Account Management Secrets

Running one global enterprise account is nothing like running 120 small ones, and the enterprise customer success manager career path proves it.   Josh Chapman is a Principal Customer Success Manager for Global Strategic Enterprise at Adobe, where he runs one of the company’s largest accounts. On this episode of Account Management Secrets, host Alex Raymond traces Josh's career from Ticketmaster t...

Most QBRs are slow, forgettable, and quietly kill your client relationships.   That's the uncomfortable truth Jason Scott sat with after watching a major enterprise account stagnate for over 12 months. As a seasoned account manager with experience managing portfolios worth more than $100 million across healthcare, insurance, and technology, Jason realized the problem wasn't the account. It was the...

Most account managers at PE-backed companies are playing by the wrong rules and don't even know it.   Alex Raymond and guest Alan Gonsenhauser, an 11-time CMO and private equity advisor who calls himself a "customer capitalist," reframe what account management in private equity means and why the way most post-sale leaders talk about their work is costing them credibility in the boardroom.   Alan b...

Customer success credibility is in trouble, and the profession earned much of the blame.   On Account Management Secrets, host Alex Raymond sits down with Jenny Anderson, VP of Customer Experience at Sovra, to unpack why so many CS teams struggle to prove their value in revenue terms. Jenny recently gave a talk on customer success credibility at the Customer Success Collective's Denver Summit, and...

10,000 customers. One small team. A retention strategy strong enough to make sales rethink account coverage.   Andrew Carothers has built digital customer success at enterprise scale, first at Cisco across hundreds of thousands of accounts, and now at Proofpoint as Global Head of Digital Customer Success. On Account Management Secrets with host Alex Raymond, he makes the case that the way teams th...

The QBR you think went fine might be the clearest sign your account is at risk.   On Account Management Secrets, host Alex Raymond makes a case that the quarterly business review for account managers is the single most important strategic meeting in your toolkit. More important than health scores, dashboards, or AI tools. And yet, most account managers are running through QBRs like a checklist and...

The problem is not that account management leaders lack strategy. The problem is getting that strategy out of the document and into the rhythm of the team.   On Account Management Secrets, host Alex Raymond is joined by Jennifer Pinter to recap Building the Growth Department, a program inside Amplify. Together, they get honest about why so many account management leaders know what they should be d...

When the team is the product, AI-powered customer success stops being a support function and starts being the entire business.   That's the reality Melissa McMillan stepped into when she joined Virio as Head of Customer Success in January. Three months later, she was General Manager. On Account Management Secrets, host Alex Raymond sits down with Melissa to unpack what that shift means for how pos...

The sales to account management handoff is where client relationships are won or lost before the real work even begins.   On Account Management Secrets, host Alex Raymond sits down with Karen Loiterstein, a revenue leadership veteran with experience at TierPoint, Equifax, and Express Scripts, to dig into one of the most costly and overlooked problems in B2B. A deal closes, everyone celebrates, and...

The CFO is not who you think they are, and that misunderstanding is costing account managers deals.   On Account Management Secrets, host Alex Raymond sits down with Jacques Sciammas, a former CFO at Charles Schwab, McGraw-Hill, and Standard & Poor's, to break down how to sell to a CFO and what it takes to build a lasting executive relationship. Jacques is now the President at Selling to Execu...

Customer churn usually starts long before renewal, and strong account managers know how to spot the risk before the customer walks.   On this episode of Account Management Secrets, customer churn prevention takes center stage with Alex Raymond and Chris Rauch, an experienced Chief Customer Officer who has led post-sales teams at Salesforce, Sage, and Supermetrics. Chris calls out a common problem...

Revenue stalls when companies treat growth like a handoff instead of a system, and this conversation shows why expansion revenue strategy lives or dies in the customer journey.   On Account Management Secrets, Alex Raymond talks with Nate Skinner, Chief Revenue Officer at 8am about what separates random wins from repeatable growth. The heart of the discussion is expansion revenue strategy and the...

