Dale Zwizinski

🤝 Chief GTM Officer | YOUR GTM Special Ops Team | Founder enabled GTM Strategy -> Data vs. Gut | Give > Receive | Recovering Coder | Extending Runways for Founders | Must haves 💪 Grind 🧠 Integrity 🎯 Coachability

An energetic, top performing sales professional, leader, and coach who is passionate about the Cloud based technologies.  More than 20 yrs experience with enterprise sales and known for my ability to grow and enhance businesses.   Working with innovative technologies and platforms to make customer successful wakes me up in the morning!
 
A self-starter who is happiest when helping customers enhance their business with innovative technologies.  It is important to stay ahead of trends and looking for ways to help a customer grow their business and improve their products/services.  The sales environment has changed dramatically over the last 5 years, the next 5 years will be a monumental shift --> Sales, Marketing and Service are on a collision course.

The pursuit of sales and maintaining customer satisfaction has taken me around the globe.  Establishing contacts and a track record of success in the financial service market throughout China, Asia, Mexico, and the United Kingdom, just to name a few.  Every sales person should be well versed in cultural differences and knows that paying attention to such details can make or break a sale.

SALES is changing and utilizing every available channel is important - if you are reading this you know what I am talking about!  To understand more about the sales evolution come read and listen to content here: www.thesaleschangeagent.com
 
Entrepreneurship and education is a deeply ingrained with a MBA from the Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College.  and an undergraduate degree (with a double major in Management and Finance) at Merrimack College. Living in Lakewood Ranch, Florida (outside of Tampa), with my wife and 2 children.   For fun I enjoy traveling with his family, play/coach soccer, workout, ski, and golf.

Dale Zwizinski
Mobile: 401.952.9231
Email: dzwizinski@gmail.com

Strategic Sales Advisor

Collaborating with the CEO on all thing revenue, including:
✅ Go to Market
✅ Aligning to the Buyers Journey
✅ Pricing Strategies
✅ Sales Pipeline Growth

Our mission is to empower Customer Success teams to build great relationships with their customers.

We work with early and growth stage B2B SaaS companies to help them scale Customer Success outcomes.  Everything we do is devoted to removing the overwhelm of back-to-back customer meetings so that CSMs can focus on the bigger picture: building relationships.

UpdateAI is the first meeting assistant built specifically for CS.

I partnered with Revenue Creator to bring a 5-part series to the community on one topic:

AI in Go-To-Market is no longer optional.

This is not theory. It is not hype. It is not experimentation.

The market is already splitting between companies building AI into their GTM strategy and those who are quietly falling behind.

Early data shows:
• 26 to 50 percent higher win rates
• Up to 78 percent higher conversion rates
• 62 percent shorter sales cycles

But those are just early signals.

The real disruption is this: revenue is being decoupled from headcount.

Look at Midjourney. Millions of users. Eleven employees.
That is not an anomaly. It is leverage redefined.

Over this 5-part series, we break down:

1️⃣ Why AI-native GTM is a strategic imperative
2️⃣ The 4-stage maturity model from automation to autonomy
3️⃣ The ROI progression from tactical gains to exponential returns
4️⃣ The C-suite mandate and the leadership actions required
5️⃣ The assessment and governance framework that makes it sustainable

Here is the hard truth:
73 percent of companies are still stuck at basic task automation.
82 percent of AI initiatives fail because of leadership, not technology.

The roadmap is clear.
The returns are real.
The leadership moment is now.

Your board is not asking whether AI will transform your market.
They are asking whether you will lead that transformation.

Read the full series and decide where you stand.

Your next 90 days will define the next decade.

I partnered with Revenue Creator to bring this 5-part series to the community. Part 1: The Strategic Imperative: Why This Is No Longer Optional Let's 

Open article: Your 5-Part Strategic Roadmap to AI-Native Transformation by Dale Zwizinski • 4 min read

Your 5-Part Strategic Roadmap to AI-Native Transformation

73% of AI startups are stuck automating emails.

Meanwhile, their competitors are building Autonomous GTM Engines.

The trap? 

Founders skip GTM Foundations and jump straight to "scale."

Here is what the 4 stages actually look like:

Stage 1: Task automation (emails, summaries)
Stage 2: Process augmentation (CRM updates, reporting)
Stage 3: System orchestration (connecting data silos, proactive alerts)
Stage 4: AI as a teammate closing complex workflows

Most never escape 

Stage 1. Not because the tech is not ready. Because leadership is not ready.

What is your:
1. Value Proposition 
2. Ideal Customer Profile
3. Buying Persona

Where is your team right now?

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revenue-in-a-box

AI isn’t magic. It’s infrastructure.

But too many companies are treating it like magic anyway.

They’re piling on tools. 
Automating fragments. 
Naming “Heads of AI” without ever asking: Are we actually ready to transform?

Leaders want outcomes from AI, but skip the foundation it depends on:

🧭 Strategy
Do you have a clear roadmap tied to outcomes; or are you experimenting without direction?

📊 Data + System Integration
Is your GTM data clean and unified; or is each department running its own playbook?

🧠 Talent + Culture
Have you built AI literacy across the org; or is your team quietly resisting new workflows?

🛡️ Governance
Are you tracking performance, bias, and compliance; or hoping those problems don’t show up?

🚧 Companies stumble when they skip this maturity assessment.
🏗️ Companies scale when they build it in.

If you’re not getting ROI from AI, it’s not your model.

It’s the system you’re putting it into.

📈 The path to AI-native GTM starts with clear diagnostics, real alignment, and foundational execution.

Your Current Position: The Maturity Assessment Before investing in transformation, you need an honest assessment of your current capabilities across f

Open article: The Blind Spot That's Sabotaging Your AI Transformation by Dale Zwizinski • 3 min read

The Blind Spot That's Sabotaging Your AI Transformation

Stop blaming your sales team for a "growth problem" when you actually have a fragmented systems problem.

I see it every single week. Leadership teams get in a room, draw up a beautiful strategy, pat themselves on the back, and then hand it off to a team that is fundamentally misaligned at the ground level.

On the latest episode of Bridge the Gap, Nicole Brownell  (Managing Director at Novo Advisors) joined Adam and me to pull back the curtain on why execution fails even the best strategies.

Here is the cold, hard truth:
Alignment isn’t a feeling. It’s a shared scorecard.

Nicole dropped some serious gems that every C-suite leader and RevOps pro needs to hear:

1. Revenue isn't just a Sales KPI.

If you are only holding Sales accountable for revenue while Marketing is chasing "brand awareness" and "MQLs," you’ve already lost. If the departments aren't speaking the same language or sharing the same metrics (like OKRs that roll up to a single goal), you don't have a team—you have silos.

2. The Product/Sales Gap is killing your retention.

This one hit home. Nicole pointed out that sales teams often sell a version of the product that doesn't actually exist in reality. When the "value delivered" doesn't match the "value promised," you don't have a sales problem—you have a retention crisis waiting to happen 30 days after the contract is signed.

3. RevOps is your Playbook.

Strategy is the "where" and "how" of winning. RevOps is the actual playbook that dictates how you play the game. Without RevOps holding the line, your systems stay fragmented, your data stays dirty, and your execution stays sloppy.

We spend so much time talking about strategy because it’s the "fun" part. Execution is the hard part. It’s the daily grind of making sure the front-line narrative matches the back-end delivery.

If your GTM motion feels like it’s grinding gears, stop looking for more leads. Start looking at your alignment.

Are your teams actually aiming at the same target, or are they just sitting in the same meetings?

Check out the full episode for more on how to bridge this gap.

https://lnkd.in/eZ-8EADf

Most teams do not have a strategy problem.

They have a handoff problem.

This week I watched a solid plan lose 10 days in execution.

Not because people were lazy.

Because ownership got fuzzy after kickoff.

Here is the operator fix:

The 3 line handoff

1) Owner: one name, not a team
2) Outcome: what done looks like in plain English
3) Clock: next checkpoint date, on calendar before the meeting ends

That is it.

