SOUND THE ALARM!!!Three Non-Negotiables for an

effective early warning system

Overview

1. Introductions2. Who is Upland Software3. Three (3) Non-Negotiables for early warning

1. Executive Relationships2. Track Usage and Adoption3. Team Engagement

4. Q&A

Who is Stephen Fulkerson?• VP of Customer Success for Upland Software • Manage Global Customer Success Teams

across all ten (10) of our Product Lines• Responsible for our Customer Experience

Department and creating a great customer experience• Responsible for our Customer Education and

Enablement to drive stronger customer adoption• Leader in Customer Success for the last 15

years• Reserve Intelligence Officer in U.S. Military

Who is Upland Software?

We  provide  Cloud  Solutions  across  the  enterprise  enabling  amazing  customer  outcomes  in:

+  PROJECT  &  IT  FINANCIAL  MANAGEMENT

+  WORKFLOW  AUTOMATION

+  DIGITAL  ENGAGEMENT

PROJECT  &  IT  FINANCIALMANAGEMENT

WORKFLOWAUTOMATION

DIGITAL          ENGAGEMENT

Upland Product Family

Manage  your  organization’s  projects,  professional  workforce  and  IT  costs.

Real  time  productivity  optimization,  collaboration,  and  functional  automation  across  your  organization’s  value  chain.

Effectively  engage  with  your  customers,  prospects  and  community  via  the  web  and  mobile  technologies.

Enabling Amazing Customer Outcomes

CSM Roles and Responsibilities at Upland

CustomerSatisfaction

Renewals

Expansion

Where to Establishing Relationships?

Upland strives to ensure we have direct relationships established at the following three levels.

1. Executive Sponsor2. Business Owner3. Application Administrator

Importance – If one of these three departs, you have relationships at the other two levels to get a proper introduction when the position is replaced.

#1 Non-Negotiable - Establishing Executive Relationships

Establish STRONG Relationships with the Executive Sponsors (a.k.a. budget owners)

1. Speak their language –

2. Know their concerns –

3. Understand their business –

#1 Executive Relationships - Best Practices

• Tools # 1 - Implemented change in our CRM solution to track Executive Relationships• Process - Changed status of account to “At Risk” - Reduced our contract

renewal rate forecast by 30% until the executive relationship was established• People – Provided training on how to get introduced into the executive

sponsor• Tools # 2 – Invested in Totango –Identified trends and behaviors in

accounts with and without executive sponsor relationships established

#1- Executive Relationships - Results

Eye-­‐opening Skewed  projections

Build  ExecutiveRelationships

Lessons Learned - Executive Relationships

Trust  but  verify

Survey  are  indicators

Track  executives

Non-Negotiable #2 – Track Usage and Adoption

#2 - Track Usage and Adoption Analyzing Customer Usage & Adoption

Customer  Usage

TotangoGives  full  picture

Validate  value  perceived  is  value  

received

#2 Track Usage and Adoption - Best Practice

Review  trends   Identify  “At  Risk”  immediately

Validate  with  customer

#2 Track Usage and Adoption - Results

Most customers Some customers

#2 Track Usage & Adoption - Lessons Learned

Trust the data“How do you think adoption is going?”

Present findings

Non-Negotiable #3 – Team Engagement

#3 – Team EngagementPain – Identifying lack of team engagement

• Limited Updates • Limited Business

Reviews • Tactical Relationships

• No travel to Enterprise Accounts • Strategic direction not

identified

#3 Team Engagement – Best Practices

• Trained on best practices • Templates provided• Coaching and mentoring

• Tools – Set up alerts (90, 60, 30) • Tools – Neglected Account Alerts• General Managers, Chief Customer Officer,

VP of Customer Success and CSM are all alerted via report alert of neglected account status

• Leverage Totango to paint full picture of customer health

• Leverage surveys and other assets to verify engagement

#3 Team Engagement - Results

• In 2015, NPS increased 30%• In 2016, our NPS increased 25%•Tactical Relationships changing to Strategic Relationships

#3 Team Engagement - Lessons Learned

• Avoidable Churn happened by not having these process and tools in place

• More eyes helped CSM’s because others may see signs or problems that the CSM’s are not seeing• Executive Pulse Updates – Make sure the

executives that engage the customers provide updates for continuity

Q&A

Connect with me on . . .

https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-­‐fulkerson-­‐9348172