Where Should Customer Success Report
My first boss, the late Dr. Gordon Cassidy, gave me a life-long gift, although I didn’t realize it at the time.
Fresh out of my BComm undergrad, I was hired as a Program Manager by The Queen’s Executive MBA Program – a startup in its second year of operation at the time. I was employee # 6. I was to run the newly opened Ottawa office, be the single Ottawa-based employee, and manage a cohort of 36 executive participants.
Gordon was the Director of the program and I had worked as a summer student for another program he ran.
I pinched myself at the opportunity I had been given right out of school. I had a huge amount of responsibility which I liked – yet in the early days, I often felt a bit out of my depth.
Never more so than one particular day I’ll never forget.
One of the participants, a highly successful executive who had bought and sold multiple companies and had his own personal banker, stormed into my office fuming mad because he wasn’t getting along with his assigned study group.
His study group had opinions on a particular Harvard Business Review case that differed from his own and wouldn’t go along with his recommendations for the group’s report. Clearly this was a rare occurrence for him. He was used to directing the show and having people do what he wanted.
Even though he knew we had designed the groups to be diverse on purpose so participants could learn different perspectives from each other, he was not appreciating the learning being in the deep end of it.
He demanded I put him in a different study group immediately, or he would take out a full-page ad in the Globe and Mail, and tell the Canadian Business Community that our program was a farce, lacked integrity, and so on. Not exactly the kind of publicity you want in Year 2 of a brand new program! And I didn’t doubt for a second he would do it if he wanted to.
Having never dealt with anything like this before, I felt totally out of my depth. So I just listened and let him vent. After a while he started to calm down. I discovered what had put him over the edge (his study group had backed someone else’s idea over his for their case report). I told him I understood and said I’d call Gordon (who was in Kingston; I was the only Ottawa-based employee at the time) and get back to him later in the day.
As soon as the participant left my office, I took a deep breath and called Gordon to ask what to do. He’d been running a variety of executive programs for years, so I knew he’d know what to do. I couldn’t wait to hear his advice.
You know what he said?
“What do you think we should do?”
Gulp. I didn’t know. I hadn’t thought about it. I’d just called Gordon as soon as the participant left my office and my hands were still shaking. I just wanted him to just tell me what to do.
I said, “I don’t know, Gordon, that’s why I called you.”
But of course, this wasn’t his first rodeo and he wanted to teach me how to fish.
He said, “Sounds like you really understood why he was upset. You also know how we designed the program. How about you think about what you’d recommend, and call me back in a bit?”
So that’s what I did. I thought about it and formed my point of view.
I called Gordon back and said I thought we should let the participant know this was exactly what was supposed to happen – the executives were supposed to challenge each other with different perspectives – and sometimes that was uncomfortable. That we weren’t willing to change his group because that would set a precedent that could water down the learning experience for others facing similar challenges. That we encouraged him to work through the situation with his current group. And if he felt the need to take out an ad, so be it. I also said I thought Gordon should call him to deliver this message.
Gordon said, “Great, let’s do that with one change. I think you should call him. He needs to know you’re running the show.”
So I did. The participant listened and he wasn’t happy. I really didn’t know how it would work out. But I was confident that it was the right thing to do. I also knew Gordon would support me if I needed it.
…
About a month later, the participant stopped by my office again. I braced myself. But he surprised me with lovely gift and said, “Thank you. I appreciate what you do for the program. I’m glad I stayed with my study group.”
Now, that’s a long-ish story – what’s my point? My point is Gordon taught me to have a point of view. To think about the options, and form a point of view.
And that’s served me well ever since, including over the past 5 years as a consultant and advisor.
Clients ask for my point of view on many things. Founders and CEOs in particular ask these 3 questions the most often:
- Should Customer Success own expansion revenue?
- Where should the head of Customer Success report in the organization, to the CEO or the Head of Sales?
- How should I structure the comp for the Customer Success team?
I’ve worked in a variety of companies large and small over the years, and consulted for dozens more, so I’ve seen a lot of models. I’ve also researched what respected SaaS experts have to say here – people like Dave Kellog, David Sacks, and Nick Mehta. Together, that’s informed my point of view.
On the questions of where the head of Customer Success should report, here’s my point of view:
In an earlier stage company where there’s a Head of Sales and a Head of Customer Success (but no Chief Revenue Officer or Chief Customer Officer yet, the head of Customer Success should report to the CEO or President, and be an equal peer to the Head of Sales, who also reports to the CEO/President.
In a later stage company where there is a Chief Revenue Officer and a Chief Customer Officer both reporting to the CEO / President the Head of CS should report into the Chief Customer Officer as a peer to the Head of Sales reporting into the CRO.
If there is only a Chief Revenue Officer but no Chief Customer Officer…
