Anika Zubair (00:00.312)
Do you ever wonder why some CSMs close upsells effortlessly while others get ghosted right after a QBR? It's not about having better pricing or fancier decks or even stronger customer relationship. It's all about the art of storytelling. And if you're not telling compelling revenue-driving stories, you're leaving money and impact on the table.

In this episode, I'm breaking down how to improve your storytelling skills by 200 % so you can confidently land your next up skills. Now listen, storytelling is a life hack, but it is also extremely important in customer success. And by the end of this episode, you are going to have the skills needed to feel utterly confident in telling your story in customer success.

Hello everyone, I'm your host Anika Zuber and welcome to the Customer Success Pro Podcast, your go-to space for real talk, expert advice and actual insights in the world of customer success. I'm a CS executive leader, award-winning strategist, CS coach and customer success fanatic. I help CSMs and CS leaders build the skills and the confidence to become revenue driving pros and scale world-class CS teams.

So whether you're brand new to CS or a seasoned leader, this podcast is here to support your growth. Because customer success isn't a destination, it's a journey. And I'm here to be your guide and navigate every step of your journey. So join me every Wednesday where you'll get fresh CS tips, tricks, and strategies you can actually use. Some weeks I'll share my own insights and best practices from working in CS over the last 13 years

And once a month, I'll bring on expert guests to dive into the most relevant and pressing topics in customer success today. So if you're ready to level up, hit subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you tune in, and let's make your CS journey a little bit easier together.

Anika Zubair (02:16.237)
Now here's what I see. Customer success pros often fall into this one trap. They're so focused on the data, health scores, and QBR decks that they forget that there is a human element to the entire art of customer success. And that human element is the art of storytelling. As humans, we love stories. Just think about it. When you were a kid and growing up, your parents told you stories. And sometimes the

best salespeople in the world use the art of storytelling as well. And today I'm going to break down how storytelling is the skill you are going to need to improve on to make sure you hit your upsells. And when you do use that human element and start the art of storytelling in customer success, you are going to start to see a huge improvement. Here's the thing, customer success pros in a QBR or

any strategic call with a customer, they're gonna show charts. They're gonna walk through usage metrics, and they'll probably highlight some sort of renewal timeline or upsell timelines as well. But here's the missed opportunity. They missed the golden opportunity to tell a transformational story that helps a customer see what's possible next. And that is where you need to focus. So whenever...

ACS Pro pitches an upsell, whether it's more licenses or new features, or maybe it's professional services, it always falls flat. Why is that, you might ask? Because the customer doesn't feel that they should care. And here's how to change that step by step. First of all, you need to start with the before. And you need to paint a picture of what their life looked like before your product made an impact.

What was hard? What was broken? How did it affect their teams or business? I want you to think back to the first time you spoke to this customer, whether it was an onboarding call or a sales call, what was broken or what were they trying to fix? You need to start with the before. Then you need to bring in the trigger. And what that is is basically what's changed or what changed that made them seek out a solution.

Anika Zubair (04:35.649)
Maybe they were scaling or growing as a business or merging with another business or maybe they were consolidating tools or maybe they were actually missing their own revenue targets. Either way, you just need to name the moment. Then you need to move in to highlighting the after. And this is your time to shine. What's better now? So you really need to use metrics here.

but you need to wrap them into emotion and that's where you're able to really tell a compelling story. You need to understand the metrics and you need to tie it in to what the team is doing differently or what outcomes have improved. Again, tying metrics into the emotional side is where you're going to be able to really drive impact. And then you're gonna introduce the future chapter. So this is where the upsell lives.

This is the new feature, expanded seed count or added support or professional service, whatever it is you're trying to upsell, this is the moment for you to pivot and share it in the story. Remember, they're all part of this next evolution in their story. Remember, you're telling them a story like a child is hearing from their parents. I know that sounds a little bit strange, but hear me out. This is the best way to really start practicing this skill.

So you need to make the upsell a natural continuation after their current success, not a sales pitch. So remember, you're gonna go from the before, what were their pain points? What is it that they were really suffering or struggling with that made them choose your product or service? And then what transformational moment did they have? Again, was their team not really aligned? Were they growing? What was the transformation or trigger moment? And then you're gonna move into their after.

what did your product or service actually do for them? And that is when you are going to start to ease your way into the future success. And at this point, it's all about them and their story. So it isn't a sales pitch at this point. It is again, their story and the power of storytelling that is going to unlock that upsell. And the final thing to really seal in that upsell and make sure that your customer feels like

Anika Zubair (06:55.821)
they are signing up for success is using what marketers call social proof. Now social proof can be anything and everything, by the way. It can be a success story of one of your customers. So maybe sharing a short story of how another customer unlocked their next level of success with the same upsell might be a great story to tell. Or if you have actual hard case studies to share, that's always great as well too. But here's the thing.

