Sonja Damerval

Just because a rep logs into a tool doesn’t mean they’re using it. Adoption metrics are a trap. Logins. Seats used. Days active. They look good on paper, but they say nothing about impact. What matters is utilization with intent: → Are reps using Sales Nav to find the warmest entry path? → Are they leveraging intent signals to prioritize outreach? → Are they saving time with AI, like updating SFDC automatically from call data? This is where RevOps and Enablement either align or create friction. Enablement gets the team trained. RevOps ensures training becomes execution. If one side stops short, the tool turns into shelfware. You don’t drive revenue with logins. You drive it when your stack makes it easier to sell the right way. #revenueoperations #revops #enablement #hashtagbingo #isthishowinfluencingworks

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5 Comments

If I was to start a CSM motion today, these are the ten things I would automate ASAP (or design workflows/playbooks to support automation down the road), so my team could be more strategic and deliver value quickly. 1. The Sales-to-CS Handoff. Stop chasing AE notes. Automate the creation of the Success Plan or Account Record as soon as the deal is marked "Closed Won" in the CRM. Gong is awesome for this. 2. "Tech-Touch" onboarding sequences for lower-tier segments or ancillary products that take less rigor to operate. Trigger a drip campaign of welcome emails, guides, and training videos the moment a license is assigned. 3. QBR & EBR scheduling, stop the email ping-pong. Trigger an automated sequence 45 days before the due date that includes a Calendly (or similar) link for the client to book their review. 4. Risk alerts (usage drops). Don't wait for the churn call. Set up triggers when login frequency or key feature usage drops by X% over 30 days, alerting the CSM immediately. 5. NPS & CSAT distribution. Automate survey sends based on key milestones (e.g., 30 days post-onboarding or after a support ticket close) rather than manual blasts. HINT: Agentic AI can also do most of this at a higher rate. 6. Renewal reminders (internal & external). Automate internal slack/email alerts to the CSM XX amount of days out, and automated "upcoming renewal" notifications to the client XX days out. Bonus: if you use a CSP with a dashboard, have these auto populate tasks on the dashboard for follow up. 7. CSM account assignment. Use logic-based rules (territory, industry, or current load) to automatically assign new accounts to the right CSM without manager intervention. 8. Meeting follow-ups & CRM entry. Use AI notetakers to capture the call, summarize action items, and push the notes directly into the timeline on the Customer Object. 9. Success plan progress updates. Configure your CSP to automatically flag when a "Goal" date has passed without completion, prompting a check-in. 10. "Congratulations" notes. Trigger simple congrats emails when a customer hits a usage milestone (e.g., "You just processed your 1,000th order!"). It builds rapport with zero effort. The Goal: Automate the predictable so you can humanize the exceptional. Which of these is saving your team the most time right now? 👇 #CustomerSuccess #SaaS #Automation #CSOps #Productivity

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2 Comments

"We can't do that." You're about to tell a customer something they don't want to hear. Here's how to say it without destroying the relationship. Delivering bad news is the hardest part of customer support. Especially when they're already upset, the stakes are high, and what they're asking for isn't possible. I've delivered a lot of bad news, refund denials, feature rejections, and outages during critical periods. Here's the framework that keeps trust intact even when the answer is no. I call it CLEAR: C - Context first Don't bury the lead. Tell them why you're reaching out. "I'm reaching out about your refund request from December 18th. I want to explain our decision and what options are available." No ambiguity. No hiding behind corporate language. L - Lead with empathy Acknowledge the real impact before delivering the news. "I understand this charge came at a difficult time, and you were expecting a full refund based on your experience." Empathy isn't saying sorry. It's showing you understand what this means to them. E - Explain honestly Be transparent, even when the truth is uncomfortable. "Our refund policy allows full refunds within 30 days for technical issues. Since this was reported on day 45 and related to usage questions rather than a technical failure, I can't process a full refund under policy." Customers don't need you to bend rules. They need to understand why the answer is no. A - Action plan Don't stop at no. Show what you CAN do. "Here's what I can offer: → 1-month service extension to make up for the disrupted time → Priority access to our new training resources → Direct line to me if issues come up again" Action rebuilds confidence when the answer isn't what they wanted. R - Responsibility & follow-up Own your part. Follow through. "I escalated your case to see if an exception was possible. Leadership confirmed we need to hold to policy, but I wanted you to know I tried. I'll check in next week to make sure the extension is working well for you." Ownership changes the tone. Following up proves you meant it. The principle: Bad news doesn't get better with delay. Deliver it quickly. Deliver it honestly. Deliver it with a clear plan for what happens next. And never promise what you can't deliver.

