Anika Zubair (00:00.578)
Have you ever been told you need to be more commercial? Or maybe you've heard the line, why didn't you spot that upsell sooner? And suddenly you feel like you're being asked to do sales. But here is the honest truth. Driving revenue in customer success is not the same as being a salesperson. You don't need a quota to actually be commercial. And you

don't need to pitch products to drive growth. So today, I want to show you how to exactly increase revenue as a Customer Success Pro without turning into that dreaded seller that we all do not want to be. Because this isn't about cold calls or hard closes or pitching. It's about recognizing opportunity, creating value, and leading with impact.

Hey, CS friends and welcome back to the Customer Success Pro podcast. I'm your host, Anika Zuber, the founder of the Customer Success Pro and coach to customer success professionals who want to become confident revenue generating experts. And in this episode, we are diving deep into the real reason customer success is being asked to drive more revenue.

I'm going to cover the mistakes that I keep seeing come up and crop up that cause resistance to commercial CS. I'm also going to be sharing some frameworks for driving revenue without feeling salesy or selling. And of course, like all my podcast episodes, I am going to make sure you have tactical and practical tips on how you can start spotting growth opportunities this week in your weekly challenge. So.

If you're a CSM, a CS lead, or even a VP of customer success trying to upskill your team into becoming more strategic and also making sure that you're driving commercial value, this episode is for you. So before we jump into today's topic, don't forget to follow the show, leave a review, and share this episode with a CS friend who's trying to level up their career. I truly love reading every single one of your comments.

Anika Zubair (02:19.146)
on Spotify, on YouTube, or on Apple, you can leave a comment on this podcast anywhere that you listen. So I really appreciate everyone who takes the time to do that. All right, let's dive in. Hello, everyone. I'm your host, Anika Zuber, and welcome to the Customer Success Pro Podcast, your go-to space for real talk, expert advice, and actual insights in the world of customer success. I'm a CS executive leader, award-winning strategist,

CS Coach and Customer Success Fanatic. I help CSMs and CS leaders build the skills and the confidence to become revenue driving pros and scale world-class CS teams. So whether you're brand new to CS or a seasoned leader, this podcast is here to support your growth. Because customer success isn't a destination, it's a journey. And I'm here to be your guide and navigate every step of your journey. So join me every Wednesday where you'll get

fresh CS tips, tricks and strategies you can actually use. Some weeks I'll share my own insights and best practices from working in CS over the last 13 years. And once a month, I'll bring on expert guests to dive into the most relevant and pressing topics in customer success today. So if you're ready to level up, hit subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you tune in.

and let's make your CS journey a little bit easier together.

Anika Zubair (03:54.19)
So here is the reality that I keep seeing happen again and again, and it's something that's happened throughout the last few years, but especially in 2025. Now, CS teams are being asked to do more with less. This was probably the trending topic in 2023 and in 2024 as the entire tech scene and global SaaS industry really started to shift and change. And because we weren't hiring at

all cost or growth at all costs anymore, a lot of SaaS leaders and business leaders and probably your C-suite have asked you as a CS professional to do more with less. And the thing is, leadership wants better margins. It comes down to revenue, it comes down to profitability, and it comes down to your company really being able to show its shareholders

that they are actually increasing in revenue and reducing overhead cost. Investors want more efficient growth now, more than they've ever wanted it before. And in this market, every function, every single one, even engineering and product and support, they are expected to contribute to revenue growth. But customer success teams often freeze. They often get so nervous. They often...

get really, really hesitant to hearing the word revenue. And I'm really sick and tired of hearing it, and that's why I decided to record this podcast on this topic, because revenue is not a scary word. It's not something that you have to have sales credential in order to own. Every single CS person and every single CS leader out there are revenue leaders. And I'm on a mission to make sure that you all understand that.

Because honestly, our roles are actually bigger and more revenue generating than most sales roles out there today. And why is that? It's because CS people immediately associate revenue with sleazy sales tactics that feel pushy, aggressive, misaligned, or almost like a sleazy tactic to get a customer to sign because

Anika Zubair (06:17.686)
of what they want instead of focusing on customer needs. And if your company's only version of commercial is what the actual sales team is doing, then I'm sorry to say that you are missing or leaving a lot of revenue on the table. It's no wonder most CS professionals feel super uncomfortable. It's because the way organizations are built today, it's putting all of the revenue focus into the sales side of the business.

Now don't get me wrong, sales and marketing totally generate tons of revenue. They generate a lot of the new logo sales. They make sure that the business keeps humming and keeps bringing in new customers. But here's what most CS leaders miss. You can absolutely drive revenue in a way that feels natural to your role in customer success. And it does not have to be

pushing new deals or demoing a product or making sure the deal closes. The issue is, is that a lot of times we're not actually reframing a lot of the revenue generating or commercial tasks that we're doing in customer success to focus around customer value. But every single day, every single customer success professional around the world is driving revenue. And the thing is, it's all around the reframe.

