  Overstory: https://www.overstory.com/ Lynn Petesch on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynnpetesch/  Trevor Freeman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-freeman-p-eng-8b612114  Hydro Ottawa: https://hydroottawa.com/en    To subscribe using Apple Podcasts:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thinkenergy/id1465129405   To subscribe using Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7wFz7rdR8Gq3f2WOafjxpl   To subscribe on Libsyn: http://thinkenergy.libsyn.com/ --- Subscribe so you don't miss a video: https://www.youtube.com/user/hydroottawalimited Follow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hydroottawa Stay in the know on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HydroOttawa Keep up with the posts on X: https://twitter.com/thinkenergypod ----- Transcript: Welcome to thinkenergy, a podcast that dives into the fast, changing world of energy through conversations with industry leaders, innovators and people on the front lines of the energy transition. Join me, Trevor Freeman, as I explore the traditional, unconventional and up and coming facets of the energy industry. If you have any thoughts, feedback or ideas for topics we should cover, please reach out to us at thinkenergy@hydroottawa.com, Hi everyone. Welcome back. Today on thinkenergy, we're going to be talking about trees. Yes, you heard that correctly. Trees. I know this is a show about energy, but there's actually a very real connection between our electricity grid and those slow growing, majestic givers of shade, lumber, fruit and so many more benefits. Honestly, who doesn't love trees? But I'm not just kicking this episode off in my capacity as a tree hugger. Let's take a look at this through a utility lens, and I will use Hydro Ottawa as an example. Hydro Ottawa service territory includes some very rural and very forested areas. Even our urban territory has a fairly extensive tree canopy. As a result, Hydro Ottawa trims about 60,000 trees each year. Why? Because trees contracting power infrastructure is a big problem. Tree interference remains a leading cause of power outages for us. Strong winds force them onto our wires. Heavy snow or freezing rain builds up and weighs down branches, breaks limbs, and increases the risk that part of a tree may touch a line, and in some extreme cases, heavy storms can even send trees or branches crashing into our poles, damaging the poles. The struggle between power lines and trees, which, again, don't get me wrong, we all love trees, has been going on for years. There is a constant struggle between trimming enough and getting the right trees trimmed and maintaining as much tree coverage as we can. In 2022 we identified a disruptor in this dance, the solution came through a partnership with Overstory, a company that uses satellite imagery, infrared technology and artificial intelligence to help utilities manage vegetation and trim trees more efficiently. And the timing could not have been better. Just days after we started working with Overstory in the spring of 2022 the derecho hit Ottawa. Our Ottawa based listeners will remember this storm well. It was monumental in the history of our city, and indeed for us as utility, winds reached 190 kilometers an hour. For our non-metric listeners, that's nearly 120 miles per hour. The storm ripped through poles houses and cause considerable damage to our city's urban forests. Overstory played a crucial role during the cleanup and in helping us level up our vegetation management strategies moving forward, we realized that the insights we got from Overstory would help improve our proactive approach to tree encroachment and hazard identification, and this is essential in this era of extreme weather events. We know that climate change is causing more frequent and more extreme weather events. According to Climate Central, the number of weather related power outages in the United States increased by 78% between 2011 and 2021 and severe weather accounted for over 1000 outages across Nova Scotia just in the year of 2024 we want to keep you connected during these heavy storms, and that's why we're looking to organizations like Overstory. So what does Overstory do to help us keep the lights on? Well, without giving away too much, because we're going to get into the details shortly, Overstory through a detailed analysis of the scans they do of our entire grid, identifies high risk areas, which we can then prioritize and better focus our resources when it comes to vegetation management, this level of monitoring and focus reduces the risk of trees from coming into contact with our poles and disrupting Your connection to the grid, the results speak for themselves. Since partnering with Overstory, we've reduced vegetation related outages by 44% and that's only part of the story, as we'll discuss further, Overstory also plays a crucial role in helping utilities prevent wildfires in high risk areas across North America, similar to extreme weather, wildfire frequency and intensity is also increasing, in part due to climate change expanding cities and many other factors. And when wildfires do happen, these stories are heartbreaking. What many people don't realize is that lots of wildfires are sparked by trees making contact with power lines, and that is why Overstory plays a key role in tagging areas where those fires are most likely to ignite and spread, making it easier for utilities to prioritize trimming work and vegetation management in those areas. To dive more into how Overstory is helping us here at Hydro Ottawa and. And other utilities helping us identify and act to mitigate risk associated with vegetation. I'm really excited to have Lynn Petesch on the show today. Lynn is Overstory's, Head of Customer Success, and has spent the past 10 years building customer facing teams with a specific focus on technologies that tackle the climate crisis. She began her career working for the United Nations and the diplomatic service of her home country, Luxembourg, before moving into the tech sector to really work in environments where she could drive impact more quickly and at greater scale. Lynn Petesch, welcome to the show.   Lynn Petesch  05:34 Thank you. Thanks for having me.   Trevor Freeman  05:36 Okay, so let's start at the very top with a high level look at what Overstory does and how the organization came to be.   Lynn Petesch  05:45 Yeah, let me tell you about Overstory. I mean, we are a vegetation intelligence platform. We use remote sensing and AI to give electric utilities, including Hydro Ottawa and others, a clear, system wide view of their risk. They always do it because they want to address three things, or sometimes more, but kind of, there's always a few goal posts, and it's either improving reliability, reducing wildfire risk, if that is if they're in an area where there is a concern, and or improving operational efficiencies. So Overstory very much becomes a decision-making tool for their programs were used mostly by the vegetation management people, operations people, wildfire mitigation teams, and they each time they want to either use a program that exists, prioritize it, reshape their work. They might be preparing for storm. They might be working on a wildfire mitigation risk so the company, more broadly, was founded in 2018 by Anniek Schouten and Indra den Bakker. This was back in the Netherlands, and they were leveraging, or getting really interested in satellite imagery, and were very initially using it for deforestation purposes. So, the climate resilience DNA has always been with us. But like any startup, we were looking at that kind of target audience that was most interested in what we had to offer. And pretty quickly, we landed on the electric utilities. They had the most pressing need to use remote sensing at scale to solve very big problems, honestly. And so we pivoted into that space of electric utilities, and then in 2020 Fiona Spruill, who's our CEO right now, she joined us. She shaped the company into what it is today, and that is really around building safer and more reliable operations.   Trevor Freeman  07:33 That's great, and I want to dive into some of the details. Our listeners will know that we talk a lot about grid modernization here and talk a lot about better intelligence of what's happening on the grid in all aspects, and something we haven't really talked about, and I'm excited to talk to you about today is the sort of vegetation management side of it. So really excited to get into the details. But before we do that, I'm always really curious to understand, you know, the people behind the conversations. How did you get into this area of, you know, high tech vegetation management? I touched a little bit on your bio in the intro, but give us a sense of, you know, how did Lynn come to be in the space that you're in right now?   Lynn Petesch  08:12 Yeah, I wouldn't say I grew up thinking I was going to work in this space, but I love working in it now. So actually, right out of college, I went to work for the United Nations, but then in the last 15 years, I started working at high growth tech companies, startups, and I've always been focused on leading and building CS operations, which is basically the customer success teams. They're the ones that are in front of the customers, implementing these software programs, kind of working very closely with customer solving problems. And about four years ago, I decided that I did want to focus the rest of my career on solving the climate crisis more broadly. And I remember very clearly that I came across Overstory. And there was two things that really resonated with me. One was hearing that utility caused wildfires could be as thing of the past, like they are preventable. And the other thing was learning about this world where vegetation is the biggest cause of outages, which is, you know, I did not know before. And so I think, you know, having these very clear goals is very compelling to kind of work on something where it's so easy to understand what the big problems are. So I joined Overstory, and for the last couple of years, I've been building a team that gets really deeply embedded in these utilities, specifically with the vegetation management and the WiFi mitigation teams. And we work on their programs. We understand their programs, we help them reshape their programs. We roll out, obviously, the software element that is Overstory. It's been very fun and rewarding work   Trevor Freeman  09:40 That's great. And I really love, you know, talking to people from a variety of areas that they touch on climate change and the climate crisis. And I think there's a bunch of us who share that passion of wanting to do something. I spoke with a group of you know, recent grads about what is a green. In career. What is it? What does a career in climate change look like? And really it looks like whatever you want it to look like. There are so many aspects that touch on this. So kind of neat to hear how that was your passion, and then you figured out where it made sense for you to enter into the climate sphere. So that's great.   Lynn Petesch  10:15 Yeah, I guess when I was young, I thought you had to be a scientist to work on time, yeah. And I think now anyone can find an angle on how to contribute to it. And I think it needs everyone to help contribute.   Trevor Freeman  10:24 Yeah, any job can be a green job if you care about it and if you make it that okay. So let's get back to Overstory. Tell us a little bit about the evolution of the company. You talked about it kind of founding about seven years ago. Tell us how it's evolved and progressed over those seven years.   Lynn Petesch  10:41 Yeah, so when we started working with utilities, I think at that point, everyone was kind of assessing whether satellites could be kind of good use case for analyzing vegetation. We're now talking about 30 centimeter imagery. So the resolution of satellites has become incredible. You can really see branches. You can detect species of trees. You can see if they're healthy or not. So initially, that was kind of our m-o we really were the leading provider to find out, where are the trees, how close are they, in terms of proximity to your network, so to the conductor, which is the risk. You know, we're looking at the terrain. If you're looking in the mountains and in Colorado, you have very different terrain than maybe in Ottawa. So detecting tree species has been really interesting, detecting the health of trees, how that decline is furthering. A lot of utilities are experiencing a lot of tree decline die off right now. So that was how we started. And then we started working with the really big utilities. And you had to think about this problem at scale. Now, we might be scanning with satellites, hundreds, 10s of 1000s of miles at a time, and some of these utilities, they might have 1000s, if not 10s of 1000s, of trees that could pose a risk to their network. They might have had a really big, large weather event, a storm that knocked over some of their system. So at that point, it all becomes about that decisioning tool. Everything starts becoming a prioritization, and I think that's now where we're really leaning into is making not just surfacing the data, but making it very actionable. Utilities have a lot to deal with. They deal with very tight budgets, they deal with crew constraints. They might have an aging workforce, their regulatory pressure, they're really vulnerable to storms. Increasingly, there's a lot of wildfire exposure. So everything becomes a decision of, where should I focus my intention? Where can I get the biggest bang for my buck? What should I do? What should I not focus on? And that decisioning is where we really want to be a key player in.   Trevor Freeman  12:44 Absolutely. And looking forward, I know I'm kind of we're jumping the gun here. We haven't gotten into the details of what you do. But looking forward, what is your vision for, kind of the future of this space and how it's going to continue to evolve? Are you mature as a company yet, or as a sector, or is it still a lot of growth to happen?   Lynn Petesch  13:01 Yeah, I think vast majority utilities are now leveraging remote sensing. It could be lighter, it could be drones, it could be satellites. So that has become a pretty established tooling within the sector. I think what our vision really is, is providing utilities that shared resilience, first picture of risk. So you know, we imagine a world where you can, kind of like, see the emerging risks, and you can start becoming proactive. Being proactive in the space of vegetation management has been really challenging. You never know where the next tree is going to fall. And over the last couple of years, customers suddenly have access to this risk across their territory so that they can start being proactive about it. As a matter of fact, that was a key use case, also with the team at Hydro Ottawa, is to start launching these proactive programs. And I think when we think about it, we get very excited about the world in which anyone from the field crews to the vegetation managers to the operation folks to the execs, to the regulators, the community partners who think about the safety of their communities, the regulators all have that kind of shared view of risk. Just imagine, they all understand the same risk. They operate off the same sheet, and they make the same data driven decisions that could solve a lot of problems, because now the data is often scrambled across different people. Certain people have access to it and certain people don't.   Trevor Freeman  14:25 Great. Okay, so let's get into the specifics here. I want to actually talk about specifically what you what Overstory does. How do you find we've kind of talked about vegetation management, obviously, you're supportingHydro Ottawa and other utilities in our vegetation management programs. How do you find and tag high risk vegetation? What is high risk like? What do you actually do on a day to day basis?   Lynn Petesch  14:47 Yeah, that's the part that I deal with the most often. So excited to get into specifics. Implementing with Overstory is actually pretty easy. I mean, when we start working with a customer, we need to know where is your grid. So we need to understand where your power lines are. Planning. We need to understand the main configurations of them. How tall are the poles, etc, so we can really compute that whole focus of where the trees in relation to your power lines, to your conductors. That's all ultimately that we're focusing on. Increasingly, we're all seeing focusing on the ground. I'll be talking about that as well. We then task these satellites over your territory. We do that during the leaf on season, so that will be the summer, essentially. And then we run all these models. So we are first needing to understand, where are the trees, what is their height, what is their health? An unhealthy tree is much more likely to fall and cause damage to your power lines. We're looking at the fuels on the ground. We can help you determine what type of equipment you might need to attack certain types of vegetation. And we always compute it to that risk to the conductor. And we look at your right of ways. Now, I think the interesting part about your question is the what is high risk? And that is, can be very different across different utilities, and I think that's the maybe the unique part with Overstory is that we can configure it to your standards. So every utility has very unique components. If you're on the West Coast and you're concerned about wildfires, your tolerance to risk will be very different. And if you're on the East Coast, where you're mostly concerned about not causing too many outages, including that you might have specific trimming specifications. The crews running around with chainsaws, they know exactly how far out they need to trim, how much they can trim, and there's a bit of a risk tolerance thing. So we built very configurable risk frameworks for all of our utility partners, so high means one thing to hydro Ottawa means something different to a customer in California that is facing a very different type of risk.   Trevor Freeman  16:49 So you're out there assessing, essentially, just for the context of our listeners, you know, we've got power lines that run overhead. They run through residential neighborhoods, commercial areas, but also forested areas, treed areas where there's lots of vegetation near our equipment, your company really gets an understanding of the the interaction between the vegetation and our lines, and says, these ones are too close, or this is a tree that's, you know, not healthy, and could come in contact with your lines based on your analysis. So help us, like, let's paint that picture a little bit more detailed. How do utility companies take the information that you are coming up with, that your analysis is coming up with, and use that to run a vegetation management program more effectively? What does the utility do with that information?   Lynn Petesch  17:37 Yeah, so we always center it around four main use cases. One is optimizing a program that already exists. It's creating a targeted program for you. It's quantifying your work and risk reporting. And I'll dive into each and every one of them a little bit to illustrate a bit more what that could mean. So when we think about program optimization, a lot of utilities, they have existing vegetation management cycle. They might have a regulatory obligation to visit their territory every four years, for example. Now, a lot of times they've been doing their program the same way for the last 10 maybe 20 years, but the conditions in their territory are different, right? I mean, the things we're seeing, the storms are heavier. There's more tree decline that we're seeing right now. So they know they need to adapt and they need to adjust it. But it's big programs with lots of budgets attached to it, a lot of crews running around. So starting to think about how you can start pulling a socket that you're meant to trim forward, or starting to tackle an area where you say, is more residential, there's fewer trees, focusing on your high risk areas. First re managing these programs is one key component that we work with a lot of companies on. And thinking about Oklahoma, Gas and Electric, for example, that they have a budget, and they can only do that much with the budget, and it was really about reinventing where they can get the biggest impact. The other one, the second use case, is this targeted program creation, and I'll use the Hydro Ottawa use case for that. You know, they had suddenly a view about where are all of their hazard trees? Hazard trees are these trees that are declining, they're dying, or they're dead, and they could have an impact on your system. Now, suddenly you know where they are, so you can start building a targeted program about dedicating some time and budget and crews to actually going and addressing those trees that has a big impact on your reliability and on reducing tree cost outages. And there's many others, sort of like hotspotting, is a very common term about starting to become proactive and doing something for a specific program. And the third one is work quantification. And I think there, when you think about it again, there's large contractors that are running around, managing your territory. And now we utilities, for the first time, often have that data to actually assess how much work there is. So that's really helpful in terms of negotiating your contracts, getting better bids. Some utilities say it's really hard to find contractors that want to work on their system, because it's very hard to estimate how much work there is, or they might have a budget to mow certain vegetation along a transmission corridor. Just knowing how much vegetation there is is a really helpful tool to address it and prioritize it in the right way. And then the fourth use case is the risk reporting, and that is about getting that baseline view about your risk and tracking it year over year. And this is really where we want utilities to have that data to report it out to their boards, insurers, regulators, and often it's used to defend your budgets, secure your budgets, or really have some data to kind of back you up on what the problems are that you're facing.   Trevor Freeman  21:05 Great. So you talk about data, and you know, each of those use cases that you mentioned, or strategies that you mentioned really are about getting the right information in the hands of the right people to make decisions and sort of more efficiently and effectively make decisions, but it's a lot of data. And so Hydro Ottawa has over 6000 kilometers of lines. You know, this, of course, as our partner, we have a big territory, and we have a fairly treed territory. That's a lot of data points. You're collecting a lot of data from your satellites. You're doing analysis on that. How are you doing that analysis? Is it, you know, AI is kind of a buzzword, and every sector right now, and the utility sector is no different. Are you using some form of AI or machine learning analytics? What are you doing in terms of, you know, crunching the numbers and coming up with the right actions?   Lynn Petesch  21:59 Totally, yeah, AI is a buzzword, but it's also very exciting. I think utilities have really embraced it already. They're using it for demand forecasting. They're using it for customer service. They're using it for asset planning. I mean, at the core, Overstory has been using AI to turn remote sensing data into operationally useful intelligent about their vegetation. So when you say yes, Hydro Ottawa has that many 1000s of kilometers of overhead lines, we need to a rank it to them. This is your worst circuit. This is your worst area. This is the area where you have the most hazard trees, for example. So we can really rank order on a span level, from the worst to the best, right? So that could be one thing, it's still an overwhelming amount of data. So where we started by using AI to kind of predict that whereas the trees How tall are, they were and they were relation to the conductors. Now what we're really excited about, or kind of leaning into, with AI, is how to intelligently, kind of assess and prioritize risk. So not every hazard tree has the same impact. If a hazard tree falls on a line where more houses are dependent on you will knock out the power of more people. So it's always a prioritization exercise, and leveraging AI for that is what is most exciting to us right now. And I think it's important to note that we also don't just want it to be a black box. All of the models we've built, they're always validated by certified arborists and kind of our utility partners. And I think at this stage, this is very important, because every tree that we find exists in the real world, and so validating this, AI in the with ground truthing, has been really important for us to also build that trust in the technology.   Trevor Freeman  23:42 That's great. And I do think it's helpful for our listeners to kind of understand the context before this, this work is sort of done, you know, in the absence of a tool like yours, it's, it's sort of done. You know, there's a degree of manual effort here. There's a degree of patrolling the lines. There's a cycle of vegetation management. So if you've done a line this year in three years or four years or five years, you want to be looking at it again. This takes a little bit of that, I don't want to call it guesswork, but it takes a little bit of that manual effort out of the equation, and really focuses efforts in the right way. And it's only with the tools that you know you folks are using that you're able to do that volume of analysis and get that pinpoint accuracy. So that's fantastic. Let's, let's get into kind of the success of it at all, like the big picture. We've obviously talked a couple times here that you're our partner here at Hydro Ottawa, so I know that the success that we're having with you, but you know, tell us some of the great success stories with other utility partners. Are you, you know, are you actually reducing weather related outages? Are you seeing the impact of using the overstory tools and methodology to support utility partners?   Lynn Petesch  24:58 Yeah, I mean weather related outages can mean many things. You have trees knocking over, like the pole might crack, etc, you know, those there's a lot of things that can happen during a storm. And I've heard a lot of stories about side of some of the storms that Ottawa has experienced in the past years, where, you know, you could have had anything, and they're just heavier, and that the consequences are really strong, but what we can impact is the tree cost outages, right? And that we've proven with Hydro Ottawa, where, within a year, by focusing that targeted program on going to an area where you had a massive amounts of these trees that were dying off and they at any point, was just a little bit too heavy wind could be toppled over and fall on the line, we had a 44% reduction in tree cost outages. That's a real, tangible number. You can see, I'm thinking about utility as well. In the on the East Coast, a co op that runs through very rural areas. In those areas, you have a trees outside of the right of way that are toppling over on two lines. So tree cost outages are a huge issue for them, and it's really impacting their safety and safety those key, key KPIs that utilities are always tracking and by us just giving them a rank order of which has a tree they had so many of them, which has a tree to even go to first, because if that has a tree were to fall on a line, a ton more people are going to be out of power than if the other one were to fall the line, you will have, like one rural cabin that will not have power. And that led to a reduction of something around 90% of tree cause outages is to 70% it's still a long way to go, but it was a really tangible number that you can see, and it shows that if you then do that proactive work, you have real impact on your tree cost outages. And it's if I think about our customer in California, Pacific Gas and Electric, for example, it's a lot around helping them understand where they don't need to go. So it's kind of doing something of a visual inspection and actually skipping certain spans, that can be itself a really big use case. Because right now, if you don't have an understanding about where your risks are, you might be spending trucks to roll for hours around areas where there is not really any tangible work to be done. So redirecting them to the right areas is where we've seen a lot of success there, and that obviously leads to budget wins, right? You'll be saving a lot of money by doing that. And those are kind of the use cases that we chase and that we kind of help prove the cases on.   Trevor Freeman  27:29 Absolutely, yeah, there's, there's only so many resources you can you can throw at this, and making sure that we prioritize and focus those resources in the right spot is absolutely critical. You were just talking about the West Coast, and you mentioned this earlier. I know wildfires is is an area that is obviously of great interest for your organization. We're fortunate here at Hydro Ottawa, and that we haven't really had to deal with that much. But anybody who's you know following the news knows this is a major problem for us. So how, what is your role in helping those utilities prevent wildfires? Maybe give us, like, a very quick primer on why utilities are a factor when it comes to wildfires first, and then how your organization is supporting that.   Lynn Petesch  28:13 So unfortunately, utility cost wildfires tend to be the most catastrophic wildfires because they're critical infrastructure, and we've obviously seen that happen across the world, in in the US recently, again and again. But utility cost wildfires, as I said at the beginning, are also the actual wildfires that are preventable. So that's really where we're lying to lying into a lot of the forests right now. They've become Tinder boxes. That is obviously because of fire suppression policies? That's because of forest management techniques that have been leveraged in the last couple of 100 years that are slowly changing at different paces? Canada's had some, unfortunately, some really bad fire seasons recently as well. And so where overstory wanted to place itself as a net prevention space to even not add to the point where you have a spark, because there's a lot of tools out there that focus on mitigation and what is, what do you do when you see that first plume of smoke coming up? And so we've landed in kind of really focusing on the prevention side, so that utilities are hopefully in the future, not the ones that spark any of those catastrophic wildfires we've already always been looking at that the vegetation that could touch your conductor, right? That's I've been speaking about that a lot, but now we're really excited for the first time, and we recently announced that we launched a fuel detection model. So that's us looking at the ground fuel conditions, and those are actually usually the key contributors to the spark that spreads the fire. We're now providing that to utilities as a much higher resolution than ever before. For me, it's interesting because I've spent a lot of time looking at trees, and now I'm going into the field and I'm looking at the ground, and it's a new perspective. But yet again, we could just, you know, we don't want to overwhelm our customers. A lot of maps and showing the fuel conditions, necessarily, we can really help them identify those spans where a single failure would have the greatest consequence. So yet again, it's about how to make that data that, you know, there's a lot of wildfire risk map out there, but make it a very actionable list of spans that if they were to tackle those they are very proactively reducing the risk of igniting a fire. And as a result of the protecting their communities.   Trevor Freeman  30:29 Got you so it's not just about the overhead trees, branches, etc, contacting the line. It's, you know, if a switch goes, if an insulator pops, if, if something happens that will cause sparks. What's happening on the ground below that line, and how do we make sure it is able to withstand sparks? That might happen.   Lynn Petesch  30:49 Exactly if you have dry grasses, if you have sagebrush, if you have certain types of fuels, they're just much more likely to spark a fire and then spread, spread out without there even be any any trees you have these prairies along Texas that can blow up in a fire very quickly, and the fires can spread to tremendous sizes. And so understanding the fuels on the ground is really important.   Trevor Freeman  31:15 Super interesting and fascinating work to get involved in. As you mentioned, this is obviously an area of, I don't even know if I call it growing concern anymore, great concern for for the utility industry and all of us. Yeah. So with the technology that's, you know, we talked about AI a little bit ago, it's literally growing before our eyes. It's really evolving fast. Do you see your technology evolving along with it. What's what's kind of next for your organization? You talked about getting into sort of the ground vegetation management. What comes next? How do you see it evolving as AI and tools evolve?   Lynn Petesch  31:52 Yeah, I mean, if we see that the future is where we want to support a grid that is much safer and reliable, as I mentioned, we also want to make it sure it's resilient to the climate and the economic pressures that there are. So our initial focus and our continued focus, and where we have a lot of our expertise has been with vegetation. Now we're starting to look at the ground fuels, then that naturally evolves into looking at the asset vulnerabilities. So you know, the actual polls, and if there's any failures potentially on those as well as further weather exposures, right? It becomes, then about the soil moisture. It comes about the wind speed. It becomes around the rain, precipitation, etc. So there's a myriad of things that we can start looking at and that we want to start looking at in order to get that more holistic view of risk, and go beyond just vegetation right now, where we're investing most heavily in is that wildfire risk. There's also the resolution that we see with satellites right now is at 30 centimeter that may drop down to 15 or 10 centimeters, so the resolution will get higher. There's other sources that we're exploring already flying, sometimes aerial imagery that is at that five to 15 centimeters, then you would really start seeing soon, you can start seeing a leaf on a on a tree. It gets really impressive. There's lighter there's lots of other kind of remote sensing technologies that we're looking to leverage in the future. And then, as a company as well, we're starting to, obviously expand internationally. We started working with utilities in New Zealand that have very similar problems and various regulatory changes. They also have a problem with wildfire risks. So that is, that is another angle that at Overstorey We're chasing right now.   Trevor Freeman  33:35 Yeah, I'm glad you brought up that. You know, understanding of other assets beyond just vegetation, has kind of been running through my head of we talk about, and I think we've talked about it here on the show. If we haven't, I should do an episode on that, like a digital twin, a digital twin of our grid, and really having a good understanding of not just, you know, a line drawn on a map of, Hey, your circuits run this way, but really physically, what's happening out there, and being able to sort of model that interact with it in a digital way, to understand, if we do X, Y and Z, what happens. So the technology that you guys are using to really get good imagery and understanding of what's out there, well, I think what I'm hearing from you is could potentially be leveraged in that next level to understand, what pulls do we have? What health are they in? What you know, what's happening with that conductor? Is it sagging too much? Is it in good health? Like there's, there's all this opportunity that's really fascinating to hear.   Lynn Petesch  34:31 Yeah, already. Now, when we look at transmission corridors, we look at the sag of these lines, and the terrains are also really challenging, something to look at. So there's a lot of factors that need to be taken into account. And that can only expand as we want to look at risk more beyond just the vegetation element.   Trevor Freeman  34:48 Very cool. Well, Lynn, very interesting to hear this. I'm really glad you came on the episode or the show today to talk to us. Fascinating to hear what Overstory have to I know that we're super excited to be. Working with you here at Hydro Ottawa and excited for what comes next. We always end our interviews with a series of questions, so I'm going to dive into those and here we go. What is a book that you've read that you think everyone should read?   Lynn Petesch  35:13 I was thinking about an author more than a book. My favorite author is Jonathan Franzen. If I would recommend one book, it'd probably be Corrections, his most famous one, I believe. But they're like, these chunky, 800-900 page books where you kind of get immersed in these families and you feel like you know them at the end, and they kind of, I think about them for like, months afterwards. They're really good reading, at least for the winter when it's cold and you spend a lot of time inside. So probably Jonathan Franzen books, yeah.   Trevor Freeman  35:41 Yeah, we're we're recording this just before the holidays, and I think we'll be releasing the episode after but winter is such a great time to curl up with a book, and it's awesome to have a good recommendation of a nice thing.   Lynn Petesch  35:53 It'll be called in January.   Trevor Freeman  35:56 Absolutely. So same question, but a movie or a show?   Lynn Petesch  36:00 Yeah, I'm not a big movie buff, but I recently rewatched What's Eating Gilbert Grape, seen it with Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio, and I always felt like Leonardo DiCaprio should have received an Oscar for that performance back when he was 14. But, yeah, it's a beautiful movie. awesome.   Trevor Freeman  36:20 Awesome yeah, that's a bit of a blast from the past, but you're right. That is a fantastic one. If someone offered you a free round trip flight anywhere in the world, where would go?   Lynn Petesch  36:27 French Polynesia, because it's so far I've never been a friend who went. I'm sure it's very expensive to go there, so it'd be great for someone too. Yeah, no, that's a place I'll go one day.   Trevor Freeman  36:41 So, yeah, fantastic. Who is someone that you admire?   Lynn Petesch  36:45 Yeah, that's a it's a tricky one, because I was thinking about, like, people, you know, in, I know, family, etc. But like, if I were to think about a, and it's a little left field, about a public persona, and also a bit of a blast from the past, I'll think about Tina Turner. She's been my icon since I'm a kid, I was always listening with my dad to Tina Turner. And I think the word that I've probably most used in today's episode was like resilience. And I always think about her as like possibly the most resilient woman in the world who reinvented herself and her career in her 40s and 50s, and is this complete power woman, you know, always done everything at her own terms. So get so much energy from not just her music. I've seen so many documentaries about her, and she's always been this kind of woman that I know, filthy with energy and kind of like drive. So I'm a big, big fan of Tina Turner.   Trevor Freeman  37:38 That's fantastic. I have to say, that's never come up on the show before, and now I need to go and dive down a rabbit hole of like, learning about Tina Turner listening to some music.   Lynn Petesch  37:47 Yeah, she's great woman.   Trevor Freeman  37:48 Yeah, good answer. Last question, what's something about the energy sector, or let's expand that to kind of the climate sector that you're really excited about?   Lynn Petesch  37:59 Yeah, I'm gonna take a very high level. But I think the thing I've always been following the most is, like, that broad topic of the energy transition, and I think the recent changes, or like, kind of the way we talk about it, has become a lot more interesting, because it used to be this kind of fluffy, big kind of vision, and now we're in that phase where it just has to be very practically implemented, and we're trudging along with it, no matter the political climate, etc, there is kind of a move forward. And I actually really liked the way that, I think, when I first started learning about it, or getting interested in it, it was always about renewables, and now it's around just sort of like needing to build a system that is both, like low carbon and climate resilient. And there's something in that, like way we talk about it now that I find really interesting. There's immense amounts of innovation in it. So yeah, I'm just enjoying following what's happening on that and how we are. We're moving that direction, no matter what's happening right now. So that's exciting.   Trevor Freeman  38:55 Yeah, okay, when I know my listeners are probably roll their eyes, because I say this all the time, but it's a very exciting time to be in this industry, and very exciting to kind of see the evolution of energy and how we're interacting with it, how it's impacting our society. And we really feels like we're at an inflection point. And very great to have you working on one aspect of it that people probably don't think about a lot. So thanks very much for what you're doing.   Lynn Petesch  39:19 Yeah, exactly. When you start working for Overstory, the one thing that happens is, wherever you go, you see trees and power lines. And I have very keen eye for, unfortunately, trees that are in poor health right now. So that's one of the professional things I've developed.   Trevor Freeman  39:35 Carry like a spool of red ribbon around you can, like, tie on the at risk trees and just so someone could come along. Lynn, thanks so much for coming on the show today. Really appreciate it. It's been great chatting with you.   Lynn Petesch  39:45 Thank you so much.   Trevor Freeman  39:46 Take care. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the thinkenergy podcast. Don't forget to subscribe. Wherever you listen to podcasts, and it would be great if you could leave us a review. It really helps to spread the word. As always, we would love to hear. From you, whether it's feedback comments or an idea for a show or a guest, you can always reach us at thinkenergy@hydroottawa.com..

