Rachel Provan

I spent 15 years leading Customer Success teams, and I learned this the hard way: being great at CS doesn't prepare you to lead a revenue-generating department.

Most CS leaders are stuck proving their value to executives who expect them to generate revenue the way sales does, without understanding what post-sale revenue actually requires. You're told to drive expansion, reduce churn, and prove ROI - but no one taught you how to do that without morphing into Account Management or BDRs.

That's where I come in.

I HELP CS LEADERS DO THREE THINGS:

Build revenue-generating CS departments | Get promoted | Land their next role

🔹 CS LEADERSHIP ACADEMY (CSLA)
For anyone leading (or about to lead) a Customer Success team - from founding CSMs and team leads to managers, directors, and VPs.

✔ Build a revenue-generating CS department without turning your team into "Sales 2.0"
✔ Get promoted - over one-third of clients get promoted within 6-12 months
✔ Prove your value to executives who don't understand Customer Success
✔ Get out of reactive mode, build scalable processes, and strengthen your executive presence

Built on behavioral psychology and neuroscience, not corporate management theory.

🔹 DREAM JOB PROGRAM
For CS leaders who need to land their next role.

✔ Access the 80% of roles never posted online - optimize your LinkedIn so hiring managers reach out to YOU
✔ Executive resume makeover that shows revenue impact (even without exact numbers)
✔ Figure out exactly what's holding you back in interviews
✔ Master final presentations and salary negotiation - clients average $10k-15k above initial offers

🔥 WHY I'M DIFFERENT:
I don't teach theory. I teach what works in the messy, real world - the psychology that lets you influence cross-functional leaders and the executive suite, the strategy that drives retention and expansion, and the systems that let you scale without burning out.

👉 LET'S WORK TOGETHER:
📧 Apply to CSLA or Dream Job (links in Featured section)
💡 Grab my free CS Leader Onboarding Checklist
🎯 Subscribe to The CS Psycho for weekly CS leadership insights - backed by psychology

Founder and CEO

1-on-1 Customer Success Leadership coaching, Customer Success Job Hunting and Career Counseling

A lot of CS leaders won’t say it out loud.
But they’re worried.

About layoffs. About budgets. About getting cut.

Not because they don’t know how to lead... but because they’re stuck cleaning up after everyone else.

Sales overpromises. Product doesn’t listen to feedback.  And CS is expected to quietly clean it all up AND drive revenue.

(Because that works...)

If your team is stuck in reactive mode, buried in escalations, and constantly justifying your value... this is for you.

I’m running a free training that walks through the 4 stages every CS department goes through.

You’ll learn how to figure out:
 
- what stage you’re in 
- what’s holding you back; and 
- what to focus on if you want your org to start taking CS seriously.

Jan 14 @  1PM EST: https://lnkd.in/eECchnsD
Jan 15 @ 1pm EST: https://lnkd.in/eimJweBU

Two time slots. Zero fluff. 

Walk away with a plan you can use immediately.

Rachel Provan 🧠

I help CS Leaders kick ass at their job & get promoted - using Psychology | 15 years leading CS teams | Creator of The CS Leadership Academy & Psychology of Customer Success Podcast | Speaker

Ever tried looking up how to build a CS dept? 🤦‍♀️

Talk to your customers
Build a team
Use data (reminds me of recipes on The Great British Baking Show… “Make the cake”)
Create onboarding materials
Scale
Iterate

Ummm… thanks?

It’s explanations like this that make people think building a CS department should be relatively easy.

That should take what -- six months?

Sure, you can get a CS department STARTED in that time. But if you think you’re going to create the results of a mature, revenue-generating CS department in six months…

Honey. You’re in for a rude awakening.

🏆 What you need are the REAL steps. In the right order.

Not just a mish-mash of CS initiatives you’ve read about.

✅ Yes you need a customer journey.
✅ Yes you need segmentation.
✅ Yes you need a CS tool.
✅ Yes you want a Customer Advisory Board.

But do you know WHEN to do those things so you don’t make a huge mess?

That’s exactly what I’ll teach inside my FREE masterclass: The CS Leadership Formula.

📅 Wednesday, January 14th or Thursday, January 15th

Register here: https://lnkd.in/eXPevgD6

🚧 The exact steps — in the right order — to build and scale a durable growth engine.

