“Customer success is no longer just held accountable for adoption and NPS; CS teams now have to own a portion of the number, as we should,” says Maranda Dziekonski, the new VP of Customer Success at ID.me. In this episode, Maranda joins Alex Raymond to talk about the transformation of customer success into a strategic driver of revenue, providing insights on how CS teams can align their goals with executive priorities and board expectations.

From tracking customer success qualified leads to leveraging quarterly business reviews as more than just check-ins, Maranda explains how CS leaders can demonstrate tangible business impact. She shares strategies for identifying untapped value, creating effective ideal customer profiles, and helping teams document and achieve customer goals. How can CS leaders turn customer insights into a flywheel for growth? How can teams secure resources and prove the value of CS initiatives in a tight economic environment?

Join Alex and Maranda’s discussion as they share takeaways on how CS teams can evolve from reactive support to proactive growth partners, cementing their role as a vital part of modern business strategy.

Quotes

• “Customer success is no longer just held accountable for adoption and NPS; CS teams now have to own a portion of the number, as we should.” (04:37 | Maranda Dziekonski)
• “You have to earn the right to do that with your customers. You have to be solving for the problem statements that they’ve already invested in before you start looking for additional problem statements to solve for. And that’s the beautiful thing about customer success. When you do it right, you queue it up and it is a flywheel. It starts to get that momentum going and then it’s a no-brainer.” (19:17 | Maranda Dziekonski)
• “The business review really is us doing a report card together on how the relationship is going. Once upon a time, you had a problem. These were the problems that you identified we were going to solve together. Here’s how we’re doing.” (20:27 | Maranda Dziekonski)
• “If you tie your teams to revenue outcomes within your organizations in the same way sales does, it becomes a formula, a mathematical equation that for every CSM, we can print this amount of renewals and this amount of upsells.” (33:52 | Maranda Dziekonski)
• “You have to look at your green space. How much available green space can you have? Make a projection on how much of that is actually real. How much of that can you actually help get across the finish line? What does the relationship between CS and sales look like in regards to getting that across the finish line, but tying yourself to a number, making it a mathematical equation rather than just a feel. That’s how you get a budget these days.” (34:19 | Maranda Dziekonski)

Links

Connect with Maranda Dziekonski:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marandaanndziekonski/

Connect with Alex Raymond:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/afraymond/

Website: https://amplifyam.com/

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

How can account managers and customer success teams become true drivers of growth in today’s competitive, profit-focused landscape? In this episode, Rod Cherkas, the author of “The Chief Customer Officer Playbook” and “Reach: A Framework for Driving Revenue Growth from Your Existing Customers,” joins Alex Raymond to share insights into his REACH Framework, a structured approach to uncovering expansion opportunities, building stronger customer relationships, and delivering consistent value.

Rod challenges the status quo by urging customer success teams to adopt a more revenue-focused mindset and demonstrates how methodologies like the REACH Framework can turn account management into a predictable, strategic function. With advice on navigating organizational challenges and fostering collaboration with enablement teams, he offers insights to help you make a measurable impact on growth while staying aligned with customer needs.

If you want to learn how to balance trusted advisory roles with revenue goals or move beyond short-term wins to achieve sustainable, long-term growth, join Alex and Rod as they share insights to transform the way your team works.

Quotes

• “It’s important for our listeners to understand that what’s important to your executive team, your CEO and your CFO is not just that you can deliver results in a particular quarter, but that you can deliver those results on an ongoing basis in a predictable, forecastable way.” (16:32 | Rod Cherkas)
• “What I’ve seen is that companies can load a lot of resources, look at their customer base, identify that white space, and create a whole bunch of opportunities in the short term. But then you get to next quarter, and you don’t have any way to redo that or predict what’s going to happen next quarter, the quarter after.” (16:56 | Rod Cherkas)
• “One of the objections I hear is that people feel like if they start talking about other solutions, they’re going to come across as too salesy or too pitchy, or they're going to lose their trusted advisor status. And I don’t believe that at all. I think that there are very thoughtful ways that you can be talking to your customer about how you can provide more value from the solutions that you offer to be mutually beneficial. People just don’t have the skill set.” (33:53 | Rod Cherkas)
• “Customer success organizations are moving too slow and need to move faster to take on more impact on the top line, whether they’re formally responsible for expansion bookings, or whether they have expectations that they’re identifying, uncovering, and nurturing those customers.” (37:05 | Rod Cherkas)

Links

Connect with Rod Cherkas:

Website: https://rodcherkas.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodcherkas/

Connect with Alex Raymond:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/afraymond/

Website: https://amplifyam.com/

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

“It’s all about ‘what I want the customer to do based on what I care about.’ Nobody says that explicitly, but underlying that is a mindset still focused on what we need for our business to succeed, rather than what we need to do to help the customer’s business succeed,” says Shakeel Bharmal, as he highlights the critical gap between claiming customer-centricity and truly living it. Organizations must transition from self-serving goals to genuinely prioritizing the success of their customers—a shift that fosters trust, loyalty, and long-term growth for both parties.

In this episode, Shakeel Bharmal of The Summit Group shares how third box thinking can transform account management by reframing how we see our customers. Are we truly understanding their challenges, or are we just focused on pushing our own goals? Shakeel argues that meaningful growth starts with empathy—seeing the world through the lens of the customer’s customer.

Shakeel explains why customer-centricity often falls short despite all the tools and data available today. He offers practical ways to shift this mindset, starting with a simple exercise: map the value chain from your company to the end user. How often do we really take the time to ask, “What does the customer’s customer care about?”

Leadership also plays an important role in driving this change. Shakeel points out how consistent reinforcement from leaders can shape a culture that prioritizes long-term success over quick wins. The result? Stronger relationships, better alignment, and exponential growth potential.

Tune in to Shakeel and Alex Raymond’s discussion if you’re looking to deepen your impact as an account manager and create genuine value for your clients. How could embracing third box thinking change the way you approach your work?

Quotes

• “It’s all about ‘what I want the customer to do based on what I care about.’ Nobody says that explicitly, but underlying that is a mindset still focused on what we need for our business to succeed, rather than what we need to do to help the customer’s business succeed.” (07:50 | Shakeel Bharmal)
• “Third box thinking says if you are Box 1—your company, your customer’s Box 2, their customer is Box 3… By beginning the analysis on your customer’s customer, otherwise known as Box 3, you are now looking at the world not through your lens of what the customer cares about, but you’re looking at the world through the lens of your customer's customer, and looking at your customer from their customer’s perspective.” (13:53 | Shakeel Bharmal)
• “Imagine what the world would be like if we all thought about how the people we serve can be more effective, more impactful at serving the people they serve. And imagine if every human being on this planet took that approach of wanting to help the people that they serve serve the people they serve. Can you imagine the ripple effect of impact and change that would happen?” (18:02 | Shakeel Bharmal)

Links

Connect with Shakeel Bharmal:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shakeelbharmal/

Website: https://www.summitvalue.com/

Connect with Alex Raymond:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/afraymond/

Website: https://amplifyam.com/

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm