B2B SaaS · 50–1,000 employees · CS team 5–50 CSMs with named accounts · their customers at $10K+ ACV · NA/UK/EU English-first. Stack: HubSpot ideal (wedge connector) or Salesforce, plus ≥3 of Zendesk/Intercom, Stripe, Slack, usage analytics, Gmail/Calendar; 8+ tools in CS account work. Why-now signals (need ≥2): churn surprise last 2 quarters · burned copilot/AI budget with standing exec mandate · NRR accountability with flat headcount · stalled CS-platform eval (price/admin fatigue) · handover pain from turnover. Philosophical fit (decisive): they want governed AI — oversight as requirement, not annoyance.

Scorecard (2 minutes, every account — 0/1/2 each)

Firmographic fit · CRM match · stack breadth · why-now signals (0/1/2+) · governance appetite · champion access. ≥9 pursue · 6–8 nurture · ≤5 decline politely.

Anti-ICP (decline with grace)

Autonomy seekers ("no approvals") — doctrine mismatch, will churn angry · tool replacers ("replace our CRM?") · compliance-gated regulated enterprise pre-SOC2 (nurture with honest timeline) · <20-person startups (pain hasn't compounded; point to Starter, zero sales time) · RFP column-fodder against iPaaS/BI categories.

The five personas (every deal)

1. Account Owner (CSM/AM) — daily user, adoption kingmaker. Fear: looking uninformed; AI drafting wrong to a customer. Message: "Your morning, pre-assembled." Win with the Day-1 morning + one real catch on their own account.
2. CS Leader (VP CS/CCO) — economic buyer, owns NRR flat-headcount. Message: "Churn signals before the score moves + your team's 3 hours back." Needs: ROI in their numbers, a catch during POV, adoption proof. Arm them for "what did we get?"
3. RevOps Architect — technical-operational evaluator → expansion champion. Message: "Tools stay, data stays; we connect the truth — provenance on every field, governed writes." Invest beyond the deal.
4. Security Steward (CISO/IT) — veto-holder. Message: "Mandatory approval on memory and action, fail-closed boundaries, immutable audit — architecture, not configuration." Send the packet before they ask; never overclaim certifications.
5. Executive Sponsor (COO/CEO) — why-now authority at $50K+. Message: "Context lives in tools and leaves with people — make it organizational." Founder tells the $8M story peer-to-peer.

Choreography: Discover P2 · Align P2+P1(2–3 users) · POV P1 daily + P3 validation + P2 sponsor · Commit P2+P4(+P5 >$50K) · Expand P3+P5. Single-thread past Align = at-risk by definition.

Source: repo docs/commercial/06-customers/ (§33–§35) · Synced 2026-07-21