Claire Suellentrop - Misunderstanding your customers: The most expensive mistake your company is making (Turing Fest 2019)

Your team's working hard as they can across the board: marketing, sales, product and customer success. But if you're seeing inconsistent — or even flat-lining — revenue growth, chances are high that beneath everyone's hard work, there's a mismatch between your team's focus, and what customers actually need.

During this talk, you'll learn why companies unknowingly fall out of alignment with their customers — and how it can happen to your team, if it hasn't already. You'll walk away with a practical exercise you can run back at the office, to centralize your departments around customers' needs and get everyone working toward the same goals. The result? More new signups, a stickier product — and ultimately, a healthier MoM growth rate.

Transcript

1. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen Misunderstanding Your Customers: the Most Expensive Mistake Your Company is Making (And how to correct it before next quarter)
2. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen Hello! We help fast-growing SaaS companies identify & act on growth opportunities
3. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen Hello!
4. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen 86% Of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience. oracle.com/us/products/applications/cust-exp-impact-report-epss-1560493.pdf
5. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen By 2020, customer experience will overtake price & product as the key brand differentiator. walkerinfo.com/knowledge-center/featured-research-reports/Customers-2020-A-Progress-Report
6. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen “ 80% of companies believe they deliver a “superior experience” to their customers... www2.bain.com/bainweb/pdfs/cms/hotTopics/closingdeliverygap.pdf
7. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen “ 80% of companies believe they deliver a “superior experience” to their customers... www2.bain.com/bainweb/pdfs/cms/hotTopics/closingdeliverygap.pdf however, only 8% of their customers agreed.
8. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen
9. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen
10. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen “Wall of Misunderstanding”
11. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen
12. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen “Wall of Misunderstanding” Your customers are over there ← Your team is over here
13. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen “Wall of Misunderstanding” Symptoms 13
14. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen “Wall of Misunderstanding” Symptoms “We have an acquisition problem.”
15. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen “Wall of Misunderstanding” Symptoms “We have a churn problem.” “We have an acquisition problem.”
16. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen “Wall of Misunderstanding” Symptoms “Deals take forever to close & become burdensome clients.” “We have a churn problem.” “We have an acquisition problem.”
17. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen “Wall of Misunderstanding” Symptoms “Deals take forever to close & become burdensome clients.” “We have a churn problem.” “We have an acquisition problem.” “We’re shipping new features, but adoption isn’t improving.”
18. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen So...how do we fix this? ←
19. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen We start at the root of the problem.
20. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen 2 “Wall of Misunderstanding” Roots
21. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen 2 “Wall of Misunderstanding” Roots Decision makers have adopted popular knowledge or tactics without questioning whether they apply to your customers 1.
22. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen Your employees
23. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen 2 “Wall of Misunderstanding” Roots Departments are incentivized by metrics that don't match customers' success 2.
24. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen Success metrics driving your teams Product Mgmt & Dev: Speed of output Sales: Demos, deals Marketing: Leads Success & Support: Speed of tickets closed
25. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen medium.com/@dahartattack/what-is-an-enlightened-growth-leader-how-does-one-avoid-burnout-3469db845725
26. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen “ Instead of thinking about how to deliver the most value to customers, departments are thinking about their own incentives. medium.com/@dahartattack/what-is-an-enlightened-growth-leader-how-does-one-avoid-burnout-3469db845725
27. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen So...what does good look like?
28. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen Case study: Autobooks
29. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen Case study: Autobooks
30. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen Case study: Autobooks
31. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen Case study: Autobooks Job #1 Make it easy to get started with invoicing & payments
32. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen Case study: Autobooks Job #1 Make it easy to get started with invoicing & payments Job #2 Help me get back to offering credit card payments to my customers
33. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen Case study: Autobooks
34. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen Case study: Autobooks
35. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen Case study: Autobooks
36. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen Case study: Autobooks SMBs “discovering” Autobooks → signing up:
37. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen Case study: Autobooks SMBs “discovering” Autobooks → signing up: Conversions rose from 14% → 23% (64% increase)
38. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen Case study: Autobooks SMBs “discovering” Autobooks → signing up: Conversions rose from 14% → 23% (64% increase) SMBs “discovering” Autobooks → signing up: SMBs accepting payments through Autobooks:
39. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen Case study: Autobooks SMBs “discovering” Autobooks → signing up: Conversions rose from 14% → 23% (64% increase) SMBs “discovering” Autobooks → signing up: SMBs accepting payments through Autobooks: 300% increase in 30 days
40. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen How did we do it?
41. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen Positioning Marketing messaging Sales approach Onboarding Product developm ent Customer Success
42. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen
43. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen 1. Rally the troops 2. Find your best customers 3. Get those customers on the phone 4. Zoom in on patterns
44. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen Doomed to fail ← Step 1: Rally the troops
45. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen Fighting chance ← Step 1: Rally the troops
46. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen Step 2: Find your best customers
47. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen Step 3: Get those customers on the phone 10 calls Whole team “Timeline”
48. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen Step 3: Get those customers on the phone
49. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen Step 3: Get those customers on the phone List of interview questions: claire@heyelevate.com
50. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen Step 4: Zoom in on patterns Common struggles pushing people to shop How they evaluated the options What they were skeptical of / worried about How they finally found your solution How they knew it was right for them
51. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen This sparks innovation everywhere
52. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen This sparks innovation everywhere Uncovered surprising reasons for churn, got the team excited to build new solutions
53. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen This sparks innovation everywhere Uncovered surprising reasons for churn, got the team excited to build new solutions Found marketing messages that connected with customers & increased paid media ROI
54. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen This sparks innovation everywhere Uncovered surprising reasons for churn, got the team excited to build new solutions Launched key new feature & redefined messaging, increasing new user signups by 64% Found marketing messages that connected with customers & increased paid media ROI
55. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen This sparks innovation everywhere Uncovered surprising reasons for churn, got the team excited to build new solutions Launched key new feature & redefined messaging, increasing new user signups by 64% Redesigned entire product & go-to-market strategy, now one of the fastest growing enterprise startups in the Valley Found marketing messages that connected with customers & increased paid media ROI
56. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen
57. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen
58. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen Go forth List of interview questions: claire@heyelevate.com
59. Misunderstanding Your Customers #TuringFest / @ClaireSuellen Thanks! Need help? Get in touch: claire@heyelevate.com