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How Revenue-Responsible Marketing “Expands” to Customer Success · Sales Pipeline Radio

• 0:16
  Matt Heinz: All right, we're off to the races here.
• 0:18
  Welcome to a series of Special Sales Pipeline Radio editions
• 0:23
  live from Forrester, B2B Summit.
• 0:25
  You can probably hear in the background the conference has definitely kicked off.
• 0:28
  Lots of people here.
• 0:29
  We are downtown Phoenix, Arizona, and our first guests
• 0:33
  today on Sales Pipeline Radio.
• 0:34
  Very excited to have Nora and Leslie from Conga here They are ROI award winners.
• 0:40
  Gonna be on the main stage here in a little bit.
• 0:42
  We'll also have them each introduce themselves real quick.
• 0:43
  We got a great set of insights I wanna share with you around what they're
• 0:46
  doing on the customer experience side.
• 0:48
  But Nora, why don't you start?
• 0:49
  Nora O'Leary-Roseberry: Yes.
• 0:49
  Thank you so much for having us, Matt.
• 0:51
  My name's Nora.
• 0:52
  I am the Director of Digital Success at Conga.
• 0:56
  So running the digital motion of the customer success org.
• 1:00
  And I am so thrilled to be partnered with Leslie.
• 1:04
  Leslie Smith: Hi, my name's Leslie Smith.
• 1:05
  I am the Customer Success Manager Operations.
• 1:09
  So I do the technology side with Nora, helping her build out her amazing digital
• 1:15
  success that she won her award for.
• 1:18
  Matt Heinz: I'm thrilled to have this as our first recording here at
• 1:21
  the show because I think so much of what's talked about here historically
• 1:24
  has been on the net new side, we talk about sales, we talk about demand gen,
• 1:28
  we talk about customer acquisition.
• 1:30
  There isn't nearly enough of a conversation around how to better
• 1:32
  manage the customer relationships.
• 1:34
  And as our companies get bigger and more mature like you would think that's
• 1:37
  where the majority of the focus needs to be on not only keeping but expanding.
• 1:41
  That book of business, is this a newer focus for Conga?
• 1:44
  Talk about sort of the evolution of that balance and focus on customer experience.
• 1:48
  Nora O'Leary-Roseberry: Yeah, that's a really interesting frame of mind because
• 1:51
  I think everyone can pull a million adages out of their pocket about how critical
• 1:55
  it is to keep the customers you get for cost savings, for growth, et cetera.
• 2:01
  I think Conga has always had customer retention as top of mind, but I think.
• 2:08
  If you talk to anyone in the industry right now, it does seem that retention
• 2:11
  is becoming more and more critical.
• 2:13
  Yeah.
• 2:13
  Because it's harder and harder to retain.
• 2:16
  Right.
• 2:16
  And so I think right now with Conga's mission of Growth and Retention,
• 2:22
  they are recognizing the impact that our programs are making.
• 2:26
  Mm-hmm.
• 2:26
  And so I think that's where we are getting a bit more attention now.
• 2:31
  Matt Heinz: So I'm excited to dig into this and Leslie, I want to
• 2:33
  get into the data side of this.
• 2:34
  'cause you can't do this without a great data architecture and
• 2:38
  making sure the data is clean.
• 2:39
  And you would think it'd be easier for your customers, right?
• 2:41
  'cause you have a relationship with them.
• 2:42
  But as you know, it's definitely not.
• 2:45
  Let's talk about that.
• 2:45
  What's the backbone need to make this work?
• 2:48
  Like if you don't have the data clean.
• 2:50
  It doesn't work.
• 2:51
  Right.
• 2:52
  Leslie Smith: That's absolutely true.
• 2:53
  We need to make sure that we are talking to the right customer at the right time.
• 2:57
  So being able to identify those customers in their customer
• 3:01
  journey, finding where they are.
• 3:03
  Learning about their usage.
• 3:06
  Are they in the user groups?
• 3:08
  Are they logging into the community?
• 3:10
  Are they engaging with other groups outside of customer success?
