Customer Success Enablement: An Expert-Led Introduction

Introduction

I’ve been familiar with the concept of customer success (CS) enablement for some time, but I’ll admit, I used to see it in a rather simplistic way – as just the CS equivalent of sales enablement.

The reality is, none of the companies I’ve worked with had a dedicated CS enablement function. Plus, most of my professional and social circles have been rooted in sales and sales enablement, which likely influenced my initial perception.

Recently, I’ve been diving deeper into customer success (CS) enablement for a few reasons:

• First, for “selfish” purposes related to my blog, The Enablement Insight, aiming to cover adjacent topics to sales enablement.

• Second, with SaaS sales facing a challenging period, revenue-impacting areas like renewals and expansions in customer success have become more critical than ever.

• Third, I’ve always had a personal interest in the sales-to-customer success handoff process.

• Lastly, I’ve connected with more CS enablement experts lately, including the one who made this article possible.

This expert is Liz MacAulay, who was kind enough to give me a crash course on customer success enablement. 

For those unfamiliar with Liz, she has over 19 years of experience across sales, marketing, and customer success.

Throughout her career, she has played key roles in successful acquisitions, such as Radian6 by Salesforce, and has built and scaled teams that drove significant gains in revenue and customer retention. 

Now, as the founder of What Not To Do, Liz focuses on consulting, specialising in sales and customer success strategies that drive revenue.

As a hands-on “operator consultant,” she works closely with companies to optimise their commercial teams and go-to-market strategies, ensuring her guidance translates directly into measurable business outcomes.

It’s safe to say, getting an introduction from someone of her calibre was a real privilege. 

In this article we discuss the definition, purpose, goals, and metrics of customer success enablement as a function, the idiosyncratic variables that determine how CS enablement is done in various organisations, as well as some less obvious contrasts between sales and customer success enablement.

Definition and purpose of customer success enablement

At its core, customer success enablement is about equipping Customer Success Managers (CSMs), their leaders, and other team members within the CS group with the means they need to help customers achieve the outcomes they bought the product or service for.

This can range from ongoing training and coaching to providing playbooks, customer-facing content, and technology that streamlines their workflows. 

However, a mature CS enablement architecture goes beyond simply offering resources – it strategically aligns these resources to broader company goals, continuously optimises processes, and ensures that all CS roles, from frontline CSMs to leadership, are fully supported in delivering value to customers.

The true purpose of customer success enablement is to empower CSMs to be proactive with intention.

Rather than just reacting to customer issues, CSMs are trained to anticipate needs, guide customers through their journeys, and ensure they realise the full value of the product.

This shifts the focus from reactive support to a more outcome-driven, intentional engagement that prioritises the customer’s long-term success.

In a proactive enablement programme, the goal isn’t just to equip customer success teams to drive product adoption but also to deliver measurable business outcomes that lead to renewals and expansions.

This becomes especially critical in industries where the value customers derive from the product directly impacts their decision to renew or expand contracts, such as SaaS and other recurring revenue models.

Key responsibilities of customer success enablement

To achieve these objectives, customer success enablement must handle a broad set of responsibilities designed to support the customer success team and drive long-term success:

• Onboarding programmes: Designing comprehensive onboarding programmes for new hires in CS roles so that they can do effective customer relationship management from very early on in their company journey.  

• Training & development: Establishing ongoing development programmes that focus on building the required knowledge and skills to succeed in a CS role, beyond the initial onboarding. These programmes could include clear certification milestones to provide a defined development path. Training should cover diverse areas such as sales skills, product expertise, tools, processes, and more. 

• Coaching and mentoring: Implementing coaching and mentoring frameworks for new CS hires and more experienced team members to help them continuously refine their skillsets and navigate customer relationships more effectively.

• Enablement content: Developing both internal content (such as playbooks and training materials) that supports ongoing learning for the CS team, and external content that educates and influences customers.

• Tech stack & tools: Collaborating with operations and other key stakeholders to build and implement a tech stack that supports the CS team’s needs. This suite of tools should streamline workflows, improve customer engagement, and ultimately help deliver greater value to customers. 

• Operational improvements: Identifying and addressing operational inefficiencies that may hinder the CS team’s ability to deliver value, making sure processes are optimised for efficiency and effectiveness.

• Cross-functional collaboration: Collaborating with stakeholders from across the organisation – sales, marketing, product, and more – to ensure that CS enablement is aligned with the company’s broader goals and that all necessary support is in place for CSMs to succeed.