If you cannot write those 3 lines, the project is not ready.

Actionable takeaway:
Before your next launch, run every workstream through the 3 line handoff.

You will spot drift before it becomes delay.

What is your most common handoff failure right now?

Most founders hire their first sales leader too late.

Then they hire the wrong one.

Here is what actually happens:

You scale to $1M ARR on founder-led sales. 
You think you need a VP of Sales to take it from there.

So you hire someone who has scaled from $10M to $50M. 

They walk in expecting a repeatable process, a trained team, and clean data.

They find none of that.

Within 90 days they are frustrated. 

Within 6 months they are gone. And you are back to square one, except now you are $300K lighter and 6 months behind.

The hire was not wrong. The timing was.

Your first sales leader should be a builder, not a scaler. 

Someone who can create the process from scratch, not someone who needs one handed to them.

Conversely you can also look at Operating Partners to ensure that you  have everything stabilized and foundation built before bringing a VPS sales hire, and ensure that they have all of the right things in place for success.

Get the stage right before you get the person.

Personalization Beats Automation

Buyers don’t need more email; they need relevance.

High-performing GTM teams are using intent data, deal stage, and buyer behavior to create true personalization at scale.

Most companies think they're doing AI because they have a chatbot. 

That's Stage 1 maturity
-> Task automation. It's the equivalent of a faster typewriter.

The real competitive advantage is the jump from Stage 2 to Stage 3. 
-> System Orchestration.

Stage 2 is process augmentation. 
-> You've added AI to existing workflows. It's better, but it's still siloed.

Stage 3 is where the magic happens. 
-> This is where AI isn't just a tool in the workflow. It is the workflow. 

Data flows from marketing to sales to customer success without human intervention. 

The system identifies a lead, qualifies it based on real-time intent data, assigns it to the right rep, and drafts the personalized outreach.

If your team is still manually moving data between tools, you're stuck in the past. 

Stage 3 isn't about working harder. 
It's about building a system that works for you. 

The jump to Stage 3 is where the 7x conversion rates live. 

Stop automating tasks. 
Start orchestrating systems.

Everyone needs a board or advisors to help you, try this:

"You are building a high-fidelity AI advisor for Dale Zwizinski’s Personal Board of Directors. This advisor must operate as a Chief of Staff-level strategist, not a generic assistant and a team of advisors.

Use the following structure to define their core logic. 

Do not write a 'personality description.' Write a 'Reasoning Engine.'"

────────────────────

1. The Core Identity
[ADVISOR NAME] – [ROLE, e.g., Chief Revenue Officer]
Lane of Genius: [One paragraph. What is the specific territory this person owns? What problems do they see that others miss?]

2. Core Frameworks & Mental Models
List 5–8 named frameworks this person uses to process reality. These are the "rules of the game" for this advisor.
• [Framework 1]: [Brief description of how it works]
• [Framework 2]: [Brief description of how it works]
• [Framework 3]: [Brief description of how it works]

3. Non-Negotiables (The "Edge")
What are the hard constraints this advisor would never compromise on? What makes them push back? This section prevents the AI from becoming "too nice."
• Constraint 1: [e.g., Never accepts incremental 5% growth; only 10x shifts.]
• Constraint 2: [e.g., Allergic to 'consulting-speak'; demands direct, plain English.]

4. The Decision Filter
When Dale presents a problem, what is the exact sequence this advisor uses to analyze it?
1. Filter 1: [What is the first question they ask?]
2. Filter 2: [What framework do they apply next?]
3. Filter 3: [What is their final stress test?]

5. Voice & Delivery
Describe the tone and format. 
• Constraint: No fluff, no "I hope this helps," no summaries. Direct insights only.
• Style: [e.g., Blunt, visionary, sardonic, or data-driven.]

This is a start to how your can incease your effectiveness and efficiencies!

Let’s Build Your 2026 GTM Engine

AI is changing how GTM is executed.
But without a system and strategy;it’s just noise.