So first, let's talk about some common mistakes that I keep seeing happen in the CS space. And these mistakes are things that are really contributing to the fact as to why CS professionals are resisting the revenue conversation. Now, we could resist all we want, by the way. Like, honestly, have, till this day in December 2025, I still see people feel icky or gross about revenue. And...

I'm sorry to say in the world that we live in between AI competing for our attention and the fact that money is no longer cheap and companies are laying off people left, right and center, if you're not embracing revenue as you end 2025 and go into 2026, you might as well lay yourself off. That's right, I said it. I know it's harsh, but I'm here to be your reality check because a lot of the mistakes that I keep seeing happen

Anika Zubair (08:39.886)
in 2025 and even in December of 2025 is the reason why CS leaders don't get that seat at the table. It's because an entire business, your entire company's business is focused around revenue outcomes. And the sweet part is, is that you are helping your customers reach revenue outcomes as well.

but a lot of times we do not frame it like that in customer success. And that's where we end up creating all of these mistakes and problems for ourselves. So let's dive into it. What is some of the normal mistakes that I see happen? And honestly, I've been guilty of these as well. So the first mistake that I keep seeing happen with all of the people that I've coached and helped and all the teams I've led before is thinking that commercial equals sales or commercial equals selling. Now,

Driving revenue and customer success is not about selling. I'm going to say it again for everyone that didn't listen, but driving revenue and customer success is not about selling. It's about aligning all of the work that you do to business outcomes. That's it. Okay. It is not selling. Just to make it clear. All right. The second mistake that I keep seeing happen time and time again is waiting for sales to own

everything. Too many CSMs wait for an AE or an account manager or a salesperson to bring up expansions or renewals. But by that point, it is way, way too late. You're the one who's in the relationship with a customer. You're the one talking to the customer every single day. And you're honestly the one that has a better pulse on what's happening within that account.

And if you're going to just wait for your account manager to come in three months before renewal or for the AE to actually talk about the features and functionalities and the value behind the product, I'm sorry to say you're probably going to lose that upsell and renewal because this is just such an easy win for most CS pros, but

Anika Zubair (10:48.45)
The thing is, you're in it. You are in the conversation with your customers day in and day out. You see all of the red flags, all of the potential churn, all of the potential green flags as well. You see all the opportunities first because you are living and breathing and working consultatively with your customer every single day. But unfortunately, waiting for your AE or account manager to just swoop in and then finally, and know exactly what to do with that account when it comes to an upsell, usually,

that's leaving everyone on the back foot because you have all that information first. So why not act on it rather than waiting for your team to step in? And the third mistake that I see happen way too often, I actually had a call this week with a coachee on this. unfortunately, I see this happen a lot, which is CS pros tend to tie value of a two product features. So when you anchor value in

features instead of business outcomes, you make it so much harder for yourself to justify things like price increases or renewals or expansions. I know is really common by the way. Our brains and customer success have been wired to have us thinking that when a customer uses a feature functionality of our product, they are going to see inherit value. Now, if you are in a consumption based product that's

probably pretty normal. But for most people in B2B SaaS, in some shape or form, your customer is not going to see inherent value just by using your product and service. So when you start tying value to the features used or maybe the features that are released on the roadmap, your customer is always going to tie value into how much you deliver when it comes to a product perspective.

And unfortunately, and I've seen this happen too many times, where CSMs get caught out because their customers saying, we don't see the value because the feature that we requested didn't actually end up being delivered. And then suddenly you're having a churn conversation with your customer because they are seeing value only in when you release features.

Anika Zubair (13:09.462)
rather than in something that you've helped them uncover or a business outcome that you've helped them reach. And every single time that you tie something to a feature, what's gonna happen when your roadmap changes or your executive team decides to actually shift priority and build features for enterprise customers instead of mid-market or SMB customers? And what ends up happening is when...

you start making that shift and when your customers start to connect everything to features, it is going to be really, really hard for you to justify renewals or expansion. So make your life easier and stop tying things or stop tying value, I should say, to features and functionalities. All right, just a quick pause from the podcast. If you want to feel more confident in customer conversations and stop getting stuck,

when a customer pushes back, I have something that's gonna help you immediately. It's my Objection Handling Playbook, and it's a practical guide that gives you clear scripts, frameworks, and examples so you know exactly what to say when customer objection comes up. Now, inside, you will learn how to respond when a customer says they have no budget. You'll also learn how to confidently redirect

when they say they need more time. And of course, we're going to talk in the guide about how to move the conversation forward when a stakeholder goes completely silent. The guide also covers how to uncover the real reason behind an objection so you can address it properly and move forward with your customer. Plus, in the guide, as you do in many of my guides, you get

plug and play scripts that you can use on the very next call with your customers. If you want to grab the Objection Handling Playbook Guide, you can go ahead and download it right now. All you have to do is go to thecustomersuccesspro.com forward slash resources. That's thecustomersuccesspro.com forward slash resources. I will link it down in the show notes of this episode. All right.

