Account Management Secrets

Most account managers open with the same question their customers have heard a hundred times. “What are your goals?” gets a polite, forgettable answer and rarely earns a second meeting. The best questions to ask clients as an account manager show you did your homework before you walked in the door. Alex Raymond sits down with Jubal Sarvis, Relationship Development Manager at Granite Telecommunications, on this week’s Account Management Secrets. Jubal’s department was built after one of Granite’s biggest customers said they only heard from the company at renewal time. His job now is to show up between sales cycles, often in person, with a real reason for the visit. Jubal explains how he lands a first meeting with customers who keep saying no, and why a box of donuts sometimes gets him through the door. He shares the difference between learning questions and leading questions, and how a curious chat about remote gas pumps in West Texas turned into a pilot nobody planned for. You’ll also hear why one account can need three separate quarterly business reviews, and how a single assumption nearly cost him a major deal. If you want customers to treat you as a trusted partner, press play. You’ll walk away with sharper questions for your next customer meeting and a clearer path to grow existing accounts. Episode Breakdown: 00:00 Why Great Account Managers Earn the Partner Role 01:59 What a Relationship Development Manager Actually Does 05:46 Getting In-Person Time With Reluctant Customers 08:03 Leading With a Specific Reason to Call 10:38 Curiosity, Gas Pumps, and Learning vs Leading Questions 13:59 Questions to Ask Clients as an Account Manager 16:21 Why “What Are Your Goals?” Falls Flat 19:13 Preparing With Quarterly Filings and AI Tools 23:46 The Meeting Between the Meetings 31:35 Why Assumptions Are Kryptonite in Complex Deals Connect with Jubal Sarvis: Connect with Jubal on LinkedIn Visit the Granite website Connect with Alex Raymond: Connect with Alex on LinkedIn Visit the AMplify website Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Your customer may have decided to leave six to 18 months before the renewal quote ever went out. By the time the 60-day playbook starts, some have already switched to a competitor. That gap explains why customers churn so often without warning. Natasha Narayan, CEO and Co-Founder of IcebergIQ, has conducted more than 3,300 customer and buyer interviews for B2B companies, uncovering what drives churn, renewals, and buying decisions. Her career runs from Xerox sales training to the first Canadian hire at Gainsight. On Account Management Secrets, she tells Alex Raymond what customers say to a neutral third party that they rarely say to their account manager. In one study, 62% of the lost-deal reasons a client logged in its CRM didn't match what buyers told her team. Natasha shares the one question that exposes renewal risk six months out and why 36% of former customers take the call simply to help the vendor. She explains why the sales-to-services handoff is where so many accounts start to slip, how do-it-yourself AI builds are pulling customers away, and how a pilot of nine interviews turned into three win-backs. If you want a renewal strategy grounded in what customers actually think, listen now. Natasha shows how honest customer churn analysis reveals why customers churn, and what your team can do to reduce customer churn long before the cancellation email shows up. Episode Breakdown: 00:00 What Customers Tell Third Parties After Churning 02:05 Natasha's Path From Xerox to IcebergIQ 06:10 Why Customers Churn Six to 18 Months Early 10:48 Health Check Interviews Before the Renewal Date 11:35 Inside the Buyer's Hero Interview Process 13:46 Win Backs and Why Churned Customers Talk 20:52 How Price Increases and Upsells Trigger Churn 24:59 Do Executive Relationships Really Prevent Churn 30:26 How Much CSM Skill Affects Retention 36:29 The Sales to Services Handoff Gap Connect with Natasha Narayan: Connect with Natasha on LinkedIn Visit the IcebergIQ website Connect with Alex Raymond: Connect with Alex on LinkedIn Visit the AMplify website Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

