by: .Posted on:

A $1B Acquisition with a Singular Leader for Both Sales and Customer Success

Hello and welcome to The GTM Newsletter by GTMnow – read by 50,000+ to scale their companies and careers. GTMnow shares insight around the go-to-market strategies responsible for explosive company growth. GTMnow highlights the strategies, along with the stories from the top 1% of GTM executives, VCs, and founders behind these strategies and companies.

A $1B Acquisition with a Singular Leader for Both Sales and Customer Success

In 2017, tech leader Vikas Bhambri found himself at a crossroads. Kustomer, a SaaS startup navigating leadership changes, unexpectedly handed him the reins to both sales and customer experience/success. What began as a necessity quickly transformed into a game-changing strategy that catapulted the company to a $1 billion acquisition by Meta, with Vikas at the reigns serving as SVP of Global Sales and Customer Experience.

The accidental discovery – the unification of sales and customer success – delivered outsized results by creating a cohesive customer journey, aligning internal teams, and driving sustainable growth. Let’s get into it.

3 reasons why a unified sales and customer success strategy works

1. Seamless customer journey

Owning the entire customer lifecycle – from acquisition to retention – eliminated disconnects between pre- and post-sales teams. For Kustomer, this alignment was transformative:

“I told customers, ‘Things will happen in deployment, but when they do, call me. Here’s my number.’ That level of accountability built trust and ensured consistency at every stage.”

The dual role provided clarity for customers. They knew exactly who to call for any issues.

“Customers appreciated knowing I was the same hand to shake — or the throat to choke — if things went wrong post-sale.”

2. Revenue growth through focused prioritization

By integrating sales and customer success, Vikas could see the full customer lifecycle and identify opportunities to maximize revenue. Whether optimizing for annual recurring revenue (ARR) or expansion, he asked one key question: “What are we solving for at this stage?”

The dual accountability extended to selecting the right customers, ensuring that every prospect fit Kustomer’s ICP from both the short-term and long-term to prevent misalignment.

“I didn’t want unhappy customers calling me. That accountability kept us honest and focused on acquiring the right customers.”

3. Unified messaging and forecasting

Vikas ensured messaging between sales and CX was consistent, presenting a unified voice to customers. This approach also improved forecasting accuracy by combining sales and retention data, enabling better pricing, resource allocation, and product planning.

But, it doesn’t always work.

When it works best:

  • High alignment between sales and customer success goals: If your sales and CS teams are already working closely together, consolidating leadership can further strengthen collaboration.
  • Resource constraints: Early-stage companies often don’t have the budget to hire two senior leaders, making a single GTM leader a pragmatic choice.
  • Customer-centric models: If your business model relies heavily on renewals, expansions, or upsells, an integrated approach ensures a seamless experience for customers.

When it’s not as suitable:

  • High complexity in either function: If your sales process or post-sales needs are highly complex, they may require dedicated focus and expertise.
  • Larger teams or advanced stages: As companies scale, the scope of each function typically grows to the point where separate leaders are more effective.

The unified strategy isn’t without challenges:

  1. Single point of failure: Concentrating leadership in one person introduces risk, particularly if that leader leaves. “Many companies eventually evolve to a CRO model to spread responsibilities.”
  2. Competing priorities: Balancing sales and customer success becomes harder as teams grow. At scale, it’s often more effective to bring in dedicated leaders for each function.
  3. Fit for larger deals: This strategy works best for mid-market and enterprise sales, where robust onboarding and implementation are critical. For product-led growth (PLG) or smaller deal sizes, the benefits may diminish.

The unified sales and customer success strategy was the accidental rocket fuel behind Kustomer’s growth. You can listen to all the details in this video.

Share

Tag GTMnow so we can see your takeaways and help amplify them.

👂 More for your eardrums

The GTM Podcast – subscribe on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.

A $1B Acquisition with a Singular Leader for Both Sales and Customer Success

Martin Roth is the former CRO of Levelset, where he led the company from its first dollar in ARR to a $500 million acquisition by Procore in 2021. Currently, he’s the founder of MartinRoth.com, specializing in helping startups scale from $1M to $10M in ARR. Martin brings a wealth of experience in building and scaling sales teams, developing effective go-to-market strategies, and navigating the challenges of startup growth.

Covered:

  • Martin’s journey from selling flip-flops to leading a $500M exit.
  • The challenges and lessons learned in scaling Levelset from $1M to $25M+ ARR.
  • Insights on building effective sales playbooks and team structures.
  • The importance of in-person customer interactions in today’s digital world.
  • Debunking myths about cold outreach and micromanagement in sales.

👀 More for your eyeballs

The uncomfortable truth: A 3X Founder’s guide to intellectual honesty. Crossbeam CEO and co-founder Bob Moore shares his tools for quashing biases in pursuit of the truth at every stage of company building.

Learn how to win in the margins – catch the full series, The New GTM Playbook, here. In a brand new video series, TestBox’s James Kaikis interviews eight B2B SaaS leaders who are rewriting the traditional GTM playbook. Learn how leaders from companies like People.ai, Owner.com, G2 and more are capitalizing on incremental innovations and non-obvious advantages to drive outsized results in GTM.

2 mistakes product managers should avoid. Product managers can often make these two critical mistakes.

🚀 Startup to watch

Create – launched AI Templates to make building even more accessible. Create is AI text to app, allowing you to turn your words into sites, prototypes, and AI tools.

Create transforms software development by empowering anyone — technical or not — to build with code using plain text and images. Its standout features, like incremental JavaScript compilation and 98% auto-fix success, eliminate bottlenecks from scarce technical talent while ensuring reliability. With its “business-in-a-box” model, Create simplifies SaaS development by integrating tools for building, marketing, and monetizing. This makes it ideal for solopreneurs and micro-SaaS ventures focused on speed and efficiency.

Use cases, from consultants to growth teams, demonstrate its versatility, while the roadmap targeting AI templates, community growth, and monetization ensures sustained momentum. Founders Dhruv Amin and Marcus Lowe, with stellar track records at YouTube and Google Maps, have already scaled Create to over $1M ARR.

🔥 Hottest GTM jobs of the week

  1. Enterprise Account Executive at Patch (San Francisco)
  2. Market Development Representative at Patch (San Francisco)
  3. VP, Customer Experience at Gorgias (Hybrid – Toronto/NYC/SF)
  4. Sr. Manager, Enterprise Account Management at Vanta (Remote – US)
  5. Customer Success Operations Leader at Writer:
    1. Hybrid – Austin
    2. Hybrid – New York
    3. Hybrid – Chicago
    4. Hybrid – San Francisco

See more top GTM jobs on the GTMfund Job Board.

🗓 GTM industry events

Upcoming go-to-market events you won’t want to miss:

Subscribe now

This newsletter was entirely written and edited by Sophie Buonassisi and Scott Barker (not AI!).

The post A $1B Acquisition with a Singular Leader for Both Sales and Customer Success appeared first on GTMnow.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.