advisory
Post-sales problems get discussed as team problems. They land on the P&L.
I run fixed-scope diagnostics on onboarding, support, customer success, and renewals for software companies and firms that own them. Every one of those problems carries a number, and most companies have never run it.
the diagnostics
What people actually bring me
Onboarding takes too long and nobody agrees on why
Elapsed time and touch time are different measurements and almost nobody separates them. Revenue recognition slips by the length of the delay, and long onboarding stays the strongest predictor of first-year churn there is.
Renewals land in the last week and the base isn’t growing
Renewal dates in billing and in the CRM disagree more often than anyone expects, and late renewals close with concessions. Expansion revenue that never gets worked is the cheapest growth on the P&L.
Support costs climb and automation isn’t helping
Volume growth and unit cost growth get reported as one number and have nothing in common. Support sits in cost of revenue, so this lands on gross margin directly and compresses it further as the company scales.
Dashboards say retention is fine, the board doesn’t buy it
Retention gets reported off the CRM and quality of earnings gets built from invoiced revenue. Gross and net get used interchangeably, and the spread between them is where the erosion hides.
My CS team wants headcount but I’m not sure
Cost-to-serve by segment does not exist in most companies, so the decision gets made on how busy the team feels. Three roles is roughly $400,000 to $480,000 in permanent operating expense.
Services are delivered at a loss so we can close deals
Implementation gets discounted in the sale, then absorbed by a team nobody measures against a margin target. Services below cost is gross margin leaving the building on every deal.
The data usually exists. A version of the answer that survives the room is what’s missing.
how i see it
Sales, product, and customer success all have a stake in the conclusion, so the explanation that gets adopted is rarely the one the numbers support. I have sat in that room from the operator’s chair for eighteen years. I know which findings get acted on and which ones get quietly shelved, and I will tell you which one you are about to hand to your board.
Where this comes from
I scaled a customer success organization from five people to ninety and held 98% logo retention through it. At Rackspace I ran a $360M services portfolio and moved NPS 32 points. I have made the headcount request and I have also had to answer for it.
the arrangement
How it works
The assessment is $25,000, fixed fee. Four to six weeks, ending with a written finding and a working session with whoever has to act on it.
Scope is set before we start, including which systems I pull from and how many interviews I run. If the budget needs to come down, the scope comes down with it.
Implementation after the finding is quoted separately. I work directly with whoever owns the number.
start here
Bring me the number you can’t explain
Thirty minutes, no deck. Tell me what you are seeing and I will tell you whether I can help and what it would take. If the answer is that you do not need me, I will say that too.