Vitally’s first-ever podcast series is ready for your ears!

Success/ful: Winning Ideas From the World of CS and Beyond is designed to help current and aspiring leaders in Customer Success collaborate more effectively across departments.

On this show, Vitally VP of Customer Success Taylor Johnston hosts conversations with some of the most forward-thinking leaders in and out of CS. We’ll bring in perspectives from Product, Ops, Marketing, Finance, and beyond, to share unique insights on how post-sales executives can be more effective in their roles.

“When you're a Customer Success leader, your ‘team’ is not just the CSMs who report to you,” said Vitally Co-Founder and CEO Jamie Davidson. “Your team is also the other department leaders in your organization. Success/ful is the first podcast designed to help CS leaders strengthen ties across their organizations.”

This podcast is about uncovering blindspots, building bridges across disciplines, and uncovering the universal threads of success that tie us all together. So if you’re a CS professional seeking to innovate and adapt in an ever-changing landscape, join us on this journey to be more Success/ful.  

We’ll be releasing a new episode every other week, so please subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and consider leaving a five-star rating if you like what you hear! You can also watch each episode on YouTube.

(Update: Success/ful's first season concluded on August 9th, 2024. Stay tuned for release details on season 2!)

‘Success/ful’ Episode Guide

Episode 1: Why Storytelling Is Crucial in Customer Success (w/ Ryan Seams of AssemblyAI)

A remarkable story sets the stage for incredible impact.

In our debut episode, AssemblyAI Head of Customer Success Ryan Seams offers practical tips for crafting the perfect narrative. Learn how to create a story that resonates with leadership, utilizes data effectively, integrates storytelling into team culture for lasting influence, and much more.‍

Key quote: "I think CS teams compared to Sales are a little more bashful sometimes, and they're not going to be the ones to say, 'I did this crazy thing to close this deal.' And I would encourage you to think a little differently about that. The goal is not to sit here and brag and say, 'Here's what I did' and show off. Your goal should be, 'How can I get this information to the rest of my organization so that everyone can do a better job at understanding and helping our customers'.”

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Episode 2: Leaning Into the Business of Your Customer (w/ Monique McDonough of WorkTango)

Are you ready to transform your Customer Success team into revenue champions? 

In this episode, Monique McDonough, COO at WorkTango, shares strategies on CSMs handling commercial duties and offers guidance on transitioning teams to a customer-centric revenue focus. Learn why enabling your team to lean into their customers’ business is a net positive for CS teams and customers alike.

Key quote: “We should always have a purpose for every conversation and ‘check-in’ is not one of them. So we’re either solving a problem or we’re strategizing on an opportunity. But check-ins can be emails, let’s give everybody time back.”

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Episode 3: How to Make Client Impact a Team Sport (w/ Greg Collins of Boldr)

Building client impact is better as a team sport.

In this episode, Greg Collins, VP of Revenue at Boldr, discusses how to rally different departments around the customer experience and turbocharge client impact even in the realm of remote work.

Key quote: "It is revenue that follows client impact. If we were on the acquisition side, we would talk about finding out what the senior leadership team's five-by-five is, or what their strategic objectives are, or defined objectives. Sometimes, that gets lost in the Customer Success world. We get caught up in, ‘Is the product doing what it's supposed to be doing?’ Which is not how we won the deal in the first place. We won the deal in the first place by finding out what their business objective is, the challenge that was in the way, and solving that."

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Episode 4: Working With Product Teams to Solve Customer Pain (w/ Christine Itwaru of Vitally)

When your Customer Success team aligns with the Product team, the product improves, customer satisfaction is enhanced, and ultimately, revenue increases.

Christine Itwaru, Head of Product Management at Vitally, understands the importance of creating this seamless feedback loop with Customer Success. In this episode, Christine shares the blueprint for building strong partnerships. She teaches CS leaders how to speak the language of Product and ask the right questions, and reveals her top three insights that every CS leader should know.

Key quote: "There's the saying, 'Only the fool tries to please everyone.' Product people, especially earlier in their career, want to please every customer and it ends up hurting everyone. We have to be intentional about what we're going after so that we can solve the pain for a massive amount of customers, not just one or two, but we truly do want to solve pain for everybody."

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Episode 5: How Customer Success Can Have a Voice in Pricing and Packaging (w/ Andrew Michael of Churn.FM)

No one understands customer needs and product value better than Customer Success teams. Involving them in pricing discussions is a fast-track solution to more impactful pricing models that increase customer satisfaction, retention, and success.

