FOUNDER’S GUIDE TO B2B SALES SHOULD SUCCESS REPORT INTO SALES? Pros and cons If the first controversial customer success question is, “should it exist?” the second one is, “if so, should it report into sales?” Pros of separate customer success organisation • Focus: sales teams are focused on New ARR, while CS teams are focused on adoption and renewals • Checks and balances: VP of Success owns a huge number, customer success can call out sales when overselling Cons of separate customer success organisation • Non-collaborative: In separate CS and sales functions, sales teams can be less inclined or incentivised to help customer success on hard renewals, while the CS teams aren’t on hand to drive easy expansions • Recruiting: top-quality CRO candidates may insist on owning both functions As a result, most, but certainly not all, companies integrate sales and customer success if and when they hire an overall revenue owner e.g. CRO. Titles do not tell all: some CROs are focused only on sales TO LEARN MORE ABOUT RENEWING / EXPANDING • Customer Success by Nick Mehta • Five Organizational Models of Customer Success by GainSight • The Three Types of CSM by Dave Kellogg • Eight Causes of Churn by ProfitWell • Revops Squared SaaS Benchmarks by Ray Rike • Churn is Dead, Long Live NDR by Dave Kellogg SPRING 2023 .37