In summary, customer success enablement equips CS teams to deliver value by providing effective onboarding, ongoing training and development, and continuous coaching. It also focuses on providing teams have the right content and tools to support both internal learning and customer engagement.

The problem of CS enablement’s lower maturity levels

An issue that Liz and I touched upon early in our conversation, and one I believe deserves to be mentioned in this “introductory” section, is the relatively lower level of maturity of customer success enablement in comparison to sales enablement.

As Liz pointed out, one of the reasons customer success enablement hasn’t evolved to the same level as sales enablement is tied to its historical detachment from revenue generation. 

In other words, for a long time, CS teams didn’t associate themselves with revenue in the same way that sales teams have traditionally done. 

In the early days of CS, the focus was largely on metrics like customer satisfaction, net promoter score (NPS), and customer delight, which were only loosely tied to revenue outcomes.

This disconnect from measurable financial results meant that executives weren’t as willing to allocate substantial budgets to CS enablement interventions.

To use Liz’s words:

“Where revenue comes in, the budget goes.”

This reluctance in CS to embrace a revenue-focused mindset left the department with less influence, fewer resources, and, subsequently, a certain lack of customer success enablement strategy.

Additionally, the nature of customer success itself has contributed to its slower evolution.

While sales is often short-tail, driven by quicker transactions and faster cycles, customer success operates on a long-tail model. CS teams must manage customer relationships over extended periods, incorporating complex elements like change management and adoption strategies.

Because of this, the customer success motion is often misunderstood, which further complicates its ability to attract attention and resources within organisations.

Variables affecting customer success enablement

From my personal experience, when a function is not well-defined or standardised (as is still the case for sales enablement, too), it often evolves reactively in ways that are heavily shaped by external factors beyond its control.

This can make it harder for the function to assert itself fully within an organisation.

Liz echoed this when discussing CS enablement, pointing out that its maturity is also influenced by various factors.

However, she highlighted three key elements that can have the most significant impact on shaping what an effective customer success enablement team looks like. 

Go-to-market motion

The go-to-market (GTM) strategy of a company significantly shapes how customer success enablement is structured and executed.

Different approaches – such as product-led growth (PLG) versus enterprise models – require distinct enablement strategies. 

Liz emphasised that PLG models tend to focus on scaling customer success through content-driven engagement, where automation, efficient communication, and community management are critical.

In these cases, the enablement of customer success professionals leans heavily on creating content tailored to specific use cases and personas.

This is necessary to manage a large book of business effectively, often across hundreds of customers.

In contrast, enterprise models demand a deeper focus on relationship building, stakeholder management, and commercial acumen.

As Liz noted, CSMs in these environments need to excel in stakeholder mapping, influence management, and executive-level communication, often handling fewer accounts but with higher complexity.

These models require a more strategic approach where CSMs must guide customers through success plans and maturity journeys.

Enablement in enterprise contexts therefore, focuses on developing skills within the aforementioned areas (e.g., holding executive business reviews, which we’ll cover in depth later in the article)

The key difference between the two is that PLG customer success enablement is focused on creating scalable and repeatable processes and content for a larger audience, while enterprise CS enablement requires deep, tailored training in managing high-touch, high-value relationships.

Of course, many companies fall somewhere between these two extremes.

These GTM motions somewhere in the middle often blend elements from both PLG and enterprise strategies, combining scalable, content-driven enablement with more tailored, relationship-focused approaches.

In such cases, the enablement function needs to adopt a balanced strategy, providing both automated processes and personalised training, depending on the customer segment and complexity.

Company maturity

The maturity of an organisation also plays a significant role in how CS enablement is structured.

According to Liz, younger companies often blend roles between marketing, sales, and product, with enablement teams wearing multiple hats. 

In these environments, customer success enablement might be handled by someone in sales enablement or even by a hybrid team responsible for multiple functions.

The lack of role specialisation often leads to more ad hoc enablement efforts, with CS enablement often receiving less attention compared to sales.

As companies grow and mature, CS enablement typically becomes more centralised and specialised.

Larger, more established organisations often have the resources to separate sales and CS enablement, sometimes appointing a dedicated director or team focused solely on customer success.

However, as Liz pointed out, this separation doesn’t always happen immediately.

Even in mature organisations, CS enablement often remains under the umbrella of sales enablement leadership until the need to distinguish the two functions becomes more apparent.

