Listen to “249. Generating Leads (and $25M) from Customer Success w/ Trina Dunham” on Spreaker.
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Amazon
Lead generation is not a siloed feature of marketing or sales. Optimum results come from consistent collaboration company-wide to deliver high-quality sales opportunities. Lead generation is a critical part of the Customer Success puzzle and is more than funnels and data.
Think of a product or brand you’ve stayed with for multiple years. The item you repurchase, the service you refer to friends, the tool you use daily, the subscription you’re glad to renew — why are you loyal to that entity? Odds are it’s because you trust them, feel connected to them, and have an ongoing relationship that continues to add value to your life. Relationships fuel success.
Now think about what your lead generation system looks like: Does all the weight rest on marketing or sales? Where are the touchpoints? Where are the opportunities to build trust beyond regurgitating feature and price details?
Relationship-based lead generation awaits you inside your Customer Success organization.
So what does that mean cross-departmentally? How might collaboration change a dying-on-the-vine lead gen process to a flourishing source of revenue?
For insights, we spoke with Trina Dunham, Senior Leader of Customer Success – North America – for Red Hat. Trina has an extensive background in telecom and more than a dozen years as the Senior Manager of Customer Success at Verizon. She brings a shrewd eye to building relationships and inspiring brand loyalty, rooted in the firsthand experience of transitioning from call centers to customer service to customer success.
Trina turned a nearly forgotten lead gen program and helped turn it into a source of $2 million in net new revenue in the first year. Then $10 million in the second. And now pacing for $25 million in the third. She transformed the process through collaboration across departments, leveraging the power of relationships and proving that lead generation is a team effort.
Listen in to learn from Trina:
- How emotions play a key role in buying decisions
- How the program she implemented gained momentum to identify post-sale opportunities
- When this new initiative began to gain momentum
- What “hot leads” are and why they may be more valuable than referrals
- Why the culture around new initiatives can make or break them and how champions and key practitioners can keep them moving forward
Generating Leads – and $25M – from Customer Success
Hear Episode 249 with Trina, as well as every other conversation on The Customer Experience Podcast, in your favorite podcast app:
Once you’re there, please give us one extra click to leave a rating – or even type up a quick review! Thanks for helping!
We also embed the full conversation and make it searchable right here in these blog posts. The recording with Trina Dunham is right here …
Listen to “249. Generating Leads (and $25M) from Customer Success w/ Trina Dunham” on Spreaker.
Video Highlights with Trina Dunham:
Check out the top five video highlights from our discussion about building a lead generation program inside the customer success organization …
1. Why Customer Success for Lead Generation
2. The Start of the Lead Gen Program
3. The Mindset Required for Lead Gen Success
4. Pipeline as a Shared Responsibility
5. The Trusted Advocate
Links Related to This Conversation:
Other Episodes You’ll Enjoy:
- CX 224 with Ali Cudby of CXology “How to Identify and Keep Loyal and Lucrative Customers“
- CX 188 with Sterling Snow of Divvy “Aligning Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success Under a CRO“
