Gong for Professional Services Teams

Hi Daisy! Great question. In a previous Professional Services role, our team used Gong pretty heavily for onboarding new team members and upskilling everyone. We created Call library folders for each call type (technical configuration 1, technical configuration 2, etc.). (You could do this more easily with streams now.) This helped new team members watch good call examples without having to shadow live, and more seasoned team members learn how to discuss edge cases with customers.

For onboarding, we also used scorecards to evaluate mock configuration/strategy calls.

If you have anything you’d specifically like to pay attention to in the in the PS process (specific configuration asks, troubleshooting, how to speak to particular integrations, how to discuss strategy, etc.) you can create smart trackers to flag calls by theme. With smart trackers created, Initiative boards (tracking how frequently these themes are addressed in calls over time) might also be useful.

^We held monthly lunch and learns to knowledge share on a dedicated topic, then tracked adoption of the ideas that were shared using trackers.

Quick plug for the Program Manager Launch Certification, which walks through how to set up all of the features I mentioned!

Hi Daisy, I head up our PS team here at Gong and we use Gong internally for many areas of our business to 1. help our customers achieve their business Outcomes, 2. support out Partner Ecosystem 3. enable, coach and onboard our internal PS team and 4. support driving bookings, revenue and ultimately margin.

I think about how we use it along the customer journey as follows

Pre-Sales

• AEs can tag Services Sales in calls to hear directly what was positioned, sold, technical integrations, complex use cases, personalities etc to speed up and ensure more accurate scoping - don’t need to ask the same questions over again! 
• Project Managers / Consultants can always come back to this during handover / discovery to confirm / validate scope (and hold customer accountable to scope creep)
• Deal Board : great way to get visibility into Services pipeline with the added ability to see ‘close probability’ provided by the AI 
• Can set up Deal boards to see where Services has not been positioned and hunt for work 
• Can track how Services is being positioned in general and how new offerings messaging is working and generating paid work
• Sales to Services transition can be assisted with calls that happened during pre-sales

Discovery and Config.

• Kick off meeting can be reviewed by internal and external stakeholders (that could not attend)
• Customers internal stakeholders can review pre sales calls (if not in sales cycle)
• Project Manager / Consultants can tag others in calls (Product / Engineering / other team members) to hear directly from the customer 
• Removes the need for note taking - Gong offers up Action items in platform 
• Work-streams can run in parallel - not everyone needs to be in every meeting
• Can always go back and re-confirm requirements from discovery calls 
• Can tag others if challenges are discovered (technical etc) 
• Can record sign off review meetings 
• Tasks and reminders will be automatically presented in Gong (from call / emails etc) to ensure nothing is missed

SIT / UAT / QA

• UAT / QA issues can we tagged in calls and triaged faster 
• Any non P0 / P1 items that are slated for post go live will be tagged as an action so nothing gets dropped 
• Cut over tasks and reminders can be managed in Engage (again nothing gets dropped)

Handover to CS / Post Go Live 

• Milestone Call can be filed in library folder and shared with CS and Support (final requirements / design calls, complex integrations etc)
• Post Sales CSMs can tag Services in calls where they think there is an opportunity to do follow on work or where a renewal is at risk and PS can help

Internally we use it for 

• New team member on-boarding can be speed up by reviewing prior calls and meetings - no need to awkwardly shadow 
• Voice of the Customer - can tag anyone in the company (Product / CS / Eng / Executives) to ensure we don’t lose context / things are not lost in translation 
• Drive billable utilization : How busy are the consultants?   How many calls are they attending per customer? 
• Coaching and Training : managers can listen to calls and leave coaching notes or look for trends.  For example; if a team seems to be consistently going over budget, set up tracker to see how often they are discussion scope / timeline impact / change order and then create training to course correct issues 
• Services Product Training can be revisited

As the PS leader, I also use it to help manage my booking forecast to make sure I can hit my number

Hope this help and always happy to talk to a fellow PS practitioner on how to get the most out of Gong! 

_____

Jen Huntrakoon, VP Professional Services - Gong

jen.huntrakoon@gong.io