Personas & Discovery Calls

Discovery Calls, listening is key to success

During this calls, the focus is to contextualize all of the information you learned during prep search. Focus is not to solution anything and fight urge to solve problems during engagement. It is more about listening rather than talking. We need to drive thoughtful questions and gain a clear understanding of business goals and CX. 

 

Discovery in Scaled Success is different than normal, because a "normal" CSM will have a smaller book of business, and they can go hand to hand with their customers. Basically, They would meet with a customer many times over a quarter, really get intimate with their account. But in Scaled, we have a large book of business, and we're meeting with many customers at a more rapid pace. So, our discovery is a little bit different. We have one discovery call and one recommendation call per customer, and then we move on to the next account.

 

We have 4 different tools to leverage before the discovery call for a good pre-call preparation: 

1. First, SFDC (CRM tool). It matters because we can review the account details, understand their plan and identify key contacts. Key Info:
   • Account overview: name, executive, renewals manager
   • subscription plan 
   • contact information
2. Second, LinkedIn, (deeper client insights) matters because gathers company profile, background, updates and connections. Key Info:
   • Company profile, activity, industry
   • POC background
3. Third, Gainsight (customer success insights). matters because we can check renewal date, timeline, activities, look at their instances. Key Info:
   • Renewals
   • Instances
   • Timeline activity
4. Fourth, Monitor (track customer usage). Matters because we obtain a holistic understanding of customer engagement, operational effectiveness for preparation and strategic discussions before client meetings. Key Info:
   • Usage
   • people, tickets
   • workflows
   • helpcenter, chatbot and integrations

 

Personas are semi-fictional representation of your target customers that are informed by qualitative and quantitative data about existing customers and market search. Personas help understand ideal customer and their goals, provide guidance on discussions and know the right questions to ask. 

 

We have 3 different key personas: 

• C-Suite (CTO / CIO / COO)
  • Administer and manage technology, info, and data. Have a bigger picture understanding
• Customer experience (Support and Operations)
  • lead and coach teams of support representatives. Care more about technical and functionality of zendesk
• Employee experience (IT & HR)
  • Managing the employee life cycle and benefits. Internal points of contact

 

Uncovering goals, asking right people the right questions

• Business goals
  • goal: decrease costs and increase revenue
  • Metric: cost per ticket
  • ask C-suite and VP+
• Department objectives
  • Goal: drive self service and increase ticket deflection
  • metric: ticket volume and self service score
  • ask director+ and manager+
• Team initiatives
  • goal: Optimize support workflows
  • metric: first reply time, full resolution time
  • ask admin and team lead

 

We need to align with customers prior to discovery call by: 

• Confirm topics and timing
  • they know and agree to the expected outcome
  • cover the right amount
  • they need to respond with expectations
• Clarifying attendees
  • confirm they bring the right people
  • research to inform your approach
• Covering logistics
  • encourage them to be on camera
  • agenda is familiar
• Prepare questions
  • prep notes and questions you’d like to cover
  • keep it open ended (Tell, Explain, Describe)
  • Let the conversation flow. NO INTERROGATION

You can find some Sample questions in the Slide deck (Link below) to give an idea of questions to ask in relation to who are we talking to. 

Resources:

• Slide Deck for Personas and discovery calls: Discovery Calls
• Zoom Recording for Personas and discovery calls: https://zendesk.zoom.us/rec/share/PlG60sjbwBpaI_7QeY0GUEjmUlcjLIeqD8MbCzmJVuOYFHQyBD_hRJ-Ax2z_qmti.Np65zEhVm9uPFBGG
  • Access code: 9R@386Gt