• 3:14
  Taking all that information together and then crafting a message that
• 3:18
  will help engage them with our team.
• 3:20
  Matt Heinz: What are some of the tools that are key to making that happen?
• 3:23
  Are they tools?
• 3:24
  Are they integrations?
• 3:25
  Are they just best practices and habits internally?
• 3:28
  Leslie Smith: Ooh, great question.
• 3:29
  We currently use Gainsight for the majority of our outreaches, but with that,
• 3:34
  we drive our customers to our community to make sure that they have right in
• 3:38
  front of the best data and information that they can get from our team.
• 3:43
  It really allows them to learn about our products, ask for help when they need to.
• 3:48
  Engage with our trials, be able to open up support tickets.
• 3:52
  It's kind of a one-stop shop that we want them to get familiar
• 3:56
  with and use all the time.
• 3:57
  Matt Heinz: So, talking today with the 2025 B2B ROI
• 4:01
  integration winners from Conga.
• 4:03
  We've got Nora and Leslie.
• 4:04
  Nora.
• 4:05
  When you talk about this program internally and talk about the impact it's
• 4:08
  having, what's on the dashboard, like what's on the reporting side that shows
• 4:12
  the impact that these programs are having?
• 4:14
  Nora O'Leary-Roseberry: I love that.
• 4:15
  Well, first and foremost, it really started with a slogan, believe it
• 4:19
  or not, because to get internal buy-in and advocacy, everyone needs
• 4:23
  to understand it as well as you do.
• 4:25
  So we championed a rallying cry.
• 4:27
  It was: all roads lead to community.
• 4:29
  Mm-hmm.
• 4:29
  And that stated our intention.
• 4:31
  And then in regard to the ROI, what KPIs, what North Star
• 4:35
  metrics were we monitoring?
• 4:37
  Leslie Noted.
• 4:38
  We're talking about logging into community and engaging with community,
• 4:42
  and then understanding how that ties up to the organizational KPIs.
• 4:45
  And we've been able to demonstrate that accounts with engaged
• 4:49
  community users expand more.
• 4:51
  They retain more.
• 4:52
  They have higher NPS, so across the board, once they're tapped into our
• 4:56
  ecosystem, they're healthier accounts.
• 4:59
  Matt Heinz: Okay.
• 4:59
  This is a fantastic discussion because you're talking about so much unique.
• 5:03
  Critical data beyond just like who's logging in, when's the last time they
• 5:07
  logged in, what features are they using?
• 5:09
  Because if you wait until the end of this process and then try to get them to
• 5:12
  renew, you may have already lost someone.
• 5:14
  So what I'm interested in, we talk a lot about signals and
• 5:16
  intent signals on the buy side.
• 5:18
  What are some examples of signals that you're looking for that demonstrate
• 5:21
  someone is a great customer, someone's more likely to expand or renew, or
• 5:27
  maybe someone is not quite at the point of needing to be saved, but
• 5:31
  the fact that someone might need to proactively go and engage them
• 5:34
  to make sure they're successful.
• 5:35
  Leslie, that's a good question.
• 5:36
  I think for you.
• 5:37
  Leslie Smith: Yeah, so we do try to make sure, for advocates, we wanna see those
• 5:41
  folks that are joining the user groups.
• 5:43
  Are they interested in the products that we sell?
• 5:46
  Are they stepping up to the plate and being the host of those user groups,
• 5:51
  whether it be in person or virtual.
• 5:53
  So we try to engage with them as much as possible to keep them interested
• 5:57
  and willing to be our advocates.
• 5:59
  But on the other side, of course, there's risk.
• 6:01
  There's risk in any business.
• 6:02
  So we do look at those indicators and reach out when we see things
• 6:06
  that may not be going their way, they may not realize it.
• 6:10
  Mm-hmm.
• 6:11
  And we wanna give them that heads up, Hey, we see that you are having
• 6:14
  maybe some issues with maybe usage or where you're not using your services
• 6:19
  as much as you probably should.
• 6:21
  Here's some great statistics.
• 6:23
  Here's some insights into how you can better use those services
• 6:27
  that are available to you.
