7 Tips To Get the Most Out of Your Client Calls
As the number of companies shifting to a subscription-based business model increases, so does the demand for customer success managers (CSM). With client retention becoming a key metric, every client call needs to add value. But how can we define value? Is it just when the client uses the product more? Or does usage even matter as long as your product helps the client meet their goals?
The answer is usually somewhere in the middle and tied to the client’s initial expectations from the product. This is why the perceived value is important. In my experience at Wrike, I’ve had experiences where what I thought would be valuable to my client was completely different from what they had in mind. So what can a CSM do during the call to increase the perceived value? I’ll share seven tips based on my and my team’s experience. I hope that these recommendations will help you with client retention.
1. Come prepared
One of the best things a CSM can do to increase the value of the call is to come prepared. You can learn a lot of things about clients by visiting their websites, checking the profile of your main point of contact on LinkedIn, and reading news about them. The more research you do prior to the call, the less time you’ll need to spend on asking them questions.
With cloud-based products, you can usually get the client’s product usage stats with just a few clicks. The CSM can check how many team members are using the product and which features on a daily basis. Clients often find this data valuable, especially when they aren’t able to get it on their own. I can recall multiple cases when I shared the product usage data with a client, which prompted them to reallocate Wrike seats and maximize their subscription.
Last but not least, always check the notes that your colleagues — the account manager, deployment consultant, support agent, or other client-facing team member — left from previous conversations with the client Nothing is more frustrating for the client than having to reiterate the same things simply because your organization has a poor internal communication process!
2. Invite the right people
Not only do you need to prove the value of your product to the client’s team, but you also need to prove it to the right people. At the start of your meetings, always make sure the people who need to be there are actually there. If not, you can make the decision to reschedule to better fit everyone’s calendar or record the call for those who couldn’t attend.
3. Start with questions
Always start the call by asking the client what challenges they’re struggling with. While you can make some assumptions — such as the industry, size, and other parameters — it’s best to get the details from the client first hand so you can tailor the call to their needs. A good starting point is to ask the client to name their goals when they first bought the product; sometimes these goals can be vague, so the CSM should help clarify according to the SMART model. If this isn’t the CSM’s first call with the client, they check how much progress has been made toward the client’s goals and provide necessary recommendations.
Remember to ask the client to share information about their use cases. The more details you can gather, the more useful your recommendations will be. If possible, ask the client to describe their use cases via email prior to the call — this will allow you to better prepare for the call and make it more worthwhile to the client.
Finally, when asking questions pay attention to what clients consider to be the most important issue, and make sure you address it during the call. I usually ask the following question directly after introductions, “Are there any questions you’d like us to start with?”
4. Provide quick fixes
A CSM may have a strategy in mind to maximize the product’s value, which involves multiple steps to be executed during (and between) several calls with the customer. However, each meeting should be valuable to keep the client coming back for subsequent calls. As product experts, CSMs usually know what problems require a lot of time and what can be fixed quickly. If possible, I recommend sharing one or several quick fixes on every call, so the client can leave satisfied and excited for the next one.
5. Make sure the client understands you
When you know the ins and outs of your product, it can be difficult to stop talking about it. But try not to turn your demo into a monologue. Break your presentation into logical blocks, and after each section, make sure that you pause and confirm with the client that they understand everything you’ve shared. Without frequent breaks to clarify things with the client, they may zone out and stop paying attention to your demo entirely.
Also, when talking about your product, avoid using complicated terminology since the concepts you know well may just be jargon to the client. If you have to use them, make sure to provide a clear definition — several times, even, to help the client remember it. For example, when I introduce the Blueprints functionality to the client, I say, “Blueprints is a functionality that allows you to easily manage repetitive projects.” Sometime later during the presentation, if I mention Blueprints again, I’d say, “And here we can see Blueprints, which, as we already know, allows us to manage repetitive work.” Don’t be afraid to repeat yourself!
6. Some results are better than no results
Regardless of the CSM’s experience, at some point, the ball will be in the client’s court. They’ll need to implement the CSM’s recommendations, train their team, establish new daily routines, and more. And, honestly speaking, trying your product’s new features and functionalities isn’t always the client’s top priority. Imagine the following situation: You had a productive call with a client and agreed to make important updates in their account as well as train the team on a new product feature, which can potentially optimize the client’s processes. However, during the next call, the client says they didn’t have time to do any of your recommendations. What should you do?
I recommend asking the decision-maker to provide a realistic answer as to how much time they’d really be able to spend on action items related to your product before the next call. Based on the answer, offer a “plan minimum” — a shortlist of to-do items that wouldn’t take too much of their time and still bring immediate, tangible results (I have to state that it’s possible, but not guaranteed). Then ask the client to commit to executing this list. I usually send a follow-up email with a detailed description of what needs to be done and the expected results. Yes, the progress could be much slower with this approach, but it’s better to see some progress versus none. I’d like to add that these small wins sometimes served as an incentive for the client to dedicate more time to product-related activities and eventually achieve great results!
7. Schedule the next call at the end of the current one
Although this bit of advice may seem minor compared to my other recommendations, it’s saved me a lot of time and effort. Instead of continuously pinging the client to get them on the next call and then realizing that you have to reschedule, block the time at the end of the current call. I usually say, “I’d like to suggest that we book our next call right now so the time would be reserved for you to get additional recommendations and learn best practices.” If the client is hesitant, I add, “I’m offering this because my calendar gets booked very quickly (which is true) and I want to make sure that the necessary time is blocked for you. If anything comes up we can always reschedule.” I schedule a significant number of my calls (about 50%) using this approach and most of them agree to do it … because it makes sense!
I’d like to emphasize that for clients to be willing to schedule a follow-up call, they need to clearly see value from the current one. Here’s where the “provide quick fixes” advice comes in handy. As long as you show them something new, address their challenges, and teach them something useful, they’ll be willing to do more calls with you.
I hope you find these recommendations useful and that they help you achieve even better results with your clients. I’m already working on sharing even more advice, so stay tuned!
