Rebeca Tristan

Great post, Karthick! I took several valuable points from your article, starting with the hard truth you mentioned: “A dissatisfied customer with proven ROI renews more often than a satisfied customer with unclear impact. Renewals follow money, not mood.” It’s easy to assume that a happy customer will renew, but that assumption falls apart when you realize that even after doing everything possible to keep a customer satisfied and happy, the renewal still ends in churn. That’s exactly when your question becomes crucial: in your last renewal conversation, did you defend the contract with sentiment or with numbers? In the end, it’s essential to deeply understand every single answer to the questions you propose in the article: What KPI improved because of us? Where have we reduced operational friction? What would break if we were removed tomorrow? What expansion opportunity exists if we double down? Truly understanding these points gives you the tools to elevate the conversation with your customer’s CFO.

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Every January, CS leaders ask for headcount. And every January, leadership asks the same question: “How does another CSM turn into revenue?” That’s where most CS teams lose the room. Not because CS isn’t important, everyone agrees it is. But because CS shows activity, not economics. • Health scores • Touchpoints • QBRs • Account load None of those answer the CFO’s real question. The shift that changes everything? Stop framing CS as “busy.” Start framing CS as a revenue engine. When you can clearly show: CS behavior that leads to real customer outcomes and how this drives NRR, GRR, expansion, CAC payback now you are showing real value Headcount stops being a cost request and becomes a revenue investment. I wrote a breakdown on this in my weekly profit loop newsletter I’ll drop the link to the full article in the comments If you lead CS and want a real seat at the budgeting table, this one’s for you.

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“We’re not here to ChatGPT at each other.” (Actual quote I overheard on a close-won handoff call from Sales → Customer Success) The CSM was saying, there's no substance here. You're saying a lot, but not giving me any useful information This interaction stood out to me It's easier than ever to say a whole lot without actually sharing something ✨ If someone's listening, make sure to use that attention wisely ✨

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Your CSM manages more revenue than your best AE. Nobody talks about this. The average AE carries a $1-2M quota. The average CSM is sitting on a $5-10M book. That's 3-5x the revenue impact. Every single day. And how does the org treat that? The AE closes a $500K deal. Gong. President's Club. Accelerators on every dollar. The CSM saves a $1.2M renewal that was walking out the door, expands it by $300K, and gets a Slack emoji. Same revenue. Completely different value signal. And we let this happen. CS leaders accepted the lesser comp structure because we were told "retention is its own reward." We stopped making the revenue case. We let finance call us a cost center and we adjusted to it instead of fighting it. We built the cage. Then we complained about being in it. You want to fix CS turnover? Fix the math. Comp on GRR and NRR impact. Celebrate saves like closed-won. Build a career path from CSM to GM — not from CSM to "be grateful." Because when your best CSM leaves, they don't just take their title. They take the relationships that keep your biggest accounts from picking up a competitor's call. 𝗖𝗦 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻'𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺. 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺. 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗦 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 — 𝘄𝗲 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝗯𝘆 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿. ⁉️ What's the total book value your CS team manages vs. your sales team's combined quota? Run the number. Then ask yourself why comp doesn't reflect it. #customersuccess #csleadership #saas #revenuegrowth #therevenueratio

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Underrated CSM Skill: Internal Collaborator 🤝 Aka: willing to think beyond just the CSM perspective. We all agree that customers' success (and the company's for that matter) relies on way more than the Customer Success team. And the best CSMs and CS leaders know how to operationalize that fact by being strong internal collaborators. They don't just look out for what the Customer Success team is accountable for or able to influence. They expand their horizons and look at the big picture of how other teams influence customer outcomes. And when they see those other teams as real people and vital to customers' success, they're willing to collaborate with other teams even on things that don't immediately "benefit" Customer Success but help the big picture of the company. Doing this leads to stronger outcomes for customers. And bonus points? It also makes the CS team more pleasant to work with and more likely to be able to call in favors from other teams as well. How do teams practically get better at collaborating? How can you improve in this area 1. ASK It sounds super obvious, but a great starting point is to ask other teams if there's something they're working on that your team can help move the needle on. You don't know what you don't know, so starting a conversation is one of the best ways to learn. 2. CAN I MENTALITY We often operate professionally with a "Must I" mentality that asks if we have to do certain things. "That's not Customer Success's job" "I don't think that's in my KPIs" etc. Now let me be clear: healthy boundaries and clear delineation of responsibilities are EXTREMELY important. If you've got a coworker or company trying to take advantage of you or just playing hot potato and the blame game, that isn't healthy. And that absolutely should be addressed. But when you're in a healthy culture, adopting a "Can I" mentality carries you far with internal collaboration. You begin to approach challenges with curiosity and ask "Can I be a part of improving outcomes?" instead of "Must I be a part of this?" That sort of curiosity builds towards a type of collaboration that strengthens teams, and leads to stronger outcomes. ________________________________ Don't be the CSM or CS team that is only focused on your small niche of the business. That's a good way to miss out on growth opportunities and limit customer outcomes. But I want to hear from you! How do you go about improving internal collaboration on your teams?

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High-performing RevOps teams don’t just manage systems. They create alignment. As Rosalyn Santa Elena and Jamie Miller shared, the real difference comes down to three things: clear communication, transparent goals, and a roadmap everyone can see. When the whole org understands what RevOps is solving for (and why) it changes how teams work together. This one’s a must-watch for anyone building trust and accountability across GTM: https://lnkd.in/dAMeyR53

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The Commercial CSM — Part 6 The Career Flywheel No One Talks About Most career conversations in Customer Success center on titles. Senior to Principal. Manager to Director. IC track versus people leader. Those things matter, but they are not what truly compounds over time. What compounds is commercial judgment. What actually scales your career As the role becomes more commercial, the CSMs who accelerate are not the ones running the fastest. They are the ones who deliberately build three capabilities. Signal literacy You spot risk before it shows up on a dashboard. You read budgets, silence, and power dynamics with the same clarity that others read product data. Executive fluency You can talk outcomes, tradeoffs, and economics without sounding like Sales. You frame decisions the way leaders actually make them. Decision shaping, not narration You do not just report what happened. You influence what happens next. These are portable skills. They follow you across companies, industries, and roles. The quiet flywheel When you strengthen these three capabilities, a subtle loop begins to spin. Better signals lead to better conversations. Better conversations lead to better outcomes. Better outcomes build stronger credibility. Stronger credibility creates more influence. More influence gives you even better signals. That loop is your career flywheel. No job title grants it to you. You earn it through how you operate. What this means for Senior CSMs The most valuable Senior CSM in 2026 is not the one with the cleanest dashboards. It is the one who sees commercial risk before anyone calls it risk, shapes decisions before the renewal clock starts, and leaves leaders feeling clearer rather than simply convinced. That is no longer a nice-to-have skill. It is the core of the role. The reframe Your job is not only to help customers succeed with a product. It is to become a commercial sensemaker inside complex systems. That is the version of the CSM role that compounds over time. And if your role has evolved faster than your job description, you are definitely not alone.

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