• 6:29
  Matt Heinz: And when you say we, in terms of reaching out and engaging with
• 6:32
  them, I'm sure that's not just marketing.
• 6:33
  Nora, how do you partner with the CS team and the account management team to
• 6:37
  really activate some of these programs?
• 6:39
  Nora O'Leary-Roseberry: Yeah, that's a fantastic question too.
• 6:41
  So technically our group is part of customer success.
• 6:44
  Mm-hmm.
• 6:44
  But we also ensure that we are aligned in our messaging and timing with the
• 6:49
  rest of the global marketing group.
• 6:51
  Mm-hmm.
• 6:52
  So one.
• 6:52
  Easy thing we did is we coordinate all of our planned sends in the
• 6:56
  larger global marketing calendar.
• 6:58
  So we make sure that a customer isn't hearing sporadically and disparately
• 7:03
  from every unique group at Conga.
• 7:05
  They're hearing from Conga, and it's an orchestrated, intentional experience.
• 7:09
  Matt Heinz: And Leslie from an ops standpoint.
• 7:12
  What are some of the keys for you to be able to, integrate your data with the
• 7:15
  other sort of go-to-market ops teams?
• 7:17
  I think because you talk a lot about marketing operations and sales ops
• 7:20
  and increasingly a little bit of rev ops, what does that integration
• 7:23
  look like to be successful?
• 7:26
  Leslie Smith: So we all consistently use the same types of data sets.
• 7:29
  We wanna make sure that we're reaching the right folks, so we consistently have
• 7:34
  us talking with each other, whether it be about the context that we're using, the
• 7:40
  account information on the account page, just to make sure everyone is aligned
• 7:45
  and we are using the right information.
• 7:47
  Matt Heinz: Yeah, I think it's critical, right?
• 7:49
  And I think the more you can integrate those stories together,
• 7:51
  how much do you spend time in, do an onboarding with a client?
• 7:55
  How important is it to pull in sort of data and experiences from the buy
• 8:00
  side to create a seamless experience for onboarding a new customer success?
• 8:04
  Nora O'Leary-Roseberry: We are both smirking, which your listeners cannot
• 8:06
  see because we ran an entire quarterly onboarding winning move mm-hmm.
• 8:10
  Where we did a massive audit of every single touch point that a
• 8:14
  net new logo customer experienced.
• 8:16
  And we uncovered the double digit number of systems that those touch
• 8:20
  points were coming out of and the multiple different names or aliases
• 8:26
  that customer was engaging with.
• 8:27
  And we streamlined much of that.
• 8:30
  We have visions and plans for additional enhancements, but that is top of mind.
• 8:35
  Matt Heinz: Yeah.
• 8:35
  Yeah.
• 8:35
  Well, you can always get better at this, but I think where you guys are
• 8:38
  already, I mean, there's certainly a higher level of investments.
• 8:42
  And commitment that I can already hear from this conversation from Conga.
• 8:46
  Shout out to Andrew Bennett, CMO at Conga, who are all, everybody
• 8:49
  smiles a little smile a little brighter when they hear that name.
• 8:51
  So, Andrew, you got a great team here.
• 8:53
  There's a lot of companies here that I talk to all the time that
• 8:55
  wanna make this kind of investment.
• 8:57
  They see the kind of impact that a greater investment in customer success
• 9:00
  at the marketing and the operational level cross department can have.
• 9:04
  If you could sit down with 'em for a couple minutes and just say like, here's
• 9:06
  the roadmap you should put together.
• 9:07
  Here's how to talk to your leadership team, your board.
• 9:10
  What should they be talking about internally?
• 9:13
  Nora O'Leary-Roseberry: That's a really good question, and I think
• 9:15
  we've swung and miss a few times.
• 9:18
  Mm-hmm.
• 9:18
  In attempting to achieve that, I think what's helped us is starting with a
• 9:22
  question instead of a statement and understanding what their top focus is.
• 9:27
  Right.
• 9:27
  Because it does change quarter to quarter, fiscal year to fiscal year, and then
• 9:30
  aligning our impact to their focus and ensuring they understand that we can.
