Expansion Readiness
Part of Expansion readiness
Passing an expansion opportunity to sales with context
Give sales a concise, customer-validated expansion brief with fit, adoption, risks, owners and the agreed next step.
Pass sales a customer-validated need and a clear next step, not just an account name and a favourable signal. Explain why a change may help, what the customer has agreed to discuss, and what remains uncertain. Identify who still owns the customer's current outcome and open issues.
From signal to sales handoff: four stages
- Confirm the handoff is warrantedCustomer-validated need, plausible fit, willingness to explore
- Build a short opportunity briefOne shared record: goal, current position, fit, people, risks, next step
- Agree ownership before contactWho introduces, who answers product and service questions, who discusses terms
- Close the loopRecord whether need and fit were confirmed, changed or rejected
Confirm that a handoff is warranted
Confirm the customer has described a new task or limit, an additional offer could plausibly address it, and the customer wants to explore an option.
If the only evidence is increased usage, a senior attendee at a meeting or a feature page view, treat it as a discovery prompt. If a critical service problem affects the proposed use, include it and agree who will respond before approaching the customer with a new offer.
The customer need not have approved a purchase. A useful handoff has an agreed evaluation or commercial question with enough context to investigate. It is not a forecasted deal.
Is a sales handoff warranted?
- The customer has described a new task or limit
- An additional offer could plausibly address it
- The customer wants to explore an option
- Any critical service problem affecting the proposed use is included
- Someone has been agreed to respond before a new offer is raised
- There is an agreed evaluation or commercial question with enough context to investigate
Build a short opportunity brief
Give sales one shared record containing:
- Customer goal:the task, affected team and desired improvement in the customer's own terms.
- Current position:products or entitlements held, relevant adoption and evidence of value, with the period and source of each observation.
- Proposed fit:the specific additional capability and the limit it may address; mark untested benefits as hypotheses.
- People and timing:the workflow owner, known commercial decision participants, the customer's timetable and any approval steps it has described.
- Risks and unknowns:open service issues, implementation dependencies, objections and questions still to validate.
- Agreed next step:what the customer agreed to, who will contact them and when.
Include facts that would change the next conversation. Point to the underlying account record for additional history.
What the opportunity brief must contain
- Customer goalthe task, affected team and desired improvement, in the customer's own terms
- Current positionproducts or entitlements held, relevant adoption and evidence of value, with period and source
- Proposed fitthe specific additional capability and the limit it may address; untested benefits marked as hypotheses
- People and timingworkflow owner, known commercial decision participants, the customer's timetable and any approval steps
- Risks and unknownsopen service issues, implementation dependencies, objections and questions still to validate
- Agreed next stepwhat the customer agreed to, who will make contact and when
Agree ownership before contact
The customer-success manager and sales owner should review the brief together. Decide who introduces the conversation, who answers product or service questions and who can discuss terms. Confirm whether customer success will attend the evaluation to preserve context.
The handoff should not silently transfer responsibility for unresolved adoption work.
A hypothetical note might read: “The operations lead wants another regional team to run the established workflow. Current users complete it regularly; access and setup for the new team are untested. The customer agreed to a scoping call next week. Sales owns the commercial options; customer success will confirm workflow requirements.”
Decide before contacting the customer
- Customer success manager and sales owner review the brief together
- Who introduces the conversation
- Who answers product or service questions
- Who can discuss terms
- Whether customer success will attend the evaluation to preserve context
- Confirmation that unresolved adoption work is not silently transferred
Close the loop
After the first sales discussion, record whether the need and fit were confirmed, changed or rejected. Return new service questions to the appropriate owner. If the customer defers, record the reason and an agreed review point. A useful handoff gives both teams the same account of the decision, including a decision to stop.
