top of page
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.
“Figure It Out” Is Not Leadership: Why founders accidentally set their first leaders up to fail
“Figure it out.” It’s a phrase that sounds empowering on the surface. But most of the time, it’s not empowerment. It’s leadership abandonment. And founders and CEOs need to hear this. I’ve seen this happen over and over again in early-stage companies. In fact, it happened to me more than once earlier in my Customer Success career. A founder or CEO pulls you aside and says something like: "Kristi, this is a big opportunity. You've never done this before, but I believe in you.
Kristi Faltorusso
1 day 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
1 day ago3 min read
The Journey: #57 New Horizons
I started my career in Advertising and Marketing, focused on digital marketing with a heavy emphasis on SEO. I spent over a decade in Marketing before taking a shot at something completely new: Customer Success. When I broke in, I came in as an SME and product expert… but if I’m being honest, I had no idea what I was doing. At the time, I didn’t even know what SaaS stood for. I started my Customer Success career as a CSM, and ten years later I found myself in the CCO seat.
Kristi Faltorusso
Feb 22 min read
How I Learned to Prioritize Risk (Without Treating Everything Like an Emergency)
Prioritizing risk took me a long time to figure out. Early in my career, I treated every issue like it was urgent. Every problem felt like the problem. I wanted to fix everything, immediately. On the surface, that sounds noble. Responsible, even. In reality, it was exhausting and ineffective. Not everything can be a priority. And when everything is a priority, nothing actually is. What finally changed things for me was getting far more disciplined about business impact. Inste
Kristi Faltorusso
Feb 22 min read
Leadership Blind Spots in the Age of AI
The teams struggling most with AI don’t have a tooling problem.They have a leadership one. Many organizations adopted AI expecting faster execution, sharper thinking, and better outcomes. And on the surface, it looks like that’s exactly what’s happening. Decks are more polished. Emails are clearer. Processes feel tighter. Even task lists look more strategic. Objectively, the work looks better. But when you step back and look at the actual value being created for the business
Kristi Faltorusso
Jan 282 min read
The Coaching Mistake That Almost Broke Me and the Framework That Saved Me
Coaching is one of the hardest parts of leadership and I learned that the hard way. When I first moved from being an individual contributor to a leader, I thought coaching meant carrying my team. I believed my job was to have every answer, jump in at every sign of trouble, solve every problem, and of course, do it all faster and better. At least that was the story I was telling myself. In reality, all I did was exhaust myself and unintentionally signal to my team that I did n
Kristi Faltorusso
Dec 6, 20253 min read
The Journey: #47 Thanks for Nothing
There’s a certain type of manager you meet early in your career who teaches you something important, not through their brilliance, but through their absence of it. In my first SaaS role, over five and a half years, I cycled through a handful of managers. All different. All memorable for different reasons. But one sticks out because she was genuinely lovely, warm, positive, thoughtful, the kind of leader who asked how your weekend was and actually cared about the answer. She w
Kristi Faltorusso
Nov 24, 20253 min read
The Journey: #46 Too Little, Too Late
Lately, I’ve been thinking about timing, not the “trust the universe” kind, but the real-world timing inside startups and scaleups that determines whether you move forward or stall out. After 13 years in SaaS, I’ve seen a consistent pattern: Companies rarely suffer because they make the wrong move. They suffer because they make the right move far too late. You see this everywhere: Waiting to hire Waiting to fire Waiting to buy the technology Waiting to invest in onboarding, e
Kristi Faltorusso
Nov 24, 20252 min read
The Journey: #43 Stay In Your Lane
Some of you may not know this, but my daughter Adriana is actually my stepdaughter. When Anthony and I got together, she was just three years old. She only knows life with me and Anthony… and then with her mother. In our house, we’ve never used the word step. She is my daughter, and I am a mother. Period. But in the beginning, it was hard. Really hard. I was trying to find my place, what was appropriate, what wasn’t, how to show up as a parent without overstepping. I wanted t
Kristi Faltorusso
Oct 27, 20253 min read
If You Can’t Forecast Retention, You Can’t Lead Customer Success
Early in my Customer Success career, I made a huge mistake. I thought forecasting was just another way to “surprise and delight.” My...
Kristi Faltorusso
Oct 7, 20252 min read
The Journey: #40 CAB, PAB, EAB ... Oh My
In 2009, I was a mid-20-something marketer just trying to figure it all out. I was using a software platform that helped manage my...
Kristi Faltorusso
Oct 6, 20252 min read
The Journey: #37 Leadership, Not Mentorship
We often blur the lines between leadership and mentorship, but here’s the truth: just because you are someone’s leader does not mean you...
Kristi Faltorusso
Sep 28, 20252 min read
She's So Suite: The World Traveler turned Founder & SVP at Certinia ft. Deb Ashton
LISTEN TO THE LATEST SHE'S SO SUITE PODCAST IN THIS EPISODE KRISTI AND DEB DISCUSS: 1. Career Paths Are Rarely Straightforward Deb’s...
Kristi Faltorusso
Sep 8, 20253 min read
She's So Suite: The Artist turned The Founder at The Borden Group ft. Melanie Borden
LISTEN TO THE LATEST SHE'S SO SUITE PODCAST IN THIS EPISODE KRISTI AND MELANIE DISCUSS: 1. Embracing the Unpredictable Career Path...
Kristi Faltorusso
Sep 8, 20253 min read
She's So Suite: The Fashion Designer turned Founder at Down to a T ft. Talya Heller G
LISTEN TO THE LATEST SHE'S SO SUITE PODCAST IN THIS EPISODE KRISTI AND TALYA DISCUSS: 1. You Don’t Need a Perfect Plan Some of the...
Kristi Faltorusso
Sep 8, 20254 min read
She's So Suite: The Actress Turned SVP of Marketing at Pavilion ft. Kathleen Booth
LISTEN TO THE LATEST SHE'S SO SUITE PODCAST IN THIS EPISODE KRISTI AND LESLIE DISCUSS: 1.Owning Your Own Business =/= Work-Life Balance...
Kristi Faltorusso
Sep 8, 20253 min read
She's So Suite: The Teacher Turned President & CSO at The Engineered Innovation Group ft. Karen Mangia
LISTEN TO THE LATEST SHE'S SO SUITE PODCAST IN THIS EPISODE KRISTI AND KAREN DISCUSS: Success Is a Personal Definition Karen emphasized...
Kristi Faltorusso
Sep 8, 20253 min read
The Journey: #35 Decision to Downsell
Customer Success has always been about helping customers realize value: understand the use cases, configure the solution, drive adoption,...
Kristi Faltorusso
Sep 1, 20252 min read
The Journey: #33 Flip the Risk
I remember my first CSM role when the business really started to scale. Suddenly, “risk” became the centerpiece of every conversation. At...
Kristi Faltorusso
Aug 17, 20252 min read
The Journey: #32 The Missing Mindreader
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been ambitious. Every job I’ve ever had came with a built-in, personal side project: designing the...
Kristi Faltorusso
Aug 10, 20253 min read
Follow On Social
Stay inspired and connected. Follow along for insights, real talk, and behind-the-scenes moments from my work in Customer Success and leadership.
TikTok
YouTube
bottom of page