Hello @Ritika Jindal. I’m glad you’re here for feedback.

I had a use case in the CSQL area, but ended up building something less productized and more manual using the Rules Engine. The main issues with the out-of-the-box CSQL feature were:

1. At my company, the “Leads” were always already represented as Contacts in SFDC and Persons in Gainsight. Therefore, the Sales team didn’t want to receive a Lead if someone was already a Contact at an existing Account.
2. I found the setup and config to have a fair amount of complexity, and it was easier to use the Rules Engine and “Load to SFDC” actions.

The reason the Rules Engine with “Load to SFDC” actions was optimal is that what my company really needed was CSQO (Customer Success Qualified Opportunities) rather than Leads. With a fair amount of Gainsight config and Gainsight end user enablement, we built a custom object linked to CTAs and Timelines, where we could create SFDC Opportunities with all the relevant metadata, including the Source of the Opportunity being CS.

Therefore, an area to think on is if the feature set might be CSQx, where CS can generate a record in whatever object makes most sense for the Sales and CS processes and tech stack, rather than focusing tightly on the Lead.

Hi @Ritika Jindal  Our current process involves a CSM creating a CTA of a specific type and specific reason and assigning to the AM who will evaluate and take next steps.  That requires a lot of manual work to match up opportunities with that particular CTA and associated stage, dollar amount, close date, etc.  So, ideally, we’d like to use CSQLs - but...

• Similar to Matthew, our company uses Leads for purely new contacts and not existing ones, so it would require a process change all around to accommodate allowing CSMs to create leads. It would also require some work from our SFDC Admins, changes for MOPs, etc.
• We are also using CPQ in SFDC, and our company has made the decision that most add-ons (upsells/cross sells) would need to be created as an amendment on an existing contract - thus a different path than creating a new opportunity directly. It would still be a manual process for someone to attach the appropriate opportunity, but I believe that’s the route we’re going to wind up using at least in the short term.
• I agree with Matthew that the set up and configuration is a little confusing and complex. I thought about just using the CSQLs directly in Gainsight, but as we’d made use of the GS Opportunity object in the past, it wouldn’t let me switch to that option.  Even that wouldn’t solve my use case of matching up the opportunities though.

@matthew_lind Thanks a lot for your feedback.

we are working on sending CSQL as an opportunity in SFDC so I am hoping after its released in next 2 quarters probably it will help your use case.

Also can you please explain a bit more on what you found complex and confusing  about CSQL setup and config ? Documentation did not help ?

@heather_hansen Thanks a lot for your feedback.  

BUT

I did not get why you can not switch to GS lead from GS oppo you craeted in past ?

Also it will help if you can tell what part of CSQL config and setup is confusing and complex for you ? Documentation did not help in this ?

Hi @Ritika Jindal -

I go to Leads, and the SFDC is checked.  If I check Gainsight instead, I get this message:

I did review the documentation, and I don’t quite understand what will happen if I select Integration User versus Logged In User from a sync perspective.  There’s some mention of API calls, and that concerned me.

I’m also not clear on the Leads section if my field choices are from Gainsight or SFDC. I assume Gainsight since the field I need from SFDC isn’t present there.

@Ritika Jindal On the configuration front, I found having to configure several feature sets simultaneously was a somewhat complex lift:

• The Leads themselves
• The SFDC Connector
• The C/R360, with the purpose-built Leads section
• And several Reports which funnel through Renewal Center

Granted, I didn’t end up configuring this because my company’s business requirements meant another solution was more suitable. However, that’s a fair number of moving pieces to configure simultaneously, even with good documentation.

Hi! My answers inline

• Do you use CSQL or wants to use it ? We do not because of the use of “Leads” it made it a nonstarter. We basically had to revert to CS Created Opportunities at stage 0 and handing off to sales. 
• What are the usual issues faced by you while using CSQLs? Lead is tied to contact as said above. We need to just create the opportunity in CPQ using Amendments rather than creating an entire new Lead/Opp 
• How can we make it more valuable for you ? I’d love to see how to use it with CPQ in this use case where we use contracts so any add on is an amendment that creates an opportunity. 

ok

 @heather_hansen  can we get over a call and i can understand better why you are unable to switch ?

My email is : rjindal@gainsight.com and I am part of product management team

@Ritika Jindal sent you an email with available times.  Thank you!

We are also in the same boat with everyone who commented on the lead issue.

@rishi  can you please elaborate a bit more ?

We have been going back and forth on turning on the CSQL feature but figuring out how we want to operate them with our Salesforce integration is the struggle. 

• Do you use CSQL or wants to use it ? We previously created a way to track upsell opportunities using reports and how we created the opportunity in SFDC. Current method os for the CS team member to create the opp manually (filling out a ton of required fields), figuring out who they should pass it off to, connecting the customer to that sales rep, and then it goes dark. This is where the visibility of tracking is important.  Once the feature was released we quickly realized it wasn’t for us (go to next section). 

• What are the usual issues faced by you while using CSQLs? Creating Leads instead of Opportunities. Our Sales Development team lives with Leads not our Account Executives. These “CSQLs” are already contacts and we don’t want our Sales Dev reaching out. We understand the syncing capabilities on/off and the option to create a program to create an opportunity in SFDC but then it is no longer out of the box. Also, which sales rep will get assigned? These are struggles we are figuring out internally since we have some accounts that are round robin sales rep assignments. Our sales team does not use Gainsight at all so I think this tool was mostly built around that. 
•  
• How can we make it more valuable for you ? Our CS Leadership needs a way to show upsell opportunities and tracking of stages (closed won vs lost). We can do that through reporting and Dashboards but making it the easiest transition from CSM to Sales is the key component. In the eyes of our CS leadership team, they want the CSM to be able to click a button in a Company C360 that creates a CSQL and it gets to sales immediately. 

Happy to schedule a call to walk through our issues. It is a priority Q1 2023 project for a CS team. 

@nnicholson happy to set up a call.
Please share slots on rjindal@gainsight.com