Moving up means saying “No” ❌

A lot. Even to your boss.😬

Scary, right? It doesn’t have to be.  It's actually part of your job now!

Here’s how to say no to your boss without burning bridge:

When you’re feeling overloaded, make a list with three columns:

⭐️   Project    |   Outcome   |  Priority   ⭐️

Put a 1 next to everything you think is a top priority right now. (Note - guess how many things can be priority #1...)

Then schedule a meeting with your boss to confirm some priorities. Show them the list you’ve made, and then say:

“As you can see I’ve got a lot on my plate. I want to make sure I’m effective and focusing on the right things. As I understand it, my top priorities are these outcomes (e.g. driving Adoption/GRR/NRR) - here's what I think will move the needle the most."

They will either highlight something you may be missing or (most likely) agree with your assessment. 

👉 Then you can confirm that you will be putting the other projects on the back burner to focus on these.

As a leader, you are trusted to prioritize.

You know what you need to achieve, and it’s up to you to manage your time.

No one is monitoring how much is on your plate.🍛

And you can’t achieve big goals by saying yes to everything.

PS - Still too much to do?

Get the cheat sheet hundreds of CS leaders have used to make insane progress every quarter here:  https://lnkd.in/eECchnsD

Descartes Systems Group

Spearheading a group of Customer Success Professionals, focusing on optimizing the customer experience and creating opportunities for increased organic growth.

•	Pioneer the building and scaling of all facets of the customer success function. Develop a 5-member customer success team for Logistics Service Providers and Transportation industries 
•	Identify skills and knowledge gaps and work towards designing and implementing a formalized coaching and development plan for the customer success team
•	Standardize approach to customer success plans and executive business reviews
•	Research and resolve customer escalations to ensure continued customer success
•	Collaborate with cross-functional teams to gain a working knowledge of our solutions. Actively share customer experiences with Descartes product and development teams, offering insight into the ways to improve our SaaS solutions across the board
•	Identify CSQL (customer success qualified lead) and opportunities to streamline the sales process

Director of Customer Success

CS Angel

Manages CS Angel's LinkedIn profile content to boost Waitlist and Founder Inquiry Form registrations, increase followers and engagement, coordinates member post validation, and leads advocacy strategies for CS Angel, its Sponsors, and invested Founders while presenting at Quarterly CS Angel Internal Boards.

Co-Chief Advocate

Women of Customer Success

https://www.womenofcustomersuccess.com/

Women of Customer Success is an online community helping women to break into and succeed in tech through customer success roles at any stage of their careers.

Member

Infor

• Managed and retained a 9-member Nexus customer success team in Europe and US East Coast
• Scaled customer management strategy through detailed documentation and tracking of metrics and KPIs
• Developed and maintained a trusted long-term relationship with team members, colleagues, and other
management of cross-functional teams across the Infor landscape
• Supervised CSMs’ engagements with their portfolio of enterprise customers to drive customer retention
• Developed Success playbooks and metrics and rolled out cross-functional systems to increase productivity
• Recruited, mentored, groomed, and inspired a world-class team of Rockstar CSMs

Manager, Customer Success

The responsibilities as a Senior Customer Success Manager at Infor include proactively managing client relationships from post-sale and throughout implementation, ensuring they are getting the most out of the subscription, as well as serving as a liaison, customer advocate and trusted advisor.

Senior Customer Success Manager

• Managed Infor Nexus enterprise customers for high-value results
• Advised customers on best practices and industry trends for digital transformation through the Infor Nexus platform
• Built long-term customer relationships by maintaining high adoption and engagement levels, and  acted as the advocate of the customer relationship internally across Infor stakeholders
• Partnered with Strategic Account Management to conduct regular customer strategy reviews with customers stakeholders and champions (e.g., Partnership Kickoff, Executive Business Review, and Partnership Alignment)
• Conducted regular customers health scoring by reviewing usage data, health indicators, and renewal timing to reduce and mitigate churn risks, and identify growth opportunities
• Resolved customer issues through troubleshooting and technical knowledge of the Infor Nexus solutions
• Drove customer advocacy in the form of references, referrals, case studies, press releases, and panel discussions

