Team handoffs are the ultimate double-edged sword in revenue operations. They’re where miscommunication, misalignment, and system hiccups love to hang out. But here’s the flip side: fix the handoff, and you unlock serious efficiency, happier customers, and way less chaos. Let’s break it down.
Handoffs aren’t a one-and-done problem. They’re messy, layered, and love to disguise themselves as something simpler. Every executive wants a quick fix, but diagnosing the real issues takes patience. Spoiler alert: there’s no silver bullet.
Here’s what we’ve seen blow up sales-to-customer success (CS) handoffs and how to fix them.
Your sales and customer success teams are like two bands playing different songs—and customers are stuck listening to the noise. Misaligned go-to-market strategies are a top culprit. Whether it’s about who you’re selling to, what you’re selling, or how you’re selling it, this misalignment leads to churn, low expansion rates, and sluggish growth.
How to Spot It:
Quick Fix (Sort of): Ask your product, marketing, sales, and CS leaders to explain:
Get ready for wildly different answers. Then, roll up your sleeves and start realigning your go-to-market strategy and messaging. No, it’s not glamorous. Yes, it’s worth it.
Sales collects gold during discovery calls—pain points, goals, and juicy insights—and then what happens? Half the time, that info doesn’t make it to CS. So, the customer has to repeat themselves. Again. And again.
How to Spot It:
Quick Fix: Simplify the data transfer. Push key info from your sales CRM straight to CS’s system. Better yet, sit in on a few handoff meetings to make sure nothing critical is slipping through the cracks.
Onboarding failures tends to fall into two camps:
Neither is great. Both need fixing.
How to Spot It:
Quick Fix: Shadow your CS team through onboarding. Watch it all. Take notes. Then, create templates for pre-onboarding questionnaires or guides that help CS get what they need faster. Oh, and make sure sales sets realistic onboarding expectations upfront.
Sometimes the data’s there, but your systems don’t play nice. Sales enters the info, but CS either doesn’t know where to find it or it’s buried in some field nobody uses.
How to Spot It:
Quick Fix: Audit your systems. Are fields set up for easy handoff? Can automation tools like Gong or Chorus populate key fields from call notes? If not, fix it. And while you’re at it, make sure everyone actually knows where to find the data.
Even well-meaning teams can wreck a good process if their goals are misaligned. Sales might optimize for new customers at the expense of fit. CS might rush onboarding to hit speed goals, leaving customers feeling ignored.
How to Spot It:
Quick Fix: Adjust incentives to focus on customer outcomes. It’s not sexy, but aligning goals across teams is the best way to avoid this mess. And get an exec (not from sales or CS) to champion these changes—a COO or CFO is ideal for this.
Ready to dig in? Talk to your team. Talk to your customers. Especially the ones who churned—they’re the goldmine for figuring out what went wrong. You’ll need at least 10 interviews to start spotting patterns. And don’t stop at data—context is everything.
Pro Tip: Avoid leading questions. Instead, go open-ended. “What’s one thing we could have done better?” often gets you way more than you bargained for (in a good way).
Fixing handoffs is disruptive. People will complain. That’s why you need an executive champion to keep the project alive.
Pro Tip: avoid picking the VP of Sales or CS—they’re too close to the fight and might get defensive. A Chief Revenue Officer, COO, or CFO is your best bet to balance competing interests and focus on long-term impact.
This isn’t just a process change—it’s a cultural shift. You’ll need buy-in from multiple teams, constant communication, and regular progress updates. Celebrate wins and be transparent about setbacks. When everyone feels involved, they’ll be less likely to resist.
For more on change management best practices, check out our article here.
Imagine if AI could pull the best nuggets from sales calls and auto-magically share them with CS. We’re not quite there yet, but tools like Gong can already analyze calls and populate CRM fields based on specific criteria. Sure, it’s only saving 10-20% of your time today, but the potential is huge. Keep an eye on this space.
Fixing handoffs isn’t glamorous, but it’s one of the most impactful things you can do for your organization. It takes effort, collaboration, and a willingness to get into the weeds, but the payoff—in efficiency, customer satisfaction, and revenue—is worth it. So grab your coffee, rally your team, and get to work!
Looking for more great content? Check out our blog and join the community.