“At some point, founders have to stop babysitting the business — or growth stalls.” — Rohit KumarIn this episode of Evolving Your Workplace, Carol Schultz sits down with Rohit Kumar, Founder and CEO of Chapter Apps, to explore one of the hardest transitions for founders: knowing when hands-on leadership turns into micromanagement — and how that mindset quietly becomes a bottleneck to growth.Rohit shares the evolution of Chapter Apps, from its early days as a mobile-first learning platform to its current focus on enterprise AI solutions for sales and employee assistance. He explains why the pivot toward AI was driven not by hype, but by real customer demand — especially the need for instant, accurate answers in high-stakes sales conversations.The conversation digs into what “babysitting” actually looks like at the CEO level: testing products personally, double-checking team output, and stepping in when managers aren't driving execution forward. Rohit generously opens up about the deeper reason founders struggle to let go — fear of disappointing customers — and how confidence in the team directly affects a leader's ability to delegate.Carol and Rohit also discuss scaling across geographies, co-founding a company with a spouse across time zones, and why relocating to San Francisco has accelerated Chapter Apps' AI innovation through proximity to partners, platforms, and real-time problem solving.They close by examining growth constraints, talent challenges, inbound vs outbound sales, and whether roles like Chief of Staff and Customer Success are luxuries — or necessities — for founders who want to stop reacting and start leading.Connect With Host Carol SchultzFind more information about our host Carol Schultz and her company at Vertical Elevation, LinkedIn, and Instagram.Want to be our next guest expert? Email cat.gloria@verticalelevation.com with your information.And of course, click "follow" to stay up-to-date on new episodes and leave an honest review/rating letting us know what you thought!

