Also called: CSM, Customer Success
TL;DR
The post-sale owner of the customer relationship, responsible for adoption, retention, and expansion of an account.
CSMs take over after the AE closes the deal. Their job is to drive adoption (the customer actually uses the product), retention (the customer renews), and expansion (the customer adds seats, modules, or use cases). The role compounds value: a strong CS function turns a one-time sale into a long-term annuity.
CS economics depend on book-of-business size and segment. A high-touch enterprise CSM might own 10 to 20 accounts; a low-touch SMB CSM might own hundreds. Mismatched ratios produce churn.
A CSM owns 35 mid-market accounts totaling $2.4M ARR, drives QBRs every quarter, owns the renewal P&L, and is comp'd 60% on gross retention + 40% on expansion. A CSM costs ~$130k loaded; the ratio breaks even around $1.5 to 2M ARR/CSM.
Land-and-expand decks emphasize CSM coverage and NRR as the engine of long-term ARR growth.
The percentage of recurring revenue retained from a cohort after one year, including expansion, contraction, and churn.
A motion where a small initial deployment grows into a much larger account through additional seats, products, or use cases.
The percentage of customers (logos) who cancel in a given period, regardless of how much revenue they represented.
The percentage of recurring revenue lost from existing customers in a period through cancellation or downgrade.
The sales rep who owns the deal cycle from qualified opportunity to signed contract, carrying revenue quota.
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