Mastering the Art of the Outcome: How Guru Turned Customer Success Into a Company Cornerstone

GURU is mainly the success of customers in all aspects of company building, from product design to sales strategies. The c o-founder and CEO's Rick Nucci indicate how constant commitment to the results enhances the competitiveness of emerging companies.

The resulting words are written on an old whiteboard in the glue office in Philadelphia. That is the "Tenet" that c o-founder and CEO Rick Nucci thinks, and is essential for emerging companies that are constantly producing results.

Of course, GURU is not the only startup that claims to be "resulting" and "commitment" to customers. However, Nucci accelerates that idea further. GURU and his team, who develop the internal knowledge shared platform for the team, have decided to create a product that proves its value to users.

As a veteran in the Enterprise SaaS field (a former Nucci emerging company BOOMI was acquired by Dell in 2010), he cannot prove his value proposal to customers, so too many emerging companies go bankrupt. I saw "The following words from the founders of closed old products were the following words. The ability to show their value is that emerging companies create sustainable successes. Decide whether to miss the next tide.

As a result, GURU's approach to prove the results of the customer is strictly quantified, strictly clarified, and incorporated into all aspects of the company. GURU has been built to master the results of the results, from market definitions and product design to transmission of success indicators to both customers and employees. For us, "success" means that the introduction of GURU is to tell the client that the handling time has been reduced by 20 % and the sales team's repeated questions have been reduced by 34 %, "Nucci says.

In this exclusive interview, Nucci talks about how GURU's Eutos strategy has been intended since the first day. She outlines the steps to take value to all clients from the first conversation, share the strategy used to develop the resul t-oriented culture throughout the team, and to learn the results of the results. We will provide the founder one page of the book. < SPAN> GURU is the main focus on customer success in all aspects of company building, from product design to sales strategies. The c o-founder and CEO's Rick Nucci indicate how constant commitment to the results enhances the competitiveness of emerging companies.

THE OUTCOME-ORIENTED COMPANY AIMS NARROW AND BUILDS WIDE

The resulting words are written on an old whiteboard in the glue office in Philadelphia. That is the "Tenet" that c o-founder and CEO Rick Nucci thinks, and is essential for emerging companies that are constantly producing results.

Of course, GURU is not the only startup that claims to be "resulting" and "commitment" to customers. However, Nucci accelerates that idea further. GURU and his team, who develop the internal knowledge shared platform for the team, have decided to create a product that proves its value to users.

As a veteran in the Enterprise SaaS field (a former Nucci emerging company BOOMI was acquired by Dell in 2010), he cannot prove his value proposal to customers, so too many emerging companies go bankrupt. I saw "The following words from the founders of closed old products were the following words. The ability to show their value is that emerging companies create sustainable successes. Decide whether to miss the next tide.

As a result, GURU's approach to prove the results of the customer is strictly quantified, strictly clarified, and incorporated into all aspects of the company. GURU has been built to master the results of the results, from market definitions and product design to transmission of success indicators to both customers and employees. For us, "success" means that the introduction of GURU is to tell the client that the handling time has been reduced by 20 % and the sales team's repeated questions have been reduced by 34 %, "Nucci says.

In this exclusive interview, Nucci talks about how GURU's Eutos strategy has been intended since the first day. She outlines the steps to take value to all clients from the first conversation, share the strategy used to develop the resul t-oriented culture throughout the team, and to learn the results of the results. We will provide the founder one page of the book. GURU is mainly the success of customers in all aspects of company building, from product design to sales strategies. The c o-founder and CEO's Rick Nucci indicate how constant commitment to the results enhances the competitiveness of emerging companies.

The resulting words are written on an old whiteboard in the glue office in Philadelphia. That is the "Tenet" that c o-founder and CEO Rick Nucci thinks, and is essential for emerging companies that are constantly producing results.

Of course, GURU is not the only startup that claims to be "resulting" and "commitment" to customers. However, Nucci accelerates that idea further. GURU and his team, who develop the internal knowledge shared platform for the team, have decided to create a product that proves its value to users.

As a veteran in the Enterprise SaaS field (a former Nucci emerging company BOOMI was acquired by Dell in 2010), he cannot prove his value proposal to customers, so too many emerging companies go bankrupt. I saw "The following words from the founders of closed old products were the following words. The ability to show their value is that emerging companies create sustainable successes. Decide whether to miss the next tide.

As a result, GURU's approach to prove the results of the customer is strictly quantified, strictly clarified, and incorporated into all aspects of the company. GURU has been built to master the results of the results, from market definitions and product design to transmission of success indicators to both customers and employees. For us, "success" means that the introduction of GURU is to tell the client that the handling time has been reduced by 20 % and the sales team's repeated questions have been reduced by 34 %, "Nucci says.