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We analyzed 1,474 CSM conversations to uncover why they are leaving and what keeps them in 2026. Grab the Talent Report here: https://customer-success-career.captivate.fm/reportWhat if I told you that 85% of CSM turnover is completely preventable — and most leaders are missing the real reason their top performers are walking out the door?In this episode, I break down insights from 1,474 Customer Success professionals who told us exactly why they're job hunting. And spoiler alert, it's not layoffs, pay, or return-to-office mandates. I reveal the surprising truth about what CSMs want most in their next role, and how even your most loyal team members start considering exits.I'll also unpack the three types of CSMs who leave for growth, the invisible ceiling stopping your best people, and the #1 leadership blind spot you can correct to transform retention overnight. This is part one of a two-part series, and today we're starting with the data leaders need to see.By the end of this episode, you'll finally understand what's normal, what's fixable, and where your blind spots might be, whether you manage a CS team or you're a CSM quietly feeling stuck. Want to know how to turn your team into unstoppable, loyal top-performers? Hit play and let's dive in.4:04 – Why Most CSM Turnover Is Preventable5:57 – What “Growth” Actually Means for CSMs8:20 – Three Types of CSMs Who Leave for Growth13:03 – Why Impact Really Matters15:43 – Next Steps for CS Leaders & CSMs: Action Plans Are Coming in Part Two

