When adding an Account Based motion to a lead based go-to-market motion, a common question is, ‘what will be our organizational impact – specifically to the Customer Support/Service function in working with Marketing?  What could be different from what we do today?’

Usually there is a common, shared goal of driving more revenue for the business regardless of functional owner.

Based on numerous conversations and hundreds of ABX experiences over the years, here are 5 specific ways CS and Marketing teams can better leverage  each other’s expertise to improve customer expansion and retention (eg drive more revenue for the business):

1. Establish clear roles and responsibilities for collaboration (See earlier RACI article). There needs to be alignment on who owns which aspects of customer engagement, retention, and expansion efforts. An unofficial “SLA” service level agreement can help define when Marketing supports CS versus taking the lead.
2. Leverage Marketing’s expertise in areas like content creation, webinars, newsletters, and other customer communications. Marketing can help CS teams provide value to customers beyond just product support.
3. Align on metrics and goals related to customer retention, expansion, and advocacy. CS and Marketing should work together to drive outcomes like net revenue retention, NPS, product adoption, and cross-sell/upsell.  Compensation plans should align to similar goals.
4. Involve Marketing in Voice of Customer programs to gather customer insights and feedback. This customer data can inform both CS strategies and Marketing’s messaging/campaigns for existing customers to help with retention and upsell strategies.  Set a regular cadence of meetings to incorporate this feedback.
5. Collaborate on customer marketing initiatives like case studies, customer advisory boards, and reference programs. CS has direct customer relationships that Marketing can leverage for advocacy and success stories that benefit all parties.  This could also benefit sales.

While every organization is unique, broadly speaking, these 5 categories can help establish a productive partnership.  The key is establishing a productive partnership where CS and Marketing combine their strengths – CS’s direct customer knowledge and Marketing’s expertise in communication and engagement strategies – to better serve and grow the customer base.