A lot of the time, the line between Sales and Customer Success doesn't exist in early stage companies. Nils will share the simple steps you can take to align Sales and Customer Success.

Early on in my role as VP of Customer Success, we didn't even have renewals. We were that early. I had one CSM and eventually hired another CSM. My CSMs were Built to Serve, and our team worked very well together. The challenge that we faced, which all early stage Customer Success leaders will eventually face, was defining who owns the renewal. This happens under a lot of pressure when a significant amount of revenue is on the line, and the renewal is around the corner. Here's how it played out for me.

I was adamant about having sales own the actual event of the renewal. My CEO was worried because he wanted the sales team 100% focused on new business sales. I brought his attention to the dollars and 'sense' of splitting the responsibility, by saying "It's great to drive new business, however, our renewal stack of revenue is going to be larger than our new business stack of revenue, every quarter after the first year. That's where we are today."

After spending some time thinking it through, he said, "OK. The sales rep who sold the deal will be responsible for the renewal." We sat down and sketched it out. We created a seven checkpoint renewal plan which helped us get crystal clear on exactly what needed to happen at each stage of the relationship. We weren't leaving anything to chance.

We introduced the Account Executive and set expectations during the Quarterly Business Review. Then, we informed the customer why they were coming back into the conversation. The Account Executive would have a discussion about the commercial terms for the renewal in next year, including price changes and any other unresolved special conditions.

We would have an internal meeting to prepare for the third QBR, where the CSM would prepare everything and we would make sure everyone is completely aligned and agreed around the responsibilities in the meeting, as well as the key outcomes for both the AE and CSM. These were all checklist items, and we set up a report in Salesforce.

For every upcoming renewal, we could easily see where someone was, including the days until the renewal event and exactly what needed to happen on our side. When we ticked off all of those items, we were in great shape for the renewal. Here's a sample of the questions we answered?

• Was the account manager (Built to Sell) introduced to the client? Yes / No
• Did they have a separate contract call with the sponsor? Yes / No
• Did the account manager and CSM team up on any outstanding issues before the final contract terms were sent for the renewal? Yes / No
• Were the contract terms received by the client? Yes / No
• Was the renewal confirmed and signed? Yes / No

The coordination, relationship-building, execution and follow-through made this process work.

Even though we were a small organization, I discovered the sales team had already started pushing forward with their strategy and process for renewals, too! There were two teams in the same office having two separate conversations about the same customer. Talk about inefficiency at it's worst!

Each business is different, but the relationship between Built to Serve and Built to Sell is critical. As a Customer Success leader, you should become the best friend with your Sales counterparts, by seeking to understand them and their world. Entice them into your world of Customer Success too, regardless of who owns the revenue number. Your Sales and Success efforts should compound, not run against each other.