Text us your questions and thoughts!What's Next for Customer Success in 2026? That's the question we're answering today.Welcome back to another PowerUp Masterclass in partnership with our friends at Gainsight where we're going beyond the Pulse Europe conference recap and into what really matters: where Customer Success is heading in 2026.Together with Tori Jeffcoat, Director of Product Marketing at Gainsight, we're unpacking  the biggest trends and ‘aha' moments from Europe's leading CS event, and sharing our predictions for the year ahead.You'll walk away knowing:Why AI adoption is lagging and how teams are gearing up for agentic successHow CS is becoming a revenue driver through better post-sale visibilityWhat's actually working in digital-scale strategies right nowWhat CS, Product, and Revenue leaders should prioritise nextThis is your chance to turn Pulse's key takeaways into your 2026 game plan. Grab your notebook and tune in. FeaturingTori Jeffcoat, Director of Product Marketing at GainsightMarija Skobe-Pilley, Founder, Women In Customer Success

This week's throwback guest, Rob Zambito, went from being a shy child, to University of Penn Psychology graduate, to now a successful Customer Success Leader & Consultant. Rob has experience from Seed to Series B, growing Customer Success teams from 2 to 20 members, and so much more!In this week's episode, we discussed:Building A Common Language Across The BusinessA Hypothesis-Driven ApproachThe Importance of MentorsOnboarding Cross-Sell Checklist Consciously Investing in Customer Success Much MorePlease enjoy this week's episode with Rob Zambito ____________________________________________________________________________I am now in the early stages of writing my first book! In this book, I will be telling my story of getting into sales and the lessons I have learned so far, and intertwine stories, tips, and advice from the Top Sales Professionals In The World! As a first time author, I want to share these interviews with you all, and take you on this book writing journey with me! Like the show? Subscribe to the email: https://mailchi.mp/a71e58dacffb/welcome-to-the-20-podcast-communityI want your feedback!

When applied consistently and effectively, one simple practice can have a tremendous impact on culture and create a ripple effect across your organization. What is that practice? Rounding.In this episode, Dr. Janet Pilcher welcomes Samantha Sands, Director of Customer Success for K-12 Rounding, to discuss how small, intentional interactions help leaders build trust, strengthen culture, and boost engagement.Together, Janet and Samantha explore what successful rounding looks like in practice, why recognition and follow-up matter, and how leaders can turn what they learn into meaningful change. Samantha also shares real examples of how districts are using rounding to ensure employees feel seen, valued, and heard, and how the right tools can help leaders transform insights into action that drives improvement.Recommended Resources: K-12 Leader Rounding, Strengthen Your District with Rounding and RecognitionFollow Host Dr. Janet Pilcher on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janetpilcher/

In this episode of Disruption/Interruption, marketing veteran Ed Locher pulls back the curtain on B2B marketing's biggest lie: that the MQL machine actually drives growth. As CMO of PureFacts Financial Solutions and author of "Digital Transformation: People, Process and Technology," Ed reveals why 15 years of marketing automation created a sugar rush that's now crashing, and how AI can help fix it without repeating the same mistakes. This is a no-holds-barred conversation about emotional connection, the 95% of buyers marketers ignore, and why marketing tenure averages just 18 months. Four Key Takeaways: The MQL Mirage Is Built on a Lie 8:56Marketing automation promised accountability through MQLs, but overdelivering on MQL targets quarter after quarter never translated to actual revenue growth. The entire system targets only the 5% of the market ready to buy right now—ignoring the 95% who need demand creation, not demand capture. B2B Buying Committees Have Tripled in Size 16:30The buying committee for enterprise B2B purchases has exploded from 5 people to 16. You can't build credibility and trust with 16 stakeholders through email sequences—you need emotional connection and personalized storytelling that speaks to each person's specific drivers (CFO cares about ROI, compliance cares about regulations, operations cares about not making headlines). AI Raises the Floor, Not the Ceiling 29:59AI protects terrible marketers from themselves by raising the quality floor, but it hasn't raised the bar for great marketing. The real opportunity lies 3-4 standard deviations above the mean—where human empathy, emotional triggers, and genuine understanding of customer pain create outsized impact that AI can't replicate. Marketing Attribution Is a Myth 44:13There will never be a "cast iron steel rod of attribution" connecting marketing activities directly to purchases. Marketers who work for leadership that doesn't understand this are doomed to 18-month tenures, chasing MQL targets that deliver short-term sugar rushes followed by revenue crashes. The rare CEO or investor who recognizes this broken motion is the problem—not the marketer—creates space for real growth. Quote of the Show (44:13):"There will never be a cast iron steel rod of attribution that says marketing did X, which led to this person buying something. It just doesn't work that way.” — Ed Locher Join our Anti-PR newsletter where we’re keeping a watchful and clever eye on PR trends, PR fails, and interesting news in tech so you don't have to. You're welcome. Want PR that actually matters? Get 30 minutes of expert advice in a fast-paced, zero-nonsense session from Karla Jo Helms, a veteran Crisis PR and Anti-PR Strategist who knows how to tell your story in the best possible light and get the exposure you need to disrupt your industry. Click here to book your call: https://info.jotopr.com/free-anti-pr-eval Ways to connect with Ed Locher: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edlocher/ Company Website: https://purefacts.com How to get more Disruption/Interruption: Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/eccda84d-4d5b-4c52-ba54-7fd8af3cbe87/disruption-interruption Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disruption-interruption/id1581985755 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6yGSwcSp8J354awJkCmJlDSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