At Revenue Reimagined, we help CEOs and revenue leaders:
✅ Diagnose their GTM gap
✅ Design a hybrid GTM model
✅ Deploy AI + human workflows that scale

We don’t do playbooks. 
We build operating systems.

📥 Want a GTM Foundations Report?
Get yours here:

Open article: Bridge Your GTM Gap™: Diagnose & Redefine Your Go-to-Market Strategy | Revenue Reimagined by revenue-reimagined.com

Bridge Your GTM Gap™: Diagnose & Redefine Your Go-to-Market Strategy | Revenue Reimagined

My research into 2026 GTM trends shows three massive, concrete shifts that revenue leaders are failing to navigate.

Here is the first one!

The Agentic Chasm
You don't have a talent problem. 
You have an orchestration problem.

Most revenue leaders think "AI Maturity" means giving their sales team a better prospecting tool. 

That's Stage 1 thinking, it just helps you fail faster.

The real gap in 2026 is the Agentic Chasm.
It’s when you hire AI agents to do the work, but your GTM process is still built for humans from 2019.

If your AI agent is just "automating the spam," you’re destroying your brand at scale.

The shift isn't from human to AI. 

It’s from Task Execution to System Orchestration.

Stop hiring tools. Start building the engine.

The "SaaSpocalypse" is the trending topic for a reason.

Marc Benioff and the Databricks CEO are both signaling the same thing: The old SaaS model of "seats and screens" is under massive pressure.

Why? 
Because AI agents don't need a UI. 
They need an API.

If your GTM strategy is still based on selling "more seats," you are fighting a losing battle against efficiency.

The new GTM foundation:
1. Outcomes over activities.
2. Systems over seats.
3. Autonomous engines over manual workflows.

The GTM Gap is no longer just about sales and marketing alignment. It is about the gap between your legacy software and the autonomous future.

We are moving from a world of "software you use" to "software that does the work for you."

If you are a founder or revenue leader, your job is no longer to manage people using tools. It is to orchestrate systems that deliver results.

The SaaSpocalypse isn't an ending. 

It is the beginning of the Autonomous GTM Engine.

**The Pivot Point.**

Most people think a breakthrough is a loud, celebratory moment.

It isn't.

It's usually a quiet, terrifying realization in the middle of the night that everything you've been building... might be pointing in the wrong direction.

That's the pivot point.

Not the press release. 
Not the rebrand. 
Not the announcement post.

The pivot point is the moment *before* all of that, when you're alone with the truth, and you have to decide what to do with it.

We aren't selling a podcast. 
We're selling a transformation.

And transformation always starts in the dark, before anyone else sees it coming.

Technical debt kills your product. Revenue debt kills your company.

Most founders are unknowingly accumulating massive revenue debt. It happens when you scale sales before you've stabilized the GTM Gap.

You hire three reps because you have a little traction. 
You haven't defined the ICP beyond "anyone with a budget." 
You haven't nailed the value prop. You just want volume.

Now you have:
1. Inconsistent messaging that confuses the market.
2. High churn because you closed the wrong customers.
3. A sales team that's guessing instead of executing.

This is revenue debt. 

And like technical debt, the interest rate is compounding. 

You can't hire your way out of it. 

You have to go back and fix the foundation. 

Stabilize. Foundation. Repeatability. Scalability. 

Don't skip the sequence. 

The debt will always come due.

80% of your buyer's journey is happening while you're asleep.
And they aren't filling out your forms.

The "MQL" is dead.

In 2026, if you're waiting for a "lead" to hit your CRM, you've already lost the deal to someone who was orchestrating the account months ago.

GTM leaders are still obsessed with activity metrics.
- How many calls?
- How many emails?
- How many LinkedIn touches?

The market doesn't care about your activity. It cares about its own problems.
The winners in this cycle aren't the ones with the loudest outbound.
They are the ones with the most intelligent Intent Orchestration.

Move your focus from "The Lead" to "The Signal."

That's how you close the GTM Gap.

𝗜 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗶𝗿𝗰𝗹𝗲. 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗼𝗻𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗮𝗱𝗼𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘄𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗼𝗶𝗰 𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘁.

