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How do you split ownership of upsell vs. cross-sell opportunities, and what triggers route opportunities to Sales vs. CS?

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3 Answers
Customer Success / Sales Alignment
  1. Conor Holmes
    Conor Holmes

    Confluent Senior Director of CS & Account Management • 1mo

    This strategy is highly nuanced depending on the product complexity, customer segment, and total addressable market. However, to keep it simple, operationalise quickly, and avoid internal friction, I use a framework built on clear definitions and hard triggers.Split definitions - CS / Account Management owns Upsells (organic growth: adding more seats, upgrading tiers, or driving usage of the existing product). They are closest to the daily user and can expand accounts naturally. Sales owns Cross ...Read More

    387 Views
  2. Aishwarya Dwivedi
    Aishwarya Dwivedi

    Adobe Director Customer Strategy & Success • 3mo

    While ownership of upsell and cross-sell opportunities has historically been with Sales, I view post-sales as a pre-sales. CSMs are close to the customers, have deep understanding of their objectives, challenges, and evolving needs which puts them in a strong position to identify expansion opportunities early. In practice, CSMs surface and qualify these opportunities, then partner closely with Sales, who lead the commercial motion and drive the opportunity through to closure. Ultimately, this is ...Read More

    364 Views
  3. John Brunkard
    John Brunkard

    Salamander Advisory Customer Success Advisor | Formerly Adobe, Sitecore, Red Hat, Symantec, Blue Coat, Intel, Dell, Dialogic • 7mo

    Simple, repeatable model I’ve used in the past. CS owns discovery & qualificationThe CSM is closest to the customer every day → they surface 70-80 % of the best upsell/cross-sell opportunities anyway.They run discovery, confirm budget/authority/need/timeline, and create a CSQL (Customer Success Qualified Lead). Sales owns execution & closeAs soon as it’s a qualified CSQL, it instantly routes to Sales.Sales runs the deal exactly like a new-logo opportunity (demos, pricing, negotiation, le ...Read More

    399 Views

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