Content
Once a month I pull together the reports and articles worth a CS leader’s time, along with my read on what each one means for you. This is the October edition of The CS Leaders Roundup, which goes out to The Customer Success Leadership Newsletter subscribers first.
This month everything I read pointed at the same thing: 2027 planning. Budgets for next year are being set right now. The data out there gives CS leaders more to work with than most of them bring into the room.
3 Reports to Read Before Your 2027 Budget Call
01 / Survey
State of Customer Success Report, 2026
Customer Success Collective · 85 pages · Free with your email
The headline: 80% of CS professionals say the function drives revenue. More than half work with fragmented data, two-thirds have no enablement support, and 35.4% of companies have zero shared KPIs between Sales and CS.
My read
The shared KPI number is the one I’d bring into planning. If Sales and CS share nothing measurable, expansion and renewal risk fall into the gap between the two teams and CS usually ends up explaining it. Your 2027 plan should name at least one KPI you own jointly with Sales, along with who does what to hit it.
The headline: Bootstrapped companies between $3M and $20M ARR show a median NRR of 103% and GRR of 91%, and median retention barely moved from the year before.
My read
Use benchmarks to sanity-check your targets. Build the targets themselves from your own base, your renewal calendar, and your expansion pipeline. If leadership hands you a retention number well above where the market sits, ask what change in the model is expected to get you there, whether that’s coverage, scope, or headcount.
82%
of tech leaders expect a bigger 2027 budget
The headline: 82% of technology decision-makers and 91% of marketers expect budget increases in 2027.
My read
Other functions are walking into planning expecting more. If CS walks in defending last year’s number, the new money goes somewhere else. Bring a clear ask tied to revenue you can point to.
From the CS RevSpeak blog
Customer Success Planning and Budgeting: How to Build Your CS Budget and Capacity Plan
If you’re working on the headcount side of your 2027 plan, this walks through top-down and bottom-up capacity planning and how to use both to land on a number you can defend with Finance.
For the broader planning moves, start with 2027 CS Planning: Six Moves to Make Before the Budget Is Set.
More from CS RevSpeak this month
Podcast / EP54 · Oct 26
The Proactive Performance Management Habit Every CS Leader Needs to Build
The weekly habit that keeps you ahead of your team’s performance: the questions, the rituals and the follow-through that turn feedback into lasting behavior change.
Podcast / EP53 · Oct 14
How To Build Your Personal Brand As A CS Leader
A four-part framework for building your personal brand as a CS leader without becoming a full-time content creator.
Blog / Oct 6
2027 CS Planning: Six Moves to Make Before the Budget Is Set
Six moves to make before the 2027 budget is set, starting with an honest look at what actually happened in 2026.
