Transforming Customer Success: From Defense to Offense with Mark Stephenson

#AskAVC with Ryan Floyd

In this episode of 'Ask a VC', Storm Ventures Managing Director Ryan Floyd and Go-to-Market Consultant Mark Stephenson discuss the pivotal role of customer success in B2B SaaS companies. They delve into the critical importance of transitioning customer success strategies from a defensive to an offensive mindset, emphasizing the importance of net dollar retention (NDR), and the need for a mentality shift within organizations. Topics covered include the significance of Net Dollar Retention (NDR), aligning customer success with revenue goals, and the value of expanding customer relationships post-sale. The conversation highlights best practices for driving growth and retaining customers, ensuring long-term success in the competitive SaaS market.00:00 Introduction00:51 The Importance of Customer Success02:11 Revenue and Customer Success04:14 Net Dollar Retention (NDR) and Metrics05:42 Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and Expansion08:18 Sales and Customer Success Alignment12:09 Customer Success Quotas and Roles21:46 Onboarding and Achieving Value One06:57 Aligning Marketing and Sales with Customer Success27:18 Best Practices and Final ThoughtsMake sure to also:- Follow Ryan on Twitter @RyanFloyd for more content on building SaaS B2B startups, venture capital, and entrepreneurship in general- Subscribe to Ryan’s blog at https://ryanfloyd.org, where he talks about why he invests in certain companies and broader tech industry issues- Connect with Mark on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/markstephenson-consultant/- Check out the #AskAVC​​​ podcast based on this channel - https://anchor.fm/ask-a-vcAbout Ryan Floyd:Ryan is a founding Managing Director of Storm Ventures, where he invests in, and works with, early-stage enterprise SaaS startups. His primary focus is applications and cloud infrastructure-related companies. He is always interested in hearing from passionate technology entrepreneurs. Ryan is a skilled writer and commentator on all things SaaS. He's written for TechCrunch, Sifted, Thrive Global and regularly contributes to The UK Newspaper. He's the host of the recently launched #AskAVC​​​ YouTube channel aimed at enterprise entrepreneurs. In each episode, he tackles a different issue relating to building and scaling B2B startups - topics such as pitching to an investor and tackling sales churn. When he's not working with his portfolio founders, Ryan is active with Code2040, a nonprofit organization that creates pathways to educational, professional, and entrepreneurial success in technology for underrepresented minorities. And occasionally, he finds time for surfing!About Mark Stephenson:Mark has over 30 years of solution sales GTM leadership experience with high-growth venture backed Series A through E SaaS modern software disruptors such as Evisort, Avi Networks as well as large matrix sales organizations such as HP and Cisco. Mark started sales at Xerox. Over the years as a strategic go-to-market executive, he has developed a four-pronged growth approach to drive consistent exceptional results delivering above quota performance in 24 of 27 operating years. Mark loves building teams that work well together and has a proven ability to lead direct and indirect sales teams at the 3rd and 4th line level as well as Marketing and Customer Success Orgs. He is a high-energy, cross-functional business partner known as a creative thinker with a method for aligning GTM with the business, who has a passion for finding and developing talent, and building repeatable customer engagement and growth process that leverages the team for impact. Great results come from great teams -- Mark can help you hire great GTM team members, put them to work on the right things to scale results.