Many organizations depend on or even measure their CSMs to identify or qualify leads of existing customers. This qualification process is quite different than that of pre-sales, since the CSM has invested time in nurturing the relationship and knows the history and pulse of the customer.
They can identify upsell and cross sell opps and qualify them by knowing:
- Has a department gone through budget cuts - indicator that your product can fill a gap. Alternatively, no budget to spend on new products.
- M&A - has the organization gone through an M&A and now needs additional licenses?
- Compelling event - any compelling event that makes an additional product valuable?
- Customer at risk - not a good time for expansion of any kind.
Does anyone have any formal resources or playbooks that can guide CSMs in qualifying expansion opportunities?