I lead Customer Success at Aligned, where I design AI powered GTM architectures that scale cleanly from first touch to full adoption. My work lives at the intersection of CS, Sales, Product, and Marketing and I’m known for aligning every part of the lifecycle around one thing. Outcomes.

Sixteen plus years in the wild across Sales, Customer Success, Onboarding, Support, and Professional Services. Early stage chaos, enterprise expectations, VC backed velocity, PE backed discipline. I’ve built teams through every version of growth.

Before Aligned, I built the entire post sale organization at Regie.ai through five times company growth. I owned GRR, expansion, and time to value for an AI driven GTM platform and built the kind of programs that make customers stay, grow, and advocate.

Earlier at Textio and DreamBox Learning, I ran CS, global partnerships, support, and professional services and drove retention, growth, and enterprise value by making post sale the revenue engine it should be.

I operate with a systems brain. I don’t babysit problems. I fix the OS. I believe CS is the next sale and the real GTM engine starts after the signature.

What I’m known for
• Turning onboarding and adoption into revenue outcomes
• AI powered GTM strategy that connects Sales and CS
• Full lifecycle ownership from implementation to expansion
• Scalable coaching and enablement programs
• Feedback loops that shape product, pricing, and roadmap
• Executive alignment that turns CS into strategy instead of a ticket queue

𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝘃𝗶𝗯𝗲𝘀, 𝗹𝗲𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸.

LeeRon Yahalomi

Your CSM manages more revenue than your best AE.

Nobody talks about this.
The average AE carries a $1-2M quota. The average CSM is sitting on a $5-10M book. That's 3-5x the revenue impact. Every single day.

And how does the org treat that?

The AE closes a $500K deal. Gong. President's Club. Accelerators on every dollar.

The CSM saves a $1.2M renewal that was walking out the door, expands it by $300K, and gets a Slack emoji.

Same revenue. Completely different value signal.

And we let this happen.

CS leaders accepted the lesser comp structure because we were told "retention is its own reward." We stopped making the revenue case. We let finance call us a cost center and we adjusted to it instead of fighting it.

We built the cage. Then we complained about being in it.

You want to fix CS turnover? Fix the math.

Comp on GRR and NRR impact. Celebrate saves like closed-won. Build a career path from CSM to GM — not from CSM to "be grateful."

Because when your best CSM leaves, they don't just take their title. They take the relationships that keep your biggest accounts from picking up a competitor's call.

𝗖𝗦 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻'𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺. 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺. 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗦 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 — 𝘄𝗲 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝗯𝘆 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿.

⁉️ What's the total book value your CS team manages vs. your sales team's combined quota? Run the number. Then ask yourself why comp doesn't reflect it.

#customersuccess #csleadership #saas #revenuegrowth #therevenueratio

LeeRon Yahalomi 

AI GTM Leader | CS to Revenue Architect | 5x Growth | Ex-Regie.ai, Textio, DreamBox | PE & VC-Backed Operator

𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗡𝗥𝗥, 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲.

Here’s the lie I keep hearing: “CS will handle it.”

That sentence is how churn becomes “normal.”
How bad-fit deals become “retention work.”
How leadership avoids the real fix.

Because if CS is the NEXT sale™, then CS isn’t downstream cleanup.

It’s the system that protects revenue after the contract.

𝗦𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝗺𝘆 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹:

 • CS owns value realization (not vibes)

 • Product owns promise integrity (what we sell vs what ships)

 • Sales owns fit + forecast honesty

 • Marketing owns expectation setting

 • Finance owns pricing that scales with customer outcomes

 • Exec team owns tradeoffs (and stops dumping them on CS)

𝗡𝗥𝗥 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰.
𝗖𝗦 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗳𝗮𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁.

👇 Be honest: what part of this model does your company refuse to own?

#CustomerSuccess #NRR #Revenue #Leadership #GTM

𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗮𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗦 𝘁𝗼 𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝘆.
𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗦 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗻.
There's a difference.
One is emotional labor. The other is strategic leverage.