Don't just give them lines and lines or emails or white papers or all these PDFs of customer success stories. Keep it short and super powerful and super relevant. Remember as kids, storytelling, you wanted your parents to get to the end of the story. You wanted them to finish and really hit that powerful end note of everything that's changed or what's happening next in that story.

And that is where you need to be really short and punchy with your upsell as well as your social proof with other client success stories. But you need to start thinking of storytelling in CS like writing a sequel to a novel. Just like when your parents told you a story, you almost wanted them to continue on, right? You wanted to get to that next chapter or to the next sequel of the novel. And that's exactly what we're doing here in the art of storytelling.

You don't want to just end book one with they lived happily ever after. You want to set the stage for book two with bigger challenges, deeper relationships, and even better outcomes. Remember, customers aren't done once they implement. That's really just the start. Imagine that as like chapter one or book one in their journey with you. You need to really help them understand what does chapter two look like or the sequel. And remember,

They are on a journey and you are the guide helping them discover what's next. And you have to tell them, here's the thing, your customers aren't going to pick up this story and start reading what's next. That is why the art of storytelling is so important to master because as a CS Pro, you are going to want to really help your customers discover what's next. And as you help them discover what's next, that is what is going to unlock those upsells. And remember,

Anika Zubair (09:20.143)
Upsells aren't interruptions. They are the next chapter, the natural evolution for your customers. And when you treat it like the next chapter, your customers are going to want to read on or want to move on to the next chapter with you. But if you just randomly insert the next chapter, like imagine if you were reading the book and you were just finished with chapter one and suddenly the book took you to chapter 10.

That just doesn't make sense, right? You need to follow the flow and the next chapter. And that is exactly the steps that I highlighted earlier on in this podcast. That's the flow that you need to follow because there's step one, step two, step three of making sure your storytelling is on point. And that's exactly like reading a book. You need to make sure you're listing out chapter one, chapter two, and chapter three. And again, storytelling doesn't have to be hard.

but when you insert it in correctly and you insert in an upsell correctly, your customer is going to naturally want to take that next step or venture into that next chapter with you. And remember, storytelling really doesn't have to be that difficult. It is really as easy as my five step process. And don't be overwhelmed. Remember, this is just a natural conversation that you're having with your customer.

But now instead of talking about your product, your features, your company, you are talking about their story, their company, their usage of your product and service. Do you see the difference there? It's really about reframing and making sure you are telling their story, not yours. Cause I know how enticing it is by the way. In human nature, it is supernatural for us to want to tell our story.

Most humans love telling stories and usually we like telling stories about ourselves. But to really master the art of storytelling in CS and really use it to your best ability to make sure you're handling every upsell flawlessly, you are going to want to make sure you are telling your customers story, meaning their story. So really make sure you are tapping into their before, their problems.

Anika Zubair (11:38.174)
what your product and service has done for them, and again, give them proof that this story is going to be a happily ever after for them. Hey, just jumping in with a quick break. If you're loving the revenue strategies that we're talking about in this episode and want to actually apply them in your day-to-day work, I've got something for you. It's my totally free guide called Unlock Revenue in a Quarterly Business Review. It's gonna be your

go to resource to stop firefighting and get hours back in your day and finally focus on what matters most, customer outcomes. Inside my guide, you'll learn how to prioritize your time, prep smarter, and run executive or quarterly business reviews that actually drive revenue. These are real life tips and tactics that you can start to use immediately. And like I said, it's completely free. So go ahead and check out

the link in my show notes to grab your free copy or go to thecustomersuccesspro.com forward slash resources. Just check the show notes and now back to our show. So if you're a long time listener, you know that on every single one of my solo episodes, I love to give my listeners a quick challenge of the week. So here is your weekly challenge.

I want you to choose one customer who's approaching an upsell opportunity. You've already bedded this customer. You already know that there's probably an opportunity out there, but maybe it's based on product usage or feature gaps or an upcoming renewal. Now, I want you to write this out. Get a pen and paper out. And if you're driving or running while listening to this podcast, come back to it later. But I want you to write this out because writing things down is super powerful for us.

It really helps me make sure I'm in the right mindset before I go in and speak to a customer. So I want you to write this out for this weekly challenge. I want you to write out there before. So remember what I said, what was their big problem? Back when you joined their first kickoff call or maybe it was a sales call, write out the before. Make it super crystal clear to you exactly what their story was. Then I want you to write the trigger.

