Breaking Down Silos: How Sales & CS Can Finally Win Together

This was the first live session of the Post-Sales Alliance, hosted by Jamie McDermott and Kristine Kukich, with panellists Alison Bukowski, Erin Felton, Anderson Campbell and Angela Sutton. The conversation covered what happens after a deal closes, the tug of war around ideal customer profile, how handoffs from sales to delivery teams tend to break down, and the early signs that an account is heading toward churn.

A theme that ran through the whole session was that closing a deal is not really the finish line. Anderson Campbell argued that a deal isn't truly closed until the customer renews, since everything before that is proof the company has to deliver on. Erin Felton made a similar point, saying that a signed contract marks the start of delivery risk rather than the end of the sales process. Alison Bukowski added that too few people are actually involved in the handoff conversation, so customer insight often stays stuck in one part of the business instead of reaching product, marketing and customer success.

On ICP, the panel agreed that chasing a bad-fit logo damages a company twice, first by straining delivery capacity and then by hurting long-term retention. Anderson Campbell described how ICP is often owned solely by sales using firmographic and financial criteria, which can put sales at odds with everyone downstream. He suggested shared ownership of ICP across teams, refined continually rather than set once, using criteria like program maturity rather than just budget.

On handoffs, Anderson Campbell pointed out that most handoffs transfer deal facts and technical detail but lose the customer's own story of why they bought, which he sees as the most valuable thing to pass along. Alison Bukowski described her ideal state as including the customer directly in transition calls, with certain moments like renewals or account changes treated as non-negotiable touchpoints.

On churn, Alison Bukowski flagged silence and absence as the loudest warning signs, while Anderson Campbell warned about accounts where all usage and communication trace back to a single person.

One practical thing to try: look at your own org chart and ask whether you actually know what the people around you do, and whether they know what you do. A short introductory conversation, as Alison Bukowski described doing, can start building the cross-team relationships that make handoffs work.