Ep 40 - Community-Led Growth in SaaS Vol 2 with Laura Coscarelli, Victoria Cumberbatch, Kerri Williams, and Melanie Bond

We had the chance to sit down and dive deep into what it takes to build lasting community in the wild world of SAAS. Laura Coscarelli, Account Executive at Higher Logic, Victoria Cumberbatch, Operations Specialist formerly at Osmosis, Kerri Williams, Community, Strategy & Engagement Manager at Workday, and Melanie Bond, Director of Community at Nanit shared the importance of setting clear expectations with community members and internal stakeholders, striving to give twice as much as you ask in return and riding the wave.

Here’s What We Discussed: 

• [04:49] How to communicate the value of community to stakeholders and organization members 
• [12:40] Balance community, marketing, and product needs by setting boundaries and building trust 
• [22:01] Best practices for user and product feedback groups
• [27:58] The platforms and tactics that are most effective in getting the community to engage with each other
• [32:44] How to find your pioneers when starting a community 
• [36:51] Our experts share goals that they’re working towards; Prioritizing fostering relationships and mentorships 
• [39:52] How community and sales can go hand in hand 
• [43:49] How much is too much to ask from your customers? 
• [50:30] Our panel shares the challenges that they’re dealing with right now

About Our Speakers

Laura Coscarelli, Account Executive at Higher Logic, Laura is an Account Executive at Higher Logic. A former teacher, she spent a decade managing online communities and then consulting for non-profits, associations, and corporate customers on how to engage their networks online. Now Laura helps organizations that are earlier in the process of building their digital engagement strategies as an Account execute (it’s easy to sell something you really believe in!) When she’s not cheerleading for her customers, she enjoys hosting fondue dinner parties, restoring old houses, and biking with her husband in Washington, D.C.

Victoria Cumberbatch, Operations Specialist formerly at Osmosis, Victoria is a Community & Operations Specialists. Being part of a myriad of groups from high school to current, allowed her the space to learn from the best and engage with impactful individuals that have provided a way for her to view leadership within communities. With experiences spanning athletics to studying on Semester at Sea, to overseeing classrooms, to truly embarking on her career with Tunnel2Towers and working with their passionate volunteer coordinators, to being a leader on Remote year, and finally working with top-notch med students at Osmosis; over time it’s become clear that community management and leadership are where she finds herself at her best.

Kerri Williams, Community, Strategy & Engagement Manager at Workday, Kerri helps brands connect with their customers in a meaningful way, by listening to feedback, building teams and processes to engage and delight, and assessing data trends while remaining focused on unique business objectives. Her 10+ years in customer experience, community management, communications, and consulting have given her the tools to help brands navigate this growing digital space and make the most out of their customer engagement strategies.

Melanie Bond, Director of Community at Nanit, Over the past decade, Melanie has built and scaled high-performing and results-driven teams. She has a passion for community building and has worked with hundreds of companies with varying use cases to create and build strategic community plans to reach their organizational goals.

She believes that communities empower companies to work more efficiently, and have a two-way dialog with their customers to build trust while also helping acquire new customers. Building authentic communities is at the core of my work and experience.

About Our Moderator
Kayci Baldwin, Director of Marketing & Platform at Ruckus, Kayci has been building and growing communities for impactful brands for nearly a decade. She was a co-founder of Six Things, a brand and digital creative agency dedicated to working with underrepresented founders.

 

Quotes

“Whenever you're building a community, the most important thing is that the goals and the KPIs that you're setting for your community are tying back to your organizational goals.” –  Melanie Bond 

 

“Whether you're a community manager, a director of customer success, in sales, or you're in product, there's no pitch, to begin with. The pitch should be listening first and taking more of a servant leadership approach to seeking to understand the business goals.” –  Laura Coscarelli

 

“If you start with the customer in mind, the balancing of the needs becomes easier. Because whatever you're trying to achieve with community, marketing, or product, as long as you can bring it back to the customer and how it serves their needs, then it should also serve the business’ needs as well.” – Kerri Williams 

 

“Create the expectation list. Set the expectations of what the community members can expect from team and what team can expect from community.” –  Victoria Cumberbatch

 

“When you only lean on a specific subset of your customer base, you're really missing out on so much great intel that you wouldn't have otherwise. I think that's really important when it comes to product feedback.” –  Melanie Bond 

 

“There's an element of training and education that goes into how your salespeople talk about your community. There is an opportunity for the community to be a value add in the sales cycle.” – Kerri Williams

 

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