With this increased maturity comes the opportunity to direct enablement efforts specifically toward customer success. This includes implementing structured training, coaching, and tools that aim to drive customer retention, product adoption, and account expansion. 

Organisational structure

The structure of customer success within an organisation significantly affects the focus of CS enablement.

In combined customer success and account management teams, where CSMs are responsible for both product adoption and revenue generation (e.g., upselling and cross-selling), CS enablement must provide a holistic approach.

This includes training on product features, guiding customers through adoption, and building commercial acumen to help CSMs identify and act on growth opportunities.

In these environments, CSMs need to be well-rounded, handling both technical and commercial responsibilities to drive customer satisfaction and expansion.

On the other hand, when customer success and account management are separated, enablement must take on a more specialised role.

In such a model, CSMs focus exclusively on adoption, satisfaction, and renewal, while account managers handle upselling and cross-selling.

In these cases, CS enablement is still critical in developing the CSM’s skills in relationship management, customer satisfaction, and product knowledge.

However, there’s an added layer: collaboration enablement.

CS enablement must also foster strong teamwork between CSMs and account managers by setting up clear processes, communication guardrails, and collaboration frameworks.

This ensures that opportunities for expansion are effectively identified and passed on, without gaps or misalignment.

In both structures, the key task for enablement is to ensure that CSMs are not simply reactive problem solvers but proactive, outcome-driven partners for their customers. Whether their focus is on product adoption or working hand-in-hand with account managers for growth, their North Star remains delivering consistent value to customers.

Goals and metrics for customer success enablement

As we’ve discussed, for many years, CS teams were primarily measured by softer metrics like customer satisfaction or NPS, which didn’t fully reflect their revenue-driving potential.

Today, however, retention and expansion have become critical goals for customer success, and CS enablement needs to prioritise these outcomes.

As Liz aptly noted:

“There should absolutely be a tie to revenue,”

…which includes tracking key metrics like net revenue retention and churn reduction targets.

Balancing CSM Efficiency with Effectiveness

A key goal of customer success enablement is to enhance CSM efficiency while maintaining or improving effectiveness.

As Liz explained, efficiency is often measured by the number of accounts a CSM can manage, but this must be balanced with effectiveness, which reflects the quality of those engagements.

Together, these two factors determine overall productivity (as I also discuss in my article on sales effectiveness)

The balance between proactive and reactive work is a strong indicator of CSM productivity.

Highly productive customer success managers spend less time reacting to issues and more time proactively managing relationships.

A CSM who regularly engages with both champions and executive stakeholders, anticipates potential challenges, and ensures customers stay on track to meet their goals is far more effective.

This proactive approach also results in smoother renewals, with fewer last-minute rushes to resolve issues before contract expiry.

As Liz emphasised, efficiency alone isn’t enough.

CS and enablement teams must be cautious of “false positives” in metrics like customer health scores and renewal risk.

For example, a CSM might tick the box for engaging with an executive within the last 30 days, but the real question is: was the engagement meaningful?

True effectiveness is measured by whether these interactions lead to tangible business outcomes, not just whether the box was checked.

We also touched upon conversation intelligence platforms like Gong or Clari which can be leveraged to assess the quality of conversations between CSMs and customers.

These platforms allow CSMs and CS enablement professionals to review calls for key engagement indicators – such as whether critical business issues were discussed or if the conversation was a two-way dialogue. The insights gathered can help refine enablement programmes by focusing on improving conversation quality, not just quantity.

A practical example – scoring executive business reviews (EBRs) and success plans

Liz used EBRs and success plans as examples which demonstrate how to measure the effectiveness of what CMSs are doing. 

To clarify, an EBR is a high-level meeting between key customer stakeholders (including executives) and the CSM to review progress, align on goals, and discuss future opportunities.

A success plan, on the other hand, is the actionable outcome of these reviews. It is a strategic, collaborative document developed between the customer success team members and the customer, outlining specific milestones, objectives, and timelines.

This plan ensures both parties have a clear, measurable path forward and are aligned on the next steps to achieve the customer’s goals. 

Evaluating EBRs

To determine the effectiveness of an EBR, you can apply a performance rubric, which measures engagement, alignment, and actionable outcomes.

Below is an example of how you could structure this evaluation (on a scale from 0 to 5):

• Score 0: No EBR held

The first indicator of effectiveness is simply whether the EBR happened. If the meeting was not even scheduled, then the CSM receives no points for this engagement.

