How Gong mobilises their users to reduce churn
Many companies are looking at rationalising their tech stack at the moment.
Too much overlap.
Not enough adoption.
No return on investment.
This March 2023 State of Cloud Software Spending report from Battery Ventures shows that Vendor Consolidation and Optimising SaaS pricing are the two top priorities for CIOs right now.
And when CIOs are looking across their tech stack, user adoption and the value that end users get from each tool are critical data points.
Different personas have different needs
Tech products typically have three sets of users.
The individual contributors - the salespeople, the marketers, the CSMs - the end users who enter data into the system and use it to manage their work.
The managers - the line managers and senior executives who use the system to provide reporting, analysis and guidance on their decision-making based on data in the system.
The ops team - Marketing Ops, Sales Ops, Customer Ops - or an integrated RevOps function, using combined data across multiple platforms to drive insights that can inform the direction of the business.
One of these personas is a priority. And its not the one that makes the decision or pays the bills - its the individual contributors.
If end users don’t see value from the tool then they won’t use it.
And if they don’t use it the managers and ops team don’t have a true reflection of the business to base their decisions on.
How do you know you have misalignment?
You’ll hear things like this in team meetings
“Team, we really need everyone to be entering their opportunities earlier in CRM so we can track them.”
“Guys, I can’t build my forecast unless you are updating yours on time”
“You really need to be sending out your communications using our engagement platform so I can report on it”
These are examples where the end users are not seeing value in the tool, subsequently reducing or totally removing the value for the other personas.
Mobilise the end users
So, it is a priority to mobilise the end users, ensure they are getting value from the tool and using it because they want to, not because they have to.
A great example of this is Gong - the call recording and analytics platform.
They have built an army of loyal sellers who, when moving company to company, typically ask “Do we have Gong?”
Here’s three ways Gong have mobilised their end users.
Content targeted at their user’s challenge
The Gong end user is a seller. And sellers want to hit their targets. They will consume content voraciously if it helps them to learn.
Gong consistently publish sales advice and techniques based off the data their platform generates.
Their posts, reports, podcasts and emails are focused on helping sellers sell and not on pitching their product.
Connect with end users
Gong have created a programme for their end users called the Raving Fan Club. It doesn’t matter whether you move from one employer to another, you are a Gong fan and you can maintain that relationship across company boundaries.
You can think of the Raving Fan Club like an airline loyalty programme. The things that really carry weight in those programmes are access and kudos.
Everyone likes having some kind of ‘backstage’ access that others don’t have - the rewards don’t have to be monetary.
Customer Referral Programme
A third way that Gong mobilises its end users is through a customer referral programme, where individual end users can earn up to $600 for referring in a friend that turns into a new customer for Gong.
This helps reward end users for those offline chats where peer to peer recommendations are done.
Make your product impossible to remove
When you look across your own tech stack, there are probably products that if removed many people might not even realise for months.
But by mobilising the end users, connecting with them, rewarding them and turning them into advocates you turn your product into something that would cause uproar if someone suggested removing it.
How are you building connections with your own end users?
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Buyer Experience Audit - I’ll impersonate a buyer researching your segment and company and let you know what I find. Ideal for planning your RevOps strategy.
RevOps Impact Playbooks - I’ll help you implement one or more tactical processes across your revenue teams - content, referrals, testimonials, adoption and more.