Customer Success Manager

CoMetrics Partners LLC

• Developed a Client Services department from the ground up. The Client Services team provided supply chain consultation services to global apparel firms and name-brand fashion designers
• Developed specifications for a proprietary web-based platform that automated labor-intensive supply chain 
execution processes via various Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). Assisted clients in obtaining accurate in-transit inventory costs and gross-profit information, and using supply chain metrics to measure process efficiency
• Successfully led the restructuring of the China office, aimed at increasing revenue by improving client delivery. processes. Established task priorities, managed, and validated EDI transmission; scheduled and tracked work assessments to ensure the delivery of efficient and successful client experience

Director of Logistics and Client Services

SOGOTRADE, INC.

• Managed and objectively measured the success of the SogoTrade website, email marketing, social media, and additional marketing affiliates for client accounts, especially in the Asia market
• Partnered with the executive team to expand the Asian market, led recruitment efforts, and opened two China offices
• Collaborated on Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprise to help save the firm 40% in foreign taxes
• Consulted and implemented annual marketing plans, and changes to website architecture and, brainstormed with cross-functional teams to improve SEO positions for target keywords

Marketing Account Manager and Business Administrator to CEO & President

Hold Brothers Capital, LLC

•	Partnered with senior management to understand business goals and define recruiting goals and strategies. 
•	Managed the hands-on-recruitment process, from the sourcing and interviewing to offer negotiations and successful on-boarding of new hires.
•	Conducted in-depth interviews to properly assess the skill sets and competencies of candidates.
•	Worked with team members/management to identify process improvements and make recommendations for change.
•	Built relationships with outside sourcing and recruiting resources that contribute to the recruiting pipeline and complements the internal efforts.-Interviewing, testing, and referring applicants for trader positions.

Bilingual Business Development Associate

Bloomberg LP

•	Coordinated with local universities and participated in monthly career fairs and information sessions. 
•	Organized interviews for Financial Sales, Bloomberg Tradebook, and Human Resources.
•	Coordinated new hire deployments to include travel arrangements and visas, process travel reimbursements and send new hire paperwork Schedule time with HQ based New Hires to collect and review paperwork.
•	Responded to both internal and external inquiries about employment and recruiting process.
•	Processed, tracked and ensured timely payments of vendor invoices and follow up with A/P as necessary.
•	Identified continuous improvement efforts regarding the recruitment processes.

Senior Sales Recruitment Coordinator

Shin Kong Financial Holdings

Conducted English-Mandarin translation for Shih Kong Life Foundation and the non-profit organization ESTA (Elders Shared the ART). Hosted conferences and performed impromptu English-Mandarin interpretation.

Translator Retinue

Accton Technology Corporation

•	Selected qualified job applicants or refer them to managers, making hiring recommendations when appropriate.
•	Liaised between new hires and human resources, ensuring submission of all documentation required.
•	Ensured clear mutual understanding of staffing priorities and practical constraints. Guide the hiring managers through the recruitment process where needed.
•	Scheduled and conducted new employee orientations.
•	Analyzed recruitment data, provide recruiting and staffing reports in a timely manner.
•	Recommended system improvements to current recruitment processes to ensure streamlined, cost effective, high quality services are provided to hiring managers.

Recruitment Specialist

As the Director of Customer Success at Descartes Systems Group, I lead a group of customer success professionals who focus on optimizing the customer experience and creating opportunities for increased organic growth. I have over 10 years of experience in customer success roles, specializing in providing global supply chain and logistics expertise to enterprise customers in various industries. I hold an MBA from Rutgers Business School, Dale Carnegie Certifications in Leadership and Customer Experience, and Customer Success Certificate.

My core competencies include building and scaling customer success functions, developing and executing customer success plans and executive business reviews, identifying and resolving customer escalations, and collaborating with cross-functional teams to drive customer retention, satisfaction, and advocacy. I am passionate about mentoring, coaching, and developing my team members, as well as fostering a culture of lifetime learning and continuous improvement. I am also adept at using various software tools and platforms, such as ERP, SAP SCM, Salesforce, Bloomberg, and Microsoft Office Suite, to enhance productivity and efficiency.

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Rachel Provan

Christina Chiu Smigie, MBA

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