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

Omnigo

Director of Customer Success

Everetics

Principal, Customer Success & Operations

GovOS

Director, Customer Success

Kibo Commerce

Manager, Customer Success

Phenomenex

Customer Service Manager

3PL Central - Warehouse Management Software

3PL Central is a leader among cloud-based supply chain software providers, offering warehouse management solutions that are robust, reliable, secure, cost-effective, and easy to use. Our products seamlessly integrate with a large and growing number of eCommerce enablement technologies, EDI providers, ERP platforms, accounting packages, shipping partners, and other supply chain technologies delivering a full warehouse management platform to effectively grow and scale your business. Offering enterprise-class WMS functionality, 3PL Central customers include small-to-medium sized 3PLs to private Fortune 500 distribution centers. For additional information, please visit www.3plcentral.com.

Implementation Specialist

Rapid7

Rapid7’s Learning and Support organization was a foundation of being awarded the TSIA Customer Success STAR award in November, 2015. Reporting to the Senior Director of Learning and Support, I was responsible for evolving Rapid7’s paradigm to that of customer and adult learning and managed a team to produce customer content that increased customer adoption, drove product usage, and increased retention.

•	United Rapid7’s documentation team, infusing Adult Learning and engagement principles into customer content, after relocating to Los Angeles.
•	Expanded team and responsibilities from 4 members/1 product to 7 members/5 products
•	Managed and delivered team results using both Agile and Waterfall project management methodologies simultaneously for different stakeholders.
•	Produced and launched Rapid7’s 1st free, end-to-end, product video training series consisting of 9 modules.
•	Modernized Rapid7 Support’s free webinars using blended learning approach, increasing quality, consistency, customer satisfaction, and Support efficiency.
•	Interacted with customers, on-site and virtually, to gather customer preferences, needs and situational differences to factor and refine training content with.
•	Key member of the cross-functional Learning Management System (LMS) replacement initiative to best support Rapid7’s aggressive growth and learning objectives.
•	Implemented and configured all aspects of Rapid7’s Cornerstone OnDemand (CSOD) global and customer divisions.
•	Liaised regularly with other departments to ensure customer community was bolstered and fresh with effective and impactful training content.

Learning Manager

Fully responsible for implementation and maintenance of Rapid7’s global learning infrastructure in a non-federated system landscape. Developed various new, and deployed existing internally facing enablement content.

•	Implemented and deployed Rapid7’s recently purchased and 1st ever LMS, docebo.
•	Evolved on-boarding and enablement programs increasing on-boarding efficacy by more than 60%.
•	Administrated all aspects of LMS: user management, security, reporting, compliance and content maintenance.
•	Orchestrated all back office processes and systems to support the LMS.  
•	Developed corporate learning track for a new company/product acquisition.
•	Hired and managed Rapid7’s first eLearning Content Developer.

eLearning Manager

athenahealth

Key member of LMS evaluation, replacement, and deployment team. Responsible for upkeep of LMS for all internal employees including course effectiveness evaluations, regulatory compliance, and employee messaging.

•	Administered the LMS (CSOD) for over 3,000 employees across the globe.
•	Performed regular LMS usage and trend analysis – an intense process that identified departmental needs, content effectiveness, and maximized learning investments.
•	Increased LMS effectiveness by implementing and driving a marketing program that resulted in over 20k course completions in Q2’14 (versus 4.8k in all of ’13).
•	Managed learning assessments for stakeholders to identify learning needs and developed comprehensive education plans including eLearning design and creation.

Learning and Development, Senior Associate

Responsible for developing and deploying new internal eLearning enablement content, developing and conducting in-person training, and upskilling Learning and Development staff in LMS and applied learning methodologies.  

•	Created first eLearning track for New hire orientation expediting foundational industry knowledge transfer.
•	Developed and delivered blended on-boarding training for multiple operational departments.
•	Coached and trained the Learning and Development team on: Lectora, Camtasia and Captivate.
•	Created all corporate eLearning content for: Salesforce.com, OpenAir, Workday and Colligo.

Learning and Development Associate

As a subject matter expert for client operations in the “Client Operations Scalability” project, I assisted to develop and drive the widely cost effective call center model that is in use today (based on educating analysts to train our customers versus legacy break/fix) and developed the training models to upskill a new call center in Maine using this approach.

•	Resolved a wide range of issues and escalations to facilitate and maintain practice productivity and patient safety.
•	Supervised and coached Help Desk Analysts to assist in learning and personal development including: weekly meetings to discuss performance, issue resolution and informal training sessions.
•	Developed and coordinated product and industry training sessions for the Client Service Center, account managers, and other operational groups. 
•	Developed training materials for Client Operations Associates on-boarding program, such as customer service soft skills, CRM protocols and quick reference guides for internal processes.
•	Managed project deadlines, mentoring work, phone duties and client cases in an efficient and timely manner.

Client Operations Associate, Tier 2

The frontlines of achieving our “changing healthcare” vision was in our Client Service Center. This senior level role required being responsible for providing exceptional, above and beyond, support and service to our clients and end users in an ever-changing and fast paced environment, handling inquiries via inbound phone calls, self-service CRM and e-mail. It was essential to be a versatile expert in a vast and complex athenaNet application and all service lines to resolve, and assist other Analysts to resolve, requests expeditiously.

Client Service Center Associate

Gained a thorough understanding of all product and service lines offered by athenahealth and all functional area’s responsibilities. My day to day responsibilities required resolving complex software issues and providing clear direction to end users in order to resolve customer inquiries on initial contact in a high service volume environment.

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Danielle Vinciguerra

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Rachel Provan's LinkedIn Performance

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