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15 Comments

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what makes a great CSM. It’s not sticking to the traditional playbook. The best CSMs I’ve worked with are the ones who ignore it. The reality? Most CSMs don’t struggle because they’re doing too little. They struggle because they spend too much time “checking boxes” rather than focusing on value. Here are a few things we need to stop: - Tick the box QBRs that don't help ANYBODY ❌ - Weekly check-ins with no agenda or follow-ups ❌ - Health scores that don't include qualitative & quantitative data ❌ These aren’t best practices, they’re busy work. And they get in the way of what matters. The top CSMs I’ve seen do things differently - - Multithread - Help customers get clear on what success looks like - Align on the metrics that truly matter - Create genuine strategic partnerships - Drive accountability, internally and externally. - Test, learn, adjust - Demonstrate impact and ROI clearly Our job isn’t to keep customers happy. It’s to make them successful. It’s to help them grow. That’s what earns renewals. That’s what drives expansion. That’s what builds trust.

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9 Comments

Every CSM's nightmare: You log in Monday morning to find your champion's email bouncing. "This person is no longer with the company." Your stomach drops. 6 months of relationship building...gone. And you have exactly zero other contacts at this account. A natural reflex for lots of CSMs is to scramble. Cold email random people. Desperately search LinkedIn. Pray someone responds before renewal. If you wanna get ahead of this type of risk, try asking one (admittedly uncomfortable) question during kickoff: "If you got hit by a bus tomorrow, who would need to know about this?" Morbid? Yes. Effective? Oh you betcha. Here's what actually happens when you ask this question: First, they laugh nervously. Then they think. Then they realize they're a single point of failure. Then they volunteer backup contacts without you looking like you're trying to go around them. Here are some ways to operationalize this: 1. The kickoff chess move. Create a "Roles & Responsibilities" slide. Not because you need it. Because they need to see it. List out: - Executive Sponsor (for strategic decisions). - Adoption Owner (for daily operations). - Technical Contact (for integrations). - Financial Contact (for renewals). Then say: "We find successful partnerships have these roles covered. Who would these be on your side?" 2. The quarterly insurance policy. Every quarter, send an "Executive Update" directly to the decision maker. Not through your champion. Around them. "Hi Sarah, copying John who I work with daily. Wanted to ensure you have visibility into the value we're driving..." Your champion can't get mad. You're being transparent. You're including them. But you're also building a relationship they can't gatekeep. 3. The LinkedIn shadow network. Connect with everyone who attends your business reviews. Everyone who uses your product. Everyone mentioned in passing. Not to sell them. Just to exist in their periphery. So when your champion leaves, you're not a stranger...you're that helpful person from the vendor they kind of remember. 4. The usage data play. Track who's actually logging into your platform. When your champion leaves, you already know the five most active users. Reach out to them directly: "Hey, noticed you've been getting great results with [specific feature]. With John's departure, wanted to ensure you have the support you need." All you're doing is providing continuity. One CSM during a monthly CSM Peer Group we host at Sales Assembly said last week that she does this with every account: "I assume my champion will leave within 12 months. I plan accordingly." Her retention rate? 94%. Average CSM retention rate when champions leave? 67%. Stop putting all your eggs in one person's basket. Those buses are everywhere, people! And people change jobs faster than you change passwords. Build the network BEFORE you need it.

