Executives think in three buckets:
How do we grow revenue?
How do we reduce costs or inefficiency?
How do we reduce risk (operational, compliance, or financial)?
If your CSM can’t tie your product to one of those buckets, they will never earn ongoing executive trust.
This is why talking features is dangerous:
Features anchor conversations in the product, not the executive’s goals.
Features trigger “we aren’t using that…” responses.
Features create a support relationship, not a strategic one.
Features do nothing to justify price increases, expansions, or multi-year commitments.
Value conversations flip the script.
When a CSM leads with business impact, the conversation shifts from:
“Let me show you what the platform can do…”
to
“Let me show you how this improves revenue productivity.”
Executives lean in.
Budgets unlock.
Renewal risk drops.
How to Train CSMs to Speak the CFO’s Language
Below are the four competencies commercially-minded CSMs need to build.
1. Start Every Conversation With the Business Goal
Every account has a reason they bought your product, but most teams lose that thread after onboarding.
A strong CSM consistently reinforces:
Why the customer bought
Which KPIs they’re tracking
What business result they must achieve this quarter
Use phrases like:
“Remind me, what metric will improve if we solve this?”
“How does your CFO measure success for this initiative?”
“Which teams benefit financially when this workflow improves?”
This information becomes the anchor of every roadmap, QBR, and renewal discussion.
2. Translate Features → Benefits → Business Impact
This is where most CSMs struggle.
They show a feature, explain how it works, and hope the customer “gets it.”
Instead, train them to climb the value ladder:
Feature → Benefit → Business Impact → Dollar Impact
Example (generic, but easily adapted):
Feature: Automated reporting
Benefit: Saves each manager 3–5 hours per week
Business Impact: Faster decision-making + reduced manual labor
Dollar Impact: Saves ~$75k annually in time + improves speed to revenue
When you train CSMs to always make that leap, every product conversation becomes a business conversation.
3. Tie Every Outcome to a Financial Bucket
Help your team memorize the big levers:
Revenue Levers
Pipeline growth
Faster time-to-value or faster time-to-revenue
Improved sales productivity
Higher customer retention (for your customer’s customers)
Cost Levers
Fewer manual tasks
Lower software/tool overlap
Reduced operational overhead
Reduced support burden
Risk Levers
Compliance alignment
Reduced process failures
Better governance and predictability
Less reliance on a single individual or tribal knowledge
If a CSM can attach their product to one of these levers, they suddenly become a strategist, not a feature tour guide.
4. Replace “Product Updates” With “Business Reviews”
Here’s the truth:
Executives do not care about how many new buttons you shipped.
But they do care about:
The business outcomes you’ve delivered so far
The financial impact created
What is needed to hit next year’s goals
Where expansion accelerates those outcomes
Train your CSMs to frame everything like this:
“Based on your revenue targets, here are the blockers we see and the product capabilities that remove them.”
This is what earns multi-threaded champions, budget, and long-term partnership.
A Simple Team Exercise: Feature → Benefit → Business Impact Worksheet
Use this exercise in team meetings to start getting your CSM’s to think about how business impact is mapped.
Feature → Benefit → Business Impact Mapping Worksheet
Step 1: List 5–7 of your most misunderstood or most important features.
Step 2: Fill in each column to start to map out how these features are tied to business and then financial impact:
Feature | Benefit (User Outcome) | Business Impact (Team/Org Outcome) | Financial Impact ($) |
Example: Automated reporting | Saves managers 3–5 hours weekly | More time spent coaching reps → increased rep productivity | ~$75k–$150k annual productivity lift |
Example: Workflow automation | Reduces manual data entry | Fewer errors + faster cycles | ~$50k savings in rework + faster revenue cycles |
Example: Insights dashboard | Gives leaders visibility into KPIs | Better forecasting + reduced revenue leakage | Improved forecast accuracy → protects $XM in risk |
Add yours | |||
Add yours | |||
Add yours |
This can now become the backbone of:
QBR slides
Success plans
Renewal justification
Expansion messaging
Executive emails
Internal account planning
The more your CSMs practice this, the more revenue they will generate—simply by speaking the language executives actually care about.
The Bottom Line
If you want commercially minded CSMs, you must train them to think like revenue leaders.
That means:
No more feature tours
No more adoption for adoption’s sake
No more “here’s what’s new in the product”
Instead, develop a team that can articulate:
“Here’s the business goal →
Here’s how our product accelerates it →
Here’s the financial impact you gain.”
When CSMs do that consistently, renewals become the default,
expansion becomes predictable,
and CS becomes a true revenue engine, not a cost center.
What do you currently struggle with when it comes to communicating business value to your customers? Reply to this email anytime :)
Onwards,
Mark