In this exclusive interview, Nucci talks about how GURU's Eutos strategy has been intended since the first day. She outlines the steps to take value to all clients from the first conversation, share the strategy used to develop the resul t-oriented culture throughout the team, and to learn the results of the results. We will provide the founder one page of the book.

When the founder makes a product that is proud, it is natural to want as many people as possible to know it. But how can you scale quickly? Such a question invites the founder to a dangerous road.

"Nucci says," I want to expand the territory as soon as I found it, and I want to make customer success second.

In a repeated world, every year, customers have the opportunity to ask if your service is really added. Otherwise, it may sink faster than to correct the orbit.

According to NUCCI, the customer seeds must be sown early before the product and market compatibility is confirmed. For companies that are in the early stages of company building, we will introduce how to make customer sustainability a realistic pillar, not a decorated story.

Do not target the entire market.

"Many emerging companies are tied to the strange goal of growing rapidly and selling products to all industries around the world and all companies. The more you spread the net, the more problems you get. "

This is a lesson that NUCCI struggled with the first emerging company. In Boomi, most of the products were to build a "connector" for cloud integration. For the first year, I wanted to make it for everyone. I did not focus on use cases for specific people, such as sales and marketing. "I didn't focus on understanding each one, so it was difficult to understand which KPI and which KPI should be dominated. We finally decided this champion Miss, but first. If you focus more, it would have been more influential. is. But how can you scale quickly? Such a question invites the founder to a dangerous road.

"Nucci says," I want to expand the territory as soon as I found it, and I want to make customer success second.

In a repeated world, every year, customers have the opportunity to ask if your service is really added. Otherwise, it may sink faster than to correct the orbit.

According to NUCCI, the customer seeds must be sown early before the product and market compatibility is confirmed. For companies that are in the early stages of company building, we will introduce how to make customer sustainability a realistic pillar, not a decorated story.

Do not target the entire market.

"Many emerging companies are tied to the strange goal of growing rapidly and selling products to all industries around the world and all companies. The more you spread the net, the more problems you get. "

This is a lesson that NUCCI struggled with the first emerging company. In Boomi, most of the products were to build a "connector" for cloud integration. For the first year, I wanted to make it for everyone. I did not focus on use cases for specific people, such as sales and marketing. "I didn't focus on understanding each one, so it was difficult to understand which KPI and which KPI should be dominated. We finally decided this champion Miss, but first. If you focus more, it would have been more influential. But how can you scale quickly? Such a question invites the founder to a dangerous road.

"Nucci says," I want to expand the territory as soon as I found it, and I want to make customer success second.

In a repeated world, every year, customers have the opportunity to ask if your service is really added. Otherwise, it may sink faster than to correct the orbit.

According to NUCCI, the customer seeds must be sown early before the product and market compatibility is confirmed. For companies that are in the early stages of company building, we will introduce how to make customer sustainability a realistic pillar, not a decorated story.

Do not target the entire market.

"Many emerging companies are tied to the strange goal of growing rapidly and selling products to all industries around the world and all companies. The more you spread the net, the more problems you get. "

This is a lesson that NUCCI struggled with the first emerging company. In Boomi, most of the products were to build a "connector" for cloud integration. For the first year, I wanted to make it for everyone. I did not focus on use cases for specific people, such as sales and marketing. "I didn't focus on understanding each one, so it was difficult to understand which KPI and which KPI should be dominated. We finally decided this champion Miss, but first. If you focus more, it would have been more influential.

THE PLAYBOOK FOR MASTERING THE ART OF THE OUTCOME

When Nucci advanced to GURU, he realized that this category might be an advantageous market for a young company, full of pain and pitfalls. "Don't forget that every company in the world has knowledge of knowledge. Regardless of the size of the scale, it is just a variety of pain points, but the wider the ROI story. Will be a calm and common thing, "If you can make a great product, it is enough to create a problem in a meaningful way. If you try to sell it, you will be able to solve them the most.

When you make a product, you should not solve all the problems in the world. Focus on solving the most important problems very well.

Reducing the market not only helps to establish the compatibility between the product and the market, but also helps companies to concentrate on producing results. "When we started GURU, we designed the product for the sales team. We will help the sales team more effective and ultimately acquire more transactions. He did nothing else for about a year and a half.

That said, even if a company with a good result starts with a narrow goal, the market does not mean that the market is small. Guru began to focus on sales to business teams, but found an opportunity to expand: the sales team introduced the glue to a colleague in the customer service category. "Initially, we were in our heads. At first we were in our heads." It was not the introduction of the product we had expected in the first time, "Nucci says. "However, as I delved into it, I realized that the customer success team was experiencing similar pain."