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50 Comments

If your CSMs don’t want a renewal quota, maybe they just don’t want true accountability. There, I said it. Sorry not sorry. I was talking with another Founder this week about their CSM team where the CSM leader doesn't have a number on their head. Great person. Great communicator. Team player. But the second you talk about retention as a metric, or NRR as a target, to which they're going to be held accountable. Here come the excuses... “It’s not my CSM's team job to sell.” "You're going to turn us into salespeople." Really? If you give marketing a revenue number or a leads number, are THEY now salespeople? So if you're managing post-sale relationships and not measured on client retention or NRR, then what IS your job? So called "sales gurus" talk a lot about alignment across Sales, Marketing and Customer Success. But there’s no alignment without shared accountability. Like, real accountability. The kind where you will get fired if you fall short. And yes...that includes a quota. I don’t care if you call it a renewal quota, a retention goal, or NRR responsibility. If you want CSMs to be taken seriously as a revenue function, then tie them to revenue. And if you're a CRO (Chief REVENUE Officer) and your CSM team doesn't have a Revenue Renewal Quota, what are you thinking? If they don't have a quota, you really just have a customer service team. I’m not saying CSMs should be out there closing expansion deals, especially not by themselves. I’m saying they should be accountable for the business outcomes of the clients they manage. They keep saying "time to value." Great, now you're held accountable to your words. Renewals are outcomes. So is churn. And when NO ONE owns the renewal number, everyone blames everyone else when things go sideways. If a CSM wants to work strategic accounts, great, work 'em. If they want to build deep client relationships, super cool. But if you're doing your CSM job without real accountability, all the rest is just fluff. So the next time your CSM team flinches at the word “quota,” ask yourself: Have you created the right kind of expectations and accountability around their role? Or just build a nice little customer service team that's a cost center? I’ve learned this the hard way. And I’ve seen what happens when you get it right. What do you think is stopping more orgs from setting clear revenue expectations for their CSMs?

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6 Comments

I'm increasingly convinced 80% of a CSMs troubles begin after one thing happens Taking their focus off ensuring the customer is getting value. That’s when churn becomes more likely. Renewal becomes uncertain. Expansion becomes unlikely. Because the entire job of Customer Success is simple: Make sure the customer is actually getting what value means to them. ❌ Not what value means to you... ❌ Not what the product team thinks is impressive... ❌ Not what looks good in a QBR deck.... ✅ What value means to them. Everything we do: Health scores. Onboarding frameworks. Quarterly reviews. Playbooks. Escalations. All of it exists for one reason. To increase the probability that the customer achieves meaningful progress. The problem is this: Many CSMs get distracted. They optimise for activity metrics but they forget that customers don't want to login Into your product... they only want to login if it helps them make profit, reduce costs, reduce risks... they Optimise for being liked... but forget customers want pushback if it'll get them what they want so slowly, the core job gets diluted. and here's the bitter truth... 📌 If the customer is not progressing, nothing else matters. Not the number of calls. Not the CSAT score. Not how “engaged” they sound. Progress is the only real protection against churn. Which is why you have to be protective of your job. ⏰Protect your time from low-leverage tasks. ⚔️ Protect onboarding from unnecessary complexity. 🛡️ Protect renewals from being treated as last-minute negotiations. And if you’re in an environment where doing your actual job is difficult: Where bad-fit deals are constantly passed over... Where data is unreliable... Where you have no visibility into product gaps... Where expansion is prioritised over value delivery... ❌ Then your responsibility is not to complain. ✅ It’s to fix what you can. Improve the signal quality... Clarify what value actually means for your accounts... Push for better handovers... Document patterns... 📌 Because when customers consistently get value, everything else becomes easier. Churn drops. Renewals stabilise. Expansion feels natural. Customer Success is not complicated. But it is disciplined. Stay focused on value. Everything else is noise.

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2 Comments