How it works
Four engagement formats
The format is chosen from the problem to solve, and the budget follows. A badly scoped diagnostic often ends up costing more than a well-framed build.
Choosing the right format
Most enquiries arrive framed as a request for an audit. An organisation that already knows what is wrong is mostly looking for someone to install what is missing. Conversely, one that hires to solve a problem it has not yet characterised will hire badly.
The four formats below combine or follow one another. The most common sequence is a short diagnostic followed, if the findings warrant it, by a build. Fractional leadership is the rarest and the most committing.
The four formats
Diagnostic
A quantified assessment, followed by a prioritised roadmap. It is the shortest format, and it commits you to nothing afterwards.
Scope
- On the Customer Success side, mapping of the actual portfolio, NRR calculation and breakdown, account coverage, breakpoints in the customer lifecycle.
- On the Retail & e-commerce side, a reading of the vendor's end customer: buying group, back margins, pricing committee, budget cycles, and how its CSMs take them into account.
- In both cases, interviews with the teams involved, a review of available data, and a comparison of what the organisation says with what the numbers say.
Deliverables
- A written and quantified assessment, with nothing softened
- A roadmap prioritised by expected effect and by effort
- A verbal readout to the leadership team, questions included
Good fitThe right format when the problem is felt but not characterised, or when an investment or hiring decision is waiting to be settled.
Not a fitThe wrong format when the diagnosis has already been made internally and shared. It will only produce a paid confirmation.
Build
This format builds the function, or rebuilds it, by installing what does not exist yet: segmentation, processes, indicators, rhythms and tooling.
Scope
- On the Customer Success side, portfolio segmentation and coverage model, lifecycle definition, expansion and renewal strategy, team sizing, interfaces with Sales and Product.
- On the Retail & e-commerce side, preparing a renewal at a retailer on the customer's budget cycle, with roles and review frequency.
- On both sides, tooling comes last, once the process is stable. A tool installed too early freezes an organisation that does not yet exist.
Deliverables
- A working function, documented and run by internal teams
- Steering indicators defined, calculated and understood
- A handover plan with an end date
Good fitThe right format when the function still has to be created, or when it exists but rests on people more than on processes.
Not a fitThe wrong format when leadership has not yet settled the mandate. Without a clear decision on what the function must produce, no build holds.
Fractional leadership
I hold the role and own its decisions until a permanent lead is hired or grows into the job. The role covers managing the team, steering the metrics and making the week's trade-offs.
Scope
- Direct management of the Customer Success or Account Management team, including across several markets and several languages.
- Ownership of renewals and key accounts, preparation and conduct of sensitive negotiations.
- Participation in leadership forums on the relevant scope, with the same accountability as an internal head of function.
Deliverables
- The function's results, month by month
- A team managed and assessed against explicit criteria
- A successor prepared, or a hiring process taken to completion
Good fitThe right format during a transition, after a head of function leaves, when growth outpaces hiring, or when a market opens.
Not a fitThe wrong format when the organisation mostly needs extra hands. The role is to decide, and the team keeps its own work.
Training and mentoring
This format builds skills without a transformation mandate, either by training a team on a specific subject or by supporting, over time, the person who has just stepped into the role.
Scope
- In team training, running an account review, preparing a renewal, reading a P&L, building and using a health score.
- In individual mentoring, support for a newly appointed Customer Success or Account Management lead, on their real trade-offs rather than on textbook cases.
- Materials produced stay with the organisation and are designed to be reused without me.
Deliverables
- Training materials built on the organisation's own context
- A session rhythm agreed in advance and kept to
- No dependency created, which is the success criterion for this format
Good fitThe right format when the processes exist and the gap is one of skill or confidence.
Not a fitThe wrong format when the problem is structural. No amount of training compensates for missing segmentation or a vague mandate.
Method
The method
A successful engagement has an end date, and it is written down before day one.
Common conditions
Scope written before starting
What is in the engagement, what is not, and the date it ends.
Restricted data access
Strictly what is needed, aggregated wherever possible, under a confidentiality undertaking. No access to end users' personal data.
