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WIP: Handbook Page for Account Planning Using Gainsight for SAs.

Thabo Bopape requested to merge tbopape-master-patch-55214 into master

Why is this change being made?

  • This change is being made to update the SA community of how to use Gainsight to manager and monitor their accounts as well as creating a Technical Win Plan

Author Checklist

Background

At this time, there are numerous handbook pages that contain information and best practices with relation to Gainsight. The purpose of this Handbook page will be to create a consolidated view for all Solutions Architects (SAs) best practices when it comes to using Gainsight for Account Planning.

Who is the intended audience?

  • - SAs
  • - Sales management
  • - CS management

What is the target segment?

  • - ENT
  • - COMM
  • - PubSec

Is this request related to an existing training/enablement initiative or is it net new? Mostly existing with some new content to plug any gaps.

Training Gaps

  • The Gainsight Learning Pathway from the Solutions Architect SmartCard in edCast is intended to fill in this gap. Other pertinent training and Gainsight feature demos can be found in The Handbook

**What is Gainsight?

  • Gainsight is a tool for Strategic Account Leaders, Solutions Architects, and Technical Account Managers to manage the ongoing customer lifecycle. It provides a comprehensive view of your customers, allows you to understand trends and risks, and empower you to scale with proven actions that deliver outcomes.

Accessing Gainsight

SA Role Specific Gainsight Usage

  • How to create and edit a Technical Win Plan from Gainsight:
  • Create an objective under account plan
  • Here is a Sample Success Plan

How does an SA contribute to the Account Planning?

SAs should:

  • Collaborate with the SAL/TAM on a Technical Win Plan and ensure that the plan encompasses Workshops, PoVs, deep dives, etc.
  • Be DRIs on the technical activities for new lands.
  • Own technical activities on account expansions where TAMs are not engaged.
  • Collaborate with the TAMs on account expansions where deemed necessary especially where there’s a need for tier upgrade and onboarding of new teams.

SAs are not the DRIs of a customer’s initial account plan!

  • By the time the opportunity reaches the Account Planning stage, basic account details should have been entered into Salesforce. Thus, the main purpose of completing the Account Profile section of the account plan, should be to capture important details about the customer or prospect, including information about the organization's business, strategic objectives, goals, motivations, competitive landscape, pertinent technology stack details, etc. The account profile should be all about the customer (not GitLab).

What is the urgency level of this request?

  • - Urgent, immediate action needed

  • - Medium urgency, action preferred this quarter

  • - Not urgent, no specific timeline

  • Provided a concise title for the MR

  • Added a description to this MR explaining the reasons for the proposed change, per say-why-not-just-what

    • Copy/paste the Slack conversation to document it for later, or upload screenshots. Verify that no confidential data is added.

  • Assign reviewers for this change to the correct DRI(s)

    • If the DRI for the page/s being updated isn’t immediately clear, then assign it to one of the people listed in the "Maintained by" section in on the page being edited.
    • If your manager does not have merge rights, please ask someone to merge it AFTER it has been approved by your manager in #mr-buddies.

  • If the changes affect team members, or warrant an announcement in another way, please consider posting an update in #whats-happening-at-gitlab linking to this MR.

    • If this is a change that directly impacts the majority of global team members, it should be a candidate for #company-fyi. Please work with internal communications and check the handbook for examples.
Edited by Thabo Bopape

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