
CS leaders are navigating a complex reality: tighter budgets, higher expectations, and increasing pressure to prove their strategic value. During our recent Pay It Forward webinar, How to Prove the Value of Your Customer Success Team, I joined Haydar Al-Saad, Founder & CEO of RevSetter, and Mahesh Motiramani, Head of Enterprise Customer Success at Workato, for a candid conversation on how to prove the ROI of CS teams.
Here’s a recap of the event and the strategies we shared to help CS leaders navigate this critical conversation.
Align CS A Strategic Growth Driver
As someone deeply involved in CS, I’ve seen firsthand how effective programs have transformed into a cornerstone of business growth. It’s not just about keeping customers, it’s about driving meaningful outcomes for both customers and the company. During the webinar, we discussed how CS can ensure customer goal achievement, foster product adoption, and deliver measurable ROI.
One of my favorite takeaways came from Haydar Al-Saad, who emphasized the importance of aligning frontline CS activities with top-line company goals. When there’s a clear connection between what CS teams do every day and the company’s broader objectives, the value we deliver becomes undeniable.
For me, the strategic role of CS is also about relationship-building. Owning the strategic relationship with the customer means working closely with other internal teams like product, engineering, and support. When these teams are aligned, it’s easier to ensure that customer health scores stay strong, setting the foundation for long-term partnerships.
Honor The Financial Impact Of Your Existing Customer Base
The importance of CS is even more evident when you consider that 70–85% of a SaaS company’s revenue typically comes from existing customers through renewals and expansions. That’s a staggering figure and one that reinforces why CS is central to business strategy.
Mahesh Motiramani shared some great insights on this topic, focusing on the need to drive usage and create sticky adoption. When customers are fully engaged and getting value from your product, retention follows naturally. Adoption is key—it’s where the seeds of renewal and expansion are sown.
From my experience, helping customers on the path to “green” requires a unified approach. CS teams must collaborate with internal stakeholders to address issues proactively and ensure that customers see value in every interaction. This cross-functional alignment is critical to maximizing the financial potential of every customer.
Balance ROI Calculations With Storytelling
One of the biggest challenges we face as CS leaders is proving our value to skeptical executives. But the truth is, CS drives real, measurable impact, and it’s up to us to showcase that effectively.
A simple formula for calculating ROI is dividing CS’s impact—things like revenue retention, growth, and savings—by the total investment in CS, including people, tools, and programs. Mahesh shared this calculation which he’s found useful when proving ROI for CS Teams.

But we all agreed, numbers alone aren’t enough. You need to pair them with compelling stories that illustrate how CS activities translate into business outcomes.
I’ve also found that storytelling is a powerful tool in these conversations. Combining metrics like Net Revenue Retention (NRR), Gross Revenue Retention (GRR), and Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) with real examples from the frontline helps bring the data to life. It’s about making your case in a way that’s not just convincing but also relatable.
By aligning CS with business objectives, demonstrating our impact, and sharing our stories, we can elevate CS to its rightful place as a strategic growth driver.
Missed the live session? No problem! Register to listen back to the full webinar on demand and dive deeper into the insights and strategies we discussed.