Customer Success isn’t just a glorified support team with better titles and snazzier Patagonia vests.

If you’re running your CS team like that, you’re leaving money on the table.

I’ve seen companies treat Customer Success as the “keep ’em happy” department without clear business objectives. That’s like having a sales team focused on “talking to people” instead of closing deals.

So what ARE the two primary goals of Customer Success?

Goal #1: Retention

Yes, keeping customers is Job #1. No surprise there.

When a customer churns, you don’t just lose revenue, you lose:

  • The acquisition cost you spent to get them
  • The implementation resources you invested
  • The expansion potential they represented
  • The referrals they might have given you

Here’s where most teams mess up: They measure retention as a lagging indicator. By the time a customer cancels, you’re already screwed.

Your CS team should be tracking leading indicators:

  • Product adoption metrics
  • NPS/CSAT trends over time
  • Executive sponsor changes
  • Support ticket volume and sentiment
  • Engagement with your content and training

When these metrics start trending the wrong way, that’s your real churn alarm, not when the customer emails to cancel.

Goal #2: Expansion (The One Most Teams Neglect)

This is where the RevOps magic happens.

Your existing customers should be your BEST source of new revenue. If they aren’t, something’s broken in your model.

Here’s why expansion should be treated as seriously as new business:

  1. The economics are better. It costs 5-25x less to sell to an existing customer than to acquire a new one.
  2. The sales cycles are shorter. Your existing customers don’t need to be convinced about your company’s legitimacy or support quality.
  3. The win rates are higher. A good expansion program should close at 60-80% versus 10-30% for new business.

Yet I see companies pouring more money into sales development programs while their Customer Success teams have no expansion quota or incentives. Make it make sense!

“But wait,” you say, “shouldn’t Sales handle upsells and expansions?”

Maybe in some models. But consider this, your CS team has:

  • Daily interaction with users
  • Deep understanding of the customer’s actual use cases
  • Relationship equity from solving problems
  • Visibility into emerging needs

They’re sitting on a gold mine of expansion opportunities. This is precisely why your customer success team should be staffed with strongly commercial, results-driven contributors.

The RevOps Connection

This is why modern Revenue Operations treats the entire customer journey as one continuous revenue pipeline.

Your RevOps strategy should:

  • Track leading indicators for both retention and expansion
  • Create smooth handoffs between Sales and CS
  • Measure CS on revenue impact, not just “happiness scores”
  • Compensate for expansion success
  • Create automation that flags expansion opportunities

The Bottom Line

If your Customer Success team isn’t measured and incentivized on both retention AND expansion, you’re running an incomplete program.

You wouldn’t tell your Sales team, “Just focus on relationships, don’t worry about closing deals.” So why would you tell your CS team, “Just keep customers happy, don’t worry about growth”?

The most sophisticated companies I speak to are seeing 30-40% of their new revenue come from existing customers. Their Customer Success teams aren’t just preventing fires, they’re actively building the business.

So ask yourself: Is your CS team just playing defense, or are they contributing to offense too?