How we onboard new CSMs

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Child-like Joy
Gainsight on Gainsight: “How we onboard new CSMs”

Child-like Joy
Chelsea Taylor
Customer Success
Associate
Michelle Macksood
Sr. Customer Success
Manager

Goals for today’s webinar
• New CSM General Onboarding Best Practices
• New CSM Gainsight Onboarding
Ø Gainsight Online Resources
Ø Best Practices/ Tips & Tricks
• Interactive Q&A

Welcoming your new CSMs
• Have members of your team
send out welcome emails to
your newly hired CSMs when
their offers go out
• Decorate their desk on day 1
• Pair them with a buddy on the
team so they get up to speed
quickly
• Introduce them on Chatter (or whatever public forum you have)

Developing a plan

Benchmarking
• What are key milestones that you want your CSMs to reach?
• What dates do you want them to reach them by?
• What steps do you want them to take to ensure that they reach them?
• Who will you have them work with to achieve these?

Developing a timeline
Week 1 - 2
• Introductory training
• Invite to customer meetings
• Pair with a buddy
• Set up Google Alerts
• Introduce to Gainsight
Week 2 - 4
• Transition customers
• Meet with buddy regularly
• Own customer meetings
• Meet benchmarking goals

Developing a timeline
Months 2 - 3
• Continue to meet with buddy, but feel free
to decrease frequency
• Grow load of customers managed
• Meet with manager to review customers
• Work towards internal goals
• Complete all onboarding tasks
Months 4 - 6
• Meet with manager to review
customers week over week
• Meet with buddy as needed
• Work towards internal goals
• Take on new responsibilities

Engage different types of learners
Listen to
recordings Auditory
Shadow a
buddy and
debrief
meetings
Watch
video
tutorials
Visual
Review
flow charts
and visual
processes
Build
things
in the
product
Kinesthetic
Demo
Idol
Social
v.
Solitary
Active
v.
Reflective
Sequential
v.
Global

Make it fun!
• Create playbooks with fun or silly
tasks to engage your CSMs
• Keep training materials interactive
and engaging
• Encourage team bonding and cross
collaboration
• Leverage pop culture and humor to
appeal to, and draw in, new team
members

“Gainsight Go” Support Resources for New CSMs
Ø Gainsight Go (Gainsight Support Site): www.support.gainsight.com
Ø Navigate to “Getting Started”
Ø Review “Getting Started Resources” for CSMs/AMs
Ø Introduction to Gainsight for CSMs/ AMs
Ø Fundamentals for CSMs/ AMs
Ø Advanced Topics for CSMs/ AMs

Introduction to Gainsight for CSMs/ AMs
Resources to
review ~1-2
weeks into role

Introduction to Gainsight for CSMs/ AMs: Training Videos

Introduction to Gainsight for CSMs/ AMs: Glossary of Key Terms

Fundamentals for CSMs/ AMs
Resources to
review ~3-4
weeks into role

Fundamentals for CSMs/ AMs: Overview of core functionality
Ø Customers Tab
Ø Cockpit
Ø C360
Ø Gainsight Home (Dashboards)

Fundamentals for CSMs/ AMs: User guides for core functionality

Advanced Topics for CSMs/ AMs
Resources to
review ~6-9
weeks into role

Best Practice
Introduce Gainsight early & as part of general CSM onboarding
Set Gainsight usage expectations
Set up CTA email notifications & calendar reminders
Gainsight demo
Gainsight shadowing
Gainsight overview quiz
Have managers discuss and leverage Gainsight during 1:1 check-ins
Implement a buddy system
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
New CSM Gainsight Onboarding Best Practices/Tips & Tricks

Best Practice Description
Introduce Gainsight early & as part of
general CSM onboarding
Include Gainsight training in initial general CSM onboarding training.
Provide new CSM with links to Gainsight Support Site (pointing them to CSM/AM “getting started
sections” at the right times during onboarding) and Gainsight Community.
Introduce Gainsight early & as part of general CSM onboarding1
Link to ‘Gainsight Go’ (Gainsight Support Site)
Link to Gainsight Community

Set Gainsight usage expectations New CSMs should review cockpit every morning;; review c360 before all external customer calls and
internal customer strategy meetings;; review customized customer and dashboard views before team,
process, or 1:1 meetings, etc.
2 Set Gainsight usage expectations
Cockpit
Review every morning (~10-20 minutes each day)
• Review any newly assigned CTAs
• Update status and due dates
• Complete associated tasks in efforts to close out CTAs
• Manage and complete CTAs by priority and due date
c360
Review before all external customer calls & internal Customer strategy
meetings (~3-5 minutes before each conversation)
• Review key focus areas on c360 (i.e. summary, scorecard, chatter, usage data, cases,
key contacts, NPS, Success Plan, etc.)
Customers Tab/
Dashboards
Review before any team, process, or 1:1 meetings (~5 minutes)
• Review key customer views or dashboard views before meetings (i.e. renewal dashboards
before renewal meetings, “Code red”/”At risk” dashboards before risk meetings, CSM-
Manager dashboards before 1:1s)

Set up CTA email notifications &
calendar reminders
Have new CSMs set up CTA email notifications so they are alerted when they have a new CTA to
take action on. Send calendar reminders for new CMSs to check Cockpit for the first 15 minutes of
their day their first month so Gainsight habits are created.
3 Set up CTA email notifications & calendar reminders
Link to guide to set up CTA email notifications

Gainsight demo Require new CSMs to listen to a Gainsight demo given by a Gainsight power user;; review team’s
specific instance of Gainsight and how core functionality is used.
4 Gainsight demo

Gainsight shadowing Require new CSM to shadow 1-3 current Gainsight power users to help them better understand and
see a ‘best practice’ Gainsight workflow.
5 Gainsight shadowing

Gainsight Overview Quiz Create and give new CSMs a Gainsight overview quiz after Gainsight training is complete.
6 Gainsight Overview Quiz

Have managers discuss and leverage
Gainsight during 1:1 check-ins
Leverage Gainsight 1:1 dashboards;; discuss priorities in the context of Gainsight CTAs & dashboards,
ask new CSMs about their customer’s health scores, drill through customer c360 for customer that
need further discussion.
7
Have managers discuss and leverage Gainsight during
1:1 check-ins

Implement a buddy system Pair new CSMs with Gainsight power users to help encourage usage and adoption best practices for
new users.
8 Implement a buddy system
Partner your New CSMs with Buddies to help position them for SUCCESS!
• Utilize buddy system and have new users partner with most successful Gainsight users;; this
will help to share best practices and embed good Gainsight usage habits in new CSMs!

QUESTIONS?

How we onboard new CSMs

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