When you treat CS like a customer daycare, you get:
 • Ticket volume as a success metric
 • "Firefighter of the month" awards
 • Endless smoothing over of upstream failures
 • Burnout disguised as "passion for customers"

When you empower CS to drive outcomes, you get:
 • Early warning systems that prevent fires
 • Input that shapes product roadmap
 • Revenue intelligence that informs GTM
 • Customers who achieve results, not just feel heard

NPS theater isn't growth. It's theatre.
The question isn't "are customers happy?"
The question is "are customers winning?"

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗖𝗦 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗼𝗿𝗴?

I get asked all the time: what resources can you share to help CS teams with renewal conversations?

Here's the honest answer: Most renewal training focuses on the mechanics. How to structure the call. What to say. What objection handling frameworks to use.
That's not your problem.

Your problem is that renewals are being treated like a transaction that happens at the end instead of a conversation that started at kickoff.
If the first time you're asking "are you comfortable renewing" is on the renewal call, you already lost

Here's the framework I actually use and share when people ask.
𝟭. 𝗦𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆.
"Let's align on outcomes and what next year looks like, then we'll talk terms."
𝟮. 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗺 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗶𝗽𝘁𝘀.
"In the last 90 days you achieved X, Y, Z. Which matters most internally?"
𝟯. 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗴𝗮𝗽𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀.
"What would block you from renewing?"
𝟰. 𝗔𝘀𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘄𝗮𝗹 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗱𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗹𝘆.
"Based on what we just reviewed, are you comfortable renewing?"
𝟱. 𝗜𝗳 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝘂𝗽, 𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗲.
"If we adjust commercials, let's tie it to scope or term. What matters most?"
𝟲. 𝗔 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝘀𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗽𝘁:
Open: "Confirm value, align on next year, cover renewal terms."
Value: "Here's what we delivered. What should we highlight to your leadership?"
Risk: "What would make this a no?"
Close: "If we keep X and solve Y, are we renewing?"
Commercials: "If budget is tight, we can talk term, scope, or payment structure. Which lever matters?"

Now here are the actual resources that are useful if you want to go deeper:
 • Winning by Design has a solid renewal blueprint that breaks down the mechanics properly. Link in comments.
 • Gainsight runs a "Negotiation to Renewal" masterclass that's worth the time. Also in comments.
 • Never Split the Difference by Christopher Voss. If you haven't read it, read it. If you have read it, read it again. Every renewal conversation is a negotiation. Most CS teams are terrible at it because they were never taught.
 • Pavilion University has a Retention and Renewals course if you want structured training for your team.

All the links are in the comments. 👇 

💡But remember this:  The best renewal framework in the world doesn't fix a customer that should have been flagged six months ago.

Renewals don't break at the call. They break upstream.



#CustomerSuccess #Renewals #ChurnPrevention

Dear CEO,

𝗔𝗜 𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗻'𝘁 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗖𝗦 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺.
𝗜𝘁 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆 𝗯𝗿𝗼𝗸𝗲𝗻.

Your CS team has been sitting on the most valuable intelligence in your entire revenue org. Which customers are about to churn. Which promises made at close will never get kept. Which product gaps are quietly killing adoption. Where the next wave of lost revenue is coming from.

That intelligence existed before AI. It was trapped in call recordings, CRM notes, and the gut of CSMs too underwater to do anything with it.

𝗔𝗜 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝘆𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲.

Because now the teams that are using it are catching churn four months upstream. They're surfacing expansion signals before sales knows to look. They're connecting customer behavior to board level outcomes in real time.
And your team is still doing QBRs.

Here's the question you should be asking your CS leader right now 
Not "how are customers feeling?" ,"What does our CS team know that the rest of the business isn't acting on?"
If they can't answer that in revenue language, you don't have a CS problem. You have a leadership problem that CS is paying for.

⁉️ Does your CS team know where your next churn wave is coming from? Do you?

#CustomerSuccess #ChurnPrevention #CSLeadership

𝗖𝗵𝘂𝗿𝗻 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻'𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗹𝘀.
𝗜𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝟲 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝘀 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗻𝗼𝗯𝗼𝗱𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲.

