I had a friend who worked as a sales engineer. His job seemed like a lot of fun. It got me thinking "I know technology. I know how to build relationships. I can play both sides, why don't I become a sales rep? I'd probably make a lot more money and have a lot more fun." So, I went to work for Xerox as door-knocking sales rep.

Over five months, I learned what it meant to be a Built to Serve person in a Built to Sell world. When I started, I went through two weeks of training, and it was straightforward. I finished the course, and the reality of prospecting and selling hit me like a ton of bricks. I had to knock on 80 doors and make 80 cold calls every single week. I had to prove to my boss that I had been making my calls, by showing him the business cards I had collected. After three months of soul-crushing cold-calls and rejections, I closed my first deal. The truth is, I didn't close anything. I got lucky because the contract was up for renewal and I was in the right place at the right time.

I hated the job but took it upon myself to improve. I told myself that if I worked harder, I might start to see results. I would wake up at 5:30 AM and read sales books like the Art of Selling. The books were helpful and useful, but my schedule started to take its toll. I would leave for work around 7 AM and start driving. I was living in Los Angeles at the time, so I had to cover the west side, the Valley, Burbank and the Hollywood area. If you've driven through LA, you'll know that the traffic is torturous. Oddly enough, I started to enjoy driving because the traffic gave me a reprieve from the reality and pressure of my job.

I wasn't improving, so my manager sent me to Xerox University, just outside of Washington DC for three days. I loved it. The training environment was fun; I met some great people and had a chance to exhale and be myself for a few days. Then the weight hit me, again. I felt terrible. I despised my job, but I didn't know exactly why. The five months of pushing, forcing and trying to fit the mold of a salesperson made me crack. I was depressed.

I came back from the training and quit Xerox. My manager was upset because they had invested a lot of money to send me to training, but I had to get out of there. I completely broke down. I felt like a failure. I didn't know where or who I was. I felt lost. I was slumped over on the couch, sobbing. My wife came home from work to help me, and I didn't know which way was up.

I got some professional help.

It took a few months for me to unpack what happened and it was very helpful. I emerged with a great perspective from the hardest five months of my life. My main learning is that I went so hard against the grain of who I was that it nearly drove me crazy. I was Built to Serve but was forcing myself to sell. This experience was painful, but I'm grateful for it. I learned that being aligned with my work, understanding my strengths and flexing them daily was the path to happiness, fulfillment and career success.

So, how does Nils' story apply to you and your Customer Success team?

It all starts with structure. No matter your company stage, you need a clear division between Sales and Customer Success. Aligning the right people to the right role is a huge leverage point for your entire organization.

Here's how we define the company stages:

Early: You've raised a seed round and are marching towards your Series A. Your priority is discovering how to serve the needs of your customers as they bear with your growing pains. You're building your Customer Success organization.

Mid: You've raised a B round and are marching towards your Series C. You have formalized your Customer Success processes, training and have invested in a Customer Success platform. You're scaling your Customer Success team.

Late: Your company is pre-IPO or publicly traded. You have a well-oiled Customer Success machine, operating at scale with the support of multiple departments, with executive level buy-in and support. You're optimizing your established Customer Success team.

When you're in the early stage, you can kick off Customer Success with a single CSM. They will be the first receiver of customers who come through your sales pipeline. They will be the conduit between customers, product and engineering teams. They will own the customer relationship. This 'founding CSM' role is an enormous responsibility.

To expedite hiring, look for someone who has more than 24 months of experience in Customer Success or a closely aligned field. They should have a track record of architecting their work environment. When you put someone in an early-stage role without the right experience, you face a major risk because there are so many different priorities to juggle. A new CSM will become overwhelmed and spread themselves too thin.

Even at the early stage, the commercial terms of a sale should be placed in the hands of someone who is Built to Sell, because they are naturally talented to do it. As the leader, the responsibility might fall on you, an account manager or the original salesperson who closed the deal.

If you put a person who is Built to Serve in a sales role, you will be forcing them to go against their natural instincts. They will need to put themselves before the client. There will be conflict, and your customer will recognize it. You will also set your CSM up for failure. They might renew a few contracts, but they're not going to push for an upsell. They simply aren't wired to ask for more money, and you will leave a lot of revenue on the table.

In the early stage of a company, you might be shorthanded on salespeople. Your CSM might sheepishly volunteer to own the renewal, in fact, they might even try to convince you that they are a natural born closer. In our experience, this never works and is sub-optimal. When you don't separate responsibilities, you end up with fuzzy internal expectations and a confused purpose of what Customer Success means to your organization.

Your CEO might say "Oh, you're supposed to provide an incredible experience" while the VP of Sales might expect your team to own the CS org to own everything post-sale. As a Customer Success Manager on the front lines, fuzziness is a huge source of frustration. Without division between the Built to Serve and Built to Sell people, confusion will prevail. And when your team isn't clear on their responsibility or aligned with their work, it's impossible for them to excel.

If your company is at mid-stage, the value of the partnership between Built to Serve and Built to Sell is quantifiable. There are likely millions of renewal dollars on the table, every quarter.

Nils is going to share how partnering up with a sales rep helped him not only renew, but expand the value of a Fortune 500 contract by $100,000. Over to Nils.