Introduction
Customer engagement plays a crucial role in the success and growth of any business. It goes beyond simply attracting customers; it involves building relationships, creating loyalty, and actively involving customers in the business's activities. Among these engagement efforts, maintaining strong relationships with executive stakeholders is paramount. Effective engagement with these key players not only helps in understanding their goals but also ensures revenue outperformance and a competitive edge. This is the foundation for transforming executives into powerful advocates for your organization. Following our detailed guide on leveraging sentiment analysis and timeline tracking, this article delves into the strategic realm of executive engagement, setting the stage for seamless advocacy identification.
Why does this matter?
Engaging with executive stakeholders is crucial for several reasons:
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Strategic alignment: Ensures that your company’s goals align with those of your key customers, fostering long-term partnerships.
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Enhanced advocacy: Executive stakeholders, when satisfied, can become your most influential advocates, driving growth and expansion.
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Increased NPS scores: Regular engagement leads to better understanding and quicker resolution of issues, resulting in higher Net Promoter Scores (NPS) from executives.
How to get started
Step 1: Identify key stakeholders
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Map out influencers: Identify the key stakeholders across your accounts who play a pivotal role in decision-making and influence.
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Assign personas: Categorize these stakeholders with personas that highlight their roles and responsibilities, similar to what we've done with Pam, Sally, and Olivia in Gainsight.
Step 2: Establish engagement cadences
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Create engagement plans: Develop structured engagement plans that outline how often and in what manner CSMs should interact with each persona.
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Use automated reminders: Leverage tools like CTA (Call to Action) Reasons and Timeline to set up automated reminders for scheduled interactions.
Step 3: Track stakeholder alignment
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Configure dashboards: Set up dashboards that provide visibility into stakeholder engagement across all CSMs’ Books of Business (BoBs). This helps in monitoring the alignment and engagement levels.
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Make stakeholder alignment a KPI: Consider integrating stakeholder alignment as a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for your CS teams to ensure consistent engagement.
Step 4: Document and analyze interactions
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Use timeline effectively: Document every interaction with stakeholders in the Timeline. Include details like meeting notes, attendees, and sentiment.
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Analyze patterns: Regularly review the documented interactions to identify patterns, risks, and opportunities. Use these insights to adjust your engagement strategies accordingly.
Gainsight features you'll need
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Custom Fields: For categorizing and tracking key stakeholder information.
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Email Assist: To streamline and automate email communications with stakeholders.
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CTA Reasons: For setting up automated reminders and ensuring consistent engagement.
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Timeline: For documenting and analyzing stakeholder interactions.
What’s next?
With a solid strategy for executive engagement in place, you are well-equipped to transform these interactions into meaningful advocacy opportunities. Stay tuned for our next article where we explore combining timeline tracking with sentiment analysis to create a comprehensive advocacy identification program
Further reading and inspiration