QOTW: How do you prevent software from becoming shelfware?

Great Question!! Here’s my attempt!

The key words here are - Stay Relevant!

Understand our customer’s Company Life Cycle and where they are on that graph. In sync to their graph try to stay ahead in our Product Life Cycle. This way our product would have already evolved to overcome/solve the next problem our customer will face! A predictive model will always keep us ahead instead of reactive efforts! 

GREAT support like ours is a must! Educating your target audience allows you to evolve with your customers as they trust you! Loyal customers and brand advocates trumps great product and is the key to sustain in the long run!

I love this question! I think that when you go through the buyer's journey, if you notice any red flags ( 🚩), stop and ask yourself, “why am I feeling this way?” Your small red flag now could be a major issue down the line and any apprehension will stop you from fully diving into new tech. I’ve been on teams that have bought a few platforms and I hope that by the end of the journey, there is little to no objections to the tech!

Awesome insights @Tista and @ryanngill!

Ryann - what have you seen the vendor’s onboarding team do from a new customer perspective to help you overcome those red flags?

Tista - how does customer onboarding (or implementations or Customer Success) play a role in helping new customers evolve into advocates and even partners?

@emaynez, good question! I think mapping out a new clients goals and the questions (/red flags) they asked before they were in onboarding can help a lot. Prepping the onboarding manager with that information, can also help them get better context to who they’re onboarding. The reason I’d love for the onboarding manager to know the questions asked and red flags is because they can approach the objections head on using their knowledge and best practices to show to the new client can overcome any fears. 

I think you’re absolutely right, @ryanngill! That relationship/communication between sales and post-sales is so important. If I’m getting onboarded and throughout the process the onboarding manager is addressing those red flags and putting my anxieties/questions to rest, then I’m going to come out of that onboarding experience on cloud 9. 

Now the question is how do we create a solid communication plan between sales and onboarding so the customer feels like they were listened to and the sales rep wasn’t just trying to get them to sign! 

That first 30 days are so important for adoption post go-live. So making sure they’re getting the benefit during that time will be important for momentum and more importantly “change management”. This is where either the naysayers will win or they’ll be converted - huge moment!

Great call out on how the first 30 days POST Go-Live being important! Can you share some plays from the secret @Davi1700 playbook on what you look for to ensure success or to help increase the chance of naysayers being converted?

Hi @emaynez,

Definitely! Often current CSMs and Onboarding Managers know where customers fall off the boat most frequently. Also the support team can be a huge help with gathering more information about the key blindspots. 

So I think pragmatically

1. Identify your top 5 features your organization is known for
2. Which aspects of each of the features customer struggle to adopt/utilize to get value
3. How the sales, onboarding and post go-live can further bolster this feature