2024 Outstanding Woman in Customer Success: Lara Barnes
Name: Lara Barnes
Job Title: SVP Global Customer Success & Renewals
Company: Sitecore
Why she won:
Lara brings a wealth of experience to the table, with 24 years in Customer Management across industry giants like Orange, Microsoft, Facebook, and Oracle. She has held senior positions in both Sales and Customer Success, giving her a well-rounded understanding of the customer journey. Lara's passion lies in empowering customers to leverage technology for real business growth. She believes that maximizing platform value and ensuring a seamless experience are central to a successful customer success strategy.
Currently, Lara is spearheading the development of a comprehensive customer success organization at Sitecore. Her goal is to equip customers with the tools and support they need to achieve optimal adoption and value realization from the Sitecore platform. Lara champions a "Customer First" mindset across the entire organization. She acts as a strong advocate for customers at every touchpoint, ensuring their needs are prioritized. Furthermore, Lara is a data-driven leader who leverages analytics to proactively engage with customers based on user metrics. This proactive approach allows her to anticipate potential challenges and provide solutions before they arise. Lara's extensive experience and strategic vision have earned her a seat at the senior leadership table. She effectively influences decision-making to ensure the customer voice is always heard and represented at the highest levels.
These are her achievements:
Championing the Customer Journey: Lara leads a cross-departmental Customer Lifecycle Project, actively identifying and documenting process gaps. This proactive approach ensures continuous improvement in customer experience. She also fosters collaboration across 12 departments, ensuring all teams contribute to a seamless customer journey.
Innovation and Customer Focus: Lara's "lighthouse program" provides dedicated support to select customers during onboarding and go-live. This innovative approach generates valuable insights that continuously improve Sitecore's customer lifecycle. In collaboration with other teams, Lara also spearheads the Value Realization Framework. This framework empowers customers to understand and measure their Sitecore investment's value, demonstrating her strategic vision and customer-centric approach.
Industry Recognition: Lara's leadership in the company's successful transition from on-premise to SaaS earned her the prestigious Women in Tech Award. She recently received the Gainsight Game Changer Award for Transformational Leader in recognition of her ongoing impact on shaping the future of Customer Success.
Knowledge Sharing and Thought Leadership: Lara actively shares expertise and insights at industry conferences like Gainsight Pulse, CXO, and The UK Customer Conference, inspiring others in the field. She leads a series of internal podcasts to share progress and updates on customer success initiatives across the organization, fostering knowledge sharing and alignment.
Driving Customer Success Results: Under Lara's leadership, the Customer Success team achieves a substantial 20% increase in managed accounts' annual recurring revenue (ARR), as well as a significant increase in Sitecore’s NPS score, indicating a continuous rise in customer satisfaction and loyalty. Lara strategically positions the Customer Success team to contribute to revenue generation. CSM-generated leads now account for over 25% of total revenue, and the team remains the second-largest pipeline generation channel with a remarkable 50% conversion rate.
Congratulations Lara!
