Turn CSMs into salespeople (no, don't)
Someone asked, “I'm building a new CS team. Who should be doing the upgrade, Customer Success or Sales?”
Oooh... this is one of my favorite topics (as you know if you follow me on LinkedIn).
I believe that CS should be a growth mechanism in your company. CS should be a (the?) significant contributor of new revenue.
But turning CSMs into salespeople or having them act as SDRs (Sales Development Reps) with a quota of CSQLs (CS Qualified Leads) to uncover and turnover to Sales is NOT the right way to do this.
Johan and I do a deep-dive on this topic in this week's episode of our Impact Weekly podcast that just dropped today.
In this episode we discuss how you should approach this question, specifically:
- The importance of capacity planning in carving out specialist roles
- The pros and cons of having account managers handle upselling opportunities
- The right strategies to approach expansion sales
- And a LOT more.
I rarely say this, but this episode is really good and you should definitely listen.
~Lincoln
BTW: Our next Head of CS training starts next Monday, 8-May.
We'll cover Expansion Sales, Capacity Planning, and so much more. If you want to lead a World-class CS org, this is the training you need.
While the training is virtual - a mix of recorded content and live Zoom sessions - it's very interactive and hands-on so space is necessarily limited.
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Lincoln Murphy
I help SaaS companies Maximize LTV through Customer-centric Upselling
Our next Customer Onboarding training starts tomorrow, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. Learn more about the program and sign-up here. Onboarding is arguably the most important customer lifecycle stage. In this program you'll learn how to get your new customers to do the things they need to do to get this still-fragile relationship off to a strong start, setting everyone up for long-term success (the customer... and your CS team). Specifically, we'll cover: Lifecycle stage metrics Handover management...
Our next Customer Onboarding training starts on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. Learn more about the program and sign-up here. Onboarding is arguably the most important customer lifecycle stage. In this program you'll learn how to get your new customers to do the things they need to do to get this still-fragile relationship off to a strong start, setting everyone up for long-term success (the customer... and your CS team). Specifically, we'll cover: Lifecycle stage metrics Handover management Time...
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