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Welcome to
After the Close
the Blog
Thoughtful insights and honest perspectives on Customer Success and leadership, focused on the work that happens after the deal is done.
After the Close is a space for reflection, insight, and the conversations that don’t always happen in the meeting or the deck. This blog is here to share real stories, practical lessons, and honest perspectives on Customer Success and leadership.
Whether you’re a CSM, a CS leader, or an executive, you’ll find insight on what happens after the deal is signed. From navigating adoption and retention to leading teams and driving impact, the goal is simple: help you think more clearly, act more intentionally, and build work that lasts.
Customer Success Secrets: Building an NRR Machine
The best vertical SaaS companies treat customer success as their primary growth engine. Last month I ran a workshop on how to build a CS org that drives NRR above 120%. Most CS teams are stuck optimizing the wrong layer. They focus on engagement tactics (more check-ins, better QBRs, prettier dashboards) when the real leverage is structural. The session covered: → Onboarding that creates lock-in → Health scoring that predicts expansion → Upsell playbooks that feel inevitable I
Kristi Faltorusso
4 days ago1 min read
The Investment Every Leader Says They'll Get To
I've worked for a handful of companies over the years, some good, a couple truly great, and plenty that were entirely forgettable. When I look back at what separated the great ones, it wasn't the product, the perks, or even the pay. It was one decision, repeated over and over, that most companies talk about and very few actually protect. They invested in their people. Not as a slogan on a careers page. But as an operating principle. They invested in growth. At the companies t
Kristi Faltorusso
7 days ago3 min read
Stop Sweating the Small Stuff: The Career Lesson That Changed Everything
The fastest way to stall your career is to sweat the small stuff. It sounds simple. Almost cliché. But figuring this out completely changed my career trajectory and my overall happiness at work. Early in my career, everything seemed to bother me. Not the big things. The small, daily annoyances. Someone talking over me in meetings Being asked to do something I had already completed Not being given opportunities, I clearly believed I deserved Coworkers not understanding why we
Kristi Faltorusso
Mar 53 min read
If You Want to Grow Customers, Sales Has to Stop Giving Everything Away
If you want to grow your customers, tell your sales team to stop giving everything away. That sentence usually makes people uncomfortable. Especially when growth targets are aggressive and deals feel hard-won. But it’s a conversation that needs to happen and it usually lands squarely on Customer Success to clean up the mess when it doesn’t. Where Customer Growth Quietly Breaks Down I talk to Customer Success leaders all the time who are being tasked with growing their custome
Kristi Faltorusso
Jan 192 min read
Learning to Trust Your Own Timeline
I spent most of my career measuring my journey against everyone else’s. Their timelines. Their promotions. Their successes. Their failures. Even though I knew the phrase “comparison is the thief of joy,” I still compared. Constantly. It took me years to stop. Years of reminding myself that no two journeys are the same. No two people are the same. No two organizational conditions are the same. And that even when you want something badly, sometimes painfully badly, there are fa
Kristi Faltorusso
Jan 192 min read
The Journey: #52 Stop Playing Small
As we close the year, I’ve been thinking a lot about the choices that shape our careers; the bold ones and the quiet ones. And the truth is, for a long time, I made the quiet ones. The safe ones. The comfortable ones. The ones that didn’t require me to be seen too much or want too much. I spent years playing small. Act 1: Marketing: When growth felt effortless In my early career, Marketing Kristi, opportunity seemed to find me. Fresh out of college, I landed in advertising wi
Kristi Faltorusso
Dec 29, 20253 min read
The Customers You Swear Have “No Growth Potential” Might Actually Surprise You
Here is a hard truth we do not talk about enough in Customer Success. Some of the customers we write off the fastest are the ones sitting on the biggest opportunities. I know. I know. It feels easier to focus on the shiny, well-funded, “textbook” expansion accounts. They show up to calls. They read your emails. They know what they want. But not every customer is that obvious. And honestly, thank goodness, because the obvious ones are only half the fun. The real magic lives in
Kristi Faltorusso
Nov 12, 20253 min read
The Journey: #38 Silence the Silence
I didn’t grow up in a white-collar home. My parents owned and worked in a delicatessen for over 45 years. Together, they ran that...
Kristi Faltorusso
Sep 28, 20252 min read
Your Past Doesn't Dictate Your Future
I used to believe success came from privilege. I was wrong. For most of my life, I let my upbringing, my education, my wealth, or lack of...
Kristi Faltorusso
Jul 12, 20252 min read
Fear of Failure is Holding You Back
The greatest risk I ever took, was trying to play it safe. The greatest success I ever saw, was when I stopped. Over the past 13 years,...
Kristi Faltorusso
Jul 9, 20251 min read
Grow Your B2B SaaS Podcast: The CS Playbook: How to Scale Retention & Growth in B2B SaaS
In the first episode of season 6 of the Grow Your B2B SaaS podcast, we discuss how customer success helps B2B SaaS companies grow by...
Kristi Faltorusso
May 13, 20251 min read
Growth Lives in the Gray: Why Waiting for "Perfect Health" Can Kill Opportunity
Early in my Customer Success career, I had a bad habit. I blocked expansion conversations at the first sign of risk. If a customer wasn’t...
Kristi Faltorusso
May 2, 20252 min read
The BEST and Most Important Conversation I've Ever Recorded: Growth Mixtape with Bob Mathers
Today we talk to Kristi Faltorusso, who is a Chief Customer Officer, a LinkedIn Influencer, and CS Strategist. She’s a very big deal. ...
Kristi Faltorusso
Apr 29, 20252 min read
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