CEO / Founder COO CFO CRO / Revenue VP Customer Success / Services VP Professional Services Other
2 Our pre-sales team follows a documented discovery process to understand the client's environment and goals.*
Why it matters: Discovery is where expectations get set — and everything downstream inherits them. Without a consistent process, teams over-promise, projects get mis-scoped, and delivery starts blind. It's the root cause of blown timelines, eroded margin, and a rocky Sales→PS handoff.
1 Ad-hoc; depends on the rep 2 Loose checklist, used inconsistently 3 Documented process applied consistently 4 Refined continuously from win/loss data
3 We qualify — and disqualify — deals against explicit criteria before committing delivery.*
Why it matters: Saying yes to the wrong deals is expensive. Without disciplined qualification you sign mis-fit clients who churn, drain delivery capacity, and erode margin — while your best people firefight instead of serving good-fit accounts.
1 We rarely say no; we chase most deals 2 Informal, gut-feel qualification 3 Defined criteria with real no-go decisions 4 Disciplined qualification tied to fit & margin
4 PS delivers against a documented methodology, not a shape that varies by consultant.*
Why it matters: When every consultant runs their own playbook, quality is a coin flip. Inconsistent delivery means unpredictable timelines, knowledge that walks out the door with people, and a services brand you can't scale or sell against.
1 Project shape varies by consultant 2 Methodology exists but inconsistently applied 3 Standard methodology with measured adherence 4 Methodology evolves from post-project retrospectives
5 PS utilization, on-time delivery, and project margin are tracked as live operational metrics.*
Why it matters: Services margin leaks quietly. If utilization, on-time delivery, and margin aren't live metrics, you learn you're underwater a quarter too late — and services drag becomes the thing suppressing your EBITDA and your multiple.
1 Tracked sporadically or not at all 2 Tracked monthly, mostly for review 3 Tracked weekly with active management 4 Tracked continuously and tied to forecasts
6 CSMs use a defined customer-health model that triggers proactive intervention.*
Why it matters: Without a health signal, churn is a surprise. CSMs fight fires instead of preventing them, at-risk accounts slip unnoticed, and renewals get decided before you knew they were in danger.
1 No health model; CSMs go on instinct 2 Health score exists but rarely consulted 3 Health score drives a defined playbook 4 Predictive model with measured intervention ROI
7 Time-to-value is explicitly defined and tracked for new customers.*
Why it matters: Time-to-value is the first promise you keep — or break. Slow, unmeasured onboarding stalls adoption, delays the "aha," and quietly seeds the churn and weak expansion you'll pay for at renewal.
1 Not defined or measured 2 Loosely understood, not tracked 3 Defined milestones, tracked per account 4 Tracked, benchmarked, and actively compressed
8 Net and gross retention are owned by CS with explicit accountability and targets.*
Why it matters: What no one owns, no one moves. Without clear CS accountability for retention, NRR drifts, expansion is left on the table, and the single biggest driver of enterprise value goes unmanaged.
1 No clear ownership 2 CS is aware of the metrics; weak accountability 3 CS owns NRR/GRR with targets 4 Owned, forecasted, and tied to comp
9 SLAs are defined, communicated, and tracked against actual performance.*
Why it matters: Unmeasured SLAs are just promises. When you don't track response and resolution against commitments, support quality erodes invisibly until CSAT drops, escalations spike, and renewals feel the friction.
1 No real SLAs 2 SLAs exist but aren't tracked 3 SLAs tracked with regular review 4 SLAs tracked live, tied to CSAT and staffing
10 There's a clear engineering escalation path with its own SLA for hard tickets.*
Why it matters: Hard tickets are where trust is won or lost. Without a defined engineering escalation path and SLA, the toughest issues stall, customers feel abandoned on the problems that matter most, and frontline support takes the blame.
1 Escalations are ad-hoc and slow 2 Informal path, no SLA 3 Defined path with an escalation SLA 4 Tight loop with engineering, measured and improving
11 Renewal forecasts are accurate and built from a defined process, not last-minute scrambles.*
Why it matters: A renewal you can't forecast is a renewal you can't protect. Last-minute scrambles mean preventable churn, no time to course-correct, and a revenue number your board can't trust.
1 No process; surprises at renewal 2 Manual forecast, often wrong 3 Defined process with decent accuracy 4 High-accuracy forecast, reviewed continuously
12 At-risk renewals surface early through defined warning triggers, with time to act.*
Why it matters: By renewal day, it's usually too late. Without early-warning triggers and lead time, at-risk accounts surface with no runway to save them — turning recoverable saves into lost ARR.
1 We find out at the renewal date 2 Some signals, no system 3 Defined triggers with a lead-time playbook 4 Predictive early-warning routed to owners
13 Our training catalog covers the customer journey across multiple delivery modes.*
Why it matters: Customers who can't use the product don't renew it. Thin or stale training caps adoption, inflates support volume, and leaves value on the table you've already sold but never delivered.
1 Minimal, ad-hoc materials 2 Some courses, with gaps and staleness 3 Structured catalog across key journeys 4 Comprehensive, multi-modal, continuously refreshed
14 Training adoption and its impact on outcomes are measured.*
Why it matters: Counting attendance isn't measuring impact. If you can't tie enablement to adoption and outcomes, training stays a cost center instead of a retention and expansion lever.
1 Not measured 2 Attendance counted, no impact view 3 Adoption tracked, linked to onboarding 4 Tied to retention / expansion outcomes
15 We have a documented partner/alliance strategy with executive alignment.*
Why it matters: An ecosystem doesn't happen by accident. Without a documented partner strategy and exec alignment, partnerships stay opportunistic and sub-scale — and you forgo the highest-leverage move on both cost and multiple.
1 No real strategy; opportunistic 2 Informal partnerships, no strategy 3 Documented strategy with exec sponsorship 4 Board-level strategy with clear partner types & targets
16 A meaningful share of implementation/delivery runs through partners, not just internal teams.*
Why it matters: Delivering everything in-house caps your margin and your growth. A thin partner mix means higher cost-to-serve, a services-heavy revenue mix that depresses your multiple, and capacity you can't flex.
1 Everything delivered in-house 2 Rare, ad-hoc partner delivery 3 A defined partner-delivery motion in place 4 Significant partner-led delivery, managed to a target
17 Context carries cleanly across the Sales → PS → CS handoffs, without restarts.*
Why it matters: Value leaks at the seams. When context is lost at each handoff, customers re-explain themselves, delivery restarts from zero, and the slow onboarding and early churn all trace back here.
1 Context is lost at every handoff 2 Some notes pass, often incomplete 3 Defined handoff with required information 4 Seamless, owner-accountable, no restarts
18 Handoffs use shared systems and aligned goals, so teams aren't working from different pictures.*
Why it matters: Teams working from different pictures pull in different directions. Disconnected tools and misaligned KPIs create blind spots, finger-pointing, and a customer experience that feels like a different company at every stage.
1 Different tools, misaligned goals 2 Partial sharing, frequent gaps 3 Connected systems with aligned KPIs 4 Single shared view, jointly owned metrics
19 What's your biggest operational challenge right now? (select all that apply)
Retention / churn Slow time-to-value PS margin or utilization Messy handoffs Renewal surprises Scaling delivery Under-built partner/ecosystem Adopting AI into delivery