Feature Story
When I was a CSM in 2012, our whole team was structured around this. We were split up regionally, on purpose, so we could actually get in front of our most strategic customers. I was the East Coast rep for our enterprise book, which meant I had accounts scattered from the Midwest to New York. I lived in New York, so a big chunk of my book was practically down the street.
I met with Aetna. Shutterstock. 1-800-Flowers. Bed Bath & Beyond. Some of them I could see on a Tuesday. Others weren't local, but they still had annual trips built in, because that's just how the job worked back then.
I was new, so at first I over-planned every visit. Sometimes it was an executive meeting to build the relationship. Sometimes it was an in-person training. Later, as I got more senior, it became about articulating value and planning the next twelve months together. The objective changed every time.
What didn't change was the outcome. Every single visit moved the partnership forward. Every time, I walked out with something I didn't have walking in: a new stakeholder I hadn't met, a risk I didn't know existed, a commitment that felt different once it was made across a table instead of a screen.
And here's the part that stuck with me. The difference between the customers I saw in person and the ones I didn't wasn't subtle. It showed up in renewals. It showed up in expansion. It showed up in how fast they picked up the phone when something went sideways. That wasn't a coincidence. It was cause and effect, and I could see it happening in real time.
I carried that belief into every leadership role after. I fought for T&E budget. I built the ROI case for the ELT so the ask wasn't a fight every quarter, it was already understood. And for years, it worked. The trips got approved. The relationships got built.
Then, slowly, the ground shifted under me. First it was leaders who just didn't see the value the way I did, no matter how clean the ROI case was. Then the pandemic hit, and in-person wasn't a budget conversation anymore. It was just off the table. For two years, nobody was getting on a plane, full stop.
When travel came back, the landscape had changed underneath us. Remote-first meant fewer corporate headquarters to fly into. Teams were scattered across time zones instead of sitting in one building. Budgets that used to fund trips got redirected. And the org's attention shifted hard toward innovation, with relationship building treated like an expense line instead of a growth lever.
Here's my bet: that pendulum is swinging back. In an AI-first world, the product isn't the differentiator anymore, everyone has access to the same tools. What nobody can automate is a real relationship. AI can hand you back the hours you used to lose to call summaries, health scores, and QBR prep. What you do with that time back is the actual decision. Pour it into more dashboards, and you've wasted it. Pour it into face time, and you've bought yourself a real advantage.
You don't need a corporate travel budget from 2012 to make that happen. Here's how to still get in the room:
Piggyback on conferences. Go where your customers already are. Invite them, and build a small dinner or meetup around the event so it doesn't require a dedicated trip.
Host your own customer event. Bring everyone together in one place and get a year's worth of face time done in two or three days.
Run regional community events. For accounts that don't justify a flight on their own, bring several customers together in one city for a smaller, more intimate forum where the conversations actually go deep.
Ring-fence budget for strategic accounts. Not every account gets the same treatment. Make sure the ones with the most at stake are never the ones you deprioritize when budget gets tight.
Offer it as a paid add-on. If the internal budget fight is a losing one, take it external. In-person strategic sessions or training can be a service line, not just a cost center.
Ask when their offsite is happening. Customers plan team offsites and planning sessions all the time. Offer to show up and run a session, a training, or just buy the room a meal. You'd be amazed how often the answer is yes.
None of this requires the world to go back to how it was in 2012. It just requires you to stop waiting for permission and start designing it on purpose.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
CS in the Age of Agents: Hype vs. Reality
Everyone's claiming agentic AI. Almost nobody's actually running it. 79% of enterprises say they've adopted AI agents. Only 11% have them in production.
I'll be joining Planhat's Tim Van Lew on July 22 to break down what's actually happening with agentic AI in CS right now. And it's not what you think.
We're cutting through the vendor hype to show you the real framework for evaluating what's genuinely working in post-sales versus what's just automation wearing a new label.
You won't want to miss this one.
FROM MY WORLD
Quick updates … Events, podcasts, awards, news, etc.
BE MY GUEST!
I just packed up my teenage daughter and moved her into college, so this empty nester is ramping up her podcast recordings and I am looking for new guests.
If you have a hot take, a strong POV or an experience that MUST be shared and you’d like to join me to record an episode of After the Close, I’d love to hear from you.
Click this link, scroll to the bottom and complete the form. I look forward to recording with you.
THE SERVICES
I work with CS leaders and organizations who are serious about getting Customer Success right.
Advisory
Strategic partnership for CS leaders who need a thought partner, not another framework.
Coaching
1:1 coaching for CS professionals who are ready to lead with more clarity and confidence.
Education & enablement
Workshops and programs built for teams who want to level up, not just check a box.
Speaking
Keynotes and sessions that challenge how your audience thinks about Customer Success.
POLL
When's the last time you sat across a table from one of your customers, not on a screen?
Hit reply and tell me what it was for, and what came out of it that wouldn't have happened over Zoom.
A FINAL NOTE
CLOSING WITH KRISTI
I've watched this industry swing from "of course we fly to see them" to "why would we ever do that" and back again in the span of my career. My bet is we're on the upswing now, and the leaders who never stopped believing in it are going to be the ones with the case studies to prove it.
If you want to talk through how to build the ROI case for your own team, that's exactly the kind of thing we get into on After the Close. New episode drops soon.
Go book the trip.
See you next Tuesday,
Customer Success. Revenue Follows.