That line on your resume that makes your stomach drop in interviews isn't the problem. The way you're talking about it is. In this episode, I'm breaking down exactly why career gaps and layoffs quietly derail otherwise strong candidates and how most people accidentally confirm an interviewer's worst fears without realizing it.I walk you through what hiring managers are actually thinking when they see a gap on your resume and the two mistakes that cost candidates job offers every single day. I also share the simple three-part formula I use with clients to turn layoffs and career gaps into one of the most confident moments of the interview. No over-explaining. No defensiveness. No awkward justifications. Just a clear, calm story that reassures the interviewer and shifts the conversation back to your value.By the end of this episode, you'll know how to talk about layoffs without spiraling or apologizing for your existence, and you'll finally feel in control of a question that used to throw you off your game. If you've been dreading this part of the interview or replaying your answer in your head after every call, this one might change everything. Hit play and I'll walk you through exactly what to say and why it works.1:16 – Why Career Gaps Aren't Automatically Dealbreakers for Hiring Managers2:52 – The Three Hidden Fears Recruiters Have About Resume Gaps (and How to Disarm Them)6:06 – The Most Common Mistakes People Make When Discussing Layoffs in Interviews8:17 – The Simple 3-Step Formula That Turns Your Career Gap Into an Interview Strength13:09 – How to Pivot from Explaining Your Gap to Proving You're Perfect for the Role16:17 – Why Owning Your Story (Not Over-Explaining) Makes You Instantly More Attractive to Employers

Don't get to the end of this year wishing you had taken action to change your business and your life.Click here to schedule a free discovery call for your business: https://geni.us/IFORABEDon't miss an upcoming event with The Institute: https://geni.us/InstituteEvents2026Shop-Ware gives you the tools to provide your shop with everything needed to become optimally profitable.Click here to schedule a free demo: https://info.shop-ware.com/profitabilityTransform your shop's marketing with the best in the automotive industry, Shop Marketing Pros!Get a free audit of your shop's current marketing by clicking here: https://geni.us/ShopMarketingProsShop owners, are you ready to simplify your business operations? Meet 360 Payments, your one-stop solution for effortless payment processing.Imagine this—no more juggling receipts, staplers, or endless paperwork. With 360 Payments, you get everything integrated into a single, sleek digital platform.Simplify payments. Streamline operations. Check out 360payments.com today!In this episode, Lucas and David are joined by Ruth Wisniewski, Senior Director of Customer Success at Vehlo. Ruth shares how her team at Vehlo elevates client experience by helping shops leverage software to meet their goals, from boosting efficiency to increasing car count. The discussion explores the importance of building a favorite brand through “moments of truth” in the customer journey, and the role company culture plays in delivering exceptional service.00:00 "Vehlo Customer Success Leadership"03:48 "Streamlining Your Shop's Experience"07:40 "Building Culture Around Experience"10:46 "DIY Car Fixer Fails"15:14 "Creative Problem-Solving Improves Outcomes"18:13 "Sales vs. Customer-Centric Approach"20:30 Shady Shopware Setup Concerns25:25 "Customizable Customer Experience at Vehlo"26:56 "Empowerment Through Vehlo's Support"31:08 "Customer Experience: A Guided Reflection"35:50 "Cost of Goods Discrepancy"36:44 "Reading Release Notes Religiously"42:16 "Lion's Mane and Nerve Healing"45:49 "Recovering Without Surgery"47:06 Lion's Mane for Focus?52:14 "Best Banana Pudding Ever"53:18 Raleigh's Amazing Food Scene

Today our guest is Kait Ahlbrandt, school psychologist and Director of Customer Success at EmpowerU. We talk about why educator wellbeing is essential to student success and how adult regulation shapes classroom climate. Kate shares why intentional listening and making space for connection matter, especially when educators feel overwhelmed. She highlights the need for practical, realistic supports that help educators show up present, regulated, and ready to teach. Learn More About CharacterStrong:  Access FREE MTSS Curriculum Samples Request a Quote Today! Learn more about CharacterStrong Implementation Support Visit the CharacterStrong Website

In this episode, we're joined by Kate Sygrove, Director of Customer Success at Mouseflow, the SaaS platform for website behavioral analytics. Mouseflow is a $10M+ ARR business with 3,500 customers, 51 employees, and a CS org balancing enterprise white-glove with digital CS at scale. Kate shares a practical playbook for one of the biggest CS challenges in SaaS right now: getting heard at the exec table. We unpack what it actually means to “speak the language of the CFO,” how to turn CS insight into predictive numbers the business can plan around, and why CS leaders need to pair hard data + soft data to drive decisions on churn, retention, and roadmap priorities. Here are some of the key questions we address: What does it mean to “speak CFO” as a CS leader and, why does prediction matter so much? How do you convert customer sentiment into a forecast model that the exec team can use? Why is hard data + soft data the only reliable way to judge account health? How do you reframe CS initiatives into business outcomes like revenue protected, time-to-value, and scalability? What should CS leaders demand from Sales/Marketing/Product to make collaboration actually work? What changes when you transition from CSM → CS leader, and how do you prepare for the jump?

What if the only thing standing between you and your next career breakthrough is a lesson you haven't learned yet? In this milestone episode, I'm reflecting on 100 plus episodes of podcasting and the unexpected career lessons that came with it. This isn't a highlight reel or a victory lap. It's the real mindset shifts that changed how I approach hard things, fear, and consistency in my career and with my clients.I walk you through three lessons that apply just as much to your job search or next promotion as they did to building this podcast. We talk about why your future identity deserves a vote, how fear is often a green light instead of a stop sign, and why big goals sound impressive but realistic ones are what actually move the needle. Each lesson is grounded in real experiences and practical takeaways you can start using immediately without overhauling your entire strategy.By the end of this episode, you'll feel clearer, calmer, and more confident about the next move you've been avoiding or overthinking. If you've been stuck in your head, burning out, or waiting to feel ready, this conversation might be the shift you didn't know you needed. The real question is which of these lessons are you finally going to act on.2:20 – Why Your “Future Self” Should Have a Say in Your Career Decisions3:56 – How Acting Like the Confident Version of You Can Transform Your Interviews7:19 – Why Fear Means You're Heading in the Right Direction—Not the Wrong One8:18 – The Surprising Reason Fear is a Signal You're on the Right Path14:22 – Why Tiny, Realistic Goals Beat Unsustainable Large Ones for Consistency17:06 – How Consistency (Not Overwhelm) Helps You Get Hired and Promoted

Signup for the FREE Masterclass: https://www.thecustomersuccesspro.com/masterclassIn this episode of the Customer Success Pro Podcast, host Anika Zubair and guest AsAshley Stamps-Lafont discuss the evolving role of customer success within go-to-market strategies. They explore the importance of building relationships, establishing trust, and the necessity of aligning customer success with revenue goals. Ashley shares her experiences as the first VP of Customer Success at Quotapath, emphasizing the need for customer success leaders to understand financial metrics and the shift towards revenue ownership. The conversation also touches on the future of customer success, the importance of communication, and actionable advice for aspiring leaders in the field.Chapters:00:00 The Role of Customer Success in Go-To-Market Strategy14:39 Building Relationships and Trust in Customer Success24:44 Metrics and Revenue Ownership in Customer Success39:29 Future Directions for Customer Success46:51 Advice for Aspiring Customer Success LeadersConnect with Anika Zubair: Website: https://thecustomersuccesspro.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anikazubair/RevUP Academy: https://thecustomersuccesspro.com/revupConnect with Ashley Stamps-Lafont:Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleystampslafont/Book Anika as a speaker at your next team event: https://www.thecustomersuccesspro.com/team-eventWant to be my next podcast guest apply here: https://www.thecustomersuccesspro.com/podcast-guestDownload my freebies:https://thecustomersuccesspro.com/resources

“Lazy leadership” doesn't always mean you're lazy. Often it's what happens when capable leaders get pulled into constant demands, fire drills, and decision fatigue—until intentional leadership quietly disappears. In today's conversation, I'm joined by Corinne Gavlinski (Founder & CEO of The Gav Group) to name what this looks like in real leadership life, what it costs, and the antidote: creating space to reflect, getting back into your Impact Zone, and taking small, deliberate actions that restore clarity and momentum. We also talk about identity jolts—those messy, humbling chapters that can become a catalyst for more grounded leadership when you stop trying to “power through” and start leading from truth. What you'll learn in this episode How to recognize when you've drifted into “lazy leadership” (even if you're working nonstop) The antidote: how leaders return to the Impact Zone with clarity and intention Why identity jolts can refine your leadership and strengthen your legacy Episode chapters 01:54 — What “lazy leadership” is (and what it's not) 04:27 — The Impact Zone + the antidote: space to reflect + a “catapult” tool 10:50 — Legacy leadership: “Who do you want to be remembered as?” 13:25 — Identity jolts: caregiving, pivots, ego hits, reinvention 16:30 — Betting on your innate talents (not just passion) 22:01 — A practical team clarity process (why accountability matters) 30:48 — The closing reflection + your 24-hour action step Mentioned resource The Impact Zone Guide About Corinne Gavlinski Corinne Gavlinski is Founder & CEO of The Gav Group and a thought partner to C-suite leaders who want results that matter—to their teams and their legacy. She's a former SVP of Customer Success with 20+ years in executive Sales and Account Management roles across digital healthcare and finance. She holds an MBA from Loyola University Maryland and is board-certified as an executive coach and certified as a team coach. About Kc Rossi Kc Rossi, PCC is an Integrative Leadership Coach and host of the Heart Glow CEO® Podcast, where mission-driven, high-performing leaders learn to lead with clarity, emotional steadiness, and self-trust—without burning out or abandoning what matters most.