Why do “healthy” accounts still churn? Because sentiment is not the same as quantifying customer value.   On Account Management Secrets, Alex Raymond speaks with Nakul Kadaba, Manager, Technical Account Management and Head of Retention at ServiceNow, about a problem many account teams know too well. A customer seems happy, the dashboard looks strong, and the business still slips away. This convers...

Account leadership is at the center of this episode, and that matters for any agency trying to build stronger client partnerships and create more value from the account role. On Account Management Secrets, host Alex Raymond talks with Lori Bartle, author and advisor at Cultivagency, about why agency account management needs a clearer mandate and why account leadership should be treated as a growth...

Proactive account management sounds simple until you are leading a team under constant renewal pressure, support issues, weak handoffs, and last minute surprises. On Account Management Secrets, host Alex Raymond sits down with Jennifer Pinter, Fractional Customer Success Leader and Expert in Account Management to break down what proactive account management actually requires when you want stronger...

What does government account management look like when your customer is a city, county, or state agency? In this episode of Account Management Secrets, Alex Raymond sits down with Benjamin Stidham, VP of Account Management at CivicPlus, to unpack why government account management requires a different mindset than traditional SaaS roles and what it takes to succeed in this environment.   Benjamin s...

Most account teams get rewarded for being responsive, but the teams that actually grow revenue follow a sharper account management strategy. In this episode, Alex Raymond talks with Julio Franco of Zappi about how strong account teams stop acting like vendors and start acting like business partners. This conversation is useful for anyone who wants an account management strategy that ties day-to-da...

Pharmaceutical key account management can make or break growth in complex health systems, and this episode shows why so many teams still get it wrong. Alex Raymond talks with Chris Deren, Founder and CEO at ClarityCX1, about what pharmaceutical key account management requires inside large organizations where short-term sales pressure often works against long-term account growth. If you work in key...

Most SaaS companies obsess over new revenue but underestimate what it takes to keep it. The Chief Customer Officer role becomes essential once a company moves beyond early traction and into real scale. In this episode, Alex Raymond and Gillian Core, Global Chief Customer Officer at 360Learning, examine what the Chief Customer Officer role actually demands when B2B SaaS revenue growth is on the lin...

Forecast accuracy is the fastest way for a post-sales team to earn trust or lose it with leadership. In this episode, Alex Raymond sits down with John Huber, Founder and Principal CS Consultant at Customer Success Architects, to break down what drives forecast accuracy when executives expect predictable revenue from existing accounts.   John shares the story of a renewal that looked safe at 94% an...

The recurring revenue model is comforting. Contracts renew. Revenue repeats. Forecasts look stable. But that assumption hides risk. When renewals are treated as automatic rather than earned, blind spots form. A strong customer retention strategy requires more than waiting for renewal dates. It demands clarity around outcomes, proactive engagement, and a disciplined post-sales process that makes va...

Why do advertising agencies keep adding account roles, yet revenue growth is hard to account for?   In this episode of Account Management Secrets, Alex Raymond talks with Chantal Sagnes, founder of Chantal Sagnes Consulting, about what actually happens after an agency wins the work. Chantal has spent years on both the business development and account leadership sides, and she shares what she has s...

Account management changes when your clients are artists, creators, and public figures. There are no predictable renewals. Attention fades quickly, and relevance is earned every day.   In this episode of Account Management Secrets, Alex Raymond sits down with Niko Ivanov, Partner and Head of Account Management at NOX Media, to explore how account management works when traditional SaaS metrics fall...

Post-sales teams generate most of the revenue and nearly all of the profit, so why are they still treated like a support function instead of a growth driver?   Alex Raymond shares the thinking behind his new book, The Growth Department, and names a reality many account management and customer success teams live every day. They carry responsibility for renewals, expansion, and retention, yet often...

What does it take to lead customer teams in 2026 when value creation matters more than renewals and curiosity separates trusted guides from replaceable vendors?   That question drives Alex Raymond’s conversation with Jim Richmond, Chief Customer Officer at Smartling, and it frames a grounded look at modern customer leadership. Jim shares a clear belief that last year’s success expires quickly. Tea...