Your RKO Might Be The Problem

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Hey CS Pro,

Did your team just have an incredible annual kickoff?

Big stage, big vision, big energy. Everyone leaves inspired…and then three months later nothing actually changes.

In this week’s podcast episode, I’m breaking down why that happens and what Customer Success leaders need to do instead if they actually want predictable renewals and upsells.

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The RKO Energy Trap

Let me start by saying this clearly.

I LOVE kickoff season.

January and February are full of SKOs, RKOs, GTM kickoffs… and honestly the energy is contagious. Teams travel somewhere nice, leaders share the big vision for the year, and everyone walks away motivated.

But the Linkedin posts do no share something super important…what happens after?

An annual kickoff is not a revenue strategy.

It is a spark of energy.

Kickoffs create excitement. They align teams on vision. They introduce new frameworks and targets.

But that excitement fades quickly if it is not reinforced.

There is actually a learning concept called the forgetting curve. It shows that without reinforcement people forget up to 70% of what they learned within days.

Days. Not weeks or months….DAYS.

So imagine this. Your company spends months planning an incredible kickoff. The team flies somewhere amazing. Leadership presents new strategies, KPIs, revenue targets, playbooks.

And within a few weeks most of it starts fading.

Not because the strategy was bad.

Because the behavior was never reinforced.

That is the part most teams miss.

Why Behavior Doesn’t Actually Change

Customer Success teams are busy.

Calendars are full. Meetings are stacked back to back. Everyone is juggling customer calls, internal updates, escalations, renewals, and reporting.

When teams are operating in that level of busyness, they default to what feels familiar.

And for many CS teams, the familiar pattern is the check in call.

• You ask how things are going.

• You review product usage.

• You talk about upcoming updates.

• You promise to follow up with an answer to something.

And then the call ends.

Nothing is necessarily wrong with that conversation, but it does not move the account forward in a meaningful way.

During kickoff, leaders often introduce concepts like value storytelling, expansion strategy, or revenue ownership. The intention is to shift the team from reactive support into proactive revenue conversations.

But here is the gap.

Those skills are rarely practiced after kickoff.

Sales teams rehearse constantly. They role play objection handling. They review deals together. They refine their pitch week after week.

Customer Success teams rarely create space for that type of practice.

Instead, the expectation is that CSMs will simply absorb the strategy and execute it during live customer conversations.

That is a huge leap. You cannot just give 120% NRR targets to you team and a playbook and expect them to execute. You are just setting yourself up for failure and disappointment of a playbook is your strategy.

Revenue conversations are a skill. And like any skill, they require repetition to build confidence.

Without repetition, people fall back into the behaviors they already know.

The rhythm that actually builds revenue skills

If you want your team to improve renewals, identify expansion opportunities, and run stronger executive conversations, you need something far more powerful than a once a year kickoff.

You need a monthly enablement rhythm.

This does not have to be complicated.

In fact, the most effective approach is usually the simplest.

Each month your team focuses on one revenue skill.

One topic.

One area of improvement.

And you apply that learning directly to real customer accounts.

For example, one month might focus on forecasting and renewals. The team reviews live accounts together and identifies early risk signals. Managers help CSMs practice how to communicate renewal value clearly.

Another month might focus on white space analysis. The team maps product usage across accounts and identifies areas where the customer could expand.

A different month might focus on ROI storytelling. The team works on connecting product usage to measurable business outcomes so that renewal conversations feel clearer and more confident.

By focusing on one skill at a time, teams can practice it repeatedly. Over time, those conversations start to feel natural.

This is exactly how confidence develops.

Not from hearing something once.

But from practicing it again and again.

Weekly Challenge

Here is something simple I want you to try this week.

Open your calendar.

Block a recurring one hour session each month for the next three months with your Customer Success team.

Then give each session a theme.

Month one could focus on forecasting.

Month two could focus on white space analysis.

Month three could focus on ROI storytelling.

The goal is not to introduce ten new frameworks at once.

The goal is to create repetition.

Because kickoffs create energy.

But repetition is what actually builds revenue.

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