Career Section Mid Level Jobs

Expansion and Upsell Manager | Job Description

Expansion and Upsell Manager

Similar roles:

strategic growth manager, renewal and expansion manager, revenue manager, renewals and upsell manager

Job level:

mid-level

Average annual salary:

$121,344

Role in Customer Success Team:

Management

Reports to:

Director of Customer Success, Head of Sales

Summary points:

Key Responsibilities: What Does an Expansion and Upsell Manager Do?

An expansion and upsell manager is in charge of growing client relationships and evolving them by upselling and cross-selling in a data-led approach. The function has many job titles, but the responsibilities are essentially the same: scanning for opportunities to grow accounts and then setting calls, making offers, achieving growth, and monitoring and reporting on that growth.

The job of an expansion manager often falls outside the Customer Success department, being more commonly associated with the Sales department. Regardless, the primary duties of the job are influenced by the customer success mindset and heavily reliant on customer success tools.

Some businesses merge this role and the Retention Manager into a single Retention and Upsell Manager.

Key Responsibilities:

  • Monitoring accounts and identifying upsell and cross-sell opportunities.
  • Creating automation playbooks based on account activity triggers that indicate customers who might need a higher plan or added features.
  • Understanding customers and their setup.
  • Understanding upsell & cross-sell opportunities and their context.
  • Presenting informed offers that take into account customers’ goals, needs, and recent activity.
  • Tracking, analyzing, and creating reports based on account activity such as license utilization, product and product feature usage rates, and customer effort score.
  • Working with the Customer Retention Manager and the rest of the CS team to mitigate churn risks and improve upsell or cross-sell chances.

Skills and Competencies

Here are the necessary skills to be a good Expansion and Upsell Manager:

  • Minimum 2 years of experience in Sales, Customer Success, or Customer Support. Relevant courses / training are nice-to-have but only required by some job postings.
  • Excellent communication skills and the ability to transform customer conversations into business-driving relationships.
  • Sales skills and the ability to analyze and cross-reference customer goals, usage, and product setup to create custom offers that work in their favor.
  • High emotional intelligence and empathy skills.
  • Customer service skills.
  • Strong analytical and goal-oriented mindset backed by basic-to-advanced project management knowledge.
  • Advanced IT&C knowledge and capabilities, experience with automation, and ability to learn new software tools on the job.

Good Training Materials and Programs

Here is a list of articles, guides, courses, and other resources that provide good training for professionals in this position:
Sales: Customer Success

LinkedIn Learning

Customer Success | How to Actively Engage Your Customers
Customer Success Manager: Fundamentals
Shopify Upselling & Cross-Selling Masterclass for 2021
What Is CUSTOMER CHURN and How Can You Avoid It?
The Ideal Sales to Customer Success Handoff
Customer Success + Sales Enablement = Better Customer Experience
How to Measure and Increase Activation Rate for SaaS
What is Customer Lifetime Value: Definition, Formula, and How to Use
10 SaaS Renewal Best Practices to Drive Subscriber Loyalty
Customer Churn – The Ultimate Guide to Reducing Churn
Upselling and Cross-selling guide for SaaS

Potential Roles to Grow into

If you’re starting from this position, here are some roles you can consider in the future:

senior-level

Director of Customer Success

Average annual salary: $156,985

Role in Customer Success Team: Management

Reports to: VP of Customer Success, Chief Customer Officer

senior-level

Chief Customer Officer

Average annual salary: $233,800

Role in Customer Success Team: Management

Reports to: chief executive officer

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