Anika Zubair (14:01.552)
So make sure you make it super clear what their problem trigger was. So what was the big issue that was causing them pain or grief or problems within their company? Remember, their story, not your product. Then I want you to weave in your product and service at this point. I want you to talk about the after. So write out all the things that your product and service has helped in shaping their story. And then add in

any sort of additional client success stories or some sort of social proof that there is a happily ever after for another customer and that you too can have a happily ever after if you wanna believe in this story as well. So really just make sure you create this story in maybe four or five bullet points, no need to over engineer it, okay? Keep it simple, because I want you to practice it. I want you to get super comfortable with it.

And the way I get really comfortable in speaking in front of customers is once I write out my bullet points, I practice. I practice saying it out loud. And listen, if you are tuned into this podcast, it's probably because you are trying to become more confident with revenue or more confident in commercial mindset and skills. And the one thing I have to share as someone who was in sales, I had to practice my scripts out loud.

so many times. You are given multiple scripts as a salesperson and you read them again and again and again until you figure out your tone, until you figure out natural pauses, until you figure out your own confidence. So with your story and the story that you've written out for your customers, once you've got those four to five bullets, I want you to practice saying it out loud, like 10 times. No, but really.

I think CSMs and CS pros, we run around busy all the time. And that's so unfortunate that that is the nature of the job. And I get it. You're probably saying at this point, Anika, come on, when do I have the time? Well, listen, if you want to actually hit your revenue targets this quarter and you want to be the top performing CS pro, it doesn't come naturally. I hate to break it to you, but it does not come naturally. And we are going to have to...

Anika Zubair (16:28.786)
And the best way to sharpen your storytelling skills is practice saying it out loud. Remember, just write down those four to five bullet points and practice it. Okay, I sound like a broken record, but trust me, when you do practice it, you are going to really understand what it takes to be a true storyteller. Right, okay, now once you practice it a million times and you feel the confidence that you're ready to go in and tell that story, go ahead and book that call.

or work it into your next sync or call or QBR with your customer and make sure you tell them the story. The goal of this call is to tell the story before you make the offer. So really tell the story. Don't worry about a renewal slide in a QBR deck. Don't worry about bringing it up on the perfect moment. Worry about telling the perfect story.

Right, we covered so much in today's episode and I just wanna quickly recap everything that we did go over in today's podcast. First of all, I covered why data alone isn't enough to drive upsells. And if you're just using data to drive upsells, you're probably missing your mark. Am I right? Cause I have been there. I have used data to encourage customers to try to upsell, but in the current economic market we find ourselves in,

data and product usage just isn't enough. So data isn't enough to actually secure upsells. Next, I went over how to build a compelling four to five part story. Remember, you gotta do that before the problem trigger, the after and the future. And if you can tie in other client success stories as well. And then we went into how to position your upsell as the natural next chapter. Remember?

In a story, you can't jump from one to 10 or chapter one to the end. You've got to make it happen naturally from one chapter to the next. And finally, we covered why storytelling is your greatest upsell asset as a CSM. If you are not using storytelling as an upsell asset, please take it as your sign to start using it today. Awesome, that brings me to the end of this short but punchy

Anika Zubair (18:46.84)
and impactful episode. So if you love this episode and want to become a revenue generating CSM with the storytelling confidence that gets you those upsells, and if you've been nodding along in this podcast saying, yes, I want to be a storytelling expert, then you've got to check out my signature course, CSM RevUp Academy. And you can go ahead and sign up for the wait list at thecustomersuccesspro.com forward slash

Rev Up. And in Rev Up, I will be teaching you how to master storytelling in QBRs and make sure you're storytelling naturally and make sure you're building an upsell strategy that feels like the natural next step. All right, until next time, keep telling those powerful stories and building powerful CS careers. I believe in you and I can't wait to talk to you next week. Thanks for tuning in to the Customer Success Pro Podcast.

I hope you picked up something valuable to take back to your team. If you enjoyed this episode, it would mean the world to me if you took just 10 seconds to leave a review on Apple or Spotify. It helps more CS pros like yourself discover the show. And creating new episodes takes a lot of work, so leaving a nice review keeps me motivated to keep creating. And don't forget to hit subscribe on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen to.

podcast episodes. I drop a new episode every Wednesday packed with practical tips. And if you've got a topic you'd love for me to cover or want to be a guest on my show, send me a message. All the details are in the show notes. I'd love to hear from you. And hey, if this episode helped you share it with a fellow CSM or CS leader. Remember sharing is caring. Cheers to your CS journey and I'll catch you next week for our next episode.