Every framework built to be used, not just read. Explore interactively below.
Diagnose where your CS team is today — and map the path to strategic growth.
Characteristics
Metrics
Characteristics
Metrics
Characteristics
Metrics
Four questions that power every seamless Sales → CS handoff.
What is the core business problem they are trying to solve? What pain drove the decision?
Who are they as a company, and who are the key people inside that the post-sale team needs to know?
What exactly was promised, what did they buy — and more importantly, what didn't they buy?
What does "success" look like for them? How will they know when it's been achieved?
The IKT does not need to be a massive bureaucratic hurdle. Four questions, captured before the handoff, give CS everything they need to start the relationship strong.
Click each stage to explore the actions, goals, and best practices. An opportunity moves when evidence meets the next stage's exit criteria, not when the motions are completed. Full definitions: What Is a Post-Sale Pipeline?
Make every revenue opportunity visible. The renewal enters at purchase and is always the first opportunity. Expansion opportunities enter once they are specific enough to manage. A first-term renewal stays here until First Value, and a documented delay does not move it. A repeat renewal moves on once the customer confirms the goals that justify the next term.
The opportunity is tied to something the customer is trying to accomplish. Tie your recommendations directly to the customer's short-term priorities and long-term strategic objectives. Value Blocks, Sharing Insights, and Alignment Meetings are the plays that build the evidence, with goal facilitation exercised through them. It moves on when the customer agrees with the case and someone inside can carry it.
Someone inside the customer can carry the case without you. Map stakeholders, find your internal champion, and arm them with proof. Formal stakeholder mapping, scripted communication events, and sharing insights are your tools. It moves to Intent only on an explicit commitment with a credible path.
The customer has committed: a verbal yes with a credible path (timing, approvals, ownership, next steps). Intent is not a signed contract. The work that earns it starts early: renewal conversations days after kickoff, not 90 days before renewal.
Close with precision, celebrate with the customer, celebrate internally. Immediately make the frictionless ask for a referral, review, or case study while the win is fresh.
Ask these at every Kickoff and every Alignment Meeting. Click each to explore the insight and purpose.
Uncovers the single most critical success factor from the customer's perspective.
Why it matters: If you miss this, nothing else you do will feel like success to the customer — no matter how well you execute.
Aligns your team's work directly to what the customer's leadership actually measures.
Why it matters: Without this, you might deliver exactly what was scoped and still lose the renewal because you solved the wrong problem.
Clarifies expectations and defines boundaries — what is your team responsible for?
Why it matters: This prevents scope creep, misaligned expectations, and the trap of being held responsible for outcomes outside your control.
Surfaces hidden blockers — change resistance, competing priorities, internal politics.
Why it matters: These risks are real and often kill implementations from the inside. Naming them early transforms them from hidden landmines into managed risks.
Opens the door to expansion by revealing aspirations beyond the initial scope.
Why it matters: The answer to this question is often the next stage of your post-sale pipeline. This is where expansion opportunities are born.
Pro tip: Have the most senior person in the room answer last. Their peers set the context, and their answer carries the most strategic weight.
Click each block to mark it complete — see how small wins stack into a large business objective.
Every Win Report, better-practice nudge, and performance update should follow this structure.
Acme reduced manual reporting time by 6 hours per week. (One-liner)
Last quarter, Acme's ops team was spending nearly a full day each week pulling reports manually across three systems. (Background)
After configuring automated dashboards in Month 2, their team recovered 6 hours per week — equivalent to a $14K annual productivity gain. (Results)
We recommend activating the Advanced Analytics add-on to extend this to all three departments. (Action)
The 6 hours recovered is just the start — with the add-on, Acme could eliminate all manual reporting company-wide. (Reinforce)
Build from your healthiest customers — not from reverse-engineering failure. Focus exclusively on avoidable churn. What health is and what should change it: Chapter 20. Build one: Health Score Builder.
💡 Rule: A simple live health score always beats a perfect one that never ships. Launch it, validate against reality, then refine.
Plan capacity from designed effort and realistic availability, not an ARR-per-CSM ratio. ARR tells you the value of the customers. It doesn't tell you the work required to move them forward.
Run the 12-month model in the CS Capacity Planner. The method behind it: How Many Customers Should a CSM Manage?
🎯 Availability: CXology uses 65% as a planning starting point, about 26 direct customer hours in a 40-hour week. It is an assumption to validate for your team, not a universal benchmark.