** Always looking for fantastic guests for upcoming shows - feel free to buzz me on 0414659800 to chat or

If you have ever walked out of an interview thinking I nailed that and still did not move forward, this episode is your wake up call. Today, I'm breaking down one of the most common reasons qualified CSMs struggle to land offers even when they prepare and practice. Most candidates prep for every interview the exact same way, and it quietly works against them. Recruiters, hiring managers, and cross-functional partners may ask similar questions, but they are listening for very different signals.In this episode, I walk you through a smarter, more strategic way to prepare based on who you are interviewing with so you can tailor your answers without sounding scripted or inauthentic. By the end, you will know exactly how to shift your messaging so you come across confident, credible, and intentional in every round. If you are tired of guessing what interviewers want and ready to finally control the outcome, hit play and let's dive in. And if you want to discover the easiest and most effective way to prepare for your Customer Success interviews, watch my Free Training on how to Nail Your CS Interviews: https://customer-success-career.captivate.fm/nailinterviews02:37 – Why Memorizing Interview Answers Backfires (and What to Do Instead)8:13 – How to Prep Differently for Recruiters vs. Hiring Managers vs. Cross-Functional Teams14:42 – The "Checklist" Approach Recruiters Really Use And How to Make It Work for You21:23 – How to Show Hiring Managers You're the One Who'll Help Them Hit Their Goals 27:00 – Ways to Stand Out in Cross-Functional Interviews by Addressing What Each Team Actually Cares About10:44 – The Fastest Way to Level Up Your Interview Prep (Hint: It's All About the Interviewer's Perspective)Other Episodes You'll Love:Episode 3: Falling short in interviews? ACE your next Customer Success job interview with these simple tips!

Six years after his first appearance on Founder Views, Luca is back with the real story of how AI forced a full business model and go-to-market shift.Customerly went from a seat-based, product-led support platform for small SaaS teams to an AI-first customer service engine selling into mid-market and enterprise, where volume and ROI are obvious.In this episode we get into:The AI pivot: why they refused to build “old-school chatbots,” and how ChatGPT changed what was possibleQuality metrics that matter: error rate, confidence thresholds, escalation triggers, and why AI CSAT can be higher than humansWhat actually trains a good AI agent: knowledge base structure, what not to upload, and how hallucinations happen in the real worldAutomation outcomes: average ticket closure rates, what drives 80%+ vs 40–50%, and how teams improve over timeEnterprise GTM shift: moving from product-led to sales-led, filtering signups, longer cycles, bigger ACVOutbound reality: why the agency failed, what changed when they built outbound internally, and the tooling stack (Clay, Apollo, Lemlist, Pipedrive)Founder sales lessons: Challenger Sale thinking and why founders still need to own sales earlyThe Arena The Arena is a private Skool community for SaaS founders who are actively building and selling. I share real-time decisions, experiments, and assets as I use them while growing a bootstrapped SaaS.No theory. No polish. Just execution.Learn more at: https://www.skool.com/the-arena/Chapters / Timestamps00:00 – Reunion after 6 years and what changed (COVID + AI era)01:27 – Luca intro: what Customersly does today02:30 – From $100K ARR to near $1M and why pricing changed05:08 – “Chatbots are shit”: how they built AI without the bad UX07:10 – Under 1% error rate and reducing hallucinations09:52 – Grounded AI, intents, and automating beyond FAQs11:09 – Closure rate benchmarks and what “good” looks like16:41 – How to pick an AI support tool that actually works18:20 – Training mistakes: transcripts, clutter, and marketing banners causing hallucinations20:46 – Confidence thresholds and escalation as a feedback loop22:48 – How long it takes to move from 45% to 70–80% automation24:34 – Should AI learn from your inbox? Pros, risks, and why they avoid it29:41 – Implementation timelines: small teams vs enterprise rollouts31:38 – Why AI CSAT can beat humans (speed wins)35:46 – Escalation rules: human request, sentiment, low confidence, missing info37:21 – Going enterprise: ARPU jump and sales-led reality41:02 – Outbound experiment: agency failure and building it internally43:32 – LinkedIn ads + Clay targeting + the masterclass lead magnet49:25 – Challenger Sale and shifting the conversation53:20 – Founder lesson: why you can't outsource what you haven't done58:54 – Outbound stack: Clay, Apollo, Lemlist, Sales Nav, Pipedrive01:05:12 – 2026 vision and wrap

Ready to churn less and win more?

What if the reason you feel stuck in your Customer Success career has nothing to do with your performance and everything to do with the path you're blindly following? On today's episode, I'm unpacking the uncomfortable truth about traditional CS career paths and why doing “the next logical step” can quietly derail your growth, happiness, and earning potential. We'll talk about why promotions that look good on paper can feel miserable in real life, how following the crowd leads to boring roles and regret, and the simple mindset shift that changes how you make career decisions inside Customer Success.By the end of this episode, you'll walk away with a completely new way to think about success in your Customer Success career, one that's built around what you're actually good at, what you enjoy, and where you want to end up, not what everyone else is doing. If you've ever felt pressure to go enterprise, become a CSM, or say yes just because it's “the path,” this conversation will give you clarity, confidence, and permission to choose differently.3:05 – Why Blindly Following a Career Path Can Lead to Burnout and Missed Potential5:41 – How Peer Pressure (and ‘Default' Decisions) Steer You Off-Course8:33 – Why Enterprise CSM Isn't Automatically the Next Best Step15:56 – The Power of Defining Your Own Success in Customer Success (and Knowing You Have Choices)22:00 – How Tech Touch Customer Success Offers Rapid Growth and Thought Leadership Potential28:12 – The One Interview Question That Reveals If a Future Manager Is There by Choice

Hewitt Tomlin is the co-founder of TeamBuildr and he currently oversees Sales, Marketing & Customer Success. Since 2012, TeamBuildr’s strength and conditioning software has led the industry, trusted by more than 5,000 programs in 30 countries and closing in on $10M in annual revenue as a fully bootstrapped company. Hewitt is also a former D1 starting quarterback and has a passion for the organization of strength training, team building and youth development as a legitimate and sustainable business and profession. Links: https://www.teambuildr.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teambuildr LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/teambuildr-llc/ Twitter/ X – https://x.com/teambuildr — Get your FREE eBook and Webinar at www.foreverclientformula.com The Principles of Performance is proud to be recognized by FeedSpot as one of the Top 30 Fitness Podcasts: https://podcast.feedspot.com/fitness_podcasts/ We have also been recognized as one of the Top 100 Strength Coach Podcasts on the web by MillionPodcasts: https://www.millionpodcasts.com/strength-coach-podcasts/

In a previous episode, I introduced “The Sales Series” to re-intro many amazing conversations from Sales Leaders on the show. This week, I am resharing “The CS Series” to highlight incredible Customer Success Leaders from the show. Today we will be covering 5 CS Leaders: Brooke Simmons: “Prioritization Quadrants” (Ep. 130)https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/130-the-state-of-customer-success-2023-with/id1528398541?i=1000599320083 https://open.spotify.com/episode/3GUG3xZVRg70ER8zuOyF2R?si=3cfe012a2d014107 Luke Ferrel: “The Customer Needs Triangle”  (Ep. 131)https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/131-the-growth-of-scaling-customer-success-and/id1528398541?i=1000600560447 https://open.spotify.com/episode/50Pwr6m23z46HDMeBhoxU5?si=c7a0bd79ce0d4de3 Tyler Meckes: “Account Mapping Playbook”  (Ep. 147)https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/147-the-account-management-customer-success-growth/id1528398541?i=1000616621251 https://open.spotify.com/episode/64lbqKMcYCliq25xVLEOMh?si=ac43ba87f6674817 Rob Zambito: “Conscious Investments in CS”  (Ep. 149)https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/149-consciously-invest-in-customer-success-with-rob/id1528398541?i=1000618331520 https://open.spotify.com/episode/2nv23CFUGUhfocZIfcWKCP?si=d5a8591c280b428b Jay Nathan: “Customer-Centric Mindset” (Ep. 154)https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/154-the-customer-centric-mindset-with-jay-nathan-evp/id1528398541?i=1000622913191 https://open.spotify.com/episode/21MTbcIJhvhOpBGn47A3RO?si=a11735d5af5e4038 Please enjoy this week's episode of “The CS Series”. I am now in the early stages of writing my first book! It will cover my journey into sales, the lessons learned, and include stories and advice from top sales professionals around the world. I'm excited to share these interviews and bring you along on this journey!Like the show? Subscribe to the email: Subscribe HereI want your feedback! Reach out at 20percentpodcastquestions@gmail.com or connect with me on LinkedIn.If you know anyone who would benefit from this show, please share it! If you have suggestions for guests, let me know!Enjoy the show!