But the team knew that overlooking the organic market was not enough if you wanted to keep the guru's eyes as a result. "In the same way, we were able to get a pure new customer by working together with all the existing customer support teams, and acquiring pure new customers. Will go down, "says Nucci.

So the nuts team went straight to the source and set a small goal again. He made a conversation with the team's director and explained their pain points in their own words. "If you try to sell the same product to the DEV team, HR team, or sales team, the words you use will be very common. Even the same company cannot be satisfied. "

In other words, Guru has been careful and planned with a smaller subset before expanding or stacking new use cases over time.

Uniform products rarely prove their value. If you want to prove the value, you should dig into the customers' results. Ask each person to hear their problems and feel that they are understood.

Invest in customer sacrics rather than sales.

The construction of an excellent customer sacrecice team feels like the first game, especially if emerging companies have not yet collected powerful customer base. "Usually, the founders start to adopt SDR and AES to implement sales promotion measures, and there is pressure to grow quickly and expand sales as soon as possible," Nucci says.

"Most new companies will continue to invest in the customer sacrus manager before reaching a certain annual income. But they are all "expanding the sales team."

In Nucci's view, this approach has a simple view of the truth. "By dedicated to the team and success, you can optimize customer results professionally." If you neglect customer sauce, you will have to extinguish the fire when a fire occurs. It is not a good result in the process. "

Customer success is neither extra nor a good thing. < SPAN> So the nuts team went straight to the source and set a small goal again. He made a conversation with the team's director and explained their pain points in their own words. "If you try to sell the same product to the DEV team, HR team, or sales team, the words you use will be very common. Even the same company cannot be satisfied. "

In other words, Guru has been careful and planned with a smaller subset before expanding or stacking new use cases over time.

Uniform products rarely prove their value. If you want to prove the value, you should dig into the customers' results. Ask each person to hear their problems and feel that they are understood.

Invest in customer sacrics rather than sales.

The construction of an excellent customer sacrecice team feels like the first game, especially if emerging companies have not yet collected powerful customer base. "Usually, the founders start to adopt SDR and AES to implement sales promotion measures, and there is pressure to grow quickly and expand sales as soon as possible," Nucci says.

"Most new companies will continue to invest in the customer sacrus manager before reaching a certain annual income. But they are all "expanding the sales team."

In Nucci's view, this approach has a simple view of the truth. "By dedicated to the team and success, you can optimize customer results professionally." If you neglect customer sauce, you will have to extinguish the fire when a fire occurs. It is not a good result in the process. "

Customer success is neither extra nor a good thing. So the nuts team went straight to the source and set a small goal again. He made a conversation with the team's director and explained their pain points in their own words. "If you try to sell the same product to the DEV team, HR team, or sales team, the words you use will be very common. Even the same company cannot be satisfied. "

In other words, Guru has been careful and planned with a smaller subset before expanding or stacking new use cases over time.

Uniform products rarely prove their value. If you want to prove the value, you should dig into the customers' results. Ask each person to hear their problems and feel that they are understood.

STRATEGIES FOR BUILDING OUTCOME-OBSESSED TEAMS

Invest in customer sacrics rather than sales.

The construction of an excellent customer sacrecice team feels like the first game, especially if emerging companies have not yet collected powerful customer base. "Usually, the founders start to adopt SDR and AES to implement sales promotion measures, and there is pressure to grow quickly and expand sales as soon as possible," Nucci says.

"Most new companies will continue to invest in the customer sacrus manager before reaching a certain annual income. But they are all "expanding the sales team."

In Nucci's view, this approach has a simple view of the truth. "By dedicated to the team's customers and success, you can optimize the achievements of customers professionally." If you neglect the customer security, you will have to extinguish the fire when a fire occurs. It is not a good result in the process. "

Customer success is neither extra nor a good thing.

Guru founded a customer success team before hiring a sales representative. "I welcomed Diane Ruth as the number 5 employees, and she was only dedicated to developing the customer success team and thinking about the results of customers," she says. Nucci and his c o-founders are still straining their sales for the time being, and one year after investing in customer success, the first sales representative was hired.

At first, investing in customer success than sales seemed to be bad because it wasn't a scalable approach. "If I didn't have the courage to sacrifice the scale, I wouldn't have gained a valuable understanding of what would lead to a success and how to do it," said Nucci. As we grow up, the reason for this is a more common percentage of one CSM in two or three sales. "

Fishing the success indicators of the product

In order to maintain results, it is also important to launch a small size and not only lead early customers to success, but also to use a product experience that supports its success.