Anika Zubair (15:31.286)
Let's get back into the podcast. Okay, this next one is something that I know a lot of people listening to this podcast, they're gonna have a hard time admitting, but it is the truth. And I know it from a fact because I've seen it firsthand from the CSMs on my teams is the fourth mistake that I see happen way, way too often is that CS pros just avoid money talk. Now hear me out.

I know, money gets super icky, yucky, cringe, like no one likes talking about it, okay? It's something that as a society, we just do not talk about enough. If you think about it, we barely talk about our salary with our loved ones or our friends or our family. We barely talk about how much we buy a house or our mortgage payments or our rent payment. It's just not really talked about. And because it's not normalized and talking about in our social settings,

We really, really hate talking about it with our customers because again, for some reason we associate money with being the sleazy salesperson or the bad guy. And CS pros often avoid financial conversations because they don't want to be that sleazy salesperson. talking about things that are actually money related that make sense to talk about with your customers are super powerful. Like let's say talking about

the amount of cost your product is saving your customer, or maybe the positive ROI they're getting from using your product or service, or maybe your product is helping reduce risk across the entire business, which is ultimately helping them save some money. This is exactly the type of money conversations that end up earning executive trust. But if we don't actually have the money conversation in the first place,

Unfortunately, we're not going to actually earn trust and we're never going to feel comfortable talking about money. So might as well start. All right. Now that I've talked about all the cringey ways and all the mistakes that we could be making when it comes to driving revenue and customer success and really owning that revenue number, let's talk about how you can actually start to shift your ways of working to drive revenue without selling. Okay. So I want you to first

Anika Zubair (17:56.312)
think about this as reframing commercial customer success into something that feels authentic, something that really feels strategic and actionable for your team. And here's my three-part framework that works for me, but use this as you will. But I really hope as you listen to this podcast and you dive into this, start to realize that commercial does not mean

overselling and under promising or selling something to someone that they just don't need. Commercial does not mean that. It could mean being strategic. It could mean being a business advisor. It could mean helping grow your customers. And my framework follows that exact path. And the first part of it is making sure that if you are commercially CS focused, that you do some level of curiosity driven

discovery. So I love discovery and it's something that's a really underutilized tactic in customer success. And I think that we need to really start by asking deeper questions early on in the relationships with our customers. Like we need to really get in there and start asking our customers what business outcomes are you targeting this year or this quarter?

How will you actually measure success? And what's keeping your exec team up at night? Or what does your exec team actually care about? These sorts of questions dig in deep. They get direct into the point with our customers and they build trust. And over time, they are going to help you uncover opportunities. Now, you've got to be able to layer discovery and make sure that you're asking the right questions of your customers at the right

But you're also going to want to make sure that when you are asking these deeper discovery questions, you go in with the mindset of curiosity. Now, when you go in with that mindset of being curious and really understanding a customer's needs, wants, what their business is doing, what's not working, what's working, that's actually a huge sales tactic because what you're actually finding out is what your customer cares about. And when you find out what your customer cares

Anika Zubair (20:14.068)
actually really cares about and what keeps them up at night, you are uncovering opportunities. Now that could be an early renewal opportunity, or maybe that's actually uncovering some different team or different use case of your product or a different person or department using your product. All of those are upsell indicators. But the thing is, if you don't start asking those discovery based questions and if you don't start digging in a little bit deeper,

you're never going to be able to uncover it. And again, this is the way that you move away from being reactive and being commercial or proactive or just strategic in customer success. All right, so once you've been able to actually do the discovery and really get to the root cause of what your customer cares about, what keeps them up at night, what makes their business tick, you need to start to connect the dots to

an ROI or return on investment. So once you understand their goals, you need to help them see how your product drives those goals forward and delivers value. Now you can use my value sandwich framework that I've shared in multiple other podcasts before, but it is just about making sure

that your customer sees the value of your product and there is a strong ROI tied back to their business goals. So maybe an example of this is your onboarding delays were causing tons of revenue leakage. And now that your team is live with our tool, your closing deals 15 % faster. Now that is impact, that is value, that is commercial CS.

