Dear SaaStr: Does It Make Sense to Have Post-Sales Functions Report into Sales?
In theory — maybe. In theory, why not let sales “keep” the customer longer? They already know the customer, after all.
But in practice — this doesn’t work that well. Even if having a CRO own post-sales and CS is becoming much more common these days.
A “true” VP of Sales often wants nothing more to do with a customer after a deal closes.
Because most great VPs of Sales are closers. They want to close, and move on. And close another one. Managing support, customer success, any part of post-sales is a distraction. And one that keeps her away from hitting her ARR or bookings quota.
And yet … often times, a good VP of Sales over time wants to own more, and become a bit of a Chief Revenue Officer. They want “more” than just being a VP of Sales.
And so today, it’s more and more common CROs often own the entire revenue cycle process.
But to do that right — they have to hire a great VP of Sales under them.
That’s the issue. Most can’t. Most start-up CROs I see never hire a great VP of Sales under them.
Most take the title and role as a vanity. And fail because of it.
If nothing else, we wary of giving post-sales to sales to manage in the earlier days at least. Even if you have no one else to manage it. Because it will devolve into a sales function, the customers will get worse support, and it will be a distraction to sell closing new deals in most cases. Maybe later it may make sense, if you hire a true CRO that can manage 2 VPs and both functions. Maybe. But not today.
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Jason Lemkin, Khareem Sudlow
