For years, the narrative in CS was:
“If I just stay helpful and avoid hard conversations, I’ll keep the relationship safe.”
That mindset was always doomed from the get go. No customer wants a “Yes Person” - they want someone that will add real business value for them. Today with technology changing at a rapid pace this is more important than ever.
The Rising Expectation on CS
Retention and expansion now drive a huge portion of SaaS revenue:
74% of revenue in many SaaS organizations now comes from existing customers.
SaaS companies focus on CS as strategic growth, not just a helpful team to get renewals in
Yet many CS teams are still perceived as less valued than sales.
This mismatch in expectation versus perception creates pressure, and opportunity.
The Old Mindset: Safe, But Not Strategic
Old CS thinking includes:
Be helpful
Be liked
Avoid friction
Protect the relationship
These instincts are useful, but they often lead to consultative comfort instead of commercial impact.
The Modern CS Mindset
Modern CS leaders embrace:
Clarity over comfort
Tension surfacing early
Business outcome anchoring
Value protection instead of relationship protection
Because trust isn’t built by avoiding tough talks, it’s built by navigating them well.
Why Tension Early Beats Last-Minute Renewal Pressure
A meeting with no decision isn’t a sign of trust, it’s a sign of deferred risk.
Sales teams regularly use agenda setting and mutual action plans because they understand that decision momentum is a commercial asset. CS teams can borrow this discipline.
Here are 3 things that CSM’s should use that sales does well:
Upfront contracts clarify expectations. Making sure that customers are always aligned with what success really means, how to get there and where they are veering off course is essential. Having a upfront contract that is revisited often is key.
Agendas create focus. Every meeting should have a stated agenda, and more importantly, a stated outcome. Not “review progress,” but “align on the two blockers impacting adoption and agree on next steps.”
Agendas signal that the meeting is designed to move something forward, not just share updates. They also create permission to redirect when the conversation drifts:
“We can come back to that, but I want to make sure we leave with a clear decision on X.”
This is how you introduce productive tension early, by anchoring the conversation to decisions, not discussion.Mutual action plans link conversations to decisions. Without a shared plan, every call resets the clock. You end up rehashing instead of progressing.
A strong mutual action plan makes the path to value, and renewal, visible. It answers: what needs to happen, by when, and who owns it on both sides.
More importantly, it exposes risk early. When milestones slip or owners disengage, you don’t “discover” churn at renewal, you’ve been managing it for months.
The best CSMs don’t treat mutual action plans as documentation. They use them as a live decision framework:
“If we don’t hit this milestone by X, we risk missing your Q3 goal—do we adjust scope or resources?”
That’s where tension becomes productive, and where retention is actually won.
These aren’t tactics, they’re conversation controls that protect value.
How are you putting these into place now? Where are you currently lacking and can improve upon? Reply to this email and let me know, I would love to hear where you are at.
Multi-Threading: Not Politics, A Risk Strategy
Another very important skill that every CSM should focus on is Multi-threading.
The old “champion” model assumes continuity that doesn’t exist.
Your best customer advocate today might not be there at renewal.
And when they leave, what often gets exposed isn’t just a relationship gap, it’s a value gap.
In high-performing CS practices, multi-threading isn’t about being “well-connected.”
It’s about risk distribution.
If all your context, value, and momentum sits with one person, your entire renewal is fragile.
What Multi-Threading Actually Means
Multi-threading is not:
Adding random stakeholders to calls
Spraying updates across a wider email list
“Meeting more people” for the sake of optics
Multi-threading is:
Mapping influence, not just org charts
Aligning value to different stakeholders
Creating shared ownership of outcomes
Because renewals don’t happen in a single conversation.
They happen across a network of decisions.
A Simple Framework: The 4-Layer Stakeholder Map
To make this practical, think in four layers:
1. Economic Buyer (Budget Owner)
Cares about ROI, cost, and risk
Example: CFO, VP, or budget holder
Your job: Tie your product to measurable business outcomes
“This reduced onboarding time by 30%, which saved X in operational cost.”
2. Executive Sponsor (Strategic Alignment)
Cares about priorities and company goals
Example: Head of CS, CRO, VP Product
Your job: Connect your platform to strategic initiatives
“This directly supports your move upmarket by improving rep consistency.”
3. Champion (Day-to-Day Advocate)
Cares about usability and success in their role
Example: Manager or power user
Your job: Make them successful and visible internally
“Here’s how you can show this impact in your next leadership review.”
4. End Users (Adoption Layer)
Cares about ease of use and workflow fit
Example: ICs, reps, CSMs
Your job: Drive adoption and remove friction
“Here’s how this saves you 10 minutes per call.”
What This Looks Like in Practice
Instead of running one-threaded accounts like this:
Monthly call with champion
Occasional exec check-in (if you’re lucky)
Renewal conversation starts 60 days out
High-performing CSMs operate differently:
Champion call → focused on execution + blockers
Executive check-in → tied to outcomes and progress against goals
Broader stakeholder updates → reinforcing value across the org
Mutual action plan → visible to multiple stakeholders, not hidden in one relationship
Example:
“We’ve made strong progress on adoption with your team.
I’d recommend we pull in [Exec Sponsor] for 15 minutes to align this to your Q3 goals and make sure we’re scaling this impact.”
That’s not politics.
That’s protecting the renewal.
Where Most Teams Get This Wrong
They confuse depth of relationship with coverage of relationship.
You can have a great champion and still lose the deal.
Why?
Because:
Finance never saw the value
Leadership priorities shifted
A new stakeholder questioned the investment
Or your champion left and no one could articulate your impact
Multi-threading prevents all of that by making your value organizational, not personal.
A Simple Test of Modern CS Thinking
Ask yourself:
If your customer’s main champion left tomorrow, would the account still renew?
If a new executive joined, could they quickly understand your impact?
Is your value documented and visible beyond one person?
If the answer is no, that’s not a relationship strength.
That’s hidden churn risk.
The Shift
Old model:
“We have a strong champion.”
Modern model:
“We have aligned stakeholders across the business, all tied to measurable value.”
That’s the difference between hoping for a renewal…
…and building one.
I hope there is something new that you learned in this weeks newsletter.
If this was useful, share it with one CSM.
That’s how better CS spreads. :)
Onwards,
Mark
