The Unique, Collaborative Approach of Navan Sales & Customer Success Teams
The Navan Sales and Customer Success (CS) teams have a unique relationship, working closely together to create the best possible experience for team members, customers, and end users. Leaders from these two departments recently shared insights into their working relationship and how this close collaboration empowers them to best serve customers.
The Sales and CS teams share the same goals when it comes to selling and implementing Navan: To make the customer as successful as possible and drive full adoption. Individuals across the organizations meet weekly to strategize and optimize the Navan experience.
“A close partnership between sales and customer success benefits everyone involved and–most importantly–sets the customer up for success,” explains Steph Duckham, Senior Manager, Commercial Customer Success.
Steph has been with Navan for more than three years and today helps lead and develop a team of commercial customer success managers. She also builds strategic projects that make the CS organization more effective.
“Our success is their success and vice versa. There are endless examples of how the CS team has helped us on the sales side,” explains Cory Ventura, Senior Manager of Commercial Sales.
“We were recently working with a very complex customer and able to bring on one of our veteran CSMs to speak to all the various components of what was possible within our product. The customer felt completely supported from the pre- and post-sale side of their relationship with Navan.”
Cory has been on the sales team at Navan for five and a half years. He joined as a sales development representative when there were only 30 employees at Navan and climbed the ranks to now manage the Commercial Account Executive organization.
While the sales team leads the conversation around contracts and sign-ups, the customer success team works to understand the customers’ goals to ensure smooth and efficient implementation.
“Prospective customers see that the AE is not going just to hand over the account to someone completely new as soon as they sign up. We’re all a part of the same process and customers feel supported throughout the experience,” explains Cory.
This collaborative approach has benefits inside and outside the organization.
“It gives customers peace of mind when they see a strong feedback cycle between the sales and customer success teams,” says Matt Mogle, Director of Customer Success, Global Launch.
“The customer success team members will even pop onto sales calls with the potential clients to address what exactly that implementation process looks like so there is lots of transparency within the process. Both teams have shared goals which are significant for both internal teams and also our customers.”
Matt joined the company in 2019 as an Enterprise Customer Success Manager and has since received three promotions to his current leadership role. His team is responsible for getting customers up and running on the Navan platform for travel and expense management.
Steph echoes his sentiment: “We are a cohesive team that speaks to each other and develops strategies that we know our customers need. We are aligned on the first call with a customer and they feel that on the other end. It truly creates a partnership with our customers.”
This approach also empowers Navan employees to do their best work. The sales and customer success teams are under the revenue organization at Navan–a critical distinction that aligns all team members around shared goals.
“Other companies might push goals or metrics that cause these teams to go against one another; this becomes a conflict between teams or dissonance between what is being sold and what can be implemented. This is not the case at Navan and our shared goals strongly benefit the customer,” says Matt.
“I really honestly believe that Navan can have the best sales/CS relationship and partnership in all the SaaS world. It helps us be a better place to work, achieve overall company growth, and attract strong talent.”
“The culture is super collaborative, one team, one goal, and we continue to push each other forward. Navan is unique in the way that we are challenging the industry in so many different areas while still having a team that is so close and supportive,” echoes Cory.
Our Sales and Customer Success teams’ collaboration makes sure that every customer makes use of the full potential of the Navan all-in-one platform.
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