• 9:38
  You know, pull a bunch of different levers.
• 9:40
  We have a demonstrated impact on adoption, on NPS, on expansion,
• 9:46
  on retention, et cetera.
• 9:49
  We probably won't be, as significantly impactful if we
• 9:52
  try to do everything all at once.
• 9:54
  Right.
• 9:54
  So it's focus and alignment.
• 9:57
  Yep.
• 9:58
  Matt Heinz: Leslie,
• 9:59
  Leslie Smith: I would agree.
• 10:00
  Absolutely.
• 10:00
  That's the focus and alignment.
• 10:02
  We need to make sure that we are telling the same story, making
• 10:06
  sure it's a consistent motion.
• 10:08
  Because we don't wanna step on each other's toes.
• 10:10
  Yep.
• 10:10
  It's not the intent.
• 10:12
  We wanna make sure that story that we're telling, that use case that we're
• 10:15
  sharing does really show the value of the Conga products and where we
• 10:20
  might be able to take that customer.
• 10:22
  Matt Heinz: So we've got a few more minutes here on this first special
• 10:25
  Forrester B2B summit edition to Sales Pipeline Radio with Nora O'Leary
• 10:29
  Roseberry, and Leslie Smith from Conga.
• 10:31
  Very excited to have you guys here.
• 10:33
  Let's double click on one of the programs that I know you
• 10:34
  guys are both excited about.
• 10:35
  I'm proud of, and that's the community.
• 10:37
  Talk about where that started and like who do you focus on and
• 10:42
  why is that working so well?
• 10:43
  Nora O'Leary-Roseberry: Oh.
• 10:44
  Well, where did we start?
• 10:45
  We started you know, Conga merged with Apttus.
• 10:49
  So anyone who's worked at an organization and understands mergers
• 10:53
  and groups coming together can probably understand that when it came
• 10:58
  together there was a bit of friction.
• 10:59
  Mm-hmm.
• 11:00
  And in many cases, many people were coming just to submit a support case and leaving.
• 11:05
  So our challenge was, and our charter was make it more than a support
• 11:08
  portal, and over time we've made it a true rich value destination and
• 11:13
  we have the metrics to prove it.
• 11:15
  Increased time spent in community and increased number of logins.
• 11:19
  Matt Heinz: Yeah.
• 11:20
  Yep.
• 11:21
  Has it been difficult to, and I don't know, what platform do
• 11:23
  you guys use for your community?
• 11:24
  Nora O'Leary-Roseberry: Salesforce Experience Cloud.
• 11:25
  Matt Heinz: Okay.
• 11:26
  Has it been a challenge to integrate that with the rest of your data?
• 11:29
  I mean, Gainsight's a great platform, but how do you make sure
• 11:32
  that data all speaks to each other
• 11:34
  Leslie Smith: Since the c ommunity sits on top of Salesforce.
• 11:37
  It's been relatively easy, I would say, to make sure that the data
• 11:41
  was available when we needed it.
• 11:42
  Mm-hmm.
• 11:43
  We have built out multiple integrations, allowing customers to
• 11:47
  change their contact information.
• 11:50
  They get to see who their super users are, they get to know
• 11:53
  what their billing address is.
• 11:55
  So they have different avenues of seeing that info and being able to
• 11:59
  make changes right , on their screen.
• 12:01
  So it makes it very easy to do the integrations because
• 12:04
  of it sitting in Salesforce.
• 12:05
  Matt Heinz: Nice.
• 12:07
  Just a few more minutes guys.
• 12:07
  I wanna let you go now that this is a busy conference.
• 12:09
  You got a lot going on.
• 12:10
  What's on your wishlist?
• 12:12
  For customer marketing, what are the things that you, and if Andrew's
• 12:15
  listening, which I hope that he is what are the things that you want to be able
• 12:18
  to do next in the next 12, 12 plus months?
• 12:21
  Nora O'Leary-Roseberry: I want to expand the impact we've
• 12:23
  been able to make tenfold.
• 12:25
  Mm-hmm.
• 12:26
  I want us to.