Today's show features: 

 - Lawrence Breaud, Dealer Principal at Autos of Forney/VinFast - Jiovan Melendez, Sr. Director, Product at Podium 

 - Liam Golightley, VP, Customer Success at Podium - Kate Downing, COO of Williams Auto Group This episode is brought to you by: Overfuel – Dealers: You're torching $30 of every $100 in marketing spend when your site flunks Google's basic performance test. Why keep using outdated website technology that's killing your profits? Overfuel is the new technical standard in automotive websites, proven to grow sales by 30%+. Whether you need more revenue or better support, they've got you covered. Go to https://overfuel.com/ and use code CDG500 in the comment box for $500 OFF. Podium – Podium is redefining how dealerships engage and convert customers by acting as a fully trained, fully coachable AI team member available 24/7. Dealers can customize Jerry to follow their exact playbooks, speak in their brand voice, and drive more appointments and revenue. Learn more at https://www.podium.com/car-dealership-guy CDG Circles – A modern peer group for auto dealers. Private dealer chats. Real insights — confidential, compliant, no travel required. Visit https://cdgcircles.com/ to learn more. Car Dealership Guy is back with our second annual NADA Party—happening in Las Vegas on Thursday, February 5th. It's the hottest ticket at NADA 2026. Spots are limited and unfortunately we can't invite everyone —so RSVP today at https://carguymedia.com/cdglive and we hope to see you in Vegas! -- Check out Car Dealership Guy's stuff: CDG News ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://news.dealershipguy.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ CDG Jobs ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://jobs.dealershipguy.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ CDG Recruiting ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cdgrecruiting.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ My Socials: X ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.twitter.com/GuyDealership⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram ➤⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/cardealershipguy/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@guydealership⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/cardealershipguy/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Threads ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.threads.net/@cardealershipguy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077402857683⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Everything else ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠dealershipguy.com

Why Customer Success Can't Be Automated (And What AI Can Actually Do) In this special year-end episode of the FutureCraft GTM Podcast, hosts Ken Roden and Erin Mills sit down with Amanda Berger, Chief Customer Officer at Employ, to tackle the biggest question facing CS leaders in December 2026: What can AI actually do in customer success, and where do humans remain irreplaceable? Amanda brings 20+ years at the intersection of data and human decision-making—from AI-powered e-commerce personalization at Rich Relevance, to human-led security at HackerOne, to now implementing AI companions for recruiters. Her journey is a masterclass in understanding where the machine ends and the human begins. This conversation delivers hard truths about metrics, change management, and the future of CS roles—plus Amanda's controversial take that "if you don't use AI, AI will take your job." Unpacking the Human vs. Machine Balance in Customer Success Amanda returns with a reality check: AI doesn't understand business outcomes or motivation—humans do. She reveals how her career evolved from philosophy major studying "man versus machine" to implementing AI across radically different contexts (e-commerce, security, recruiting), giving her unique pattern recognition about what AI can genuinely do versus where it consistently fails. The Lagging Indicator Problem: Why NRR, churn, and NPS tell you what already happened (6 months ago) instead of what you can influence. Amanda makes the case for verified outcomes, leading indicators, and real-time CSAT at decision points. The 70% Rule for CS in Sales: Why most churn starts during implementation, not at renewal—and exactly when to bring CS into the deal to prevent it (technical win stage/vendor of choice). Segmentation ≠ Personalization: The jumpsuit story that proves AI is still just sophisticated bucketing, even with all the advances in 2026. True personalization requires understanding context, motivation, and individual goals. The Delegation Framework: Don't ask "what can AI do?" Ask "what parts of my job do I hate?" Delegate the tedious (formatting reports, repetitive emails, data analysis) so humans can focus on what makes them irreplaceable. Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction and AI Updates from Ken & Erin 01:28 - Welcoming Amanda Berger: From Philosophy to Customer Success 03:58 - The Man vs. Machine Question: Where AI Ends and Humans Begin 06:30 - The Jumpsuit Story: Why AI Personalization Is Still Segmentation 09:06 - Why NRR Is a Lagging Indicator (And What to Measure Instead) 12:20 - CSAT as the Most Underrated CS Metric 17:34 - The $4M Vulnerability: House Security Analogy for Attribution 21:15 - Bringing CS Into Sales at 70% Probability (The Non-Negotiable) 25:31 - Getting Customers to Actually Tell You Their Goals 28:21 - AI Companions at Employ: The Recruiting Reality Check 32:50 - The Delegation Mindset: What Parts of Your Job Do You Hate? 36:40 - Making the Case for Humans in an AI-First World 40:15 - The Framework: When to Use Digital vs. Human Touch 43:10 - The 8-Hour Workflow Reduced to 30 Minutes (Real ROI Examples) 45:30 - By 2027: The Hardest CX Role to Hire 47:49 - Lightning Round: Summarization, Implementation, Data Themes 51:09 - Wrap-Up and Key Takeaways Edited Transcript Introduction: Where Does the Machine End and Where Does the Human Begin? Erin Mills: Your career reads like a roadmap of enterprise AI evolution—from AI-powered e-commerce personalization at Rich Relevance, to human-powered collective intelligence at HackerOne, and now augmented recruiting at Employ. This doesn't feel random—it feels intentional. How has this journey shaped your philosophy on where AI belongs in customer experience? Amanda Berger: It goes back even further than that. I started my career in the late '90s in what was first called decision support, then business intelligence. All of this is really just data and how data helps humans make decisions. What's evolved through my career is how quickly we can access data and how spoon-fed those decisions are. Back then, you had to drill around looking for a needle in a haystack. Now, does that needle just pop out at you so you can make decisions based on it? I got bit by the data bug early on, realizing that information is abundant—and it becomes more abundant as the years go on. The way we access that information is the difference between making good business decisions and poor business decisions. In customer success, you realize it's really just about humans helping humans be successful. That convergence of "where's the data, where's the human" has been central to my career. The Jumpsuit Story: Why AI Personalization Is Still Just Segmentation Ken Roden: Back in 2019, you talked about being excited for AI to become truly personal—not segment-based. Flash forward to December 2026. How close are we to actual personalization? Amanda Berger: I don't think we're that close. I'll give you an example. A friend suggested I ask ChatGPT whether I should buy a jumpsuit. So I sent ChatGPT a picture and my measurements. I'm 5'2". ChatGPT's answer? "If you buy it, you should have it tailored." That's segmentation, not personalization. "You're short, so here's an answer for short people." Back in 2019, I was working on e-commerce personalization. If you searched for "black sweater" and I searched for "black sweater," we'd get different results—men's vs. women's. We called it personalization, but it was really segmentation. Fast forward to now. We have exponentially more data and better models, but we're still segmenting and calling it personalization. AI makes segmentation faster and more accessible, but it's still segmentation. Erin Mills: But did you get the jumpsuit? Amanda Berger: (laughs) No, I did not get the jumpsuit. But maybe I will. The Philosophy Degree That Predicted the Future Erin Mills: You started as a philosophy major taking "man versus machine" courses. What would your college self say? And did philosophy prepare you in ways a business degree wouldn't have? Amanda Berger: I actually love my philosophy degree because it really taught me to critically think about issues like this. I don't think I would have known back then that I was thinking about "where does the machine end and where does the human begin"—and that this was going to have so many applicable decision points throughout my career. What you're really learning in philosophy is logical thought process. If this happens, then this. And that's fundamentally the foundation for AI. "If you're short, you should get your outfit tailored." "If you have a customer with predictive churn indicators, you should contact that customer." It's enabling that logical thinking at scale. The Metrics That Actually Matter: Leading vs. Lagging Indicators Erin Mills: You've called NRR, churn rate, and NPS "lagging indicators." That's going to ruffle boardroom feathers. Make the case—what's broken, and what should we replace it with? Amanda Berger: By the time a customer churns or tells you they're gonna churn, it's too late. The best thing you can do is offer them a crazy discount. And when you're doing that, you've already kind of lost. What CS teams really need to be focused on is delivering value. If you deliver value—we all have so many competing things to do—if a SaaS tool is delivering value, you're probably not going to question it. If there's a question about value, then you start introducing lower price or competitors. And especially in enterprise, customers decide way, way before they tell you whether they're gonna pull the technology out. You usually miss the signs. So you've gotta look at leading indicators. What are the signs? And they're different everywhere I've gone. I've worked for companies where if there's a lot of engagement with support, that's a sign customers really care and are trying to make the technology work—it's a good sign, churn risk is low. Other companies I've worked at, when customers are heavily engaged with support, they're frustrated and it's not working—churn risk is high. You've got to do the work to figure out what those churn indicators are and how they factor into leading indicators: Are they achieving verified outcomes? Are they healthy? Are there early risk warnings? CSAT: The Most Underrated Metric Ken Roden: You're passionate about customer satisfaction as a score because it's granular and actionable. Can you share a time where CSAT drove a change and produced a measurable business result? Amanda Berger: I spent a lot of my career in security. And that's tough for attribution. In e-commerce, attribution is clear: Person saw recommendations, put them in cart, bought them. In hiring, their time-to-fill is faster—pretty clear. But in security, it's less clear. I love this example: We all live in houses, right? None of our houses got broken into last night. You don't go to work saying, "I had such a good night because my house didn't get broken into." You just expect that. And when your house didn't get broken into, you don't know what to attribute that to. Was it the locked doors? Alarm system? Dog? Safe neighborhood? That's true with security in general. You have to really think through attribution. Getting that feedback is really important. In surveys we've done, we've gotten actionable feedback. Somebody was able to detect a vulnerability, and we later realized it could have been tied to something that would have cost $4 million to settle. That's the kind of feedback you don't get without really digging around for it. And once you get that once, you're able to tie attribution to other things. Bringing CS Into the Sales Cycle: The 70% Rule Erin Mills: You're a religious believer in bringing CS into the sales cycle. When exactly do you insert CS, and how do you build trust without killing velocity? Amanda Berger: With bigger customers, I like to bring in somebody from CX when the deal is at the technical win stage or 70% probability—vendor of choice stage. Usually it's for one of two reasons: One: If CX is gonna have to scope and deliver, I really like CX to be involved. You should always be part of deciding what you're gonna be accountable to deliver. And I think so much churn actually starts to happen when an implementation goes south before anyone even gets off the ground. Two: In this world of technology, what really differentiates an experience is humans. A lot of our technology is kind of the same. Competitive differentiation is narrower and narrower. But the approach to the humans and the partnership—that really matters. And that can make the difference during a sales cycle. Sometimes I have to convince the sales team this is true. But typically, once I'm able to do that, they want it. Because it does make a big difference. Technology makes us successful, but humans do too. That's part of that balance between what's the machine and what is the human. The Art of Getting Customers to Articulate Their Goals Ken Roden: One challenge CS teams face is getting customers to articulate their goals. Do customers naturally say what they're looking to achieve, or do you have a process to pull it out? Amanda Berger: One challenge is that what a recruiter's goal is might be really different than what the CFO's goal is. Whose outcome is it? One reason you want to get involved during the sales cycle is because customers tell you what they're looking for then. It's very clear. And nothing frustrates a company more than "I told you that, and now you're asking me again? Why don't you just ask the person selling?" That's infuriating. Now, you always have legacy customers where a new CSM comes in and has to figure it out. Sometimes the person you're asking just wants to do their job more efficiently and can't necessarily tie it back to the bigger picture. That's where the art of triangulation and relationships comes in—asking leading discovery questions to understand: What is the business impact really? But if you can't do that as a CS leader, you probably won't be successful and won't retain customers for the long term. AI as Companion, Not Replacement: The Employ Philosophy Erin Mills: At Employ, you're implementing AI companions for recruiters. How do you think about when humans are irreplaceable versus when AI should step in? Amanda Berger: This is controversial because we're talking about hiring, and hiring is so close to people's hearts. That's why we really think about companions. I earnestly hope there's never a world where AI takes over hiring—that's scary. But AI can help companies and recruiters be more efficient. Job seekers are using AI. Recruiters tell me they're getting 200-500% more applicants than before because people are using AI to apply to multiple jobs quickly or modify their resumes. The only way recruiters can keep up is by using AI to sort through that and figure out best fits. So AI is a tool and a friend to that recruiter. But it can't take over the recruiter. The Delegation Framework: What Do You Hate Doing? Ken Roden: How do you position AI as companion rather than threat? Amanda Berger: There's definitely fear. Some is compliance-based—totally justifiable. There's also people worried about AI taking their jobs. I think if you don't use AI, AI is gonna take your job. If you use AI, it's probably not. I've always been a big fan of delegation. In every aspect of my life: If there's something I don't want to do, how can I delegate it? Professionally, I'm not very good at putting together beautiful PowerPoint presentations. I don't want to do it. But AI can do that for me now. Amazingly well. What I'm really bad at is figuring out bullets and formatting. AI does that. So I think about: What are the things I don't want to do? Usually we don't want to do the things we're not very good at or that are tedious. Use AI to do those things so you can focus on the things you're really good at. Maybe what I'm really good at is thinking strategically about engaging customers or articulating a message. I can think about that, but AI can build that PowerPoint. I don't have to think about "does my font match here?" Take the parts of your job that you don't like—sending the same email over and over, formatting things, thinking about icebreaker ideas—leverage AI for that so you can do those things that make you special and make you stand out. The people who can figure that out and leverage it the right way will be incredibly successful. Making the Case to Keep Humans in CS Ken Roden: Leaders face pressure from boards and investors to adopt AI more—potentially leading to roles being cut. How do you make the case for keeping humans as part of customer success? Amanda Berger: AI doesn't understand business outcomes and motivation. It just doesn't. Humans understand that. The key to relationships and outcomes is that understanding. The humanity is really important. At HackerOne, it was basically a human security company. There are millions of hackers who want to identify vulnerabilities before bad actors get to them. There are tons of layers of technology—AI-driven, huge stacks of security technology. And yet no matter what, there's always vulnerabilities that only a human can detect. You want full-stack security solutions—but you have to have that human solution on top of it, or you miss things. That's true with customer success too. There's great tooling that makes it easier to find that needle in the haystack. But once you find it, what do you do? That's where the magic comes in. That's where a human being needs to get involved. Customer success—it is called customer success because it's about success. It's not called customer retention. We do retain through driving success. AI can point out when a customer might not be successful or when there might be an indication of that. But it can't solve that and guide that customer to what they need to be doing to get outcomes that improve their business. What actually makes success is that human element. Without that, we would just be called customer retention. The Framework: When to Use Digital vs. Human Touch Erin Mills: We'd love to get your framework for AI-powered customer experience. How do you make those numbers real for a skeptical CFO? Amanda Berger: It's hard to talk about customer approach without thinking about customer segmentation. It's very different in enterprise versus a scaled model. I've dealt with a lot of scale in my last couple companies. I believe that the things we do to support that long tail—those digital customers—we need to do for all customers. Because while everybody wants human interaction, they don't always want it. Think about: As a person, where do I want to interact digitally with a machine? If it's a bot, I only want to interact with it until it stops giving me good answers. Then I want to say, "Stop, let me talk to an operator." If I can find a document or video that shows me how to do something quickly rather than talking to a human, it's human nature to want to do that. There are obvious limits. If I can change my flight on my phone app, I'm gonna do that rather than stand at a counter. Come back to thinking: As a human, what's the framework for where I need a human to get involved? Second, it's figuring out: How do I predict what's gonna happen with my customers? What are the right ways of looking and saying "this is a risk area"? Creating that framework. Once you've got that down, it's an evolution of combining: Where does the digital interaction start? Where does it stop? What am I looking for that's going to trigger a human interaction? Being able to figure that out and scale that—that's the thing everybody is trying to unlock. The 8-Hour Workflow Reduced to 30 Minutes Erin Mills: You've mentioned turning some workflows from an 8-hour task to 30 minutes. What roles absorbed the time dividend? What were rescoped? Amanda Berger: The roles with a lot of repetition and repetitive writing. AI is incredible when it comes to repetitive writing and templatization. A lot of times that's more in support or managed services functions. And coding—any role where you're coding, compiling code, or checking code. There's so much efficiency AI has already provided. I think less so on the traditional customer success management role. There's definitely efficiencies, but not that dramatic. Where I've seen it be really dramatic is in managed service examples where people are doing repetitive tasks—they have to churn out reports. It's made their jobs so much better. When they provide those services now, they can add so much more value. Rather than thinking about churning out reports, they're able to think about: What's the content in my reports? That's very beneficial for everyone. By 2027: The Hardest CX Role to Hire Erin Mills: Mad Libs time. By 2027, the hardest CX job to hire will be _______ because of _______. Amanda Berger: I think it's like these forward-deployed engineer types of roles. These subject matter experts. One challenge in CS for a while has been: What's the value of my customer success manager? Are they an expert? Or are they revenue-driven? Are they the retention person? There's been an evolution of maybe they need to be the expert. And what does that mean? There'll continue to be evolution on that. And that'll be the hardest role. That standard will be very, very hard. Lightning Round Ken Roden: What's one AI workflow go-to-market teams should try this week? Amanda Berger: Summarization. Put your notes in, get a summary, get the bullets. AI is incredible for that. Ken Roden: What's one role in go-to-market that's underusing AI right now? Amanda Berger: Implementation. Ken Roden: What's a non-obvious AI use case that's already working? Amanda Berger: Data-related. People are still scared to put data in and ask for themes. Putting in data and asking for input on what are the anomalies. Ken Roden: For the go-to-market leader who's not seeing value in AI—what should they start doing differently tomorrow? Amanda Berger: They should start having real conversations about why they're not seeing value. Take a more human-led, empathetic approach to: Why aren't they seeing it? Are they not seeing adoption, or not seeing results? I would guess it's adoption, and then it's drilling into the why. Ken Roden: If you could DM one thing to all go-to-market leaders, what would it be? Amanda Berger: Look at your leading indicators. Don't wait. Understand your customer, be empathetic, try to get results that matter to them. Key Takeaways The Human-AI Balance in Customer Success: AI doesn't understand business outcomes or motivation—humans do. The winning teams use AI to find patterns and predict risk, then deploy humans to understand why it matters and what strategic action to take. The Lagging Indicator Trap: By the time NRR, churn rate, or NPS move, customers decided 6 months ago. Focus on leading indicators you can actually influence: verified outcomes, engagement signals specific to your business, early risk warnings, and real-time CSAT at decision points. The 70% Rule: Bring CS into the sales cycle at the technical win stage (70% probability) for two reasons: (1) CS should scope what they'll be accountable to deliver, and (2) capturing customer goals early prevents the frustrating "I already told your sales rep" moment later. Segmentation ≠ Personalization: AI makes segmentation faster and cheaper, but true personalization requires understanding context, motivation, and individual circumstances. The jumpsuit story proves we're still just sophisticated bucketing, even with 2026's advanced models. The Delegation Framework: Don't ask "what can AI do?" Ask "what parts of my job do I hate?" Delegate the tedious (formatting, repetitive emails, data analysis) so humans can focus on strategy, relationships, and outcomes that only humans can drive. "If You Don't Use AI, AI Will Take Your Job": The people resisting AI out of fear are most at risk. The people using AI to handle drudgery and focusing on what makes them irreplaceable—strategic thinking, relationship-building, understanding nuanced goals—are the future leaders. Customer Success ≠ Customer Retention: The name matters. Your job isn't preventing churn through discounts and extensions. Your job is driving verified business outcomes that make customers want to stay because you're improving their business. Stay Connected To listen to the full episode and stay updated on future episodes, visit the FutureCraft GTM website. Connect with Amanda Berger: Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn Employ Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered advice. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are our own and do not represent those of any company or business we currently work for/with or have worked for/with in the past.

