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

CS Insider

🥳 Contributor to the Ultimate Questions Toolbox for CSMs
🥳 I was spotlighted in the #28 Report from CS Insider.
🥳 Contributor to 100 Ways to Stand out as a Customer Success Manager
🥳  Contributor to the Customer Success Rolodex: the communities, the blogs, the newsletters, the resources, the tech, the PEOPLE to follow in CS

CS Insider provides advice, stories, and resources that help Customer Success professionals thrive in their careers. No fluff allowed. I contribute to the creation of bi-weekly CS Insider Reports.

Contributing Member

CS Connect

City Lead at CS Connect. We're a bustling global community dedicated to empowering customer success professionals. Our mission? To cultivate future leaders in customer success through community-based learning, strong connections, and transformative mentorships.

In this role, I'll be spearheading local events and initiatives in Berlin, fostering a thriving environment for customer success enthusiasts to connect, share, and grow together.

Join us in redefining customer success: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cs-connect

Chapter Lead-Berlin

Whale (usewhale.io)

Whale is a knowledge & SOP sharing tool that centralizes all of your standard operating procedures and knowledge so you can better grow your teams.

Customer Success Manager

Compass /

Managed relationships with a portfolio of 60+ customers ($125M in revenue). Implemented a workflow management platform (TC Workflow) to automate and track all real estate transactions, increasing revenue by more than 30% in 2021. Analyzed and presented data to Sales and Marketing teams. Revamped sales handover process to improve the customer onboarding experience. Migrated customer journey from paper to digital.

Transaction Manager for Jeff Block & the City Block Team

Keller Williams Philadelphia

Digitized the customer onboarding process, reducing onboarding completion times by 25%. Trained customers across 3 offices, enabling the onboarding of over 300 clients. Implemented a new customer orientation program, increasing the amount of annual enrolled customers. Led a team of employees to successfully onboard the largest-ever cohort of customers. Managed a portfolio of 300+ customers, providing a tailored customer journey that included personalized resources, and strategic cross-sell opportunities that helped customers accomplish their business goals.

Director of Agent Experience

Increased customer engagement via the creation of a marketing calendar and a monthly newsletter. Conducted over 100 warm sales calls per month, ensuring the management team’s KPIs of attracting, recruiting, and retaining customers were met. Resolved all customer issues submitted via email, phone, or in-person for 200+ agent real estate brokerage.

Market Center Coordinator/Office Manager

Bella Turka

Provided a consistent, high level of customer service by creating excellent client relationships for this retail business that specializes in selling jewelry from around the world. Customers came to us for guidance for special occasion pieces and requested our merchandise expertise.

- Drove continuous sales by maintaining and presenting merchandise in compelling
 ways.

- Developed product knowledge by learning merchandise features and benefits. 

- Understood all systems and procedures relating to sales and credit transactions.

Retail Sales Associate

David Williams Clothiers

As a mom and pop shop with a personal touch, I was able to give clients a stellar customer experience when ordering custom-made suits by making them feel as though they were our only client. By keeping detailed customer profiles on our clients, we knew their specific taste in clothes, styles, sizes and color.

Sales & Office Assistant

Profile Public Relations

I assisted in managing and promoting the reputation of 15+ high-profile chefs and 
restaurants by distributing press releases to targeted media outlets of upcoming events 
and new restaurant openings for our clients.

Marketing & Office Assistant

Customer Success Manager | Google Project Management Certified | Manager with a knack for building deep relationships and streamlining operations | Health & Wellness Enthusiast

My superpower is having a strong nocturnal rhythm. 😂 This allows me to be on top of my customer success game. 💪

Want to get to know me? 😄
 Check out this podcast interview I did with Stijn Smet from Whale.io 

👉  https://open.spotify.com/episode/7FXhS3dMBuIa01wHFrPrq6?si=6zAIzzTVRaKf5hybS0dkxQ

 With over 10 years of experience as a relationship manager, I have been dedicated to helping customers achieve their goals and fostering strong connections. My expertise lies in process improvement, data analysis, and change management, which has allowed me to creatively boost efficiency in various projects. In the real estate sector, I successfully utilized technology to drive revenue.


I am detail-oriented and THE go-to problem solver. You can always catch me either tweaking systems to make them more efficient, supporting my team, or tapping into workplace humor!

My colleagues and customers would say what they appreciate most about me is I keep it real, and I'm the first one to proactively step in and provide support or added value.

I'm excited to work for a company where I can bring my passion for customer obsession, talent for process improvement, and insatiable drive for personal and company growth.

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Rachel Provan

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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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