Rachel Orchansky

⁉️ Are your CSMs closer to the Boardroom or the Help Desk? Let’s stop pretending CSMs are here to hold hands and host check-ins. That chapter is over. 📕❌ The future of CSMs as a core role and component of customer success is not soft. It’s not reactive. It’s strategic, commercial, and accountable to growth. 💰📈 If you’re a CSM reading this, you are not “post-sale.” You are core-impact and "next-sale." If you’re a CS leader, your job isn’t to shield your team from change. It’s to equip them to lead it. Onboarding managers, Support analysts, and Implementation/Services specialists are all embracing new technologies and ways of working. 🚀 But what does the future CSM look like? It's more than just discovering new ways of working. There are fundamental shifts in the role definition that are available to create a powerful future. 1️⃣ Business Acumen > Product Knowledge They speak in customer outcomes, not platform features. They understand how their customers make money and how they lose it. 💡💸 2️⃣ Revenue Ownership They don’t just renew. They expand. They create opportunities by delivering real, measurable value. 3️⃣ Executive Presence They can sit across from a C-suite buyer and talk growth, risk, and ROI. No slide decks. No fluff. Just clarity and confidence. 🧠🎯 4️⃣ Customer-Led Innovation They bring the frontlines to the strategy table. The best CSMs don’t just listen to feedback, they shape roadmaps. 🛠️🚀 5️⃣ Courage They don’t wait to be told what to do. They challenge their customers (and their company) to move faster, smarter, better. 💥🔥 💡 Here’s the hard truth: If you’re still treating CSMs like support reps and retention managers, you’re already behind. Some parts of CS will always be counted towards COGs. It's a simple reality of proper financial reality and financial modeling. But CSMs? Why shouldn't they be part of SG&A, given they are often the most under-leveraged growth engine in the company? This isn’t about retention anymore. It’s about expansion, innovation, and category leadership, powered by customer value. 👊 Let’s build the future of CS by developing the kind of CSMs who will own it. #CustomerSuccess #NextGenCSM #CustomerGrowth #RetentionIsRevenue #CSLeadership #GrowthMindset #CustomerLedGrowth #ExecutivePerspective #FutureOfWork #CSRevolution #CreatetheFuture

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Your C-Suite / Exec demo needs to be different. Here’s the framework to kick them off: • Agenda • What We’ve Learned Recap • Tee up your champion • Exec-level discovery Execs appreciate preparedness and brevity. They have had the same horrible experience with sales people. Your goal is to earn credibility, trust, and respect as quickly as possible. Ensure your agenda is very concise. The best way to lose an exec is by rambling through a long agenda or a long-winded audio recap of everything to date. I recommend 2 slides: 1. Agenda 2. What We’ve Learned Step #1 - show agenda slide and give a 5 second pause. “This is what we had planned for today. What’s the #1 thing you want to get out of today’s call?” Step #2 - Flip to the What We Learned Slide and recap in 30-45 seconds. Include in direct quotes from your POCs on challenges they’ve faced or how your solution can help. Confidently lean into the cost of inaction and the risk of failure of key initiatives. Eliminate any fluff and make it metric / business oriented. P.S. Full discovery system here: https://lnkd.in/gJT3aCmf

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🎥 𝗖𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗨𝗽 𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵… 𝗡𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝗧𝗶𝗱𝗱 | 𝗚𝗹𝗼𝗯𝗮𝗹 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹, 𝗭𝗼𝗼𝗺. What happens when a seasoned channel exec joins a company known for innovation and velocity? You get a channel strategy that’s less about tiers and more about trust. More importantly, Zoom isn’t just talking about channel transformation; they’re doing it. Over the past 11 months, Nick and his team have put a practical, partner-first strategy in motion. And they’re checking the boxes: ✅ 𝗖𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀. Zoom has embraced five distinct routes to market - resale, agency, service provider, marketplace, and online - to meet customers and partners where they are.  ✅ 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗶𝘀𝗲𝘀.In just seven months, they transformed core partner systems like quote-to-cash and provisioning, bringing turnaround times down to under a minute. ✅ 𝗧𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹 𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆. The Zoom partner portal is getting a UX refresh, and new demand-gen tools offer campaign-in-a-box options tailored for Zoom’s rapid product release cycles.  ✅ 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆.The Zoom Up Partner Program is being overhauled to reflect different partner types, geographies, and go-to-market models with a clear foundation for growth.  ✅ 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀.Even before the new program officially launches, Zoom is seeing a consistent rise in indirect transacting partners. BOTTOM LINE: Zoom isn’t just saying the right things to partners. They’re delivering tangible improvements in systems, tools, and program design that partners can see and feel. I’m bullish on Zoom’s channel strategy. After watching this episode of Catching Up With…, I think you will be, too. ▶️ Watch the full conversation and let me know your thoughts. #Zoom #ChannelLeadership #UnifiedCommunications #UCaaS #Zoomtopia Graeme Geddes, Chris Moss, Chris Morrissey, Leo Boulton Kelly Gilhooly

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One of the biggest frustrations in early-stage sales? 🤔 Incomplete lead data. Too often, new leads land in Salesforce with missing job titles, outdated company info, or vague details. Reps lose valuable time chasing down information, and high-potential opportunities slip through the cracks. That's why we at 10K built the Headless Lead Enrichment Agent 🚀 This AI-powered agent works silently in the background to: ✅ Enrich and qualify leads the instant they're created ✅ Fill in gaps using connected data sources and AI reasoning ✅ Deliver cleaner data, faster response times, and stronger pipelines No clicks, no manual research—just sales teams spending more time selling and less time searching. Watch the video to see how it works 👇 Read the full article + see the full demo: https://lnkd.in/ebk7x8Ee #Agentforce #LeadEnrichment #SDR #Sales #Salesforce #10K #AgentforceActivator

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The Office, but make it SaaSy A tale of two frenemy leaders: Sales & Sales Enablement. Sales leaders, amirite? We don’t like babysitting our reps & answering 78 questions about enablement & yet, we don’t exactly leverage our enablement leaders the way we should, either. Meanwhile, enablement keeps trying to enable us with more… enablement. Because we ask for it. And then it doesn’t get used, or it’s impossible to track when to use it. And that’s the real problem. It’s not that teams don’t have content, training, or tools. It’s that reps need the right thing, at the right moment, INSIDE their workflow & instead they live in chaos, duplication & one pagers nobody uses That’s why GTM Buddy says: Modern Enablement Isn’t Broken, It’s Misaligned Imagine a world where you had a platform that: 😊 Surfaces content before reps ask. 😊 Zero-click RFP autofill + DSR generation 😊 Auto-tagging & scoring so the best assets rise to the top 😊 Slack, CRM & email copilots that sense context & deliver instantly Stay tuned tomorrow to see if Lindsay actually listens to Stephanie about GTM Buddy or if she chooses to stay living in her own version of GroundHog Day (seriously go follow Stephanie White 🩵 & watch tomorrow for part 2) #sponsored PS thank you to our lovely cameo voices Jake Wolpert Nikki Lang Alex Christian Dom Odoguardi Without you, I'd have used AI but why do that when I can use my friends ❤️

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In Enterprise Sales, project funding follows attention Where stakeholder attention & engagement goes, business funding will follow. I've seen many strong business cases not get funded, because it didn't address where the business & executive attention is. How to understand where this attention is? Start with earnings calls & executive interviews. (Over the past several quarters) -What commitments are being made? -What initiates are discussed? -Threats and opportunities mentioned -How are they planning to grow the business? Follow this up with thought pieces from industry leaders (Salesforce and SAP for SaaS, JPMC, UBS, Goldman for Banking, etc.) key financial analysts, and [increasingly] geopolitical forces (Tariffs, Inflation, Trade agreements, etc.) Look for what is consistently mentioned, multiple times, over a long time horizon by executives. If they're discussing it with Wall St., then they are discussing it with their Senior Leadership Team. These senior lieutenants are then going out and tasking all of their teams with delivering their plan towards these iniatives. Everything outside of this might be a great business idea, with strong ROI, and a path to success. But if it doesn't capture the business attention, it's way too easy for the organization to defer funding and time to something that does.

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