Who Should Own B2B SaaS Expansion Revenue?

Is it immediately clear what role or team should own B2B SaaS expansion revenue from your existing customer base? 

No? First, it’s worth acknowledging that you’re not alone in being unsure. 

There is a raging debate among Sales, Customer Success, and other B2B SaaS executives as to who should “own” B2B SaaS expansion revenue.

The debate is driven by political, organizational and cultural legacies and fears within the companies and forums of these executives.

In short, it’s an unproductive debate producing unproductive answers that won’t advance the success of your revenue expansion strategy.

4 important questions to ask about expansion revenue

Instead of engaging in this debate, I encourage you to take an objective look at what roles or teams can best perform the following 4 actions: 

1. Through quantified leading indicators, identify existing customers ready to invest in the achievement of new outcomes
2. Understand and prescribe new outcomes that will drive the highest value realization for that specific customer
3. Leverage strong customer relationships rooted in the success of achieving past outcomes together
4. Use solution and industry-specific knowledge to explain the ROI available to that customer and how that ROI will be delivered

When combined, these actions will drive the most efficient and effective revenue expansion within your existing customer base.  The question is, who can best execute these actions in your company, and how can you ensure the appropriate accountability and incentivization plan is in place to achieve this?

Customer Success? Sales? A Pre- & Post- Sales Hybrid Team?

Unfortunately, there is no one answer for all B2B SaaS companies. Your organization’s customer types, product types, pricing models, value drivers in your business will help determine who can best execute these actions. Consider Gainsight’s framework as a starting point to help build out a clear revenue expansion strategy. Remember, it is critical to determine who should own expansion revenue in order to put an appropriate accountability and incentivization plan in place.

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