In this episode, Andrew Michael, entrepreneur and host of the Churn.FM podcast, highlights the importance of giving Customer Success teams a voice in these critical decisions. He shares advice for adopting a mindset that treats pricing and packaging as a dynamic part of the product, and his strategies for a smooth transition when rolling out new pricing models.

Key quote: “The best way to think about pricing and packaging is that it’s just another part of your product — it’s a feature of your product. As you would experiment and feel comfortable with changing your onboarding experience or updating a feature, you should be comfortable with making changes to pricing and packaging. The first thing is getting your mindset changed and realizing, ‘Okay, this is a part of what we do as a product, our product evolves, our value evolves, and so should our pricing and packaging with it.’”

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Episode 6: Maximizing Your First 90 Days in a CS Leadership Role (w/ Lizzy Rosen of Vendr)

The first 90 days in a new Customer Success leadership role set the foundation for your entire tenure and lay the groundwork for future wins. Lizzy Rosen, the VP of Customer Success at Vendr, believes building trust should be your top priority right off the bat.

Drawing from her own experiences, Lizzy breaks down the first 30 to 90 days and gets into the nitty-gritty of building quick trust throughout the organization. Lizzy also shares her insights on strategy creation, utilizing new data streams, and setting up KPIs and compensation structures so that you can effectively maximize your time.

Key quote: “The biggest quick win, no matter what company you're at or role, is quick trust. Coming into a new role, I don't want to maintain the status quo. I want to change things. I want to build things. I want to create things. You can't do that unless you have trust behind you, team members trust you, and the organization trusts you and is willing to go on that path with you. And so, I think the first thing that you have to do is build that trust.”

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Episode 7: Think Like a CMO — Building Authority as a CS Team (w/ Neil Wu Becker of Nextbound)

Customer Success is evolving, and so should the communication strategies Customer Success leaders use to share their vision and build influence within their organizations.

Neil Wu Becker, CEO and Co-Founder of NextBound, joins the show to offer his perspective as a veteran marketing leader and executive on how CS teams can evolve. He discusses communication challenges between CS and marketing, the importance of proactive and declarative leadership, and the benefits of integrated marketing models for CS efforts.

Key quote: “A CEO of a startup in Texas once told me to 'act like an owner.' Pretend you put your own money into this regardless of what your role is, and pretend you're the owner whether you're CEO or not. If you apply that, you're going to have a different type of conversation with your customers versus, ‘I could just walk away tomorrow’.”

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Episode 8: Mastering Customer Success Through Every Company Phase (w/ Sunil Joseph, Advisor and Fractional CCO)

Navigating the startup landscape takes more than just a great product — it requires mastering Customer Success at every stage.

On this episode of Success/ful, Advisor and Fractional Chief Customer Officer Sunil Joseph shares his expertise on creating a cohesive customer experience from the seed stage onward. This episode covers essential strategies for different business stages, from understanding funding phases to preparing for funding rounds, all aimed at maintaining consistency across the customer experience.

Key quote: “The best [thing] a founder can do early in a seed stage, I would say, is being focused on, ‘How do I create a unified customer experience, to the best of my ability.’ And you're still working through ICP, right? But you might get some large customers. You might get some smaller customers. It doesn't matter. I want to make sure my customers go through a unified journey.”

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Episode 9: Elevating Customer Success Through Culture Building (w/ Cynthia Taylor of Culture Amp)

Exceptional Customer Success begins with a vibrant culture. Cynthia Taylor, SVP of Customer Success, Support Experience, and People Science Teams at Culture Amp, joins the show to unveil powerful strategies for building a thriving culture through deliberate and consistent efforts.

Cynthia's insights include the importance of internal branding, how to create and enact effective and consistent rituals, tips for improving cross-departmental collaboration, and more.

Key quote: “‘Professional’ does not have to mean ‘formal’. Consistency can mean fun. Professional can also mean informal and what those things can bring together can be a really high caliber engaging experience for teams.”

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Episode 10: Anchoring Your CS Operations With Strategy and Data (w/ Tom Lawler of Elastic)

Continuous optimization is key to implementing an effective strategy, and data plays a crucial role in making this process both efficient and impactful.

Tom Lawler, Sr. Director of RevOps at Elastic, joins the show to discuss how leveraging data can enhance Customer Success strategies. He offers insights on using data to streamline C-Suite discussions, boost influence, foster cross-departmental collaboration, and more.

Key quote: “If CS professionals want to increase their influence within the business, it’s problem-solving. It’s doing what you do for the customer, but internally…If you’ve identified an issue or problem, have a solution, communicate that to the right people, and that’s the way you start to build influence, is to start to engage not just with your customers but with internal issues as well.”

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