Should customer success and implementation teams be involved before a deal closes?

Frank Fillmann · Mar 22, 2023

Sales should bring customer success onto client-facing sales calls and run 'success reviews' instead of quarterly business reviews, elevating CS during the deal rather than handing off after it.

It makes CS critical path instead of a lagging function chasing everyone, shows the client you're driving value rather than just selling, and avoids handing a big deal to a success manager who doesn't even know what was bought.

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Mark Goldberger · Apr 19, 2023

Implementation and CS teams should be introduced before the deal closes, because onboarding and success planning are part of the sales process

Aligning on the implementation plan and what success looks like makes the buyer more comfortable moving forward and means they already have a relationship with the team they'll work with

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Steve Goldberg · Dec 13, 2023

CS must be brought into the pre-sales process rather than handed the customer after implementation, so buyers see the customer journey before they buy.

In a competitive market where everyone claims similar value props, the differentiator is the ability to make customers successful, and the only way to prove that in a sales cycle is to let them experience working with you.

Scope: contrasts with other CROs who do the handoff post-implementation

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Ben Fiechtner · Aug 2, 2024

A clean sales-to-CS handoff is determined by how the deal was sold: an outcome-based sale that maps the customer's implementation journey upfront hands CS a blueprint, and no CS team can rescue a shallow sale.

If presales has mapped business impact, implementation complexity and go-live timing, CS can pick it up as if they'd been along for the ride.

26:58 Outcome based sale mapping implementation upfront produces clean cs handoff

Mark Goldberger · Apr 19, 2023

CS shouldn't need separate commission for presales involvement because they are already compensated on adoption, which helping close the deal drives

In usage-based companies CS is paid on adoption curves, so bringing in a deal that then adopts pays them

43:50 Adoption comp already covers presale work