The Secret Ally You’re Overlooking in Customer Growth 👀

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Hey CS Pro,

When you think of “upsells,” who do you turn to first?

Sales?

Product?

RevOps?

Well… what if the real key to customer expansion is actually your Marketing team?

In this week’s episode of The Customer Success Pro Podcast, I sat down with Ashna Patel, a former CS leader turned marketer, to unpack the underestimated power of CS + Marketing alignment and why it could be the most important shift your team makes this year.

Here’s what we covered 👇

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The Messaging Gap You Didn’t Know You Had

Ashna Patel made a bold move: after nearly a decade in CS and leadership roles, she jumped into marketing.

And almost instantly, she noticed something big: CS pros don’t always know how to talk to their customers. Not really.

They’re great at relationships. Great at outcomes. But messaging? That’s a marketing skill and most CSMs are winging it.

Ashna shared how messaging changes everything. It’s what drives adoption, opens doors to upsells, and gets customers actually reading your emails. Once she understood how marketers think, she started seeing just how disconnected most CS teams are from this part of the funnel… and why that’s holding them back.

Want better QBRs? More impactful calls? Higher expansion numbers? It starts with the right words.

Marketing Isn’t Just for Lead Gen

Most CS pros think of marketing as “that team that runs ads and sends newsletters.”

But Ashna broke down all the ways CS can and should be using marketing:

• Launching onboarding campaigns together

• Aligning product updates with feature adoption plays

• Running events and webinars with CS input

• Sharing post-renewal value stories to re-engage customers

She even highlighted how her current team at Ascent Cloud built a customer newsletter that CS now uses to spark follow-ups, adoption nudges, and account expansion.

The biggest unlock? You don’t have to do it all yourself.

Your marketing team already has campaigns, customer language, and engagement frameworks, CS just needs to plug in and personalize.

How to Start Collaborating (Even If You Never Have)

If you’ve never looped in your marketing team, Ashna’s advice is simple:

Start by understanding their KPIs.

Want to partner on a webinar? Help them hit attendance targets.

Want a feature adoption campaign? Show how it’ll drive retention.

The easiest way to build trust? Don’t just bring ideas, bring a plan. Offer to bring in top customers, write the follow-up messaging, or align on shared goals.

She also called out one of the biggest lessons of her career:

Just because someone’s already signed doesn’t mean you stop nurturing. You start nurturing. And that’s where CS and marketing truly align when you realize the customer journey is ongoing, and messaging is your tool to drive it forward.

Takeaways

1. Use your marketing team’s words.

Seriously. The language on your website? The copy in that new feature email? That’s the language your customers already understand.

2. Every customer is a prospect.

Renewals, upsells, expansion, it’s all part of a longer journey. And it needs the same level of messaging and nurturing as the sales cycle.

3. Don’t pitch ideas—pitch collaboration.

Marketing isn’t a task rabbit. They’re a strategic partner. Bring the why, the how, and the value for both sides.

That’s it for this week! This episode with Ashna Patel is a must-listen for CSMs, CS leaders, and anyone looking to align CS and marketing to unlock more expansion and customer impact.

Have a listen to the latest podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Youtube and make sure to let me know what you think!

That's all for now.

I hope you’ve found this newsletter helpful. If you did find it helpful feel free to forward it to a friend or a colleague, sharing is caring! If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact us.

Cheers to your CS success,

Anika

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