Customer Success is the Next-Sale Team

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I read a LinkedIn post this week from David Karp, CCO at Disqo, and he said something that instantly struck a chord. He described Customer Success as being the “next-sale” team and not "post-sales." And I think David is entirely right.

Thinking of Customer Success as "post-sales" positions the team as the final step in a linear process. This mindset relegates them to a reactive, almost defensive posture, where their primary job is to fix problems rather than create opportunities. It's a limited view that not only caps their potential but also subtly communicates to the customer that the most important transaction is already over. But this perspective misses the entire point. Your CS team isn't the end of the customer journey; they are the architects of the next phase. They aren't "post-sales"; they are the "next-sales" team.

The CS role isn't simply to keep customers happy or solve support tickets. That's reactive, and frankly, it's table stakes in today's market. The true mission of a world-class Customer Success team is to proactively lead customers to realise value. This means becoming strategic partners who understand the customer's business objectives so deeply that they can guide them toward the most impactful features and workflows. They are the ones on the ground, translating the promise made during the sales cycle into tangible, measurable business outcomes for the user.

When a customer deeply understands and utilises your product to achieve their own goals, a powerful psychological shift occurs. They stop seeing your product as just another tool they pay for and start seeing it as an indispensable part of their success. They don't just stick around out of convenience; they grow with you because their success is now intertwined with yours. This is where the "next-sale" organically happens. It’s rarely a dramatic, high-pressure close. It’s the natural, almost inevitable expansion that comes from a customer succeeding so thoroughly that they can't imagine working without you. It’s the department head who requests more seats for their growing team, the power user who champions an upgrade to the premium tier, or the executive who asks, "What else can your platform do for us?" This is revenue born from realised value, not a forced sales pitch.

So, how do we empower our CS teams to fully embody this "next-sales" mindset? It's a cultural and strategic shift that begins with leaders. It requires moving beyond the defensive language of churn mitigation and embracing an offensive strategy focused on value creation and expansion.

And that’s it for this edition. See you again next week!

If you’re an early-stage SaaS company unsure about how to implement your Customer Success function, we have specific services designed to set you up.

Get in touch for an initial conversation: [email protected]

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