One counterpart who decides
An engagement without a sponsor able to settle trade-offs stops at the recommendation stage.
Languages
French, English, Spanish. German for reading and conversation.
Remote, with on-site milestones
The substantive work is done remotely. Framing, readouts and turning points happen on site.
An exit planned at framing
The end date and handover conditions sit in the initial scope, written before the work starts.
Price
No rate is published here, because a single rate card would mislead. Cost varies widely with the format chosen, the duration, the breadth of scope (number of segments or categories, number of markets) and the number of stakeholders to bring along.
An order of magnitude is given at the end of a first conversation, once these parameters are known.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Why an outside practitioner rather than a consultancy, or a hire?
A consultancy brings a method and deliverables, rarely hands-on execution with customers. A hire provides execution over time, if the role is fundable and the path clear enough to attract the right profile. I sit between the two. I set up the function, I run the first renewals, I write down what needs writing and I hand over. If the model is stable and the budget is there, hiring is the right choice.
From what portfolio size is it worth it?
Below about thirty recurring accounts, NRR is not readable: a single departure moves it by several points. The issue then tends to lie in the product, the positioning or the quality of the accounts signed. The question becomes relevant when the portfolio shows repeated patterns of churn and expansion, or when more than one person has to apply the same logic.
Do we need to change tooling, CRM or Customer Success platform?
No. Starting with the tool costs more. A platform freezes a process: health scores, alert sequences, onboarding steps. When the process does not exist yet, it freezes a default one that nobody has decided on. A properly kept CRM, a follow-up of renewal dates and a weekly portfolio review are enough to show what deserves a tool.
How long before an effect on retention can be measured?
The delay depends on the renewal cycle. An effect on NRR can only be read once a full cohort of renewals has gone through, often twelve months. Before that, leading signals show within weeks whether the result is being built: real coverage of the portfolio, time to detect at-risk accounts, share of accounts with an identified decision-maker, renewals started in advance.
How does access to customer data, accounts and conversations work?
On a narrow, documented scope. The analysis covers account data: aggregated usage, contract history, declared reasons for leaving. I do not access end users' personal data. Account names are anonymised when the analysis does not depend on them, and a confidentiality agreement covers the engagement. Customer conversations are read in raw form to spot recurring patterns, in a volume limited to that need.
What makes the cost of an engagement vary?
The format comes first: a short diagnostic, a structuring over several months, an interim lead one to two days a week or training do not involve the same volume. Then come the duration, the scope, and the number of people involved on the product, sales and leadership side, which weighs on alignment time far more than the analysis. Pricing is set after a framing conversation.
Does it work when the Customer Success team is spread across several countries?
Yes, provided you separate what can be standardised from what cannot. Definitions, segmentation, alert thresholds, the rhythm of reviews and the way a risk is qualified can be standardised. The pace of buying cycles, the level of contact you can reach, service expectations and the place of the contract stay specific to each country. I work in French, English and Spanish, and I read and exchange in German. Local reports can therefore be read without an intermediary.
What happens at the end of the engagement?
It has an end date, written before the first day. In the last stage of the method, the teams take the system over. I scale my presence down on a schedule set at the framing stage, to zero. What only worked thanks to one person has been written down, quantified and handed to a named owner.
Do my teams need to know retail already?
No, but they benefit from understanding the end customer. A retailer has a buying group, back margins, a pricing committee and a budget set before the renewal date. That is what I pass on to a vendor's CSMs before the first renewal. I know this ground from having carried these accounts directly at a pricing vendor.
What does a retailer change compared with a typical SaaS customer?
It is not the same buyer. Terms are often negotiated at group level, and the person who signs is not the one who uses the tool. A tool's budget is set before its renewal date. A renewal prepared on the due date is therefore discussed with no room to move. Preparation starts months before, on the customer's budget cycle.
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A first thirty-minute conversation
Thirty minutes is enough to tell whether your topic calls for a diagnostic, a build-out or something else. No strings attached.