In the case of GURU, it means that the customer is very careful about how the customer uses the product, and the insight is reflected in the bac k-end architecture. "Instead, we designed it intentionally to integrate the user's workflow as much as possible. By doing so, we can track more accurately how customers use products, and integrate products. You can use the insight obtained to prove the results. "

For example, if the Nucci team is integrated into applications such as Salesforce, Zendesk, Slack, Web Browsers, you can track how customers use the guru. "For example, let's say that a customer support is opened in Zendesk. He is doing that and asks questions that he doesn't understand. He reports the relevant knowledge to Guru using the Guru browser extension. And the ticket was successfully closed, and what kind of knowledge was used to deal with the ticket, and what kind of Guru is in the equation. You can know. < SPAN> So Guru created a customer success team before hiring a sales representative. "I welcomed Diane Ruth as the number 5 employees, and she was only dedicated to developing the customer success team and thinking about the results of customers," she says. Nucci and his c o-founders are still straining their sales for the time being, and one year after investing in customer success, the first sales representative was hired.

At first, investing in customer success than sales seemed to be bad because it wasn't a scalable approach. "If I didn't have the courage to sacrifice the scale, I wouldn't have gained a valuable understanding of what would lead to a success and how to do it," said Nucci. As we grow up, the reason for this is a more common percentage of one CSM in two or three sales. "

Fishing the success indicators of the product

In order to maintain results, it is also important to launch a small size and not only lead early customers to success, but also to use a product experience that supports its success.

In the case of GURU, it means that the customer is very careful about how the customer uses the product, and the insight is reflected in the bac k-end architecture. "Instead, we designed it intentionally to integrate the user's workflow as much as possible. By doing so, we can track more accurately how customers use products, and integrate products. You can use the insight obtained to prove the results. "

For example, if the Nucci team is integrated into applications such as Salesforce, Zendesk, Slack, Web Browsers, you can track how customers use the guru. "For example, let's say that a customer support is opened in Zendesk. He is doing that and asks questions that he doesn't understand. He reports the relevant knowledge to Guru using the Guru browser extension. And the ticket was successfully closed, and what kind of knowledge was used to deal with the ticket, and what kind of Guru is in the equation. You can know. Guru founded a customer success team before hiring a sales representative. "I welcomed Diane Ruth as the number 5 employees, and she was only dedicated to developing the customer success team and thinking about the results of customers," she says. Nucci and his c o-founders are still straining their sales for the time being, and one year after investing in customer success, the first sales representative was hired.

At first, investing in customer success than sales seemed to be bad because it wasn't a scalable approach. "If I didn't have the courage to sacrifice the scale, I wouldn't have gained a valuable understanding of what would lead to a success and how to do it," said Nucci. As we grow up, the reason for this is a more common percentage of one CSM in two or three sales. "

Fishing the success indicators of the product

In order to maintain results, it is also important to launch a small size and not only lead early customers to success, but also to use a product experience that supports its success.

In the case of GURU, it means that the customer is very careful about how the customer uses the product, and the insight is reflected in the bac k-end architecture. "Instead, we designed it intentionally to integrate the user's workflow as much as possible. By doing so, we can track more accurately how customers use products, and integrate products. You can use the insight obtained to prove the results. "

For example, if the Nucci team is integrated into applications such as Salesforce, Zendesk, Slack, Web Browsers, you can track how customers use the guru. "For example, let's say that a customer support is opened in Zendesk. He is doing that and asks questions that he doesn't understand. He reports the relevant knowledge to Guru using the Guru browser extension. I closed the ticket safely. "In the backend of GURU, what kind of knowledge was used to deal with the ticket, and what kind of GURU is located. You can know.

Because workflow integration is built directly into the product backend, Nucci and his team have a front-row view of customer pain points and successes. "This creates a really clear line between the improved metrics and the guru. They don't make any changes to their support functions other than introducing Guru. Then they measure a metric again, say the time it takes to book a flight. Did Guru help move that needle? "Because of the integration, the customer has a more seamless workflow, and we have a direct feedback loop. It's a win-win."

THE OUTCOME

Success doesn't have to be generic. Success is the ability to prove to customers that your product improved metric x by y.

Rick Nucci, Guru co-founder and CEO

With a target market, a customer-focused team, and a customized product in place, NUCCI's next task was to translate that serious attention to customer success into a results-driven sales operation at scale. He came up with what he called the "Results Playbook."

"You can be the best in the world at winning a deal because you make a lead feel like you can solve their problem, but whether they renew or not depends on the follow-up," says Nucci. And you can't do that if you don't talk about the results you get in that first sales pitch."

Are you paying attention to the metrics that matter to customer success? If you spend more time talking about lagging metrics like ARR than metrics like DAU or specific engagements, stop saying you're customer-centric. You're sales-centric.