Innovation and Leadership Team Lead | Strategically connecting Corporates and their Leaders with Startups I Connectd

Connectd works with individuals looking to build fractional careers through board advisor, non-executive director and fractional c-suite roles with startups.

Through the Connectd platform, we help both active and aspiring fractionals access networking and fractional opportunities, CPD-accredited training and mentoring.

If you’d like to explore opportunities, feel free to email me at: will.s@connectd.co

William Smith

LinkedIn

Leading the global success organization for LinkedIn Sales Solutions.

Head of Customer Success

Salesforce

Provide vision and leadership to transform and scale Salesforce's customer success organization for North America across all verticals. Lead 170+ success and support professionals with accountability for 7K+ accounts, and $5B+ in revenue.

Key initiatives and accomplishments include:
	
► Grew customer success team from ~20 to 170+ staff and created a cost-effective, data-driven engagement-based delivery model that reduced delivery costs of customer success by 53% and increased capacity by 25%.

► Aligned team members to deliver proactive engagements focused on customer business objectives and personalized recommendations that accelerated business value.

► Branded the organization as a shared service and aligned teams and leaders to 11 different operating units to scale delivery of customer success from $2B in recurring revenue and ~4K customers to $5B+ and ~7K+ customers.
- - - Delivered 10.5% higher renewal rates on engaged accounts. 
- - - Lifted customer license activation rates by 24% and customer adoption by 8%. 
- - - Influenced $320M+ in new closed won revenue over two years.

Customer Success Vice President - North America

Established the first Commercial, customer-focused Retail and Consumer Goods vertical for customer success. Partnered with 8 sales AVPs representing all size customers in Retail and Consumer Goods (6K+ accounts, $200M+ in existing revenue, and $100M+ in annual contract renewals) to help customers realize business value from their Salesforce spend. 

Key initiatives and accomplishments include:
	
► Met regularly with each sales AVP to manage expectations, promote team accomplishments, and leverage metrics- aligned data intelligence and sales prioritization to focus engagement for territory. 

► Directed team to engage with customers through multiple channels to drive adoption, achieve customer business goals, maximize contract renewals, and deliver company and customer growth.

► Coordinated delivery of industry training curriculum, aligned team to sales AVPs, and focused them on high-impact and repeatable services by sub-vertical.

► Increased overall customer engagement by 40% without headcount increases across 6K accounts. Renewed $100M+ in annual contract revenue while beating the yearly target by $15M and 38%.

► Exceeded territory adoption goals by 177% while reducing attrition by 27%.

Customer Success Vice President - Retail & Consumer Goods

Led the transformation and distribution of Premier and Signature Global Success Plans, the foundation of Customer Success programs at Salesforce. Held P&L accountability for the Customer Success profit center and managed a team of product managers and sales support specialists.

Key initiatives and accomplishments include:
	
► Standardized processes to accelerate the integration of acquired company products into the customer success plan offerings. Introduced and promoted new features and products across the global sales team to drive sell-through.
- - - New products generated $170M+ in new revenue.  
- - - Customer success plan growth accelerated from 5% of company revenue to 9.2% over three years, outpacing overall company growth. Exceeded gross margin targets by 42%.

► Worked across teams to change the pricing model from a % of list to a % of net model for customer success products, eliminating discount approvals needs, accelerating sales cycles, and reducing sales support effort.  Promoted these pragmatic changes across the global sales team.
- - - Increased overall customer success product revenue from $429M to $955M.  
- - - Grew annual Success Plan new bookings from $149M to $408M per year over three years.

Customer Success Vice President - Global Success Plan Products

Drove customer adoption and value for $20M of business in New England across 6 key accounts, consistently delivering increased customer satisfaction, retention, and expansion of the Salesforce footprint.

Key initiatives and accomplishments include:
	
► Achieved 100% renewal of $20M in available-to-renew revenue and 11% increase in adoption across portfolio.
- - - Established, prioritized, and nurtured C-level relationships with each customer.  
- - - Aligned the value of Salesforce products with each customer's specific business objectives, connected customers among each other to exchange ideas, and mitigated risks to Salesforce product revenue within the portfolio.

► Attained a 24% increase in Net Recurring Revenue (NRR) within the portfolio and #2 global ranking in sourced opportunities for sales by engaging with sales reps and AVPs associated with key accounts, positioning business-focused products/features, and earning customer trust as a trusted advisor.

Customer Success Senior Director - New England

Eliza Corporation (acquired by HMS Holdings Corp: HMSY)

Reporting to the President, served as key member of the senior management team to drive renewal and expansion of existing accounts. Collaborated with sales, service delivery, operations, support, and product to advance corporate goals.

Key initiatives and accomplishments include:
	
► Increased revenue by 23% YoY by elevating performance and efficiency of a team of strategic account managers through consistent operational processes and measures.

► Established clear and attainable goals focused on improving retention, margin, and growth of existing customer accounts and redefined territories and roles to align with these goals.  

► Defined/implemented an OTE-based compensation for sales teams that aligned with company objectives.

► Refocused team on improving project gross margins and project implementation duration by implementing new tools and processes to reduce project delivery costs and timeline, which cut product delivery costs by 20%.

Strategic Account Management Vice President

Pyxis Mobile

Founded an IT consulting firm (Pyxis Mobile) that provided project management services to large enterprises. Led its transformation and rebranding from a consulting services entity into a software company named Verivo Software.

Key initiatives and accomplishments include:
	
► Established product management, engineering, and support capabilities and built a configurable mobile application platform, transitioning consulting operations into scalable software product company operations within 18 months. 

► Created the #1 recognized mobile application platform for financial services supporting Blackberry and Microsoft platforms. 

► Secured funding for expansion and transition from a perpetual to a multi-year term license model.  

► Cultivated an outstanding company culture that was twice selected by Boston Business Journal Top 20 Best Places to Work.

► Defined, marketed, and sold mobile applications to large financial institutions.
- - - Secured 28 of the top 50 global investment firms as customers and implemented 100+ software installations.  
- - - Sold $20M in consulting services to large financial firms, including John Hancock, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, and Merrill Lynch. Delivered a 96% customer satisfaction rating and retained 97% of customers annually.

Founder & CEO

Accenture

Provided technical analysis, development, and implementation services to large global financial organizations.

Management Consultant

I am a customer success leader with over 20 years of experience in transforming and scaling customer success organizations and driving customer value and growth through innovative technology solutions. I have a strong customer focus and an entrepreneurial mindset, and I build a culture of trust, innovation, and transparency with my teams and stakeholders. Currently, I lead the global success organization for LinkedIn Sales Solutions, where I leverage my skills and leadership experience to optimize customer outcomes and satisfaction across all verticals and regions.

Previously, I held various customer success leadership roles at Salesforce, where I delivered more than $1B in new and retained revenue with a 10:1 ROI while helping tens of thousands of enterprise customers achieve their business goals. Some of my key accomplishments include growing a customer success team from 20 to 170+ professionals, establishing the first customer-focused Retail and Consumer Goods commercial success team, and increasing customer success product revenue by 223%. I also have a proven track record of growing and retaining key accounts, reducing product delivery costs, and creating innovative products and solutions. I am passionate about making the world a better place through technology and having some fun while doing it.

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