Split it by how hard the sale is. Simple expansions that follow naturally from usage (more seats, the next tier) should sit with CS, because they are already in the conversation and adding a salesperson just slows it down. New products, new departments and anything with a fresh buying committee should sit with sales, because that is a real deal with real procurement. The mistake is choosing one owner for everything. The second mistake is giving CS expansion targets without giving them the training, the pricing authority or the compensation to go with it, which produces resentment rather than revenue.
4 hand-picked resources, 4 link-checked. Pick how you want to dig in.
Why we picked it The Gainsight CEO on why CS should own an NDR number rather than just a churn number, including the idea of giving every CSM their own book of MRR to grow from 100 to 115.
From Gainsight by Nick Mehta 8 min read
Open gainsight.com →Why we picked it Concrete splits (70/30 or 80/20 base to variable) and the key design warning: pay on gross retention as well as NRR, or CSMs will chase expansion while the base leaks.
From CS RevSpeak by Angeline Gavino 13 min read
Open csrevspeak.com →Why we picked it Lays out the three real ways to organise a CS team (by segment, by lifecycle stage, by engagement model) and what each one costs you, which is the actual decision a first-time CS leader faces.
From Gainsight 16 min read
Open gainsight.com →Why we picked it Kellogg's argument that churn has too many definitions to be trustworthy, and that private companies should measure NDR the way public ones do. The slides are the reference deck for this debate.
From Kellblog by Dave Kellogg 10 min read plus slides
Open kellblog.com →How expansion, upsell and churn reads from a different seat.
The same ground, over in Grow & market, our Starting Up track.
The same ground, over in Grow organically & retain, our D2C track.
