What is the best way for CS reps to manage relationships with accounts where the "champions" are always changing and the value of your business is always having to be restated to knew employees?

When it comes to maintaining positive relationships with customers – especially if your champion has changed and you need to restate your value proposition – I always think about three things as related to customer touchpoints: You have to be intentional about building out a level of service that ensures every customer feels heard. It’s important to be as accessible as possible to your customers, especially as we navigate an uncertain market. At Salesloft, for example, we host live office hours ...Read More

This is a tough one. I generally view these as “lite sales cycle” which it sounds like you do as well. If the account is large enough - a multi-level engagement strategy extending 1-2 management layers above your main champion would help. I would also ask why these champions are changing - is the position being passed around in the organization because no one wants to own it? If so, why? Is it too time consuming? If so, perhaps there’s a way to reduce how time consuming it is or advocate for a d ...Read More

A champion changing regularly is a challenge and risk factor, but over-reliance on one individual is the problem. In an ideal situation, there is a clear, mutually agreed-upon value-driven reason why the customer purchased the product. I would suggest finding a way to capture this early in the opportunity close process. One of the core responsibilities of the CS rep is to be able to multi-thread within a customer account, i.e. interacting with more folks than just the champion. My suggestion to ...Read More

Such a real and tough situation. I recommend focus on winning top‑down and bottom‑up. Multi‑thread early, keep a written value dossier/success plan that survives personnel changes, and run a new‑stakeholder 30/60/90 play so you never start from zero. Then diagnose root cause and scope (account vs segment vs macro) so your response—tools, coverage, and contracts—matches the size of the problem. What CS reps should do (right away) Multi‑thread by design: Secure an exec sponsor, a primary champion, ...Read More

The most important part: do not be single-threaded. Make sure you build connections with multiple people at the organization. Ask your champion who else you should talk with. If you struggle to get the champion to divulge that, share tidbits, insights, and other recommendations so your champion wants to carry those into the organization. From there, run EBRs with your champion and slowly, over time, build the trust to ask for other contacts. Ask again. During the renewal cycle, get in front of p ...Read More