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If your customer calls feel stiff, boring, or like both of you are counting down the minutes until it's over, you're not imagining it, and it's costing you more than you think. That's why in this episode, I'm breaking down the simple shifts that turn awkward, check-the-box customer calls into conversations your customers actually want to show up to. You'll learn why leading with the wrong metrics kills trust instantly, how to frame topics in a way that gets customers leaning in instead of zoning out, and the exact conversational tactics top-performing CSMs use to sound confident, human, and in control (without following a rigid script).By the end of this episode, you'll know how to run customer calls that feel natural, valuable, and genuinely strategic — the kind that deepen trust, uncover expansion signals, and make your job a whole lot easier. If you're ready to stop filling airtime and start leading calls that actually move the needle, hit play and let's dive in.0:44 – Why “Check-the-Box” Customer Calls Are Sabotaging Engagement3:01 – Why Starting with Product Metrics Makes Customers Zone Out (And How to Fix It)6:46 – How to Introduce Topics So Your Customer Actually Wants to Participate10:35 – Three Easy Tactics to Make Every Call Feel More Human and Less Scripted14:44 – How “Tell Me More About That” Instantly Changes the Whole Conversation16:45 – How Just One Small Change Per Month Can Make You the CSM Everyone Loves to Talk To

Mike O'Keefe, Head of Sales & Customer Success at Immunefi, sat down with me at Chainlink SmartCon to discuss how Immunefi's security solutions are helping protect crypto assets for a wide range of companies. Brought to you by