CS->A Growth Enabler, Not Just a Flag Bearer for Post-Sales Revenue

For years, Customer Success (CS) has been mistakenly equated with high-touch support—a glorified daycare service ensuring customers don’t churn.

But the reality is far more strategic. CS professionals are the closest to the customer’s journey, understanding their use cases, growth aspirations, pain points, and the features that drive measurable ROI. If leveraged correctly, CS can be the strongest driver of post-sales growth.

However, when SaaS leadership burdens CS teams with aggressive farming quotas, they risk turning strategic advisors into transactional sales reps, diluting their core value.

The Pitfalls of Target-Driven CS Teams

Many SaaS organizations fall into the trap of pushing annual revenue quotas onto CS teams, expecting them to drive upsells and expansions under pressure. This leads to a fundamental shift in how CS engages with customers:

• Forced Sales Mentality: When CS is held accountable for hard quotas, it often results in pushing high-cost features rather than identifying solutions that truly solve customer pain points.
• Eroding Trust: Customers view CSMs as problem-solvers, not salespeople. The moment they sense a sales-driven agenda, trust diminishes, making conversations more transactional and less strategic.
• Short-Term Gains, Long-Term Pain: Aggressive upselling may boost short-term numbers, but if customers don’t derive real value, retention suffers. This churn erodes any gains made through forced expansions.

Data Speaks: Strategic Growth vs. Quota-Based Farming

A recent study by TSIA (Technology & Services Industry Association) highlights that companies with a consultative, outcome-driven CS approach see 2x higher expansion revenue compared to those where CS is quota-driven.

Furthermore, a 2023 Gainsight report found that 72% of customers are more likely to expand their contracts when they see a direct correlation between CS recommendations and business impact.

So, what’s the alternative? CS should be a strategic enabler of growth, not a forced revenue driver.

Shifting to a Consultative Growth Model

1. CS as a Growth Consultant, Not a Sales Rep

The best sales don’t feel like sales. When a CSM genuinely understands a customer’s bottlenecks and recommends solutions that align with their goals, expansion becomes an organic outcome, not a forced push.

Example: Instead of pitching an expensive analytics module just to meet a quota, a CSM should demonstrate how improved reporting can reduce operational inefficiencies. If the customer sees the impact, they will naturally want to invest.

2. Customer-Led Growth: Aligning Solutions with Business Impact

Gartner’s 2024 Customer Success Report reveals that companies prioritizing customer-led growth—where CS identifies opportunities based on deep business insights—see a 30% higher net retention rate (NRR).

Rather than imposing sales targets, companies should empower CS to:

• Conduct strategic business reviews that focus on value realization.
• Use data-driven insights to highlight where customers can optimize their processes.
• Engage in executive-level discussions to align solutions with business objectives.

3. Partnership Between CS and Sales for Authentic Expansion

Instead of making CS teams responsible for expansion revenue, a better approach is a co-owned model where:

• CSMs identify growth opportunities based on customer needs.
• Sales takes the lead on commercial conversations, ensuring a structured deal process.
• Leadership measures CS on customer outcomes, not revenue targets.

Customer Success is not a sales function—it’s a growth function. When CS is empowered to be a strategic advisor rather than a forced revenue driver, customers see the value, expansion happens naturally, and retention strengthens.

The future of CS lies in consultative, customer-centric growth, not transactional quota chasing. Let’s reframe the conversation: CS is the enabler, not the enforcer, of post-sales revenue growth.