Whether you’re a veteran or first timer, SaaStr Annual can be overwhelming. From marketing and sales to product and engineering, there are 300+ speakers and 150+ sessions to choose from. For those of you looking to hone in on customer success skills, we’re breaking down the week’s top speakers and sessions so you can make the most of your SaaStr journey.

Note: Registration is required for these sessions and seats are filling up quickly, so save your spot soon!

Session #1: How to Build a CSM Team that Generates 130% Net Retention with Talkdesk


Date: Tuesday, Feb. 5th
Time: 1:45 – 2:15pm
Speaker: Gillian Heltai, SVP of Client Success at TalkDesk

Description: Having a customer-obsessed and passionate customer success team is a critical first step for a SaaS organization’s long-term success. In this session, Gillian will walk you through what it takes to build a high performing customer success team, and give personal examples of how she partners closely with customers to achieve their CX vision.

Pre-Show Prep: Give yourself a head start on this session with some additional reading! Check out this blog on 4 Elements of a Killer Customer Success Team.

Session #2: Lessons from Survey Monkey: 7 Tips For Using Customer Feedback To Build Rabid Fans And Make More Money


Date: Tuesday Feb. 5th
Time: 3:25 – 3:55pm
Speaker: Leela Srinivasan, CMO at Survey Monkey

Description: In an age where earning customer loyalty is harder than ever, the road to lifetime value is paved with customer feedback. Through real-world examples, Leela will outline seven tips for driving business impact through customer feedback.

Pre-Show Prep: Check out Zendesk’s article on Customer Feedback: How to Hear the Voice of the Customer for a complete guide on leveraging customer feedback.

Session #3: How to do Customer Success at Scale with Amazon Web Services


Date: Wednesday, Feb. 6th
Time: 9:00 – 9:30am
Speaker: Sandy Carter, VP of Amazon Web Services

Description: CEO’s everywhere are seeking to innovate. Yet 81% of them don’t think their teams are equipped to meet the challenges needed to compete in today’s marketplace. In this session, Sandy will explain the importance of customer empathy in innovation. Get ready to own your superpower – not of customer focus, or customer-driven, but customer obsessed!

Pre-Show Prep: Check out Emma Snyder’s Hubspot blog on Why Customer Empathy is Critical to Business Success.

Session #4: 5 Misconceptions That Sabotage SaaS Businesses with Dropbox


Date: Thursday, Feb. 7th
Time: 1:00 – 1:30pm
Speaker: Yamini Rangan, Chief Customer Officer at Dropbox

Description: Yamini will draw on 20 years of experience to challenge five common misconceptions about SaaS success and offer a practical perspective on the frameworks that are holding businesses back from reaching their full potential in a changing customer success landscape.

Pre-Show Prep: The need for customer success in the SaaS industry has increased dramatically over the last few years. While having a dedicated CS team helps provide value for customers and overall better results for a SaaS organization, it can also lead to a lot of misinformation. Check out this article from Nils Vinje at Glide Consulting to dig deeper.

Session #5: How to Take Customer Success from Idea to Action from Gainsight, Xactly, Navex and Glint


Date: Thursday, Feb. 7th
Time: 3:25 – 3:55pm
Speakers: Allison Pickens, COO at Gainsight, Bernie Kassar, Chief Customer Officer at Xactly, Ashley Fryar, Vice President, Customer Success at Navex and Mary Poppen, Chief Customer Officer at Glint

Description: Everyone knows they need customer success — but how do you get started? Each of these panelists knows what it takes to go from idea to action. They’ll share candid stories and winning strategies from their journeys in this can’t-miss session.

Pre-Show Prep: If you’re looking to ramp up your customer success strategy, developing KPI’s is a good place to start! Here are a few top customer success KPI’s relevant to most SaaS organizations.

Stay connected at SaaStr…

Keep up with SaaStr speakers by following our public Twitter list called SaaStr19 Speakers. This list includes everyone speaking this year (minus those who don’t have a Twitter account) so you can get updates from speakers in one place, in real-time. Make sure to use the hashtag #SaaStrAnnual19!

Did you know UserIQ is a sponsor this year? Don’t forget to stop by booth #308 and say hello! You can find the full list of sponsors, speakers and sessions on SaaStr Annual’s website.