Are You Secretly Avoiding Revenue?

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Hey CS Pro,

If you have ever been told you need to be more commercial and immediately felt your stomach drop, you are not alone. Most CSMs hear that word and think they are about to be pushed into selling, even though that is not actually what commercial CS is about. The good news is you do not need a quota or a sales persona to drive meaningful revenue impact.

This episode and newsletter break down exactly how to contribute to growth in a way that feels natural to customer success, grounded in value, and completely free from the awkward salesy tactics everyone wants to avoid.

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Why revenue feels scary in customer success

The reality right now is simple, and a little brutal. Every team is being asked to do more with less. Investors want efficient growth. Leaders want better margins. And that pressure is flowing straight into customer success.

Sales and marketing are no longer the only revenue engines. Product, support, even engineering are expected to contribute. Of course, CS is in the spotlight, because we sit closest to the customer and the outcomes.

But here is where things break.

Too many CS pros hear the word revenue and instantly think sleazy sales tactics, cold calling, and pushing features customers do not need. If the only version of the commercial you have ever seen is from your sales team, no wonder it feels uncomfortable.

From the teams I coach and the leaders I work with, I see the same mistakes over and over that keep CS stuck in resistance mode instead of stepping into revenue leadership.

1. Thinking commercial means selling

Driving revenue in customer success is not about pitching. It is about aligning your work to business outcomes. Renewals, expansions, and product adoption are all revenue events. You are already involved in them, you just may not be naming it as commercial work.

2. Waiting for sales to own everything

So many CSMs sit back and wait for an account manager or AE to bring up expansions or the renewal. By the time that happens, it is usually too late. You are the one in the account every week. You see the early red flags and the early green flags. If you wait for someone else to act on your insight, you are leaving easy revenue on the table.

3. Tying value only to features

If your version of value sounds like this: customer used feature X or we shipped feature Y, you are making your life harder. Features change. Roadmaps move. Priorities shift. When value is only tied to what the product team ships, your renewal and expansion story collapses the moment a feature gets delayed or deprioritized.

4. Avoiding money conversations

Money talk makes a lot of people cringe. We do not talk about salary with our friends, we rarely talk about mortgages or rent, so of course talking about cost and ROI with customers feels uncomfortable. But executives care deeply about savings, risk, and impact. If you never help customers quantify value, it is much harder to earn their trust or protect your renewal.

In this market, if you want job security and long term career growth in CS, you cannot sit out the revenue conversation. You are already a revenue leader, it is time to start acting like one.

A simple framework for commercial CS without selling

Here is a clean three-part structure to make commercial CS feel natural.

1️⃣ curiosity-driven discovery. Ask deeper business questions early and often. What outcomes matter most? How will they measure success? What is changing in their org? Curiosity uncovers expansion long before a pitch ever would.

2️⃣ connect everything to ROI. Once you know their goals, show the link between your product and their business outcomes. You are not selling, you are translating impact into language executives understand.

3️⃣ expansion readiness. Your job is not to close the deal. Your job is to spot the signals. New hires, new markets, increased usage, new pain points. Document them and surface them early so the right team can act.

Weekly Challenge from the Podcast

Pick one customer and look for a single expansion trigger. A new goal. New stakeholder. New pain point. A shift in usage.

Then take the next step. A follow-up email, sharing a relevant resource, or looping in sales because you see potential.

The point is not to sell. It is to build the muscle of signalling opportunities early.

Share how it goes on LinkedIn with #CSProChallenge.

Ready to turn your CS team into revenue-driving pros?

Most CS orgs don’t need another pep talk. They need practical training that actually shifts how they work.

That’s where I come in.

Whether you need your team to:

✔️ Handle renewals with confidence

✔️ Spot upsell opportunities

✔️ Run ROI-driven QBRs

✔️ Build scalable playbooks

… I’ve got you.

I’ve trained CS teams at Microsoft, Atlassian, Workiva, Flywire and more, giving their post-sale teams the playbooks they actually need to succeed in today’s economy.

If you’re planning your next offsite, team day, or kickoff event, now’s the time to book.

Let’s build a team of strategic CSMs (not firefighters).

📞 Book a call with me

👩‍🏫 View past workshops

That’s it for this week! Just a reminder, you do not need to become a salesperson. You need to become a strategic partner who asks better questions, tells better stories, and spots the moments that matter for your customers and for your business.

Have a listen to the latest podcast:

I hope you enjoyed this week’s newsletter.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact us.

Cheers to your CS success,

Anika

PS - CSM RevUP Academy is currently full. Don't miss your shot at next time! Get the strategies, playbooks, and build your confidence into a revenue-generating CS Pro. Join the VIP Waitlist today to be first notified when the doors open again.