How to lead a customer success team gets complicated when nobody agrees on what the team is responsible for. Sales has a clear job. Post-sale teams are often expected to handle whatever comes their way, yet customer success still takes the blame when a customer churns.

Host Alex Raymond talks with Beth Laplante, SVP of Customer Success at Adara, about what strong customer success leadership looks like inside a messy post-sale organization. Beth shares how she approaches her first 90 days as a leader, what she listens for before making changes, and why clarity around the team’s mandate matters more than many organizations realize.

Beth also gets into customer success segmentation and the problems that show up when every account gets treated the same. A question about why one of her strongest account managers was working two dramatically different accounts opens up a bigger conversation about where senior talent belongs and what customers at different levels actually need. Alex then lays out his theory on why weak customer success forecasting costs leaders the trust of the CEO and CFO. Beth also takes a position on customer success reporting structure, and her answer starts with one question about renewals. Alex adds his own view on the chief customer officer role.

Listen if you want to think more critically about how to lead a customer success team, bring more structure to post-sale, and build credibility with your CEO and CFO.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 What Senior Leaders See in Messy Post-Sale Teams

02:02 Why Customer Success Teams Tolerate So Much Chaos

06:09 Defining Service Tiers and Customer Expectations

09:18 Getting the Company to Respect Your Mandate

11:45 Segmentation and RACI Lessons From Two Turnarounds

16:00 Should Customers Know Their Tier?

20:33 Non-Negotiables That Replace Chaos With Structure

22:47 The JV Versus Varsity Forecast Trust Theory

29:25 CS Reporting Line and the CCO Debate

32:27 Earning CFO Trust and Managing Up

39:10 How to Lead a Customer Success Team Through Change

Connect with Beth Laplante:

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Connect with Alex Raymond:

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Visit the AMplify website

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Keeping customers happy no longer protects your job. Buyers want measurable business outcomes, and the customer success competencies you leaned on in the last decade will not carry you forward.

Host Alex Raymond sits down with Bradley Lawrence, former Global Head of Customer Experience at Coursera, who has led customer teams for more than fifteen years. Bradley names the five customer success competencies every CSM needs now, from a revenue-aligned commercial mindset to executive influence. He also draws a hard line on AI in customer success and identifies the three parts of the job humans should never hand over.

Alex shares a stat you will remember. Bring the C-suite to your QBRs, and you create significantly more expansion opportunities. Leave the meeting to junior contacts, and churn risk climbs. Bradley turns this into QBR best practices and a coaching move for reaching decision-makers you have never met. He rolled out an AI layer built for a thirty percent productivity lift, then explained why the win goes to your team, not your headcount. You will also hear why the relationship-only CSM is running out of road, and which customer success manager skills matter more than pure rapport.

Bradley also examines customer success leadership, why humility beats seniority, and how leaders can replace the customer happiness myth with a focus on business outcomes. Press play to learn the five competencies your career needs as AI reshapes post-sales work.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Alex Raymond Opens Account Management Secrets

02:20 The Biggest Misconception About Customer Success

03:46 Building Customer Success Competencies Through Strategic Priorities

06:37 Why Most QBR Training Falls Short

08:05 The Relationship-Only CSM Is Becoming Obsolete

11:14 What It Really Means to Be Strategic

15:14 Coaching CSMs to Reach the C-Suite

17:53 The Data Behind C-Suite Engagement and Churn

20:09 Evaluating and Investing in AI Tools for Customer Success

22:38 What Humans Should Never Outsource to AI

25:55 Rolling Out Cora.ai and Measuring Productivity Gains

31:25 The Five Competencies Shaping Customer Success

34:56 Leading with Humility in Customer Experience

36:58 Replacing Customer Happiness with Business Outcomes

Connect with Bradley Lawrence:

Connect with Bradley on LinkedIn

Connect with Alex Raymond:

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Visit the AMplify website

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Most account managers can’t clearly explain what their job is, and that gap costs them money, energy, and career momentum. This episode of Account Management Secrets delivers the account management career advice Alex Raymond has collected across 100 episodes and two years of conversations with account managers and customer success leaders around the world.

Alex breaks down the five lessons that mattered most. He explains why post-sales work still lacks a shared definition and how that gap leaves teams recreating systems and processes that should already exist. He also tackles the account management vs. sales mindset head-on. By reframing selling as delivering value before revenue is earned, Alex offers a different perspective on how to grow in account management without losing the trust customers depend on.

Alex makes the case for net revenue as the single metric worth rallying an account management team around instead of chasing a dozen scattered KPIs. He shares why no one is coming to save your career and what that means for anyone serious about post-sales career growth. The episode also includes the story of one account manager who grew a single account from $50,000 to $10 million, proof that the growth department account management movement is real and already changing how the role gets measured.

Press play and walk away with account management career advice you can use this week, not someday.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Celebrating 100 Episodes and Two Years of Lessons

02:25 Guests Spanning Every Industry and Account Size

04:51 Why Post-Sales Still Has No Standard Definition

09:43 Reframing Selling as Value Before Revenue

19:29 Making Net Revenue Retention the North Star

24:15 No One Is Coming to Save Your Career

29:00 The Growth Department and Joanna's 200x Account

33:54 Closing Thoughts and Thanks to the Community

Connect with Alex Raymond:

Connect with Alex on LinkedIn

Visit the AMplify website

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm