Should customer success report into sales? What does your organization do? Appreciate any guidance!

I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all solution. If customer success does report into sales, it should align with the broader perspective we discussed earlier. It shouldn't just be sales; it should perhaps be under a revenue umbrella, which is different from just changing the nomenclature. This broader perspective is essential because having a sales leader manage customer success isn't necessarily a recipe for success. However, if you have someone with a broader outlook, it can work.

It also depends on the company, how the teams are structured, the maturity of the products, and the level of support needed. I'm 50/50 on it because it might work for companies focused on growth and account management with commercial customer success teams. In such cases, it makes sense.

However, when dealing with more mature enterprise products that require significant effort and investment to support and ensure success, viewing customer success purely as an arm of sales can be detrimental. The primary focus should be on driving value for the customer.

Indeed, the integration of customer success under the sales umbrella aligns with the RevOrg framework. 

As your company evolves and grows, you may consider establishing a dedicated Chief Revenue Officer role to oversee both sales and customer success functions at a strategic level. 

We do not have a CRO yet, so the customer success team reports to me as the VP Sales. 

The revenue and GTM org, not sales. 

Voted Yes. We sell L&D content and data analytics that demonstrates training efficacy and ROI (first to market and pretty disruptive). We need to stay intimately close with customers and ensure seamless customer experience from landing them as a new logo to continuing our relationship via our Customer Success team.

In our organization they do not. To do this well you absolutely must make sure your leaders are perfectly aligned and are keeping the teams accountable for working together. Very easy to get to aa point where communication is happening and someones being left off the CC, losing track of things, no clear ownership of takeaways etc. Crystal clear responsibilities and who's doing what as well as great collaboration is what it takes when separated.