And guess what? I didn't actually pitch you. I didn't sell anything to you. The statement that I just shared with you, that is value. And that is where customer success truly becomes commercial. Okay, the final part of the framework is expansion readiness. And I always tell this to everyone I coach is you don't actually need to pitch, but

Anika Zubair (22:30.39)
you do need to flag opportunities. You need to flag when usage is growing or flag when they ask for something new on the roadmap or flag when their business is evolving or they're hiring more people or they're expanding to new markets. Use what I call expansion triggers somewhere within your CRM to really start tracking when your customer is ready for growth. Now, these expansion triggers can be a whole bunch of things like

Maybe it's like a new hire within the team or they mention new pain points or maybe they're increasing how they're using your tool or maybe they're asking about a future roadmap or features outside of their current plan or their current service that they have with you. Once you start to spot these things, you need to start to document them, okay? You need to go into your CRM and you need to create either a new opportunity for an upsell or again,

Just create an expansion trigger flag or something where you can make sure you are aligned internally, that you are flagging this is an early sign for growth. Now you can go and collaborate with sales if that's something you do, but you don't actually have to close the deal, but you do need to surface the signal. You need to show that you've had the conversation, you've done the right level of discovery, you've identified that there is room for growth.

And that is where you actually are able to flag the commercial side of customer success. And again, all three parts of my framework, I did not pitch you, I did not start to push something on you, but I was starting to step into that commercial CS role. And I started to actually unlock a lot of growth and a lot of potential within my accounts by making sure I have the right signals, by making sure that I am

actually asking the right questions and by making sure that I am ready and showing value to my customers by using a value framework as well. Okay, I want to share a little story with you all. At one point in my career, I was managing a portfolio of high growth SaaS startups. These were my customers, okay? And one customer in particular, let's call them Ztech.

Anika Zubair (24:57.966)
was quietly scaling. No red flags, they were attending trainings, they were logging in, they came to my business reviews, really no complaints at all. But during one of our monthly value calls, I asked a simple, simple question. And the question was, what changed in your business since we last spoke? And they just told me that they raised a funding round. They were hiring about 20 new people

And suddenly their entire use case was shifting because they needed new workflows, new onboarding, more licenses, more people using our product. And honestly, it started with one question. That one question led to 70,000 in expansion. Now there was no pitching, there was no pressure. There was just curiosity plus a bit of timing plus a bit of relationship building.

that got me to that point. But that is the power of commercial customer success. It's putting your commercial hat on and not necessarily selling, but making sure you're identifying growth opportunities. So as I do in every solo episode, I am going to challenge you. So are you ready? Here is your weekly challenge. I want you to spot one expansion trigger.

Go ahead and pick a customer in your book of business, look at recent Slack messages or meeting notes or your value call slides, and actually go and look and see if there's been a shift in their business. Has there been new stakeholders, new goals that they highlighted, new pain points that they're pointing out? Then take one step to move it forward. Send them a follow-up email, share a relevant feature,

loop in your sales team because there's an opportunity for growth. The goal here isn't to actually sell in your weekly challenge. It's to signal. I want you to start to signal opportunities and start practicing that muscle to proactive revenue thinking. And if you go ahead and try our weekly challenge, I would love it if you go on to LinkedIn or social media.

Anika Zubair (27:23.03)
and use the hashtag CSProChallenge and tell me exactly how it went. Because I love reading how you guys all interpret the CSProChallenge. All right, CSPros, it's your time. It's time to redefine what commercially actually means in customer success. You do not need to become a salesperson, but you do need to become a strategic partner.

And I want to remind you that driving revenue isn't about pushing the product. It's about asking better questions, telling better stories, and spotting the moments that matter with your customer. And when you do that consistently, revenue becomes a natural outcome of a strong relationship, not the end goal. So if today's episode help you reframe your mindset, I'd love for you to leave a review, share this

with the CST teammate and go ahead and grab some of my free customer success resources that are all listed in the show notes of this episode because I am serious about helping you up level your revenue impact. And I have tons of resources down below on exactly how you can get started. So until next time, keep showing up with curiosity, strategy and confidence. I'll catch you next week for our next episode. You've got this.

and I believe in you. Thanks for tuning in to the Customer Success Pro Podcast. I hope you picked up something valuable to take back to your team. If you enjoyed this episode, it would mean the world to me if you took just 10 seconds to leave a review on Apple or Spotify. It helps more CS pros like yourself discover the show. And creating new episodes takes a lot of work, so leaving a nice review keeps me motivated to keep creating.

And don't forget to hit subscribe on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcast episodes. I drop a new episode every Wednesday packed with practical tips. And if you've got a topic you'd love for me to cover or want to be a guest on my show, send me a message. All the details are in the show notes. I'd love to hear from you. And hey, if this episode helped you share it with a fellow CSM or CS leader. Remember sharing is caring.

Anika Zubair (29:46.914)
Cheers to your CS journey and I'll catch you next week for our next episode.