• 12:27
  Be more efficient and agile in our ability to implement the
• 12:31
  changes we feel will be impactful.
• 12:34
  Right now there is a bit of a reliant on our IT team to execute
• 12:37
  some of our larger wishes.
• 12:39
  Yeah.
• 12:39
  So it all comes down to capacity and priority.
• 12:41
  Mm-hmm.
• 12:42
  But we've made an impact and I want us to be able to almost scale our impact, which
• 12:47
  is a little bit ironic since our initial challenge was to scale the organization
• 12:51
  and now I wanna scale our impact.
• 12:53
  Yeah.
• 12:53
  Matt Heinz: Leslie.
• 12:54
  Leslie Smith: I wanna be able to get more data, be more insightful, be more directed
• 12:59
  in our message, be able to get into the industries, the segments, being able
• 13:05
  to give the right message to the right customer to show them the value of the use
• 13:11
  case that we're putting in front of them.
• 13:12
  Being very direct as well as usage data usage data's a huge
• 13:17
  thing that we use and consume.
• 13:20
  And we just need more of it.
• 13:22
  How are the customers using our products?
• 13:24
  How can we show them even more value by explaining like,
• 13:28
  you've hit this threshold.
• 13:29
  Mm-hmm.
• 13:29
  Let's talk about either more licenses or maybe a plus one product.
• 13:33
  So we would be able to use that with the usage data.
• 13:36
  Matt Heinz: Yeah, that'd be great.
• 13:37
  Yeah,
• 13:38
  I keep thinking about these companies that are overinvesting or just over
• 13:41
  rotating, maybe on customer acquisition and aren't putting enough effort
• 13:44
  into the customer success side.
• 13:46
  And maybe the tip of the spear for them is to think about
• 13:48
  this as activating evangelists.
• 13:50
  Like what could we do on the customer success side to not only help them be
• 13:53
  more successful, but how much of your effort is actually also identifying,
• 13:59
  engaging, activating real champions of Conga within the customer community?
• 14:03
  That can become sort of natural referral sources into the net new Pipeline as well.
• 14:08
  Nora O'Leary-Roseberry: You've heard us mention user groups quite a bit.
• 14:11
  Yeah, and that's an ecosystem that we created kind of with that.
• 14:14
  If we build it, they will come mentality, because organically customers
• 14:18
  are usually ones creating those.
• 14:20
  Those user groups have become incredibly critical, especially to
• 14:24
  our customer marketing advocacy team.
• 14:26
  Yep.
• 14:26
  And we have, it's really interesting.
• 14:28
  Very often at our conferences, the user groups are driving a
• 14:32
  huge number of the registrations.
• 14:33
  The user groups are often where they find the speakers.
• 14:36
  The advocacy program can rely and leverage the user groups because that
• 14:41
  really is where we bring in the most engaged customers in that we have this
• 14:46
  ecosystem and channel for directly talking to them and already having found them.
• 14:50
  Matt Heinz: Yeah.
• 14:51
  Awesome.
• 14:52
  Nora, Leslie, this has been great.
• 14:54
  Thank you so much for being willing to do this, being our first guest.
• 14:56
  I think, the technology's working right?
• 14:58
  Like you can hear me?
• 14:58
  I can hear you, yes.
• 14:59
  I think it's being recorded.
• 15:01
  So I think it's all good.
• 15:02
  You never know when you get out in the field, right?
• 15:03
  Like, I trust my in-office setup.
• 15:06
  But seems to be working out.
• 15:07
  Shout out to Nick at Forrester and really Amanda and team of the
• 15:10
  PR team for making this happen.
• 15:11
  But thank you both for being here.
• 15:12
  Congratulations again on the ROI award win.
• 15:15
  Look forward to seeing you guys on stage and enjoy the rest of the show.
• 15:17
  Nora O'Leary-Roseberry: Thank you so much.
• 15:18
  Leslie Smith: Thank you so much.
• 15:18
  Matt Heinz: All right.
• 15:19
  Thanks everybody.
• 15:19
  Nora O'Leary-Roseberry: Bye.