• Score 1: EBR held with limited attendance

The meeting took place, but only the main point of contact (e.g., the champion) attended. There was no engagement with key decision-makers, such as executives.

While this engagement is better than nothing, it limits the opportunity for aligning on strategic business goals.

The meeting may have resulted in a checklist of tasks, but it lacks the depth needed to affect long-term success.

• Score 3: EBR with executives but minimal alignment

In this case, the CSM successfully brought executives to the table, but the discussion didn’t fully align on priorities or the customer’s evolving business problems.

The meeting might have touched on metrics and product adoption but lacked actionable follow-through.

There was some value, but not enough to drive a meaningful impact on the success plan.

• Score 5: Fully engaged EBR with alignment and strategic impact

At this level, the EBR included key executives and stakeholders, and the conversation centered on aligning business priorities with the customer’s goals.

The EBR led to updates to the customer’s success plan, which now includes specific milestones tied to departmental and overall business objectives.

This type of meeting informs future actions and ensures that both the CSM and the customer are on the same page moving forward. It becomes a foundation for proactive engagement.

Evaluating the success plan

The EBR should feed directly into the customer’s success plan, which is another critical area to be evaluated.

Here’s how you can assess the success plan (on a scale from 0 to 5):

• Score 0: No success plan

If there is no documented success plan, the customer relationship lacks clear direction. This is a major red flag for both renewals and expansions.

• Score 1: Basic action list

There is a success plan, but it’s little more than a checklist of to-dos or tasks.

This plan likely addresses short-term needs without any broader strategic alignment, which limits its effectiveness in driving long-term value for the customer.

• Score 3: Action plan with business goals

The success plan includes specific goals tied to business outcomes, but it lacks full integration across different levels of the customer’s organisation.

The plan may address goals at the department level but doesn’t connect with broader company-wide initiatives.

• Score 5: Strategic success plan with full business alignment

This is the ideal outcome.

The success plan includes a comprehensive executive summary and ties together the overall business goals with departmental objectives and specific milestones.

The plan is actionable and helps guide the customer toward achieving measurable outcomes, making it much more likely to drive renewals and expansions.

CS enablement plays a crucial role in training and providing resources to CSMs to move beyond surface-level engagements and focus on driving results.

As Liz noted, if CSMs simply “touch base” without influencing customer outcomes, it signals that enablement needs to refocus efforts on training and coaching CSMs to drive real business value.

Ultimately, the goal is to connect all the dots: CSMs should not only engage frequently but also make those engagements meaningful.

The customer success enablement manager can assist by creating frameworks that guide CSMs toward more outcome-driven conversations.

Retention and expansion – the key metrics

The two metrics that are the clearest indicators of how CS teams are contributing measurable, impactful value to revenue are retention and expansion.

Renewals: securing the foundation

Renewals are primarily about delivering on the promises made during the sales cycle by ensuring customers achieve the outcomes they expected when purchasing the product or service. The goal here is to secure ongoing customer satisfaction and maintain existing contracts.

As Liz highlighted during our conversation, the focus in renewals is on executing the business case – which means making sure the customer is fully onboarded, adopting the product, and gaining measurable value from it.

CSMs must guide customers through the change management process, helping them incorporate the product into their daily operations.

This requires the CSM to not only be technically proficient with the product but also skilled in understanding the customer’s unique needs and business objectives, while effectively managing customer interactions with key stakeholders.

Some of the key tasks involved in driving successful renewals include:

• Product adoption: For renewals to happen smoothly, it’s essential that customers use the product in ways that meet their specific business needs. CSMs should monitor adoption metrics like how often customers use the product, what features they’re engaging with, and how deeply they’re embedding the solution across their teams.

• Stakeholder management: Building and maintaining relationships with key stakeholders, including champions and executives, is critical. CSMs should also be attentive to any shifts within the customer’s organisation and identify new stakeholders that may influence the decision-making process.

• Proactive engagement: A productive CSM takes a proactive approach, anticipating potential roadblocks before they arise. By keeping a close eye on usage patterns and stepping in when milestones aren’t being met, CSMs can address issues early. Regular check-ins and Executive Business Reviews (EBRs) offer valuable opportunities to keep everything on track and avoid last-minute fire drills before renewal periods.

• Customer enablement: CSMs need to continuously educate customers on how to get the most out of the product. This isn’t just about training on specific features, but about providing strategic guidance on how the product fits into their broader business goals. 

