Nearly 35% of CS leaders say they don't feel valued by the C-suite. Every one of them will have had that meeting. The one where you walked in convinced your insights would change the company's direction…and walked out wondering if anyone had actually been listening. I'll start with mine.

About 10 years ago, I walked into a cold, dark, formidable boardroom to present to the regional executives on something I fundamentally believed would shape the company's next year of strategy. My hands were cold. A little sweaty. Clutching last month's customer health scores report.

It did not go well.

Fast forward five years. Same type of presentation, different outcome entirely. This time it was Zoom, pandemic-era, no cold boardrooms. The audience: the company's CEO, CFO, and CRO. I was sharing updates, making asks for funding, resources, and attention.

I had 100% of the room. What changed? It came down to five shifts in thinking. 

Moment 1: Understand the currency of success

Every organization has a north star at any given time. It's the direction executives align to, and it determines where they want your attention focused.

One of the biggest shifts I experienced in those five years was that the currency of success itself changed. Acquiring customers used to be the headline. Then retaining them became the headline, and with that, a new vocabulary invaded the boardroom:

  • ARR and NRR
  • Churn and attrition
  • Customer acquisition cost
  • Customer lifetime value

These metrics rewired how executives were incentivized and how they rallied around outcomes.

Here's the thing: executives don't unify around an org chart. They never have. But they will absolutely unite around a shared goal. When the board started caring about NRR and retention, the question became obvious – who's best placed to deliver that? Customer success. That's when CS starts becoming genuinely valuable to the boardroom. Not because someone handed you a seat, but because the metrics the board cares about run directly through your function.