Customer Success

Chapter 5

Law 1: Sell to the Right Customer

Author: Ted Purcell, Senior Vice President of Sales and Customer Success, Clarizen

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Executive Summary

Selling to the right customer and being completely aligned with your product market fit (PMF) is a mission that growth companies need to focus on throughout the entire organization. The excitement of closing net new deals, especially ones involving common and well-known brands, is exciting for everyone. This is especially true if they are within your PMF, because then the revenue machine is empowered and your specialized handoff from pre-sales to post-sales can be templatized and scaled to help ensure expansion and reduce churn.

But if your customer isn't the right customer, the impact on your organization can be disastrous. The wrong customers can inhibit your organization and take you away from efforts that drive success, efficiency, and scale. On the other hand, this may be a fine line because these customers can also become critical design partners to help you extend your use case and PMF. The critical point? Be aligned on the aspects of what the right customer for your company is and is not!

The customer is the north star of a company—and its most valuable asset. For a company to live up to its aspirations and expectations at scale, the CSM needs to be the host responsible for the complete customer journey, both inside ...