Chief Revenue Officers today are finding themselves in a pickle, as many are finding the hyper-growth sales tactics they’ve come to rely on no longer ensure sustained revenue growth. Tech stacks are getting consolidated, budgets have gotten tighter and the buying committee keeps getting larger. How are some of the best CROs overcoming these challenges? Folding Customer Success deeply into their overall strategy.
This involves a strategic pivot: viewing customer success not as a cost center, but as a cornerstone of the go-to-market playbook. When CROs start to see Customer Success as a fundamental driver of retention, expansion, and advocacy, they unlock new avenues for growth that are both more sustainable and less susceptible to market fluctuations. This realization is driving new models about how companies approach their revenue strategies, making customer success a core driver of growth.
Customer Success Is More Than A Post-Sales Function
Customer Success is traditionally seen as a post-sales function, aiming to help customers realize value in support of retention and renewal goals. However, its potential impact on revenue growth is profound and multifaceted. When executed well, customer success transforms customer satisfaction into a strategic tool that enhances upsell opportunities, reduces churn, and fosters brand advocacy.
Credit: GTM Partners.
Customer Success is already playing a pivotal role in sales conversations at many organizations. For example, CS programs are often highlighted as a key selling point for prospective customers. CSMs or other customer success resources are even included in sales discussion so they articulate this value directly.
An additional way CS is supporting the sales process is through customer advocacy. With clear processes in place for identifying and capturing outcomes achieved by existing customers, CS teams help generate customer case studies, testimonials, reviews and positive word-of-mouth. All of this can be leveraged in the marketing and sales process.
Customer Success Needs To Be A Revenue Team Player
A siloed approach to customer management is a strategy of the past. Today’s most successful companies understand that alignment across all customer-facing departments—marketing, sales and customer success—is critical to hitting revenue targets. This integrated approach ensures that insights gained from customer interactions are leveraged to refine products and services, tailor marketing strategies, and streamline sales processes.
By tapping into the rich insights that CS teams gain through daily interactions with customers, sales teams are equipped with a deeper understanding of customer challenges and successes. This knowledge allows them to tailor their sales interactions more effectively, addressing actual customer needs and pain points, which in turn increases the likelihood of closing deals.
Additionally, incorporating CS into the revenue team ensures a more cohesive customer journey. Sales and customer success should work hand in hand, particularly in driving cross-sells, upsells and renewals. This alignment fosters a satisfying customer experience, leading to higher retention rates and overall revenue growth.
Gainsight’s customer Swoogo is an excellent example of how to effectively integrate Customer Success into the revenue team. Under the leadership of its CRO, Swoogo utilized Gainsight to unify its view of customer health and improve their churn mitigation process. The collaboration between CS and sales helped Swoogo identify expansion opportunities, resulted in a 15% increase in customer health scores and created a 7-point boost in Gross Revenue Retention (GRR) in the first year.
Rethinking Revenue for a Competitive Advantage
Revenue leaders who are rethinking how customer success contributes to the top- and bottom-line are building a competitive advantage for their business. As markets continue to evolve and competition intensifies, the role of customer success in driving sustainable business growth will only increase. Organizations that can seamlessly integrate this function into their overall growth strategy will not only see improved customer retention rates but also enhanced overall business performance.
Learn more about how CROs are unlocking customer growth following the Go-To-Market Operating System from GTM Partners and Gainsight.