• Outcome measurement and ROI tracking: Helping customers see clear results from their investment is key to successful renewals. CSMs should work with clients to measure the value they’re receiving from the product, tying these insights to tangible business outcomes and ROI. When customers can clearly see how the product is contributing to their success, renewals – and potential expansions – become much easier to secure.

• Renewal planning: Instead of waiting until the contract is close to expiring, it’s important to start renewal conversations early. This allows CSMs to highlight the ongoing value customers are receiving and explore opportunities for future growth. Introducing the idea of renewal well in advance helps to create a seamless transition into the next phase of the customer relationship.

• Cross-functional collaboration: Successful renewals often depend on teamwork across different departments. CSMs should collaborate closely with sales, product, and marketing teams to address customer needs, resolve issues, and ensure product updates or improvements are aligned with customer feedback.

A successful renewal process should feel like a “non-event,” where the renewal is a natural consequence of the customer achieving their goals.

Liz pointed out that, ideally, by the time renewal comes around, it should not involve reselling the product but instead serve as a continuation of the partnership, with a focus on long-term planning for the customer.

Expansion: driving additional growth

In contrast, expansion is about identifying new opportunities to grow the customer’s account, whether through upselling additional features, cross-selling complementary products, or expanding usage across more departments or teams.

Expansion requires CSMs to take on a more sales-aligned role, as they are tasked with identifying additional needs within the customer’s organisation and proposing new solutions to meet those needs.

As Liz noted, while renewals focus on executing the business case, expansion is about presenting new business cases to the customer. This requires a different set of skills, more akin to sales, including:

• Commercial acumen: CSMs need to have a solid understanding of the customer’s business model, financial drivers, and the potential ROI of new solutions.

• Problem-solving: Expansion opportunities often arise from identifying challenges or gaps in the customer’s current setup, which the CSM can then address with additional products or features.

• Relationship-building: Maintaining strong relationships with key decision-makers and expanding influence beyond the initial points of contact is crucial for uncovering new opportunities.

• Value articulation: CSMs must be able to clearly articulate the value of the proposed expansion, linking it to the customer’s evolving business goals and demonstrating how it will deliver further impact.

In many organisations, CSMs may hand off expansion opportunities to account managers or sales teams, but as Liz pointed out, the identification of expansion opportunities often begins with the CSM. 

How customer success enablement supports renewal and expansion efforts

Both renewals and expansions entail proactive engagement, but while renewals focus on maintaining the relationship and delivering on the initial promise, expansion requires a forward-looking approach to uncover untapped opportunities.

Strong CS enablement programmes should provide CSMs with the knowledge, skills, tools, and resources needed to navigate both processes effectively. 

For renewals, enablement is particularly crucial in setting CSMs up for success early on, especially when managing the increasingly common decision committees that evaluate renewals.

Especially with mid-market and enterprise segments, you can’t afford to maintain relationships with a single decision-maker; CSMs must engage with a diverse group of stakeholders, from executives to front-line users. 

CS enablement should focus on providing the training, resources, and tools to help CSMs communicate effectively across different levels of the customer’s organisation.

One effective strategy is to involve CSMs early in the sales process, allowing them to be present in digital sales rooms and exposed to all relevant stakeholders right from the handoff.

This not only helps CSMs build rapport with decision-makers early on but also enables them to rapidly understand the business objectives driving the initial sale, which then should be translated into actionable success plans. 

When it comes to expansion, the role of CS enablement shifts toward imparting commercial skills such as account and stakeholder mapping, business case development, ROI presentation, and negotiation.

CSMs need to demonstrate value beyond the current engagement, showing how additional solutions or expanded usage can address new challenges or opportunities for the customer.

Here, CS enablement and management play a pivotal role in preparing CSMs on how to balance strategic, executive-level discussions with more granular, technical conversations, ensuring they can effectively present expansion opportunities to both executives and technical teams alike.

The ultimate goal in all of this is to move beyond transactional interactions and create meaningful, outcome-driven engagements that continuously reinforce the value of the product or service and allow room for potential expansion. 

These insights into how CS enablement supports the initial handoff from sales to customer success made me realise that sales enablement should play a bigger role in this process, but from the sales side of the equation. It’s certainly something worth exploring further – and perhaps writing about in the future.

Time to value

Another essential metric is time to value (TTV) – the period it takes for a customer to realise the tangible benefits of a product.

Liz highlighted that the sooner CSMs can reduce time to value, the more likely a customer will renew, as they quickly see the direct impact of the product on their business outcomes. 