AI is already drafting your emails and building your QBR decks in twenty minutes flat. So what happens to the CSM role once the busywork disappears? That question sits at the center of this episode of Account Management Secrets, where host Alex Raymond sits down with John Conley, Senior Vice President of Customer Success at SambaSafety, to talk about how AI in customer success is reshaping his team of 40. John explains why he believes the customer success playbook is losing its grip. He built an AI coach instead, one that asks CSMs discovery questions rather than handing them a script pulled off the shelf. He also names what he calls the wasteland of could-ofs, the pile of extra duties that quietly lands on post-sales teams, and shares how his team spotted a correlation between higher gas prices and customer churn. Alex and John dig into the relationship between net revenue retention and gross revenue retention, and why John believes both numbers need to be examined together to understand the health of a business. John breaks down what proactive customer success actually looks like once AI clears space on the calendar, right down to the Traeger grill bet that proved account planning works even without new products or bigger budgets. They close on how the customer success job description is changing, from natural curiosity to AI exposure for CSMs, and why AI in customer success still leaves plenty of room for human judgment. Press play to hear John's case for why making a customer happy and making them successful are not the same thing. Episode Breakdown: 00:00 Why AI Is Reshaping Customer Success Teams 02:31 Adapting to AI in Customer Success at SambaSafety 03:29 Automating Emails and QBR Prep With AI 08:06 The Wasteland of Could-Ofs and Role Creep 11:02 Net Revenue Retention Versus Gross Revenue Retention 14:15 What Gas Prices Reveal About Customer Churn 16:11 Why the Customer Success Playbook Is Dying 26:25 The Traeger Grill Bet That Showed the Value of Planning 34:45 Protecting Your Energy From Endless Requests 45:24 Customer Success Versus Customer Service Explained Connect with John Conley: Connect with John on LinkedIn Visit the SambaSafety website Connect with Alex Raymond: Connect with Alex on LinkedIn Visit the AMplify website Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Every account manager job posting pulls in a flood of applicants. So what makes a hiring manager stop scrolling? Knowing what hiring managers look for in account managers can change how you apply, interview, and grow once you land the role. On Account Management Secrets, Alex Raymond talks with Grace Knapp, Senior Manager of the Account Management Team at AdRoll. Grace has spent more than 15 years in customer success and account management leadership. She shares the six traits she screens for and the account manager interview questions she relies on to see past a resume. One of her favorite behavioral interview questions for account managers is about the biggest renewal you ever lost. How you tell that story reveals more than your quota ever will. Grace also opens up about the other side of the job. She walks through three people she promoted and what set each one apart, offering a practical look at how to get promoted as an account manager. Alex and Grace also get honest about the customer success manager renewal quota debate and why a churned customer matters less than a surprise one. If you want to know how to get hired as an account manager, Grace's advice on standing out is worth hearing. She names one simple move almost no candidate makes. Listen now and hear what hiring managers look for in account managers before your next application goes out. Episode Breakdown: 00:00 What Gets Account Managers Hired, Promoted, or Fired 03:18 What Hiring Managers Look For in Account Managers 05:40 Behavioral Interview Questions That Reveal Gumption 10:31 Attainment, Book Size, and Role-Level Hiring Filters 15:34 Quarterly Career Conversations and Clear Performance Expectations 20:39 When CSMs Get Handed a Renewal Quota 25:40 Three Promotion Stories and What Triggered Them 32:34 What Gets an Account Manager Managed Out 35:14 Why the Surprise Hurts More Than the Churn 37:23 How to Stand Out to Hiring Managers Connect with Grace Knapp: Connect with Grace on LinkedIn Connect with Alex Raymond: Connect with Alex on LinkedIn Visit the AMplify website Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

How to lead a customer success team gets complicated when nobody agrees on what the team is responsible for. Sales has a clear job. Post-sale teams are often expected to handle whatever comes their way, yet customer success still takes the blame when a customer churns. Host Alex Raymond talks with Beth Laplante, SVP of Customer Success at Adara, about what strong customer success leadership looks like inside a messy post-sale organization. Beth shares how she approaches her first 90 days as a leader, what she listens for before making changes, and why clarity around the team’s mandate matters more than many organizations realize. Beth also gets into customer success segmentation and the problems that show up when every account gets treated the same. A question about why one of her strongest account managers was working two dramatically different accounts opens up a bigger conversation about where senior talent belongs and what customers at different levels actually need. Alex then lays out his theory on why weak customer success forecasting costs leaders the trust of the CEO and CFO. Beth also takes a position on customer success reporting structure, and her answer starts with one question about renewals. Alex adds his own view on the chief customer officer role. Listen if you want to think more critically about how to lead a customer success team, bring more structure to post-sale, and build credibility with your CEO and CFO. Episode Breakdown: 00:00 What Senior Leaders See in Messy Post-Sale Teams 02:02 Why Customer Success Teams Tolerate So Much Chaos 06:09 Defining Service Tiers and Customer Expectations 09:18 Getting the Company to Respect Your Mandate 11:45 Segmentation and RACI Lessons From Two Turnarounds 16:00 Should Customers Know Their Tier? 20:33 Non-Negotiables That Replace Chaos With Structure 22:47 The JV Versus Varsity Forecast Trust Theory 29:25 CS Reporting Line and the CCO Debate 32:27 Earning CFO Trust and Managing Up 39:10 How to Lead a Customer Success Team Through Change Connect with Beth Laplante: Connect with Beth on LinkedIn Connect with Alex Raymond: Connect with Alex on LinkedIn Visit the AMplify website Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm