Optimizing Post-Land Strategy for B2B SaaS Enterprise Accounts

Hey everyone, I work for a B2B SaaS company focused on enterprise accounts (>4k employees), and I’m looking for input on the best post-land motion. Here’s our current setup:

SDR books appointments or works inbound PQLs
AE prospects and closes the deal
Some accounts go through a PoC before full onboarding
Some start small and expand later
Some start large from the beginning

We don’t currently have a dedicated AM team driving expansion. My key questions:

What’s the right role setup, and what are the pros/cons of splitting ownership between AEs and AMs?
Should AEs own the first 12 months of the customer lifecycle?

Has anyone been through this discussion and can share learnings or recommendations? For context, our product isn’t easily self-navigated and often requires SE/support involvement. Thanks in advance!

5 comments

Sunny S.
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Since you've mentioned the product is not easily self-navigated, a dedicated AM (CSM) becomes extremely important here. SDR - AE - AM hand off has already been spoken before, but during the entire sales cycle (It could be a POC, a small or a large deployment), you need to identify small stages, where you could bring in AM's even before the sales is closed won. It'll serve:
1.
Understanding form the AM's aspect on how the customer is planning to use the product.
2.
Gives the customer confidence of long term support from you guys.
I have built out one such Process Document and highlighted the areas where AE's and AM's can be on calls before the closure. Please DM me, and I'll be able to share the same with you. And the nature of your product (again, not easily self navigated), means product adoption becomes really important for renewals and upsells. AM can do this job, and can have a separate target for upsells and renewals.
Chris D.
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Before deciding if this is an AM/AE responsibility, figure out where and when this opportunity is found and what kind of opportunity it is (renew, resell, cross sell, upsell) are all different. I recommend whoever is doing a monthly business review or a quarterly business review leave at least half the time in that meeting to discuss future strategic projects and where you can add more value. In most cases, the a.m. can handle the deal if it’s a renewal or even an upsell (new product to existing buyer). Trust is there already. If it’s a cross sell. (selling a new product to a different buyer) or a resell (selling the same product to a new buyer from turnover) sometimes an AE is better at that.
Vikas K.
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Hand-offs (SDR to AE to AM) and related documents are very important. There should be a transition period so that customer experience is better. AEs should own first invoice collection. Even if you want AMs to take over as soon as the deal is closed, AEs may want to take the upside of expansion revenue when there is an initial agreement that the customers will more seats/departments/modules during the first 3-6 months. Considering that your ICP is Enterprise, chances of such phased roll-outs are even higher. Therefore, what works in SMB-Commercial may need some tweaks when applied to your scenario. If SDRs, AEs, and AMs are operating out of 2-3 tools, you may need to make these systems integrated/talk to each other. That will reduce confusion and as a result bad customer experience.
Renan R.
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Thanks Margherita d. I appreciate your input 🙂
Margherita d.
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for what I have seen until now, the structure should be SDR--AE--CS (AM). when the deal is won, already from the onboarding piece AM should take ownership and being in charge of the customer experience, even being sure support is given (form support team) if product is complex to be able to monitor potential renewal and expansion

Loading comments

Sunny S.
·
·
Since you've mentioned the product is not easily self-navigated, a dedicated AM (CSM) becomes extremely important here. SDR - AE - AM hand off has already been spoken before, but during the entire sales cycle (It could be a POC, a small or a large deployment), you need to identify small stages, where you could bring in AM's even before the sales is closed won. It'll serve:
1.
Understanding form the AM's aspect on how the customer is planning to use the product.
2.
Gives the customer confidence of long term support from you guys.
I have built out one such Process Document and highlighted the areas where AE's and AM's can be on calls before the closure. Please DM me, and I'll be able to share the same with you. And the nature of your product (again, not easily self navigated), means product adoption becomes really important for renewals and upsells. AM can do this job, and can have a separate target for upsells and renewals.
Chris D.
·
·
Before deciding if this is an AM/AE responsibility, figure out where and when this opportunity is found and what kind of opportunity it is (renew, resell, cross sell, upsell) are all different. I recommend whoever is doing a monthly business review or a quarterly business review leave at least half the time in that meeting to discuss future strategic projects and where you can add more value. In most cases, the a.m. can handle the deal if it’s a renewal or even an upsell (new product to existing buyer). Trust is there already. If it’s a cross sell. (selling a new product to a different buyer) or a resell (selling the same product to a new buyer from turnover) sometimes an AE is better at that.
Vikas K.
·
·
Hand-offs (SDR to AE to AM) and related documents are very important. There should be a transition period so that customer experience is better. AEs should own first invoice collection. Even if you want AMs to take over as soon as the deal is closed, AEs may want to take the upside of expansion revenue when there is an initial agreement that the customers will more seats/departments/modules during the first 3-6 months. Considering that your ICP is Enterprise, chances of such phased roll-outs are even higher. Therefore, what works in SMB-Commercial may need some tweaks when applied to your scenario. If SDRs, AEs, and AMs are operating out of 2-3 tools, you may need to make these systems integrated/talk to each other. That will reduce confusion and as a result bad customer experience.
Renan R.
·
·
Thanks Margherita d. I appreciate your input 🙂
Margherita d.
·
·
for what I have seen until now, the structure should be SDR--AE--CS (AM). when the deal is won, already from the onboarding piece AM should take ownership and being in charge of the customer experience, even being sure support is given (form support team) if product is complex to be able to monitor potential renewal and expansion