Most orgs track churn. Few trace it back to root cause.
That's where the Churn Causality Map™ comes in:
Put dollars on one axis. Root cause on the other.

Map every churned customer to the upstream decision that set them up to fail:
 • Wrong ICP at close
 • No exec sponsor in buying process
 • Implementation skipped key step
 • Product gap that Sales "we'll figure it out"
 • Onboarding delayed 45 days

Patterns > anecdotes.

When you see $400K in churn traced to "no technical validation in sales cycle," you don't get better at saving deals.
You change the sales process.

This forces real accountability. And it pulls churn ownership out of CS and into the decisions that actually created it.

𝗖𝗦 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱𝗻'𝘁 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁-𝗺𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗺 𝗮𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗲. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗲𝗹𝘀𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗯𝗿𝗼𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿.

What upstream decision creates the most downstream churn in your world?

#GTM #CustomerSuccess #RevenueOperations

𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗷𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻'𝘁 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝗮𝘁 𝗼𝗻𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴.
𝗜𝘁 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝘀 𝗮𝘁 "𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀."

You can have:
 • Flawless kickoff decks
 • Polished onboarding sequences
 • 47 feature walkthroughs
 • A "success plan" in your CS platform

𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗰𝗵𝘂𝗿𝗻.

Because none of that answers the only question that matters:
"𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝗺𝘆 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲?"
Feature parades kill momentum. Customers don't need a tour. They need a winning narrative.

The breakdown happens when:
 • Kickoff focuses on what you sell, not what they achieve
 • Onboarding teaches clicks, not outcomes
 • First value is delayed by "best practices" that don't fit their context

Winning narratives are built, not assumed.
If your customer can't articulate their success path in week 2, you're doing CPR at month 6.

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁—𝗸𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗼𝗳𝗳, 𝗼𝗻𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗼𝗿 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁?

📖 𝗧𝗵𝗲 “𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁” 𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘁 $𝟮𝗠.📖

I sat in an exec meeting once that lasted 90 minutes.

Everyone “aligned.”

No decisions.

No owners.

No tradeoffs.

Just… updates.

Two quarters later?

$2M in expansion slipped.

Not because the team was dumb.

𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗱𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁.

Here’s the twist:

The meeting looked productive. But it was actually a ritual designed to avoid conflict.

𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗰 𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗹𝗼𝘂𝗱... 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺.
𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗰𝗹𝘂𝗯 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀.📚 

A leadership team does three things:

*decides

*trades off

*commits

👇 What’s the most common “alignment” phrase you hear that actually means avoidance?

“𝗧𝗵𝗲 ‘𝗬𝗲𝘀’ 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗯𝗿𝗼𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺”

I can trace one of my biggest team mistakes to a single word:

“Yes.”

 • Yes to the customer request.
 • Yes to the exception.
 • Yes to the “just this once.”
 • Yes to the timeline we didn’t control.

It wasn’t malicious.

It was me trying to be helpful.

But every “yes” was a quiet trade:

 • margin for approval
 • capacity for chaos
 • standards for speed
 • trust for short-term relief

𝗦𝗮𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘆.
𝗢𝘄𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗷𝗼𝗯.

The best operators I know don’t move fast by agreeing.

They move fast by protecting the system.

What’s one “yes” you wish you had turned into a boundary?

 #Leadership #CustomerSuccess #DecisionMaking

𝗔𝗜 𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗻'𝘁 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀.𝗜𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗳𝗶𝘅𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁.

The 2018 playbook, relationships, QBRs, sentiment scores, reactive everything, had a good run.

It's done.

What comes next is either the most valuable version of CS this industry has ever seen.

Or a slow fade into a support team with a better title.

The choice is real and it's happening now.

Full article in the comments. Would love to know where you land on this.

Let me say the thing nobody wants to say out loud. Customer Success, as most organizations practice it today, is broken. Not slightly misaligned. Not 

Open article: Customer Success Is Running A 2018 Playbook In 2026. And It's Showing. by LeeRon Yahalomi • 4 min read

Customer Success Is Running A 2018 Playbook In 2026. And It's Showing.

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