Craig Woods

In terms of motivation, I think two things must be true - Most importantly you must believe in the outcome you're trying to obtain, and be invested in it. Whatever stage of the journey you're on outlining the why behind what you're trying to do and bringing everyone in to the same message is pretty fundamental. Customer Success environments can often be complex and involve wearing a lot of different hats, so keeping a central, digestible message that resonates helps tie every initiative back. Do ...Read More

Top talent often identifies itself more than the other way round and it boils down to value generation on whatever task or project they're working on. A top talent will nearly always put the accountability on themselves to deliver, not as a check box exercise but because they truly care about the work they do and how it helps those around them. One area I have consistently coached against in the customer success space is encouraging those performers to self-advocate and confidently share out the ...Read More

I remember doing a really great negotiating class that suggested that nearly all conflict could be distilled down to someone being surprised by someone else's action, leading to a shock of misaligned expectations. That sounds simplistic but the more I thought about it, the more I found it to be the root cause of the conflicts I'd experienced around me. At home, it can be as simple as my partner expecting me to clean up the dishes without saying it explicitly, and I didn't (just an example, of co ...Read More

While it was designed as a sales methodology I will say Sandler selling remains one of the most practical and impactful courses I've participated in. It's core centers around digging more into the pain you're trying to solve and asking questions that allow you to prescribe better solutions, all while staying an equal partner - confident in the value fits you're creating with a customer. I referenced 'Getting More' by Stuart Diamond in one of my above answers too. I found that incredibly insightf ...Read More

The art of real listening is exactly that. Given the nature of the role we can all sometimes be too quick to jump to a solution but both externally and internally engaged listening to get a real sense for the sentiments and concerns being shared is a golden skill. Similarly to never wanting to be the smartest person in a room, I rarely want to be the one who spoke most in a meeting. If you're talking you're only saying things you already know. There's so much more wisdom and understanding availa ...Read More

I actually touched a bit on this during Gainsight Pulse last year (shameless plug to the session here )but the ability to tell a cohesive and actionable story is crucial in the space we're in. We hear so many things from customers - we're tracking so many signals, data points, and trends through the whole customer lifecycle - uniquely so in most organizations. So we have a wealth of knowledge that needs to be digestible to the whole company in order for it to be at its most effective. But if you ...Read More