Most Customer Success teams didn’t “fail by becoming too commercial.”
They failed by staying operational while the business went revenue-first.
This distinction matters, and the data backs it up.
The Operational Trap: Activity ≠ Business Impact
Customer Success is drowning in activity metrics: login counts, feature usage scores, health indices. These feel reassuring, but they don’t predict retention or expansion reliably.
Example:
A CSM at a QBR or Renewal event proudly says, “Adoption is at 90%.”
But the CFO or Economic Buyer at that company responds:
“Great, what business outcome did that create?”
That’s because executives don’t buy dashboards, they buy results.
According to industry benchmarks, companies that prioritize customer success strategically see significantly stronger business outcomes:
Businesses with proactive CS teams experience 20–30% higher revenue growth.
78% of SaaS firms report improved customer retention through success initiatives.
CS teams are correlated with higher customer lifetime value (CLV).
These aren’t just soft feelings, they’re real ROI signals from mature CS orgs. But the key here is being a outcome orientated and proactive CS initiative vs reactive or strictly activity based.
The Commercial Imperative: From Cost Center to Growth Engine
The economics of SaaS make this shift unavoidable:
It costs 5x more to acquire a new customer than to retain one.
A 5% improvement in retention can boost profits by 25–95%.
Companies with strong CS see Net Revenue Retention (NRR) >100%, meaning existing customers pay more over time than they churn.
Yet despite these numbers, CS is often still treated like a reactive service group, not a revenue engine.
A recent leadership study found that although 74% of revenue for many SaaS teams now comes from existing customers, CS still struggles to own the narrative on revenue impact.
Operational CS Fails Because It Avoids Commercial Conversations
There are three common execution breakdowns:
1️⃣ Usage Instead of Outcomes
Usage metrics matter, but they don’t convey why a customer should renew. Adoption without business language is invisible to executives.
2️⃣ Expansion as an Event
Too many teams treat expansion as something that happens at renewal. In reality, it should be a continuous dialogue grounded in outcomes.
3️⃣ Assumed Value
Teams often assume customers see the value, but customers must feel it, articulate it, and justify it internally, especially when budgets tighten.
This is where CS differs from support and from classical account management:
Customer Success must bridge value delivery with commercial language that drives business decisions.
How Sales Thinks About It (and Why It Works)
Sales organizations are heavily trained in:
Asking discovery questions
Quantifying pain
Earning the right to talk about money
Contrast that with many CS structures where talking about money, even renewal value, isn’t something they are very confident about
The result?
Sales teaches momentum and decision pace.
CS often teaches comfort and compliance.
To thrive as a strategic function, CS must balance both.
Here are some Practical Takeaways
If your CS team can’t describe customer value in terms executives care about, you’re operating a support team, not a revenue engine.
If expansion is only discussed in QBRs or renewal windows, you’re too late.
If customer churn is only guessed at through health scores, you’re flying blind.
CS teams that move from operational to commercial language see better retention, expansion, and influence inside the business.
One key to operating in a more commercial mindset….. Discovery
If Customer Success wants to be seen as a growth engine, not a cost center, then discovery is non-negotiable.
Most CS teams don’t fail at expansion because customers don’t have more problems to solve.
They fail because those problems are never discovered early enough.
Expansion is often treated as:
A renewal-stage conversation
A pricing discussion
A “nice to have” add-on once trust is established
That framing is backwards.
Expansion Is Not a Moment, It’s a Continuous Motion
Sales doesn’t wait until proposal stage to qualify a deal.
They qualify continuously:
Is the problem still painful?
Has urgency increased?
Has the business changed?
Who else is now involved?
Yet in CS, we often wait until renewal to ask:
“Are you interested in expanding?”
By then, the answer is already decided.
Expansion isn’t something you ask for.
It’s something you earn the right to discuss through ongoing discovery.
The Cost of Treating Expansion as an Event
When expansion discovery is delayed:
Pipeline feels unpredictable
Forecasts are reactive
Renewals feel tense and transactional
CS leaders are “surprised” by churn or downsell
This isn’t a relationship issue.
It’s a discovery gap.
In high-performing CS organizations, expansion conversations begin months earlier, often disguised as simple questions like:
“What changes for your team if this problem isn’t solved in the next six months?”
“What priorities are coming from your leadership that we haven’t addressed yet?”
“If you were to scale this initiative next quarter, what would break first?”
These aren’t sales questions.
They’re business questions.
Expansion Discovery Is How CS Protects Value
Here’s the critical reframe:
Sales uses discovery to win deals.
Customer Success uses discovery to protect and grow value.
When CS teams consistently surface:
New risks
New priorities
New stakeholders
New constraints
They don’t just uncover expansion opportunities.
They prevent silent churn.
Because the most dangerous accounts aren’t unhappy ones —
they’re accounts whose business outgrew the original conversation.
Some things to think about…
If expansion only shows up in QBR decks or renewal forecasts, it’s already too late.
Customer Success teams that treat expansion discovery as a year-round motion:
Create predictable growth
Reduce renewal pressure
Increase executive trust
Earn credibility with Finance and Sales
Expansion doesn’t start with pricing.
It starts with curiosity, context, and courage.
And that’s the real shift from operational CS to commercial CS.
“Customer Success doesn’t drive expansion by selling more.
It drives expansion by discovering more.”
We have a full series of how to uplevel your CS into a commercial skillset and mindset coming soon. If you aren’t subscribed yet make sure to sign up, it’s free and we will never abuse your email :)