For different stakeholders within the same customer organisation, TTV will vary.

For example, an account executive (AE) might experience value in 30 days, while a CRO might take longer due to the nature of their higher-level, strategic goals.

CS enablement must ensure that CSMs can adjust their strategies to reduce TTV across multiple levels within a customer’s organisation.

By reducing the time to value, CSMs help make the product “stickier” and more deeply integrated into the customer’s operations, leading to more predictable renewals and opportunities for expansion.

Contrasting sales and customer success enablement

While both sales and customer success enablement aim to equip their teams with the necessary training, coaching, content, and tools to drive business outcomes, their focus and execution diverge significantly due to the nature of each role.

Short-term wins vs long-term value

Arguably the largest difference between the two disciplines is the duration and nature of the relationships between the buyer or customer side and the teams they support. 

Sales enablement works to help the sales teams close quickly and efficiently. It equips sales teams with the training, coaching, resources, and tools needed to move prospects through the funnel efficiently. 

The focus is on improving win rates, shortening the sales cycle, increasing ACV, and all of the sub-areas that are likely to impact such metrics and the overall sales velocity equation.

Once a deal is closed, the relationship typically ends, and the focus shifts to the next or remaining leads. 

In contrast, customer success enablement focuses on ensuring long-term customer success. It equips CSMs to manage the post-sale customer journey, focusing on product adoption, renewals, and expansions.

Some key metrics include customer retention rates, churn reduction, customer lifetime value (CLTV), and net revenue retention (NRR). Unlike the short-term focus of sales, CS involves managing ongoing customer value and solving real, often technical, issues that arise over time. 

As Liz noted, CSMs must continuously demonstrate the product’s value – both past and future – helping customers recognise its ongoing relevance.

This long-term engagement goes beyond just solving immediate issues; it involves maintaining strong relationships with various stakeholders over time

Real vs perceived challenges

Another major difference between the two functions is the nature of challenges that occur in the communication between customers and sales/CS teams.

In sales, objections from prospects are often more mental or perceived – concerns that can be overcome through discussions, product demonstrations, or trials/pilots. 

In CS, the issues are frequently more real and immediate.

Liz pointed out that CSMs are often required to manage real outages or technical issues.

This means CSMs not only need to maintain the relationship with the customer but also must assure them that problems will be resolved and won’t affect future performance.

Proactive vs reactive engagement

While both functions involve elements of proactivity and reactivity, their balance differs.

Sales enablement typically promotes a proactive stance, where sales reps take control of the buyer’s journey, engage potential customers, and drive toward a decision before competitors can intervene.

Sales teams aim to guide prospects through the funnel efficiently and shape outcomes in a controlled way.

CS enablement, by nature, requires a balance between proactive and reactive strategies.

Inevitably, there will always be reactive elements in customer success, such as handling post-sale issues, addressing technical challenges, or resolving concerns as they arise.

A significant part of CS enablement’s role is to prepare CSMs to manage these reactive scenarios effectively, ensuring swift problem-solving and maintaining customer trust during critical moments.

At the same time, as we already touched upon, successful CSMs must also adopt a proactive stance, anticipating customer needs, identifying potential opportunities for expansion, and ensuring satisfaction long before renewals or escalation points. CS enablement plays a fundamental role in helping teams embody this proactive approach. 

This combination of reactive problem-solving and proactive account management is what differentiates CS from the more “aggressive”, primarily proactive nature of sales, and, therefore, sales enablement.

However, just as CSMs can’t always wait for problems to arise, sales reps sometimes fall into a reactive role when they fail to maintain control of the sales process.

Conclusion 

While customer success enablement may still be a nascent function, experts like Liz MacAulay and her peers are working diligently to transform customer success from a cost centre into a revenue engine.

In my discussions with Liz, I’ve learned a tremendous amount.

She helped me understand how to make customer success a strategic discipline, the various functions within it, and the goals and metrics that can be employed to achieve this transformation.

She also clarified several aspects of customer success enablement strategy and shed light on the obstacles that CS teams must overcome to become an integral revenue driver for the GTM unit.

Though many of these considerations reminded me of sales enablement and its own struggles, customer success enablement has its own unique path to carve. I am confident that, over time, it will grow in maturity and establish clear standards of excellence.

For more expert-guided introductions to enablement topics, check out my intro on partner enablement with Will Taylor, and the one on product enablement with Devon McDermott.